Noob overclock

[Jay794]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, long time lerker, first time poster lol. I'm by no means a stranger to PC's as I built my current setup myself, however overclocking is a new thing to me. I've looked around the bios and a few online guides but all I've changed is the multiplier (stock speed was 3.4Ghz or 3400Mhz) so I've played around with setting and changed it to 3.8, 4, back down to 3.4 and last night I upped it to 4.2 (Since I've got the H100 I've seen temps drop dramatically)

Anyways, I've seen online that I could potentially push it to 5Ghz or as close to (4.8 would be nice) but I have no idea about motherboard specific settings the voltage etc, so any help or experience is welcome. Specs below

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
Intel i7-2600K
Corsair H100
Corsair 850w
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
MSi Radeon 6950 Twin Frozr III

 

[Rustyy117]

Overclocking a 2600K is really easy, firstly just make sure your RAM is set to the right values, (if you don't know what these values are, there should be a sticker on the side of the RAM module)

Next set the Vcore (or CPU voltage) to a nice low starting point, lets say 1.25V

Then increase the multiplier by +1, boot into windows, stability test the overclock with Prime95 (remember to tick "round off checking" in the settings) test with prime for about 10 minutes, make sure to monitor the temps, you don't want temps north of 75C
If the overclock is unstable then try increasing the voltage by 0.01V, then retest for stability.
I'd recommend you stay below 1.42V for 24/7 use.

 

[Jay794]

I haven't touched the RAM yet, I assume it's still stock at 1600Mhz,

As for increasing the multiplier by 1? I've been jumping around from 3.2 (stock) to last night when I pushed it to 4.2 and the system seems fine.

I ran Intel Burn Test on Standard and High and the temps didn't go above 56c (idle is 21c)

Everything in the BIOS is set to Auto I just mess with the multipler at the moment

 

[Rustyy117]

The auto setting for Vcore isnt a great idea. The BIOS tends to push more voltage than is necessary in doing so will increase the heat output and power used.

Also not all motherboards correctly set your memory values, that's why its important to check these values to make sure your getting what you paid for.

 

[Jay794]

So I can keep the Multiplier at 4200, put the ram up to 1600 and change the Vcore?

What about the turbo setting? and Realtime OS setting? My understanding of the Realtime setting means the system isn't running at 4.2 constantly and drops to about 1.6 when idle?

 

[Rustyy117]

Yup you can change the Vcore multi and RAM speed independently.

Leave Turbo enabled, that's essentially what your overclocking.

The C states and C1E are the settings that will cause the CPU to lower its clock and voltage when idle, I would guess that Realtime OS settings allows you to adjust settings in the OS (?)
Not seen that setting before, perhaps google it.

 

[Jay794]

Its a setting on the Gigabyte board, basically I think it's so the CPU isn't under full load all the time