Most effective overclocking ratios

wrightcolin

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
10
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1,510
Hey all, here's an overclocking question I've had. My newest rig (i7 4790K, 32GB DDR3 1866, GTX 1060) quit on me, and I've had to roll back to the older has-been badass. This one has an FX 8300 with 16GB DDR3 1866, and while I was screwing around in my BIOS, I began to wonder what the most effective OC ratios are. My CPU's max overclock is a pitiful 3.6GHz, and I can also overclock my RAM, Northbridge, and HT Link. Not entirely sure what an HT Link is, but if it's slower than my northbridge, NB clocks down to match it. So how far should I overclock it all for best performance?
 
Solution
As long as the pins aren't bent they are usually cool about the RMA process with motherboards. The PSU is going to be hit or miss depending on who the manufacturer was. Some will just send a new one out no questions asked.

I wouldn't overclock with a stock cooler especially not on an AMD CPU. The 8-core ones run pretty hot as well. You should be able to get a higher clock as long as you get a cooler that can keep the temps down.

In my experience most of those chips will hit at least 3.9ghz if you have a half decent cooler on them.

As far as overclocking the northbridge and HT I would steer clear of those unless you are trying to overclock your RAM to its fullest.

The biggest improvement you will see is getting your CPU @4.0 or...

wrightcolin

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
10
0
1,510


My UPS battery failed, and while I was awaiting a new one, a power surge destroyed my PSU, Mobo's BIOS chip, and possibly processor. I don't know because I don't have a spare board around to test it with, but definitely a downer. I was reusing an old Power Supply I found in my house, not entirely sure where I got it. I won't be making that mistake again. Stock cooler on the 8300. Also by performance I mean in Gaming, BOINC (seti@home), and Bitcoin mining. I'm not entirely sure if Gigabyte will let me RMA my board though, seeing as how it was my own damn fault.
 

Faktion

Reputable
Oct 24, 2015
542
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5,360
As long as the pins aren't bent they are usually cool about the RMA process with motherboards. The PSU is going to be hit or miss depending on who the manufacturer was. Some will just send a new one out no questions asked.

I wouldn't overclock with a stock cooler especially not on an AMD CPU. The 8-core ones run pretty hot as well. You should be able to get a higher clock as long as you get a cooler that can keep the temps down.

In my experience most of those chips will hit at least 3.9ghz if you have a half decent cooler on them.

As far as overclocking the northbridge and HT I would steer clear of those unless you are trying to overclock your RAM to its fullest.

The biggest improvement you will see is getting your CPU @4.0 or above and for that I would highly recommend grabbing a decent cooler. $20-30 range would be more than enough (like a Hyper 212)

Your RAM is already pretty fast.. You could push that as well but it wouldn't be as big of an improvement as overclocking your CPU higher.
 
Solution

wrightcolin

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
10
0
1,510


I got a killer deal on ebay for a z97 board, so I'm attempting to RMA my B85 to try and get either a refund or at least part of one. Solid advice though, and I thank you for it.

At this point, now that I know my baby's going to be ok the has-been's going back in the closet until something else blows up so I don't really feel a need to spend $30 on a hyper 212.

Really the biggest thing I did wrong was using that power supply that I'm pretty sure came out of a Core 2 Duo OEM. The PSU was a bestec. Never heard of them before, but that name doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I was just short on cash a couple months ago and I couldn't afford a good one. This time though, I'm going tried and proven with either an HX or an AXi from Corsair.