Merits of G3258 / H81 / Win10 64-bit overclocking, in 2016? (Best "Budget OC" kit?)

[VirtualLarry]

Just wondering about the pros of G3258 OCing, for non-gaming / desktop / video-watching tasks, versus a potentially more modern solution.

I know it's basically the trailing-edge of G3258's prime, whereas OCing boards are getting scarce, and BIOS flashes are getting pulled that allowed for OCing, and prices on G3258 CPUs, NEW, are going up.

But what are the OCing alternatives available today?

S775 OCing? LOL. Outdated, worn out hardware, not even remotely worth it.

SKY OC / SKL BCLK OC? Well, other than the last bunch of B150 K4/Hyper mobos disappeared off of ebay today (Edit: Now Newegg has some), there may still be Z170 boards that can BCLK OC. SKL locked CPUs are seeing slight discounts to clear stock for the Jan. 2017 introduction of KBL.

KBL i3-7350K unlocked i3 CPU? Still need a Z170 or Z270 board to OC it.

Then of course, there are the "legitimate" (approved by Intel) OCing solutions, which require a "Z" board, and a "K" quad-core CPU, which cost $$$. So much so, that it seems not worth it for non-gaming tasks - one would be better off with a locked SKL i3 CPU.

Also, the G3258 OC, and the i3-7350K OC, allow use of the iGPU. SKY OC / BCLK OC, shuts off the iGPU, requiring one to install a dGPU at added expense. (If gaming, then that's no big deal. But for desktop workloads, may be overkill.)

So, weighing all the pros and cons, it seems like G3258 OCing, on an H81 board, is still a decent and cheap solution.

I bought a couple more Biostar H81MHV3 mini-DTX boards off of Newegg's ebay store, to go with a couple of G3258 CPUs that I believe I stockpiled in my closet last year.

Downsides to G3258 OCing - no 4K video output support that I know of, and these particular boards I ordered, in order to OC, it requires setting the multiplier mode to "FIXED", which means that power-management won't downclock the CPU to a lower speed / voltage. That's really not too unlike what happens with SKY OC too, though.

Edit: The performance of the KBL Pentium G4620 (2C/4T), along with the advanced media-decoding capabilities (HEVC Main10, etc.), may just turn the tide against the venerable G3258 though. Unfortunately, that requires waiting until Jan. 2017 to find out, while supplies of the G3258 and suitable H81 OCing mobos dwindle.

Edit: I still haven't gotten over my compulsive need to overclock every system I get my hands on. If building a custom rig, I try to make sure that it can overclock, if wanted.

Granted, if I'm building a rig for someone for business or financial or engineering, rather than gaming / Facebook, then overclocking is of course out of the question.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Since this thread isn't getting any traction, how about we change the discussion to "Best (budget) overclocking kit?".

I mean, there's the big-boys of overclocking, the 6600K / 6700K, and the 5820K / 5830K / 5960X, but those aren't quite what I call "budget".

What should people with small budgets who want to OC use?

Or is Intel just a bad choice in general here, and AMD FX or some unlocked Kaveri APU should be used instead? 860K?

 

[cbn]

What should people with small budgets who want to OC use?

Or is Intel just a bad choice in general here, and AMD FX or some unlocked Kaveri APU should be used instead? 860K?

On the AM3+ boards with 970 chipset, I have read that the typical 4 +1 budget VRM arrangement shouldn't even be used with 125W FX processors @ stock speed. This even when a stock cpu cooler that provides airflow to the VRMs is used. So that means overclocking a FX 8300 (95W) to around the level of 125W FX8350/FX8370 would require more than a budget board.

 

[escrow4]

Overclocking is a waste of time. Buy a proper CPU in the first place with enough muscle.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What if we look, not at the bottom-line price, but at the "value" of the result.

I'm experimenting with that now. I've ordered an i5-6400 off of ebay for ~$180. (N.B. Microcenter currently has the i5-6600K for the same price in-store right now.)

Maybe BCLK OC, with a real quad, is "the ticket", and paying extra for a BCLK OC board and RAM, just to OC dual-cores, as I have been doing, is a partial waste. You know what they say, "Go big, or go home".

The only thing that I'm not sure about is the cooling. I had purchased some copper-cored 115x heatsinks off of ebay a while ago. They work fine for overclocking dual cores, as long as I don't go too crazy with voltage, but I'm not so sure they are going to work for quad cores.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

You could try something like the Zalman CNPS5X.
Works well enough keeping 2500Ks cool at ~4.6GHz, though of course hotter than something like a Hyper212+.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You could try something like the Zalman CNPS5X.

Interesting, thanks. Though I didn't mention it, I would prefer a cooler without a backplate, and this fits the bill.

Although, it looks like the only thing holding it on, actually, are the two plastic protrusions on the side of the plastic base, that the two metal clips on the heatsink attach to.

So, if I were ever shipping the cooler, I would much prefer something with a backplate, probably.

