Some explanations on how to overclock my i7-3770K

ImPain

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Hi everybody,

First, I would like to say that I am very new to overclocking. I built my first computer like 3 months ago so I am still learning :). The details of my computer setup are below.

I know there are many topic and videos online talking about this and I watched some of them but still I am a bit confused..

I would like to overclock my i7-3770k to a safe frequency, I am thinking of 4.5Ghz max for now.
I already changed my bios according to some videos I found and right now my CPU is at 4.4 Ghz with a voltage (manual) of 1.150V and speedstep "on". It is stable (checked with intelBurnTest) and on full load (using prime95) i get around 80-85°C, so I think it is ok? I don't want to go over 90°C.

The thing is that I would like to use an offset to overclock instead of a manual and fix voltage (apparently it is better so that the voltage changes according to the frequency of the CPU that can be low due to Intel Speedtest). But I don't know how to use it, if somebody can explain to me?

Also, I don't exactly know all the parameters to tweak in the BIOS.. For now I modified my bios according to this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBTvu1QQzdU and it's seems to work but I would like to understand more about the common parameters to change and why (PLL, etc.) if possible :)

Thanks a lot for your help!

Regards.
 
Solution

mr1hm

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hey there, would be glad to help you out, however, it'd be nice to see your system specs.

your current overclock looks fine if it's hitting 80-85C at max. as for PLL voltage, it seems some CPUs will run slightly cooler when lowering the CPU PLL Voltage, while the other half of the CPUs are not affected at all. i think you'll have to test this setting yourself.

just a quick note on stress testing, you can run P95, Intel Burn Test, and the whole shabang but, there's been reports where people do exactly thisbut still end up having issues when they open up their favorite game, program, etc... so in my opinion, test your heavily used programs and games first, and make sure it won't crash or give you some random errors.

hope it helps a bit, good luck :)
 
Solution

ImPain

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Thanks for your reply :)

Ok I will continue checking with my favourite programs to see if it is fine.
I will also try to go up to 4.5Ghz with the same settings to see, I might increase a bit the voltage.

Do you know about the offset mode instead of the manual mode?

By system specs you mean my config ? They are in my signature but I will put it there also :

ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
Corsair vengeance 2x8 GB 1600Mhz
Intel i7-3770k
ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP
Water cooler H100i
Plextor 256Gb SSD
WD 1 Tb Blue HDD
Case Corsair 500D

Thanks.
 

mr1hm

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haha woops, didn't see your signature at first ;)

im glad to hear your aiming for 4.5; as for offset voltage, you're going to have to test your CPU to check how much voltage your CPU is getting when applying offset as each CPU will ask for a different voltage at different clock speeds. although i do remember seeing a formula to figure out how much voltage you're going to end up with, i can't recall it on the top of my head and i don't think we need to get into it as of right now.

so, id recommend you take everything back to stock and only change the voltage from manual to offset mode and apply +0.005v and save and reboot into windows and use a program to check for your CPU voltage. now, you want to take note of your idle (no load on CPU) voltage and then take note of the voltage when the CPU is under heavy load.

whatever value is set in the offset mode (for example: +0.005v) will apply to both idle and heavy load conditions; so, if your CPU idles @ 1600MHz and 0.8v or 0.9v the offset value of +0.005v would effectively make your new idle voltage 0.805v or 0.905v. Same concept applies to your load voltage.

now, you're going to notice that the CPU voltage will never increase or decrease EXACTLY as you have set it to in the BIOS. this is where LLC comes into play. I can't remember for sure but, it should be that the higher the LLC setting (for example: Ultra High (75%)), the more voltage it will try to add when the CPU is under load or when the CPU is locked in @ the overclocked speed you have set it to. Setting a lower LLC setting, will do exactly the opposite and try to lower the voltage when the CPU is under load.

it seems pretty complicated but, once you start messing with it you'll learn pretty quickly.

just a quick note: LLC will also affect both idle and load voltages, so the higher the LLC setting, the higher your idle and load voltage. also, i dont think you would need to use a negative offset value but, using a negative offset value can be somewhat troublesome as sometimes it will decrease your idle voltage way too much and cause instability when idle but not during load situations; however, i believe LLC is there for this reason.

for me, on my asus maximus v extreme, i leave my LLC @ Ultra High (75%) and only touched the offset value.

if it confuses ya, just let me know :D
 

mr1hm

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nope dont think so :D,

i know this guide is meant for ASUS ROG motherboards but, this guide will help you get the general idea of offset vcore much better.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2162-Overclocking-Using-Offset-Mode-for-CPU-Core-Voltage&country=&status=

and are you still testing? let me know how how your results are, i remember you already had 4.4 @ 1.150v which isn't bad at all :)
 

ImPain

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Ok thanks I will have a look :)

For now I went back to the stock clock at 3.9Ghz, but I will try again once I understand more about it :)

I also don't want to reduce the lifespan of my CPU, so I am afraid of overclocking it.. For now I mostly use my computer for browsing, games and a little of editing, so I don't know if I really should overclock it.

I will still give it a try to learn at least!

I will post here my results later on.

Thanks
 

mr1hm

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sounds good :D, just remember it's not heat that'll end up killing your chip (unless you're obviously very close or exceeding the tj max, then who knows what'll happen), i believe it's the amount of current that'll kill your chip in the end.

so settings like power limits and CPU current capability is set to default values for me.