Beginner Over Clocker Looking for Tools

[rhitriggster]

I recently got my custom build up and running and have been super interested in playing with some basic over clocking.

Firstly, yes I know that there is plenty of risk in doing this sort of thing and that it wont be done overnight....I will up front admit that even thought I have a very good basis of hardware and software, I am totally new to over clocking so my first thread is focused on finding out what you guys think about which software tools I should be looking at to benchmark, stress, and test my system with as I move forward.


Here are my system components

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Assassin 1366
CPU: Intel i7-960 3.2 GHz
Graphics: 2 PNY GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards in SLI
Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
OS Drive: 2 OCZ Vertex 3 SATA III 60GB in RAID 0....using the onboard mobo SATAIII RAID controller
DATA Drive: 3 Western Digital Caviar Black SATAIII 1.5TB in RAID 5...using my PCIe Raid controller (listed below)
RAID Controller: HighPoint RocketRAID 640 PCIe 2.0x4 SATA III
PSU: Corsair Pro Series 1200W (CMPSU-AX1200)
Case: Rosewill Thor V2


Any all feedback is greatly appreciate but please do not ask "why do you need a system like this" because the answer is....I dont, its a toy

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Noones going to ask you that here hehe, a lot would say why do you have such an outdated rig?
But seriously, there are clocking guides all over the net from here on Toms to overclockers.co.uk and if you selectively google your chip, you should find what other 960 owners can reach, and how they get there,
Some tools that will help though
Prime 95 or intel burntest, to stresstest your overclocks,
Msi afterburner, same but for gfx cards
Cpu-z and hwmonitor, useful tools to let you see a bit of info on your system,
Always watch your temps and go slowly, its better to ask a question before burning your parts up
Theres more but I'm sure other members will contribute
Moto

 

[davcon]

Your system looks nice to me and i'm of the ilk that doesn't consider first gen i7's outdated.
Moto has a good selection of tools listed.
To monitor cpu temps = http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
Gpu temps = http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2101/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.5.9.html
I'd suggest you add an aftermarket heatsink if you're using the stock heatsink..

 

[rhitriggster]

Best answer selected by rhitriggster.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Thank you for B.a. man,
let us know how you get on
Moto

 

[rhitriggster]

Thank you for B.a. man,
let us know how you get on
Moto

got my toolset together (never entirely complete though ) to test and monitor my system.....last night got a stable bclk of 200, multiplier is still super low but its a good first step

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Remember to write down settings that work,
that way you can always revert to a known starting point when things go badger on you
Moto

 

[rhitriggster]

Absolutely!...my BIOS allows for 8 saved profiles as well as a BIOS copy to be saved to one of my drives so I am never without an "oh sh**" button

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Excellent, just what you need,
mark/save them as the Cpu setting, 3.5GHz, 4GHz etc, and you're onto a sound start
Moto