Overclocking the i5-3450 and base clock.

[Protomize]

I have my i5-3450 running stable at 3.87ghz right now and even at stock speeds, it's overkill for my needs. I just like to squeeze as much as possible out of my system. I use this in a gaming PC alongside a overclocked HD 7850. The thing is, in order for me to achieve an overclock past 3.7ghz on all cores, I had to bump the base clock/FSB up to 104.80mhz from 100.00mhz. If I literally go a bit higher, my GPU performs terribly and averages 30 FPS in every game regardless of detail setting signifying the PCIe port doesn't like the high base clock. So far, it's been 4 days and at the 104.80mhz base clock, everything has been running smooth. I've heard people say that a base clock higher than 100mhz on Sandy or Ivy Bridge CPU's can "damage" other components. What exactly do you mean here?

 

[pantsaregood]

The BCLK on the Sandy Bridge architecture functions as the clock generator for every piece of hardware in your system that has a clock speed associated with it.

BCLK overclocking really isn't worth it. Testing stability with it properly is more difficult to test than standard multiplier overclocking because you have more to worry about when it comes to stability than CPU and RAM. Unless you want to stress test your GPU while running Linpack for hours, I'd advise dropping your overclock by the 4.8% you managed with raising the BCLK.

 

[blckgrffn]

I think it is generally accepted that you can get a 5% OC via your method - if you aren't having issues, I would leave it.

As mentioned, if you find a corner case in the future where you are suspect of CPU OC stability, the BCLK would be the first thing to set back to stock IMHO.

 

[Protomize]

I think it is generally accepted that you can get a 5% OC via your method - if you aren't having issues, I would leave it.

As mentioned, if you find a corner case in the future where you are suspect of CPU OC stability, the BCLK would be the first thing to set back to stock IMHO.

What are the more general issues seen by having too high of base clock? I've already seen what can happen to the PCIe ports and GPU performance.

 

[pantsaregood]

There's a difference between losing stability and losing speed. Just because your GPU isn't choking doesn't mean your PCI-E bus is stable. Overclocked BCLK also affects SATA - you could potentially corrupt your hard drive or the MBR on it.

Your CPU allows for an overclock of 400 MHz or so by raising multipliers. Use that, not by increasing the BCLK.

 

[Protomize]

There's a difference between losing stability and losing speed. Just because your GPU isn't choking doesn't mean your PCI-E bus is stable. Overclocked BCLK also affects SATA - you could potentially corrupt your hard drive or the MBR on it.

Your CPU allows for an overclock of 400 MHz or so by raising multipliers. Use that, not by increasing the BCLK.

Okay, I bought it back down to 100mhz.