Need some quick advice on Overclocking

[SlowEJ8]

Hey everyone, new to this overclocking stuff.

Any advice on quick steps to overclocking my CPU will be appreciated.

Or just step by step guide if any of you guys have the time to help.

What i'm mainly looking for is, how to oc, and what is a reliable number/gain I can get with what I have.

My rig:
CM HAF X
Corsair HX 1050w
i5 2500k(unabused)
CM Hyper 212+, push-pull setup.
Asus P8p67-M PRO
RipJaws 2x 4gb 1333
580GTX

Thanks~

 

[Puppies04]

Not at home to give you an exact settings list but a rough guide would be...

*Manually set the cores to x45 (leave bclock completly alone at 100)
*Set LLC to medium (or high)
*Set it to offset voltage
*If it bluescreens while testing add a little (0.050v ish) extra offset voltage, if it doesn't bluescreen try adding a little negative offset. The idea is to use as little voltage as possible at any given speed while staying stable.

EDIT. Make sure you have CPU-Z and core temp installed to keep an eye on voltages and temps, do not got over 1.4v or 80 degrees C for now, some people prefer to stay around 1.3 or 1.35v nobody can tell you exactly what is safe just that the higher and hotter you go the faster your chip will degrade. I'm not trying to scare you with this you just need to be aware that running a CPU at anything other than stock has potential penalties.

 

[Charlie98]

I just got through OC trials with my new build (in sig below,) in some ways pretty similar to your build.

I did the push/pull setup on my 212+ as well, but the primary way I found to reduce heat was reduce vCore voltage. I was able to reduce vCore .08v at 4.1GHz and reduce my temps 10C. My thread here. Nothing super quantitative, but just my experience.

On my particular setup, I've not been able to go above 4.2GHz and keep stability and reasonable temperatures, but YMMV...

 

[guskline]

Hey everyone, new to this overclocking stuff.

Any advice on quick steps to overclocking my CPU will be appreciated.

Or just step by step guide if any of you guys have the time to help.

What i'm mainly looking for is, how to oc, and what is a reliable number/gain I can get with what I have.

My rig:
CM HAF X
Corsair HX 1050w
i5 2500k(unabused)
CM Hyper 212+, push-pull setup.
Asus P8p67-M PRO
RipJaws 2x 4gb 1333
580GTX

Thanks~

I would suggest that since you are new to overclocking you use Asus own Turbo V software and let it automatically overclock for you. It will allow moderate or extreme OC and will set all of your parameters. I know that with manual "tweaking" you might eek out a little more performance. However, since you appear new at this the software doing the tweaking will help you establish a safe OC. From there you can do manual adjustments in the BIOS. I have the same software for my Asus Z68 mb and found it to do a great job.

 

[Charlie98]

I would suggest that since you are new to overclocking you use Asus own Turbo V software and let it automatically overclock for you. It will allow moderate or extreme OC and will set all of your parameters. I know that with manual "tweaking" you might eek out a little more performance. However, since you appear new at this the software doing the tweaking will help you establish a safe OC. From there you can do manual adjustments in the BIOS. I have the same software for my Asus Z68 mb and found it to do a great job.

Although I'm not familiar with Asus' OC utility, I really got into trouble with Gigabyte's OC utilitys (they have 2.) The main problem was (at least with the automatic OC settings) it would start with bumping the BCLK up (to 103.0 in once case) and led to system instability on my system. It was OK with a very mild OC (3.8GHz) but every time I tried to go above 4.0GHz with the GB utility, it either overheated or crashed.

I'm a OC n00b, too, and with a little help from the kind folks here at AT, I was able to OC successfully in the BIOS. Keeping it simple/stupid for me, essentially by just adjusting the multiplier and reducing vCore (and turning off a few functions.)

 

[guskline]

Charlie98: I hear you. On my Asus MB it does bump the FSB to 103 but that was solid with ALL diagnostics including Intel burn test, Prime95 (24hrs) and a variety of other tests. I find that the power phase setup of the MB really matters. In my case, my Asus could boot and run higher than the 4522 it is set at (44x103). In fact for giggles I had it @4800 but the possibility of instability had me set it back. Oh it booted and ran at that but was it 24/7/365 stable? In fact the setting I choose first was a moderate, not extreme, OC in the software and it set it at 44x103. Of course my MB is a higher end one and is a very good OC mb as is the Asrock Z68 Extreme 4.
Suffice it to say that for a new OC person using the software I would set your initial settings to moderate because they are generally safer so long as you start with a milder OC.
In my case all 3 of my machine have been subjected to Intel Burn tests( really good stress test), 24 hrs of prime95, the stability tests in AIDA64( have licensed version). I have very good aftermarket HSs with plenty of cooling in all of the cases. I know these are rock solid machines. Have never had BSOD no matter how long I have played games.
For the poster of this thread, who appears to not have a ton of OCing knowledge I suggest he first start with the MB OCing software, apply a moderate OC then test. Intel Burn test is a free download and Prime95 is a free download. If your OC doesn't pass these, back down your settings.

 

[Charlie98]

In my case all 3 of my machine have been subjected to Intel Burn tests( really good stress test), 24 hrs of prime95, the stability tests in AIDA64( have licensed version). I have very good aftermarket HSs with plenty of cooling in all of the cases. I know these are rock solid machines. Have never had BSOD no matter how long I have played games.

I've been using LinX because it's supposed to generate the most heat... and that was my initial problem. Now that I seem to have that solved, I'm going to work with Prime95...

A mild utility-based OC wouldn't be a bad way to start, and, as puppies said, download CPUz and a temp utility (I use RealTemp) to keep an eye on the goodies. One of the GB utilities has a real time voltage monitor that's pretty handy, too. 😀

 

[Puppies04]

I would suggest that since you are new to overclocking you use Asus own Turbo V software and let it automatically overclock for you. It will allow moderate or extreme OC and will set all of your parameters. I know that with manual "tweaking" you might eek out a little more performance. However, since you appear new at this the software doing the tweaking will help you establish a safe OC. From there you can do manual adjustments in the BIOS. I have the same software for my Asus Z68 mb and found it to do a great job.

And I would suggest you stay away from any onboard overclocking software like it was the plague. It will pump way too much voltage through the CPU for any given overclock, increasing heat output and cpu degradation. There is no reason whatsoever not to manually OC these chips, there are loads of guides out there that will show you how to do it and you will actually learn how to do it yourself which will help you out in the future if any problems spring up.

 

[SlowEJ8]

Thanks on the input guys.
I'm actually going to pick up an ASRock z68 mobo, its getting a lot of good reviews for ocing a i5, my asus p67 pro doesn't allow me to manually control the vcore.

Looks to me is all i need is to learn to use prime 95, correctly.
I'm also using core temp right now, but i'm switching to realtemp.

Have any of you guys oc'd your gpus too?

 

[Shmee]

ya, I have a light OC going on my 6950's. also, read and study the sticky 😀

 

[Puppies04]

Thanks on the input guys. I'm actually going to pick up an ASRock z68 mobo, its getting a lot of good reviews for ocing a i5, my asus p67 pro doesn't allow me to manually control the vcore.

Really? I think you might want to go check out the bios again because it certainly does.

 

[Puppies04]

Have any of you guys oc'd your gpus too?

Onboard or discrete?

 

[SlowEJ8]

Hmm, weird it doesn't say on mine, which bios are you running on?