OK, so I am stick today and skipping church on Easter, so what better thing to do but to OC my computer?

System: Check for detailed system specs in my profile
Mobo: ASRock ex3gen3
CPU: i7 2600 (nonK)
Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO, Stock fan was too loud (compared to my old Zalman that made its way into my wife's PC), so I replaced it with 2 120mm Enermax fans that run quite silent.
Ram: Corsair 1333 @ 9, 9, 9, 24

What I have done so far:
Multiplier is set at 42 (as this is a nonK CPU that would be my turbo boost multiplier)
BLCK is at 101 (kinda scared to mess this this much)
Under Prime95 (so far 2 hours in) I am getting temps at ~43c with occasional spikes up to 48c which I think is perfectly acceptable. Fans are at minimum settings until 50c at which point they will start ramping up. I am very happy with the noise and temps for this speed so far.
Using CPUz to check CPU speed. Generally hovering at x40-41 multiplier (4.03 and 4.14GHz respectively) with the occasional x42 multiplier (4.24GHz), again, this is with prime 95 blend test.
Using CPUID's Hardware Monitor for temps and fan speed read-out
All voltages are at stock/auto settings

Questions:
1) I seem to have the thermal overhead, so is there a way to 'trick' turbo boost to run flat out at x42 whenever a load is present? Or at least to hit x42 more consistently than it does now?
2) How scared should I be about changing the BLCK? My fear is that I could damage my RAM (which is not performance ram by any stretch of the imagination), or would the computer protect itself and reset if there are problems? I have read that one can generally get up to 105 without problems, is that something I should shoot for? Or is that asking for trouble for a mere 5% increase in clock?
3) Any other general advice is welcome, just don't say "You should have bought a K series chip" I knew what I was buying when I got it, and I am not big on overclocking in the first place, this is mostly just for fun as the stock speed was plenty fast for what I do.
4) What tests/monitors do you use on your system to check temps and stability?


It amazes me that with as easy as it was to get to 4GHz that they do not simply sell a 4GHz chip to begin with. My last CPU was a C2Duo 2.2GHz, and it took everything I had to get it up to 2.66GHz. This i7 has gone from 3.4 to 4-4.2 with no effort at all, and it still runs just as cool as that old C2Duo!

Thanks for the advice!
 
bump

So I have been playing around a bit this morning, and the higher I bump up the BLCK, the lower the max Turbo is on my burn in tests. So far I have found a BLCK in the 101-102 range is 'best' as the multiplier gets consistently up to 40-41, where as when I tried a BLCK of 105 (and yes, it did 105 with no problems much to my surprise) the Turbo would only go up to a multiplier of 36... which is actuially slower than the stock clock at BLCK 100... Interesting.
 

XXspardaxX

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Feb 12, 2012
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Mate i just want to ask you a question because i find myself in the same boat like you , when you Changed The Multiplier to 42x at 1st time without touching the BCLK did you Change any parameters like Vcore ? or you left Everything as it is without tweaking .
 
so far I have changed no settings except for the multiplier and the BLCK. However, from what I have read today it seems that there is a wide margin of variation on these chips and their ability to OC, so some may need a little vcore adjustment (no higher than 1.5V from what I understand) to get up to the 42x, while others do not. Everything on my mobo is set to Auto so I do not know if this means that it is running stock, or if it is doing it's own voltage management for me.

Also, now that I have done a few little renders and other tests, there is a definite difference between my current settings, and the stock ones. Not a huge difference mind you, but it definitely renders things a bit quicker now. No real noticeable difference for day-in day-out work though (web browsing, and light stuff)