Where economics and height restrictions come into play, the Zalman CNPS5X-SZ offers up good cooling at moderate noise. It's best tuned to CPUs with a TDP of around 85-95W where its small 90mm fan can run more freely at quieter speeds.

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2585&page=5

Looks like it will fit the bill, thanks. I ordered a few, for all my rigs. (MOAR Overclock!)

Edit: Maybe I could OC my friend's AMD Athlon II X4 rig with one of these?

YouTube test of this heatsink, with a 4790K and XTU. Reaches 4.18Ghz @ 70C.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QHF_CyEpAU
(That seems rather mediocre to me, and probably why FrostyTech referred to this heatsink as being for 95W TDP CPUs.)

So my offhand Q is, is an i5-6400 @ 4.5Ghz and 1.35V, going to be higher or lower TDP than a 4790K @ 4.0Ghz.

 

[NTMBK]

Overclocking is a fun hobby. It's a waste of time if you're looking for value, though.

 

[Leyawiin]

On the AM3+ boards with 970 chipset, I have read that the typical 4 +1 budget VRM arrangement shouldn't even be used with 125W FX processors @ stock speed. This even when a stock cpu cooler that provides airflow to the VRMs is used. So that means overclocking a FX 8300 (95W) to around the level of 125W FX8350/FX8370 would require more than a budget board.

I have an FX 8320E paired with a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (760G with 4+1). Was able to get it up to 4.3 Ghz stable and backed it down to 4.2 Ghz. Case has good ventilation and I'm using a top down cooler on it. Also have a 990FX 8+2 board and it only got up to 4.4 Ghz with the same cooler so its not a particularly good chip.

That said, the OP made a far better choice with the i5-6400.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

^ Yikes! Thar she (VRM) blows!

Edit : Thought you meant the non-USB3 version of the 78LMT. At least the USB3 version has HSFs on the VRM section!

Interesting, thanks. Though I didn't mention it, I would prefer a cooler without a backplate, and this fits the bill.

The Hyper 212+ used to be my goto HSF for "budget" builds. The CNPS5x is cheaper and easier to install, so laziness won out eventually

 

[VirtualLarry]

Cons: l bought it in 9/13 and at the time l couldn't have been any happier with it. Looks good, good price, easy to install, and all from a well known company. Then little by little it got noisier, and noisier. Now it's to the point that l use that computer very little. This is in a smoke free home, and the inside of this computer gets cleaned on a regular basis.

Other Thoughts: l highly recommend buying from elsewhere. Maybe a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, that's the one l'm getting.

Pros: It works better than stock.
Brought cpu temp down a few degrees.

Cons: This thing is not silent! The longer you own it the louder it gets. Going on 2 years now and it is performing the same but is so loud I plan on replacing it.

Two reviews claim noise issues over time. I hope I don't have that problem with them.

 

[RichUK]

Overclocking is a fun hobby. It's a waste of time if you're looking for value, though.

That doesn't make sense.

I'd state my reasoning, but I think it's pretty obvious.

 

[Yuriman]

Overclocking is a fun hobby. It's a waste of time if you're looking for value, though.

I actually agree with this. Overclocking made sense when all CPUs were unlocked and all CPUs had the same number of cores/threads, but a Pentium will never be an i3. There are plenty of charts floating around showing that even at 4.7ghz, a G3258 performs worse than an i3 4xxx in the vast majority of cases (sometimes significantly), and it's very easy to spend more than the difference between the two chips chasing overclocking.

I leave my i5 around stock speeds for the most part. I can't perceive the ~10-15% performance difference I can get from overclocking, but I can hear the noise and feel the heat. If I wanted more performance I wouldn't buy a cooler, I'd sell it and move to an i7, or to 1151.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I actually agree with this. Overclocking made sense when all CPUs were unlocked and all CPUs had the same number of cores/threads, but a Pentium will never be an i3. There are plenty of charts floating around showing that even at 4.7ghz, a G3258 performs worse than an i3 4xxx in the vast majority of cases (sometimes significantly), and it's very easy to spend more than the difference between the two chips chasing overclocking.

I leave my i5 around stock speeds for the most part. I can't perceive the ~10-15% performance difference I can get from overclocking, but I can hear the noise and feel the heat. If I wanted more performance I wouldn't buy a cooler, I'd sell it and move to an i7, or to 1151.

I guess that makes sense at the low/mid-end, sort of. But what about the high end? Intel (well, before the i7-7700K) didn't sell a consumer 4.5Ghz part. If you wanted one, you HAD to overclock. At the high end, like SLI, it still makes sense IMHO. When you've gone all the way up the product stack, and you want more performance, that's really the only way to get it.

If you're in the middle of the product stack, and want to move up a level? Sure, your explanation and reasoning makes sense then.

Edit: So, I guess, keeping with the original topic of this thread, the G3258, yeah, maybe it doesn't make perfect sense, rather than just buying an i3.

