Can the clock multiplier be lowered on an i3 540

[Gustavus]

I have an i3 540 CPU on it's way and have spent hours reading on net about overclocking this CPU. The i3 540 is a popular overclocker so there are an incredible number of postings available. I thought the multiplier was locked at 23 but numerous of the postings say they acheived their overclock by changing the multiplier to a lower value -- 21 and 20 mentioned in particular. Is the CPU multiplier locked at 23 on this CPU or can it be changed in the BIOS on the Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H motherboard?

Thanks

 

[sxr7171]

I believe it is safe to assume that multipliers are not locked downwards, but only upwards. I always thought you can lower the multiplier on any processor.

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks sxr7171
I have overclocked for years, but never had occasion to lower the multiplier on an Intel CPU so simply assumed "locked" meant just that.

 

[Zap]

They can be lowered, but I think for most overclockers there is no reason to do that. I can't think of any real reason to do that unless you were chasing benchmark records.

 

[Gustavus]

Zap
Thanks for the reply. My reason for wanting to lower the multiplier is to carry out a test of the maximum bclock as a first step in overclocking. The posts I was referring to were by people who had found they could overclock to a higher stable value by raising the bclock and lowering the multiplier a notch or two -- apparently because the memory controller in the i3 540 has been moved on chip and is very touchy. Of course there is a settable ratio for the memory -- but only a few fixed ratios are possible. I am guessing at the explanation based solely on what I read since I don't yet have my components.

 

[betasub]

^ Yes, a good reason for lowering the multiplier is for testing overclocked settings like BCLK, while keeping total clock speed in-spec.

 

[Dufus]

AFAIK you should be able to use 9x to 23x inclusive with the i3-540.