Sandy overclocking

[Bman123]

I was wondering something about the k series sb cpu. Since it is a unlocked multiplier does your mobo make a big deal? You are just changing the multi and voltage correct?

I had a friend ask me this and I didn't know. I think he is just trying to save money when he buys his motherboard.

 

[Subyman]

I got to 4.5Ghz no problem on the board I have, which was really cheap. Higher end boards will have less vdroop, a higher phase count, higher end caps/circuitry, and more features such as higher number of USB 3.0, better on-board audio, blah blah . To get an enthusiast O/C on air between 4.2 and 4.5, it doesn't matter (as long as it isn't super budget.) To break the higher level O/Cs, the motherboard choice will be important.

 

[Bman123]

You are just changing the multi and volts right?

 

[Subyman]

You are just changing the multi and volts right?

Eh, to get an easy O/C to 4.2, you could just set volts to auto and bump the turbo multi up to 42x. Check the volts with CPUz. If they are around 1.29 then don't touch anything else. If they are higher, you may want to set them to something below 1.30v and see if you can get it stable. Otherwise, just keep everything else stock. You may want to enable/disable LLC, depending on what you read. I kept it enabled. For a basic O/C, it is pretty cut and dry. If he is on the stock cooler, be sure to check temps. The stock cooler is not good at all on these things. Stock temps at default spec volt and speeds were around 70C on load for me. A little high for my tastes, especially for stock. O/Ced she was seeing 75C.

 

[Blastman]

I was wondering something about the k series sb cpu. Since it is a unlocked multiplier does your mobo make a big deal? You are just changing the multi and voltage correct?.

Just don't get a mobo with a H67, H61, B65 chipset. There are no provisions for overclocking on these mobo's even with a K unlocked processor. You nesd P67 or Z68 to overclock.