But on the other hand, most of those comparison benchmarks were gaming-oriented. When you start to drift to primarily single-threaded, non-gaming tasks, I think that the G3258 might edge the i3 out a little bit, due to raw clockspeed. Maybe. Cache is still a factor too.

Edit: You might say, with Skylake i3 and BCLK OC, if you were planning on using a dGPU, then you can have your cake (i3) and eat it too (overclock). But if you do AVX loads (Distributed Computing), then an OCed i3 may actual be slower than at stock, due to the performance penalty caused by the BLCK OC and AVX issues with the PCU.

 

[superstition]

G3258 — Yes, overclock it for an emulation box with emulators that don't use more than 2 threads and which need the speed.

No for everything else.

Overclocking makes sense for 8320E very tight budget buyers getting a UD3P 2.0 board at Micro Center. The chip is unlocked, soldered, and identical to the higher-end chips. It's also allegedly binned better so it should have no difficulty getting to higher clocks with stability.

But, for Intel, I would just get a 6700K, leave it at stock, and undervolt if possible — if spending that kind of cash.

 

[cbn]

The Hyper 212+ used to be my goto HSF for "budget" builds. The CNPS5x is cheaper and easier to install, so laziness won out eventually

Have you tried this one (Cryorig M9i) yet:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gclid=CNXksL_MuNACFRBEfgodvL8GCQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

It actually beat the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo in the following review by 1 degree Celcius (which is not much, but it is a smaller cooler):

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CRYORIG/M9i/6.html

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Cool (pun not intended). Only reason I stick with Hyper 212+s is that I got a truckload of them cheap refurbed

 

[DrMrLordX]

Overclocking is a waste of time. Buy a proper CPU in the first place with enough muscle.

Blasphemy!!!!!

Overclocking is a fun hobby. It's a waste of time if you're looking for value, though.

Sadly, this is becoming more and more true every year. The days of the Celeron 300a are long behind us.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Sadly, this is becoming more and more true every year. The days of the Celeron 300a are long behind us.

RIP

 

[VirtualLarry]

Cool (pun not intended). Only reason I stick with Hyper 212+s is that I got a truckload of them cheap refurbed

I've still got some stock, from when I picked up a pile of OCZ Vendetta 92mm tower heatsinks, for both AMD and S775 Intel for $10 ea. from Microcenter B&M one time.

Too bad that they don't have mounting brackets for 115x. (Some boards have CCA, Combo Cooler, that will work with 775 heatsinks.)

Edit: Btw, sweet pic, that was one of those dual socket 370 mobos, with the (drilled?) Celeron CPUs, configured in SMP mode, wasn't it?

I never had a dual board back then, but I had some fun with a Slot 1 Abit 440BX board. It could overclock the FSB from 66Mhz to 100Mhz in BIOS, and it overclocked the AGP bus too, so I had an ATI video card (yeah, ATI, remember back then?), that could handle a 100Mhz AGP bus, and I had a 100Mhz FSB, PC100 RAM, everything (bus speeds) was running at 100Mhz, basically. (Ok, the dual IDE busses weren't ATA100 back then, I don't think. I think 440BX only had ATA33, which was a new thing back then.) The CPU was a sweet SL2W8, which I learned about from overclockers.com back in the day. They were the primary resource for overclocking on the internet, although there were other forums too. StorageReview too. I don't think that I had signed up here yet, but I read the articles.

 

[ClockHound]

Used Sandy combo or a used X58/Xeon 56xx setup is still the best value overclock - the once shiny gold standard for longevity, value, performance and fun! Of course even the DIY segment has moved off the gold standard...so there's that. ;-)

 

[DrMrLordX]

RIP

Those were the days. So much brown and green though, ugh. Still, it'd be a small price to pay to get back in the mode where top-notch performance was just a few BIOS tweaks away . . .

 

[Torn Mind]

Web browsing will be fine. Pump it up to 3.5 gigs, and sites will be smashed.

I wouldn't count on it for 4k, but if you got a stash of ripped Blu-rays, it will suffice.
Gaming with the latest demanding games is a losing proposition. However, it provides the highest clockspeed ceiling at the lowest price for legacy games that only use two cores.

 

[dogen1]

Yeah, I don't even bother with modern games anymore, unless they're lightweight. I tried the battlefield 1 beta and it was nearly unplayable. I bought mine for older games and emulators, and it's pretty good at that job.

 

[superstition]

Overclocking makes sense for 8320E very tight budget buyers getting a UD3P 2.0 board at Micro Center. The chip is unlocked, soldered, and identical to the higher-end chips. It's also allegedly binned better so it should have no difficulty getting to higher clocks with stability.

But, for Intel, I would just get a 6700K, leave it at stock, and undervolt if possible — if spending that kind of cash.

The 8320E Micro Center deal just got a lot better. One can get a 7+1 native digital phase ASUS Aura board with USB 3.1, M.2, an Intel NIC, more PWM fan headers, better sound, and no BIOS boot multiplier bug for the same $130 before taxes.

That will easily go to 4.6 GHz with a decent supporting cast.