Overclocking help

Craig Stevenson · Dec 13, 2012

Hi,

My system is:
Gigabyte X58A-UD7 V1.0 (F8M)
i7 950 D0
6GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D
Noctua NH-U12P SE2
MSi N580GTX Twin Frozr II
Win7 Pro 64-bit

It's all running at Stock\Auto at the minute with the RAM running at 1066.

I want to try a bit of overclocking to at least get the RAM to 1600 and the CPU to 3.5\3.6Ghz

Any advice appreciated.

Regards

Craig

Adrian Britton · Dec 13, 2012

yeah! dont do it.

Your pc should be fine at it current settings, your not going to notice much improvement and you could potentially cause more damage then good.

But thats just my advice and opinion mate, I am sure others will disagree and encourage it, but unless you have something to fall back on (ie another computer) its not worth taking the risk.

(probably not what you wanted to hear, sorry man)

Craig Stevenson · Dec 13, 2012

To be honest that is why I've run it at stock but it's always annoyed me that I paid for the faster RAM and have never bothered trying to use it and 3.5\6 shouldn't really do any harm to the CPU. I've now got the RAM running at 1333, just gonna see if it's stable playing FarCry 3.

Adrian Britton · Dec 14, 2012

How did it go ?
Im interested to know if everything went ok for you.

Jim Cole · Dec 14, 2012

From what you are saying, your system doesn't natively support the faster ram, am I correct? I should point out that the difference is performance of ram running at 1066 vs 1600 can only be seen by running benchmark software. You won't see the difference in any practical way.

I am however a firm believer that if you are not sure what you are doing, then don't do it. Get someone else who has the knowledge do the OC'ing to your system or you are looking at a high risk of damage.

To get a good OC, the process is slow and tedious, and there is a chance that your hardware won't be able to be OC'd very much. Many things have to be looked at and tweaked in order for an OC to be stable, and testing every step of the way is pretty much essential.

You should really understand not only how to change things in the BIOS, but what those changes are going to do and what will be required as far as other changes to ensure that your system will be safe. Your cooling is going to have to be capable of keeping the CPU cool, and if you are overclocking RAM, then you may have to put a fan setup on the RAM in order to keep them cool as well.

Craig Stevenson · Dec 14, 2012

It's fine at 1333, Windows performance index shows a massive jump in RAM score from 7.5 to 7.6

Jim,
I think the last system I overclocked was a K6, not bothered since.

The mobo natively supports up to 2200MHz RAM, the limitation is with the CPU which only natively supports 1066. Many Mobos these days come with Overclocking built in and with software or phone app to allow you to overclock on the fly, I think it's a bit like Flashing your BIOS in Windows and not something I would use, much better to do it manually.

Cooling isn't an issue with the setup, the HAF932 is a stonking case and the NH-U12P an excellent cooler, I have a RAM cooler if needed. I haven't overclocked for a long time but all the systems I've built over the years have had the capability to be overclocked should I wish to, generally speaking though I will have built a new system before it becomes necessary to overclock.

Craig

Jim Cole · Dec 15, 2012

Well, if you have done OC'ing in the past, then you may be aware that the higher you go, the more power you need to keep things stable. OC'ing the CPU will generally OC the ram as well depending on how you do it. Changing the core clock on the system will basically OC everything else on the MB as well, so you may need to increase voltages to different things like ram and the chipset in order to get a stable run.

Increasing the voltage is where the heat is generated so be careful how much you increase. Small incriments are recommended to avoid having a system that is dead. Having a BIOS that either has multiple BIOS stored, or has some way to reset the BIOS is almost a must just in case you cross the line in your OC as there is a real potential that your system will not post or display anything once you pass a certain point.

It is going to be very important to keep your ram timing tight so that it continues to function properly.

Start off by increasing the multiplier 1 step and test for an hour. If all is good go another step and test. Keep doing that until your system becomes unstable. Back off a couple of steps and increase the VCC voltage a small amount and then start advancing the CPU multiplier again. You may also have to increase chipset and ram voltage to continue.

Once you have what you think is going to be a good stable OC, setup a test like Prime95 or what ever the current version is and have it run an 8 hour test to see how it performs. If the system survives the 8 hour test you should be good to go on the OC. I generally go for the highest I can get and then back off a couple of steps to be sure that I won't run into any issues.