Need help with overclocking :)

[Mega Gengar]

Hey all was wanting to give my system a slight beef up. It's specs are as follows:

Motherboard: Gigabyte P67A-UD3R
CPU: Core i5-2500K @ 3.30Ghz
Memory: 8GB Corsair (don't remember the model number)
GPU: Sapphire HD 6950 1GB
Case: Antec 900 V2

Now I only use stock cooling so I was wondering what I should push the CPU to, I did try 3.7Ghz before but being the clutz I am, I used the program that came with my drivers to do it, which ended terribly. If 3.7 is a good number I was wondering how exactly I do it using the bios, the only guides I can find are for overclocking it to 4.0Ghz which there is no way I can do on stock cooling xD

Also was wanting to overclock my GPU, I have a SS that shows it's current values (default) and was wondering what a safe overclock would be for it. I remember with the old drivers with my 4870 it had an auto one which went through and found the most stable for you.



Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if you need anymore info about my PC let me know

P.S. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...ore-i5-2500k/4 Is what I was looking at for the CPU OC

[vesseblah]

Now I only use stock cooling so I was wondering what I should push the CPU to, I did try 3.7Ghz before but being the clutz I am, I used the program that came with my drivers to do it, which ended terribly. If 3.7 is a good number I was wondering how exactly I do it using the bios, the only guides I can find are for overclocking it to 4.0Ghz which there is no way I can do on stock cooling xD

Such a small OC you can achieve 99 times out of 100 just by bumping up the multiplier from this screen.

Change the number from default 33x to 37x and you should be done and set. Just run some stability test afterwards like for all overclocking, and especially pay attention to CPU temperatures since you're running it at stock cooler. For small tweak like this there should not be any need to touch the more advanced settings and you should not experience any voltage related crashes, just potential overheating if the case airflow is not good.

[Rixis]

i've heard of stock cooling reaching 4.2s and maybe slightly higher, but you're better off not pushing it that far, as far as the settings, you can usually bump the multiplier as high as around 44x without needing to alter anything else, higher and you tend to need more, but each cpu is different

[Mega Gengar]

Thanks for the replies, will test this out now. Will monitor the temperature and such with cpu-z

[vesseblah]

i've heard of stock cooling reaching 4.2s and maybe slightly higher, but you're better off not pushing it that far, as far as the settings, you can usually bump the multiplier as high as around 44x without needing to alter anything else, higher and you tend to need more, but each cpu is different

My i5-2500K would not go to 40x without upping the voltage, 39x was the limit.

Which reminds me I need to get back to OC now that I finally replaced the motherboard with a version that does not have the SATA bug.

[Mega Gengar]

Well did it to x37 and seems stable, will test it out in a few games and see if it gets too hot and such.

@vesseblah, is there anyway to see whether my board is one with the SATA bug? I bought this back in feb.

[Rixis]

i think mine managed 46x definately made it to 44x

and use realtemp for your temperatures

[Mega Gengar]

Oh hadn't heard of that, was using Hardware Monitor, but will download it and try it out. Anyone know what I should do with the GPU OC or should I just leave as is?

EDIT: Also is it worth running Prime95?

[Rixis]

typically, for now anyway, you'll find little need to overclock your gpu, not sure how sapphires overclock, but evga uses evga precision and msi use msi afterburner to let you tune the settings on theirs (nvidias at least)

[Mega Gengar]

Ahh ok, will leave it for now then , thanks for that other program it's rather neat.

---------- Post added 2011-09-24 at 12:48 AM ----------

UPDATE: Well played BC2 for around 30mins or so and the highest temp it reached was 76ºC and the voltage seemed fine. When I last tried to OC which was with the crappy program BC would crash after 10mins or so xD

[vesseblah]

is there anyway to see whether my board is one with the SATA bug? I bought this back in feb.

It is one of the bugged boards for sure. The fixed versions came to stores late April. On my motherboard the SATA2 ports stopped working, first Windows complained about read errors on certain files, bit later computer would just bluescreen if I tried to boot it with any HDD plugged into the SATA2 ports. Somehow it feels like the Intel's "5% will have problems after 3 years" was bit too optimistic.

UPDATE: Well played BC2 for around 30mins or so and the highest temp it reached was 76ºC and the voltage seemed fine. When I last tried to OC which was with the crappy program BC would crash after 10mins or so xD

76C is a lot, but not critical yet. The CPU will start overheat protection measures at about 90C but that does not mean you should be running it at 85C every day. Normal temp with the stock cooler is around 55-60C so you bumped it quite a lot already.

[Mega Gengar]

Hmm, should I bring down the overclock until I can get a better CPU cooler? Not sure of any good component sites in AU and not sure which cooler I should go for. Thanks

[Arachnan]

The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6603) is a great low budget cooler, which will be fine for mid-level overclocking. If you want something beefier, get a Noctua D14 (http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=p...s_id=34&lng=en)

[Mega Gengar]

Will order the Hyper 212+ on monday, thanks for that. Should I be fine to keep the OC or should I reduce it until I get the fan?

[brolly]

You can easily reach 4.4 or even more ghz with the H212+, as for 6950 I got mine at 950/1375@1.16v, was really easy to reach.

[Arachnan]

If you want to play it completely safe, save the OC settings in your BIOS and reset to stock values.
I don't -think- your temps will cause any harm, but it never hurts to play it safe

[Mega Gengar]

Hehe yeah, should have my new cooler by Wednesday atleast. Then I will get to OC it higher xD

[Mega Gengar]

UPDATE: Well got a new cooler, went for the Noctua instead. My highest temp while under load was 54ºC which is a huge improvement. Would it be safe to go higher with my overclock now?

[DeltrusDisc]

My i5-2500K would not go to 40x without upping the voltage, 39x was the limit.

Which reminds me I need to get back to OC now that I finally replaced the motherboard with a version that does not have the SATA bug.

Wow! You had to up the voltage just to get 40x? =S That's rough.

---------- Post added 2011-09-27 at 06:03 AM ----------

UPDATE: Well got a new cooler, went for the Noctua instead. My highest temp while under load was 54ºC which is a huge improvement. Would it be safe to go higher with my overclock now?

What IS your OC at now anyways? I don't see you posting it anywhere.... honestly though, the D14 is a green light to shove the thing up to 4.5GHz+ if you can manage it. I know with my Zalman CNPS 9900A I'm comfortably at 4.5GHz with mild temperatures, never hitting 60 Celsius.

[Mega Gengar]

Sorry, I upped it to 37x xD. I wanted to try 40x but not sure because I don't feel right stuffing around with voltage settings