Overclocking an i7 3770k

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OsirisR

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Jan 28, 2013
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Need some help. I don't overclock at all but I feel my cooler and system altogether could handle some overclocking. So recently a video game I play has for whatever reason taken a hit to the performance and it is bugging me for multiple reasons. Before the hit I was able to record at 1080p, and while it wasn't the smoothest game play, I could still bear through it and it would record at a smooth 30fps. Now-a-days it can barely keep 20 frames. The game is SWTOR by the way and yes, I know the engine (Hero Engine) is terrible.

So I figured the only way to counter this is to overclock. That is where hopefully the community comes in.

1st: How do I begin to OC? I imagine it is done in BIOS. If so I'm using a ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3

2nd: What, if any, programs should I use to monitor the CPU temps or even make it easier on myself.

3rd: Lastly, is there any other little nodes of information I should look for, things to avoid, or tutorials. Any and all information would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to break anything but would really like to up the performance a little.

Thanks in advance.
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Hi, regarding temperature monitoring programs I use 'Coretemp' I find it quite a good little program
Here are a couple of guides to overclocking: By the way I assume you have a Z77 motherboard..

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z77_overclocking_guide/1
http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end
 
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OsirisR

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I'm using a ASRock z68 extreme3 gen3 (http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3)
The way you say it sounds a bit ominous. Should I not be overclocking unless I'm using a Z77?
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Don't worry that's fine, you can overclock with a Z68 board. Those guides may vary slightly to what you see in your motherboards BIOS but it should still be very similar
 
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OsirisR

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Appreciate the quick responses, I'll have a look at them and see if I can't get some more power. One last thing though, what is a 'not so safe' temperature for the CPU? Currently the cores are at 30c or lower. Under load would probably bring them to 40c or so. I'm using a Zalman CNPS9900 MAX-B CPU cooler as well.
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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I personally keep my temps under 80 (after overclock) when running Intel Burn Test but in games I barely hit 60 degrees. Anything below 70 under full load in real world applications (ie games) is generally fine, in benchmarks it's likely you will get higher than this but don't worry. By the way that last guide I linked isn't as good as the other ones sorry so don't use it unless you really want to
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Haha yeah, best of luck, I don't think you should have any problems judging by those temps that you just told me. And pro tip, if you seriously screw up and you can't even boot (idk how you would do this but lets say you manage to) reset your BIOS to optimised defaults or just use the CMOS jumpers on the board, that will reset everything back to stock and let you boot again
 
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bigcyco1

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OsirisR

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Appreciate the guides. I'm back with another question. As this is a bit much for me to take in I've been seeing talk about ASUS' OC Tuner utility. I've read that manual is always better, but my question is that would I be able to use that on an ASrock mobo? Or possibly a 'safe' setting to set the overclock to? A friend of mine says he is using the OC tuner and it got his to around 4.3. I figure with my cooler that is probably a safe place to have it as well.

Note: He is using the same CPU as I.
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Obviously manual is better but I believe you can use those utilities still if you really want to. Using the utilities will give you higher temperatures than manual overclocks though as it will generally use a Vcore that is too high
 
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OsirisR

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I think I'll do a manual BIOS OC. From what I've heard and been told is the 3770k can reach 4.3 or so at core voltage so I'll try that first and if I'm coming up with issues I'll slowly bump it up.
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Yeah, it really varies though so don't be too optimistic (don't wanna get disappointed :p) but yes good luck
 
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OsirisR

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Good news everyone! So far so good, all I've done so far was bump up the ratio to 43 (4.3) and did a couple of burn tests and they passed with the cores only getting to about 71c.
 
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OsirisR

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43 if I understood you correctly. I might go higher later on but for now I'm happy to at least achieve this with as minimal effort as possible. I may regret it later, but all in the learning process.
 
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DelightfulDucklings

DelightfulDucklings

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Yeah, sounds like a reasonable speed to be at. Hopefully your SWTOR frames get increased
 
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