i3 540 overclocking, wut do I do?

[BallaTheFeared]

I skipped this generation from Intel, during it's time I was on several AMD systems and never really got into the whole QPI/Base Clock whatever else is going on here so I have no clue...

Anyways I've been looking to switch out this $40 system I picked up that includes a 555 and a board that is broken and can't run DDR2 in dual channel for awhile. I was about to get a G540 and the cheapest H board for about $115 when I saw the i3 540 and a P55 EVO on the forums this morning (I actually got to the confirmation page before checking the forums).

So first and foremost am I right to assume the overclocking of a i3 540 will provide better game performance than the G540? I already have a another 470 I'm thinking about using but not sure if I want to discover a bottleneck or not as I might end up going out looking for a 750 and spending even more money on something that I wasn't planning to spend a lot on (lol). With the SB system I wouldn't have been able to SLI so that's a pretty obvious benefit but the games I'm playing with this system probably won't warranty SLI anyways so it's not a big deal.

So please reasure me that I made the right choice in going with the older 32nm tech which is still a dual core but has HT and is capable of overclocking, and secondly direct me to a good guide or two if possible showing how to properly overclock a 1156 chip.

Thanks guys :thumbsup:

 

[Denithor]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/143?vs=406

Well, stock for stock your i3 540 loses in most games to the G620 (Bench doesn't have the G540 listed). In most other applications it wins handily. Once overclocked to around 4GHz it should run circles around the G540.

As to a guide, it's basically just increase the bclk until you see instability. And then increase the voltage at that point if you want to push that far.

I recently picked up a used i5 750 from eBay for $115 to drop into my HTPC. Figured that at 3GHz+ would easily hold me over until Haswell when I plan to do a complete rebuild. Just messing around I have that chip running 3GHz with stock volts on a spare motherboard.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

What about the nb, I thought it was tied to the base clock?

Thanks for the link.

 

[Homeles]

I recently picked up a used i5 750 from eBay for $115 to drop into my HTPC. Figured that at 3GHz+ would easily hold me over until Haswell when I plan to do a complete rebuild. Just messing around I have that chip running 3GHz with stock volts on a spare motherboard.

I just picked up an entire rig with a 750 for $200. I'm so glad that I'll be upgrading from this POS Phenom 9750.

 

[iiiankiii]

Those clarkdale and Lynnfield cpu overclock very well. To me, if you're on a budget and are willing to overclock, you can get great value from those CPUs if you bought them used. Most of those chips can easily hit 3.8ghz.

Since the BCLK is not tied down everything else (like the Sandy Bridge CPUs), you can just raise the BCLK and adjust the memory speed accordingly.

 

[coffeejunkee]

What about the nb, I thought it was tied to the base clock?

Thanks for the link.

Yes, you might need to increase QPI/VTT voltage a bit for high oc. Asus might call it different in bios, but it's the nb/imc voltage. For moderate overclocks you probably only need to increase the vcore.

Best way for high overclocks: set cpu multiplier to lowest value. Raise bclk and stress. If unstable, increase QPI/VTT. When you reached your target bclk, set multiplier to highest value and stress. If unstable, increase vcore.

 

[Denithor]

And go read this article.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-750-efficiency,2500.html

 

[Blastman]

Yes, you might need to increase QPI/VTT voltage a bit for high oc. Asus might call it different in bios, but it's the nb/imc voltage. For moderate overclocks you probably only need to increase the vcore.

This.^

A half decent i3 Clarkdale generally needs about 1.20-1.23v for 4.0Ghz on a decent motherboard. So just raise the BCLK to 174 (x23 multiplier) = 4.0Ghz and set a stable vcore.

The vcore needed to O/C will start to rise fairly quickly if you try to go much past 4.0Ghz, and after about 4.2Ghz you may need to start raising other voltages. Since one can usually get to 4.0-4.2Ghz with just a vcore tweek, that’s where a lot of people just leave their overclocked Clarkdales. It’s an easy O/C and their isn’t much of a performance difference between that and pushing the O/C a little further, particularly in gaming.

You will also probably need to drop the memory multiplier from 10x 174 BCLK = 1740 … to 8x 174 BCLK = 1392 depending on how fast your DDR3 is.

 

[Blastman]

Oh ya, one more thing. The stock Intel HSF is good enough for about 4.0Ghz. Anything much over that will need a better cooling solution.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I have an old Zalman 9500 I can use, pretty sure that will be capable of driving me to 4GHz with a lower rpm 140mm case fan instead of the fan that it came with.

I'm guessing you disable turbo on this generation?


I'll be using a 2x2gb set that are rated for 2133 but were doing 2300 in my main rig before I pulled them for an upgrade (should update sig at some point). I don't think these chips have as good of a memory controller as SB though so I'd probably want them running tighter timings at 1600 or 1866ish right?

Also I need to have the IMC voltage within .5v of the ram voltage right?

 

[Denithor]

I'm guessing you disable turbo on this generation?

Read the article I linked above. Full of good info for you...

I'll be using a 2x2gb set that are rated for 2133 but were doing 2300 in my main rig before I pulled them for an upgrade (should update sig at some point). I don't think these chips have as good of a memory controller as SB though so I'd probably want them running tighter timings at 1600 or 1866ish right?

Actually this is interesting. I don't think we had memory that could clock that high back when these chips were selling. Might be intesting to do some benchmarking and see which way gives you better performance.