H67 Overclocking Possible?

[PowerPie5000]

I have a Biostar TH67XE which has been brilliant during the time i've owned it . I recently installed a new i5 3570K (after donating my old i5 2500 to my girlfriends new rig) and have just noticed some interesting OC options in my bios (which probably appeared after the latest update). If i enable 'Fixed CPU Ratio' then it gives me the option to manually adjust the CPU Ratio (multiplier) and i can even adjust the FSB! I've not actually tried doing anything yet as my Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 is probably not upto the task... And i don't know if it's safe? I always found it strange how this H67 based board has a 7 phase power design with heatsinked mosfets (as H67's are not meant for overclocking and are usually 4 or 5 phase for m-atx boards ).

Does anyone know if other manufacturers have found ways to enable overclocking on H67 boards? I find this very interesting and great if it actually works (otherwise why would they include the options in the bios?).

[Willzzz]

Well it certainly sounds like it, I've been happily over-clocking on my H55.

I'm sure your CPU cooler is just fine, I only have the stock cooler and while it is far from ideal it is not dangerous to your CPU.
As long as you keep an eye on your temps then you aren't taking any real risks.

[scaryjim]

It's quite possible that it will only allow adjustment of the multiplier up to the max Turbo state of the CPU - H67 wasn't meant to allow overclocking (or at least, not by adjusting the multi on an unlocked processor). You have always been able to fiddle with the FSB but it's not advised due to all the system clocks being driven by the one FSB - you start overclocking the PCIe, SATA, etc. interfaces too and they very quickly become unstable.

OTOH, companies like Biostar and ASRock are pretty much known for providing high end features on cheap chipsets that "shouldn't" support them, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they'd found a way to do this.

[carvedeye]

I have a Biostar TH67XE which has been brilliant during the time i've owned it . I recently installed a new i5 3570K (after donating my old i5 2500 to my girlfriends new rig) and have just noticed some interesting OC options in my bios (which probably appeared after the latest update). If i enable 'Fixed CPU Ratio' then it gives me the option to manually adjust the CPU Ratio (multiplier) and i can even adjust the FSB! I've not actually tried doing anything yet as my Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 is probably not upto the task... And i don't know if it's safe? I always found it strange how this H67 based board has a 7 phase power design with heatsinked mosfets (as H67's are not meant for overclocking and are usually 4 or 5 phase for m-atx boards ).

Does anyone know if other manufacturers have found ways to enable overclocking on H67 boards? I find this very interesting and great if it actually works (otherwise why would they include the options in the bios?).

As with all k series cpu's they all come with unlocked multiplier so have a play around with it just up the multiplier bit by bit and see what you get but keep an eye on the temps, you can download temp monitoring software like hwmonitor (this is what i use as do many other overclockers) when you have reached your limit try upping the voltage on your ram until you have a stable overclock, this is how most people do it but then again no overclock is is the same. and most of all have fun

[PowerPie5000]

Well overclocking appears to work (albeit with a bit of messing around involved)... I set the multiplier to 40 for a modest 4Ghz, but i had to disable spread spectrum, disable the turbo and bump up the CPU power limits (i didn't touch the voltage). There is a trade off as the CPU will no longer clock down in idle mode when oc'd (it usually clocks down to 1.6Ghz)... I don't think i'll bother with overclocking until i build my next rig (could be Haswell, but most likely Broadwell... Unless AMD release something uber by then ).

[PowerPie5000]

Well overclocking appears to work (albeit with a bit of messing around involved)... I just set the multiplier to 40 for a modest 4Ghz, but i had to enable fixed CPU ratio, disable spread spectrum, disable the turbo and bump up the CPU power limits (i didn't touch the voltage). There is a trade off as the CPU will no longer clock down when idle if oc'd (it usually clocks down to 1.6Ghz)... I don't think i'll bother with overclocking until i build my next rig (could be Haswell, but most likely Broadwell... Unless AMD release something uber by then ).