Overclocking my i7-2700k

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Sturmgewehr_44

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I recently upgraded to the GTX 980. I'm loving it, and I'm getting maybe a 30% performance increase from my now retired 780. I took some Synthetic tests, and I'm coming out pretty strong, about where I should be, and possibly a bit better. I cross-referenced the scores (Firestrike) with some 980 reviews, and in most cases I was 300 points behind (http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-and-980-reference-review,1.html). Since then, I've become fixated on beating those scores (I beat the graphics score) because I'm not admitting defeat. They have a 5960x or something OC'd to 4.6 ghz. I want in on that action, but I don't know the proper way. For whatever reason, I was advised against Overclocking my 2700k when I first built my PC, and I never have. I think most people with a 2700k know to overclock it, but I never learned that lesson. Can someone advice me? I would like a 4.2-4.5 GHz overclock, and from what I know I think that's pretty commonly seen from any Sandy Bridge i7. I had some help when I built my PC (this was two years ago), but I believe the Memory Controller on my CPU was overclocked or something similar for it to support the speed of the Ram I was using (see my signature). Could this present complications with Overclocking? Thanks!!!

Here are my results: http://www.3dmark.com/results
 
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Pretty much can find any old overclocking guide and follow the instructions, as any intel chip past Sandy Bridge is not gonna tank itself. I would first just find a guide on your motherboard's bios settings to familiarize yourself with the different settings and what they will do for your computer (or you can just open bios and google all the terms individually and read the first few articles on each) [terms I'm talking about are things like C1E State, PLL Voltage, Core Voltage, Spread Spectrum, EIST, etc etc]. After you enable/disable the ones you want that's when you change the core voltage of your board to something like 1.20V and clock to 4.0 GHz (by changing the multiplier to x40) and see if your system will boot and be stable during a stability test. Next, you bump the multiplier up by 1 so to x41 and again start up your computer and see if stable. Keep bumping until it doesn't work, in which case you'll go back to core voltage and bump up by 0.025V. Just repeat going back and forth between voltage and multiplier until you get the Ghz you want.
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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Ok, I'll see what I can dig up. Once I do so, what should I do? What are the risks or Overclocking and what should I avoid? It sounds kind of strange, because this is a new world for me. If it doesn't work?? Like a BSOD? I've actually never got one of those.

Does this guide look decent enough? (it seems pretty dated): http://www.overclock.net/t/910467/the-ultimate-sandy-bridge-oc-guide-p67a-ud7-performance-review

Apparently many people run stress tests for hours. Is that necessary?

 
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I've never encountered a BSOD with newer components like yours (I've got a 2600k myself) if the CPU isn't getting enough power due to voltage being too low, your computer simply just won't start up. In terms of risks, unless you're going to like 5.0 GHz there really isn't any, especially with that beefy power supply you have.

Like I said after you figure out what all the different settings do, just set them to what people say you should set them to for overclocking and then start with the Voltage/multiplier upping process.
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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Would it be wise to flash my Bios? I think I'm running some ancient version from 2012, version 1016 or 1024.

 
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I think it fluctuates when it's on auto, which is the default setting so 0.984 might not be accurate. Sounds a little too low for 3.5Ghz but I might be wrong about that. As for flashing BIOS, you probably have the most recent version, as BIOS is not really updated that much.
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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That was on idle, and CPUZ is still showing the same number, although it sometimes goes up to the 1v range. I ran Metro" Last Light benchmark on maxed settings. I did this because it is the most intensive game I know of, and I exited mid-way and checked the voltage again, and it was 1.264 or something. Is that any good? The temperature was hovering at 57c.

 
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Yea that sounds about right for auto on stock.

I would try for now to change your voltage to 1.15 and your multiplier to x40 and see if you can boot and stress test. If not then raise the voltage to 1.175 and try again.
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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What should I use to stress test? I heard Prime 95 and Intel Burn Test are good. Can these be dangerous if they push the CPU too far? What about Auto? If I set to 1.15, should I then push the clock or something? If I have an issue with this, is there anyway I can restore the settings to stock like it is now?

 
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Yea Prime95 is good. It won't push your CPU too hard if you're staying under 4.4Ghz. Resetting is just a matter of going into bios again and hitting the restore settings button. =P
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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Speaking of that, I just experienced a scary situation. I was browsing the settings under "Ai tuner" and I selected "OC Tuner" and it overclocked my CPU to 4.4 Ghz Turbo and left me hanging. I restored to default, but the memory frequency was on "Auto", so I set to 1600mhz, as it was before. However, in restoring, it messed up the boot menu order or whatever. It wouldn't allow me to boot because Windows wasn't on the drive I was accessing. I changed it to SSD (where I have it) and it booted me up. Maybe this wouldn't be very alarming to anyone with experience, but it scared me to death. I need to be careful...

In the Bios the Core Voltage is around 1.118 or so. I assume this is because the Bios puts more load unto the CPU than idling does? Where would I increase the voltage? I don't want to go through what I described again. I'm pretty clueless still, despite reading a bit into Overclocking.

 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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My main drive (SSD) won't show up for the boot priority though. Only my HDD and Rewriter show up, I don't know why. I can manually choose the SSD, but I have to do this everytime on boot. How do I get the SSD to appear on the boot menu?

This is messed up, I shouldn't have tried anything...
 
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The voltage rating in bios will be slightly different than what you see in CPU-Z due to a couple of the functions that exist in BIOS. I think one of them is VDroop which allows BIOS to feed extra voltage to make sure the chip runs.

Are you sure that the drive that shows up in boot order is actually your HDD. Because if there's no OS then it won't show up on the boot order. Most likely what you think is the HDD is actually your SSD.
 
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Sturmgewehr_44

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Yeah, I eventually solved it. It was freaking me out though.

 
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I just booted up and American Megatrends told me that my CPU fan wasn't working?? I went into the Bios and the fan RPM was a little slower than it usually is, but not much. After a minute it was normal again. Do you know why it did that? Was it the Bios getting used to the new settings since I reset it??
 
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Not sure, but you shouldn't have to worry about fan speeds if everything is on auto. If you're really worried you can just make sure to check CPU temps every now and then when you're gaming and make sure they don't seem out of place.
 
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