i5 2500k overclocking guide? semi newbie

[AnMig]

Finally bit the bullet and decided to build a new system. My last overclocking attempt was on a Q6600 by shorting out the pins to get to 2.9ghz (dell locked mobo)

Used to build systems before and overclock them AMD Duron/Thunderbird era.

Have not been keeping up with the latest. Before it was a matter of increasing the multiplier (if not locked) and the FSB. Increasing the FSB would also increase ram frequency and VGA frequencies unless you had fancy boards with adjustable ratios. CPU ram voltages where usually increased. We used to change multipliers and frequencies by shorting pins (window defroster kit) . There I have established my age.

So its been awhile.

Questions:
1. Is overclocking this CPU (I5 2500k) mostly done by multiplier and cpu voltage increase?
2. Is the FSB locked (does is even exist anymore )? What frequency 100mhz 133mhz?
3. Do you have to manually increase the frequency of the RAM? or is this also locked?
4. Is the auto overclock feature reliable?

My plan is to Increase multiplier 40x keep voltage 1.25 (manual)
Increase Ram voltage if needed

My Build (mostly gaming)
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
I5 2500k
Coolit Systems Eco CPU Water Cooling System
PSU CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX850
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB
Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Gaming Case

old stuff
GTX 480
27 inch monitor 1900x1080
Sata drives for storage
Xi-Fi xtreme music sound card
Winfast TV card
Windows 7 64bit

Side question can you update firmware on a SSD without re-installing OS?
Is my PSU enough for 2 GTX 480's (Future, if I can find one and they come down in price)

Thanks help an old guy out with this new computer stuff

 

[kami]

To get a basic overclock yes its just the CPU multiplier and core voltage. There are more advanced settings depending how far you want to push your chip. You can set you memory to whatever speed you want, in your case 1600, without having to worry about anything. Just leave the base clock at 100mhz.

How far do you want to overclock? if you want something like say 4.5ghz set the multiplier to 45 and start with a voltage of say 1.35v... if that is stable, start reducing from there. If you want to get closer to 5GHz you will want to read some sandy bridge overclocking articles I think. Here is one that covers a good portion of the main settings: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/01/07/how-to-overclock-the-intel-core-i5-2500k/2

edit: nevermind just read you want to do 4GHz. there's a very good chance it will do this at default voltage. Your overclock will be painless.

 

[AnMig]

Thanks for the quick response, figured by reading most of the CPU overclocking post most of it was done by the multiplier.

"Just leave the base clock at 100mhz" CPU right? was wondering if this was even an option with these new CPU's

Might go 4200mhz, just dont want to be CPU limited with my Battlefield 3

Thanks again

 

[kami]

Frankly I'm not sure the point of changing the base clock on a K-series CPU besides maybe pushing your memory a little further (the memory multiplier is also from the base clock) or overclocking the CPU in non-100MHz increments. You can only change it by 10% anyway, and apparently above 105-107mhz things can get unstable. I suppose people without K-series CPUs could use it to get a few extra MHz out of their CPUs since they can't fiddle with the multiplier.

 

[Zink]

I worked on pushing my i5 this weekend and I found this thread to be most helpful: http://www.overclock.net/t/968053/o...voltages-temps-bios-templates-inc-spreadsheet
Read the important tips and findings section and the overclocking guides section. You should be able to get a fairly basic 4.3ghz OC without raising the voltages or tweaking but if you want to do some fine tuning to run with the lowest voltages possible then some of the other voltages like PLL and VTT are useful.

 

[guskline]

I'm at 4.4Ghz at Auto voltage. I could go higher but why? I'm 100% stable. Could run Prime 95 forever, Sandra, Intel burn test etc. When I start clocking higher, I have to up the voltage and just didn't think it worth it. The 2500k is 3.3 Ghz (Turbo 3.7) stock so I gain a lot at 4.4 Ghz. It's FAST and stable!