Core i5 system and OC'in

[razer121]

Finaly decided it's about time i overclocked my system and thought i would ask for any tips/advice that anyone can give before hand! so to start with the specs,

Evga gtx 260 SSC
Core i5 750 Aftermarket cooling (scythe mugen 2 i belive)
Msi P55-GD65
4GB XMS3 Classic memory
Zalman 750watt silent psu
500GB hdd
VERY good cooling

So now you know my system, what would anyone advise on OC'in it? i've done it before on the GPU, i've barly touched the cpu though!

and never OC memory so not to great at that! Is there any programs i should be aware of? ones which will help me out? help test and so on.

Just debating on upgrading but thought i would OC first to see if i can get a few more months out of the beast

thanks!

[nibbler]

With an i5 750, it's silly to go to 4GHZ, you just don't need it. Temps wouldn't be an issue, but still. I would say go for a solid 3.4 or so, might be able to get there on stock volts. Only if you're really struggling for frames should you dial it up to about 3.8 IMO, but then you really need a new GPU...
GPU wise I have no idea but I think the GTX260 is ready and willing to OC?

[razer121]

Thanks for your input, i've only really wanted to upgrade recently as playing crysis on 1080 is abit of a nightmare....any other game is fine but crysis ripped my gpu to bits lol. I've thought about a gtx 460 but its the whole is it worth it attiude i have toward it all, and saying that i can get anouther gtx 260 sli them together and boom thrash up a gtx 460! so its a really tuff one to decide.

what would you suggest to take my core i5 to just 3.2? i dont think i really need 3.4 or anything above!

[nibbler]

3.2 should jsut require stock volts. I've forgotten my configuration exactly but I upped PLL and a few others slightly. it shouldn't even break a sweat at 3.2
I would say it's worth upgrading to a 6850 or something, sell the GTX260 while it's still worth something?

[Pob255]

easy on the gd65, just press the OC Genie button
Although you may well want to tweek it after as it does go a bit heavy on the memory, it just bumps the voltage (too much for my taste)

The basic principle is the same as core2 overclocking, although it's a bit more complex.

Drop your memory multiplier down a notch or two and increase the base fsb, you can use the +/- buttons to tweek the fsb with the system live as well.

It does get more complex as you push it it higher but 3.2-3.4ghz should be easy to get without tweeking many setting.

read the i7 oc guide it's the same principles as overclocking on a socket 1156 system. http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...beginners.html

[razer121]

Thanks for the input guys, really helping me out! i think that i shall take on the cpu first! I'm abit worried about using the OC genie...dont want it to go killing my system! and tbh i need to read up about it alot more as i know nothing about what it can and what it cannot do.

Nibbler - You really dont like my GPU huh? lol i dont think the thing is worth more than £80 now, just doesn't seem like its worth selling now (£200+ a year or so ago now) value is crippled but i believe i can squeze some more life out of it, it does only fail me on 1 game so you know...its not that bad lol

[nibbler]

I have nothing against it i'll even take it off your hands if you want but yeah, like you say, SLI would be the cheapest way to do things but it might be worthwhile upgrading is all I meant

[Terbinator]

OC genie heavily overvolts everything - including RAM.

Go into the BIOS, have TurboBoost on and change your multiplier too x21 - crank BCLK up too 191, jobs a good'un.

[sadbuttrue]

3.6ghz is the sweet spot for the i5 750. Your voltage requirements will vary so experimentation is going to be necessary. My settings are listed in profile on left, all pretty low and 100% every stress test stable.

[razer121]

I have nothing against it i'll even take it off your hands if you want but yeah, like you say, SLI would be the cheapest way to do things but it might be worthwhile upgrading is all I meant

Then keep an eye out for my gtx 260 popping up in my next for sale thread XD just got to sort out a new gpu first!

OC genie heavily overvolts everything - including RAM.

Go into the BIOS, have TurboBoost on and change your multiplier too x21 - crank BCLK up too 191, jobs a good'un.

Thanks for that, i'm really looking forward to pushing my rig tomoz!

[Terbinator]

For 4GHz youre going to need 1.4v+ on the CPU - if not you've got a mighty fine chip.

Without knowing your RAM specs exactly you should lower the RAM multiplier too x3(x6) to give you 800MHz @ 133 BCLK to remove the RAM as a limitation at least initially.

VTT will require around 1.25v to keep you stable and should support up too around 1600MHz on the RAM. Obviously adjust your RAM voltage accordingly and try to stay under 1.65v.

On the otherhand, i echo what everyone else has said and perhaps even just leave it at stock and let TurboBoost work its magic - if not 3.4-3.8Ghz is the sweetspot as suggested as its usually the best trade off of extra voltage, heat and speed.

Edit: Still up your CPU multi too x21 so you don't need as higher BCLK, Core ix also clock better with an odd multiplier

[nibbler]

Oh razer, I have about £24 so no chance of me buying it, I'm just saying it would be nice

[razer121]

Currently sitting on 3.2ghz

settings as follows!
multiplier - x19
Bus speed is set to 170.6mhz
qpi link speed is 2729.1mhz (somthing like 4XXX in the bios)

i put the voltage of the cpu up to 1.240V so pretty impressed I've gone for 1.1V on the VTT instead seems as im not going above 3.2ghz, very happy with the new OC now im going to rip that gpu up and run some extream tests prime + crysis, this should be intresting

[nibbler]

Could maybe go lower than 1.24, what's VID?

[razer121]

Just had a blue screen not sure why but upped the voltage's abit

What do you mean whats VID?

by the way what would cause a Bluescreen? the pc was running fine for 20 odd mins, temps were ok and below 40, it was after i applied a OC on the gpu, it was abit 30 seconds after i applied this, so might lower this abit and see what happens

[scaryjim]

have you turned the memory multiplier down to make sure you're not pushing the memory too hard? It tends to be more sensitive to overclocking (due to not being actively cooled) and it's easy to kill memory with too high an overclock (I recently managed to kill some DDR2 with a fairly modest overclock...)