No idea how to overclock please help

kpeddie2010

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Feb 26, 2010
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im building a new rig and i never overclocked before. i was wondering if i could get some help please.

from what settings in bios needs to be changed and to how much recommended .
voltages
speeds what ever needs to be changed

i will be reading as much as possible on other threads but would like some detail help


system

antec 900II case
corsair h50 cooler



MSI N250GTS TwinFrozr 1G OC GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814127445


OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC ... - Retail
Item #: N82E16817341018

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98 - Retail
Item #: N82E16827106334

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGMBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103808

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail


Rosewill RCW-563 10ft. /Network Cable Cat 6E /Black - Retail
Item #: N82E16812119169


Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116762


G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231303

2 ...SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD253GJ 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152226
 

mattidallama

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Sep 19, 2009
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for small overclocks you will not likely need to change voltage but the more you push the cpu the more voltage it is going to need. so if you are planing on getting to 3.6 plus you are going to need to give it some extra voltage. get it to enter windows and then run a program like prime 95 to stress the cpu to make sure it is stable. if it crashes then you will want to slowly increase voltage. do this til you are happy with the speed you are going and the lowest voltage that keeps the cpu from crashing under stress
 

Xatos

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Feb 24, 2010
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You'll only need to change the voltage if you plan to OC anymore than 5-10% I'm not sure what the 955 is good for, but I'm running my 965 3400Mhz @ 3800 Mhz without any voltage change. I just upped the multiplier to x19. Your motherboard will have the OC settings in the first option in the menu... M.I.B or something like that. You'll see where you can change the multipler/FSB... Multiplier x FSB = CPU Frequency... So simply up your multiplier a little for a free overclock with no voltage changes and probably almost no difference in heat. I got such little change in heat it was rediculous. Great CPU's.


Don't go changing voltages until you're more comfortable. I'd ditch that video card and go with an Ati 5xxx series though if you still can :)
 

mattidallama

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ya it all depends on how lucky you got on your cpu some will overclock no problem with little to no voltage while other with not like to go anywhere with out increasing voltage so you just have to play with your cpu until you find out what it likes.
 

kpeddie2010

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Feb 26, 2010
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could someone give me a guide line like where to look at in the bios to change the multiplier. i really wanna try this. i know how to build pc's but i was never willing to over clock before so i never tried. id really appreccieate a detailed guideline. i saw the performance increases over clocking to 3.8 and that where i would like to be.
and to buzznut could u gimme that link to the reference u were looking at.
 

kpeddie2010

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i already paid for the rig cant change yet. but i can transfer out a 5770 i have in my other pc to this. i got that gts250 for 89 bucks 1 day special...looking on pricewatch
 

Xatos

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Well remember when you change your multiplier you're changing your CPU frequency (clock speed) but when you change your FSB, you're changing everything including memory speed. I'd stick with the multiplier until you do more research on overclocking memory, etc. before you change anything else.


Once you finally up your multiplier to a point where you can't pass stress tests like Prime95 (or even boot Windows for that matter), you'll have to up your voltage to overclock anymore past that. Raising your voltage however is when you start to experience more heat and potential consequences.


If you overclock to the default voltage max, you really have nothing to worry about in terms of CPU degradation or life-span issues.
 

Xatos

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Overclocking ram comes down to being a shear enthusiast.. In most cases you won't notice a performance difference like you will with the CPU, say frames per second in gaming for example. You can run benchmarks like Sandra or Everest and see the improvement but you won't really feel it.

You shouldn't OC your RAM unless it's ready to do so (has a heatspreader, etc.) Your RAM can be overclocked some, I have G.Skill too. But you can't OC it like you can a CPU, you have to change timings, etc. etc.

Sometimes you can get better performance by underclocking your ram and tightening the timings. I actually get the best performance with my 1600Mhz G.Skill by running it at 1400 with 7-7-7-20. I can't keep it stable though, so I have to play with it to get it tweaked out. I'm just running default 1600 9-9-9-24 though because there's not a lot of point in it. G.Skill is cheap too, so there's not much you can do timing-wise.


I wouldn't worry about OC'ing the RAM bro.
 

mattidallama

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sometimes to get that last little bit of umph out of your cpu you can play with the fsb speeds but keep in mind this will effect the speeds of your ram as well so the system might crash if you push the ram to far
 

kpeddie2010

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i see
so fsb affect the ram speed, frequency speed of the cpu, hyper transport and northbridge. since they all are connected. do those have voltage changes also if i decide to over cloock the fsb