kozanitis

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hello guys I have an gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (rev 1.3) MB and i need advice about hot to overclock my intel i5 2500k. I'm using an corsair h60 cpu cooler and i woul like to oc my cpu (without decreasing the cpu's life).Can u tell me how to do it and what settings do i have to use?
 
If you OC your CPU 4.0GHZ or low just set the CPU Vcore at 1.3V (I try set the auto too,it work fine), and multi-steps Load-line at 3. All other setting are auto.

Do you have one aftermarket CPU cooler ?
 

Sonny73N

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On Gigabyte board, multi-steps load-line is disable by default. Just leave everything on Auto. Just turn of Intel TurboBoost and change the multiplier 33x to something like 40x or 42x. You're done. Test stability using Prime95 and monitor your CPU temp with HWmonitor.

If you want to OC it higher which I don't recommend because of all the headache you're gonna get and very little you'll gain, then you'll have to do a little (a lot) reading. It probably takes weeks to fine tune your i5k to the max. IMO its not worth it.

Go to Intel web site, read the i5k spec first. One of which states that it support max RAM frequency at 1333Mhz. So be safe, get into your BIOS and adjust your RAM if it has more frequency than the CPU can support. Sure, most new board can manage your RAM so it can work with the CPU but the memory controller is inside the CPU. I don't see any point going over using the motherboard for almost no gain in performance. That can kill the i5.

Enjoy your new system. Don't make mistake like I did. It took me 4 months to realize that even though I can OC the heck out of my i5k now. Cheers.
 
WARNING!THIS IS JUST TO GIVE YOU GENERAL IDEA WHAT TO DO DO NOT COPY THESE SETTING TO A TEE.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDtMzf_EaE&feature=related Also,i suggest you study and do some research on overclocking so you understand what your doing here are some tutorials for you to get started mate http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/intel-core-i3-i5-and-i7-buyers-guide/ http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/
 
If you read his post he mentioned he has H-60 ;)
 

mad2

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On a 2500k just change the multiplier unless going for like 4.2 or more. That will require a little extra voltage im sure. Im at 4.1 on stock voltage with no problems on air.
 

kozanitis

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well I tried and i raised the multiplier to 40x and i checked my temps with hwmonitor the problem is that the mb raises the ram voltage from 1.5V to 2.4V. Is this real? I mean that this could fry my ram? cause i have read not to go beyong 1.65
 

kozanitis

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Also should i get in the bios and adjust the ram timings and voltages by myshelf or just use intel XMP (as I usually use)?
 

kozanitis

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About the ram and the frequency, since i built my pc i have been using intel XMP (I have CORSAIR VENGEANCE 1600MHz ram 8 gb)and never had crases or other staff
 

kozanitis

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I checked again my ram voltage and it keeps at 1.5V but suddenly it goes up to 2.4v and goes back to 1.5V when this happens hwmonitor also says that my front case fun runs at 71.236 rpm (sth impossible) so do u thing this is a program bug or something?
 
RAM:
You should make sure your RAM is still running at its rated frequency and voltage.

Now motherboards vary but:
If you RAISE the base clock (which may provide the base clock for both the CPU and RAM) for the CPU you may have to LOWER the multiplier for the RAM so your frequency drops back to normal (i.e. 160MHz Base clock, and x10 multiplier is 1600MHz). RAM doesn't usually respond to much of an overclock, nor is it generally needed since it's rare to bottleneck RAM.

Other:
- Many motherboards have RAM controllers as well and will choose the best solution (motherboard RAM controller, OR CPU RAM controller)

- Make sure to update the BIOS for your motherboard. Sometimes a BIOS update contains new RAM profiles which add to stability (in some cases the system will constantly crash because it guesses at the proper voltages and timings and guesses wrong until a BIOS update adds the proper profile. That happened to me for my RAM and for my SSD.)

- always run MEMTEST after messing with timings (quick check, and later an OVERNIGHT check once timings are finalized)

- Overclocking for GAMING doesn't always make much difference. Often the graphics card is the bottleneck.

- Overclocking the CPU can add quite a bit of extra heat, and fan noise even in IDLE.

Do you need to overclock?
The best way is to find a level in a game that you can start and generally repeat and monitor with FRAPS to see if increasing the CPU clock makes much difference. Generic benchmarks are generally useless as they'll add a CPU score to the total but that doesn't necessarily matter for a specific game.

How I tested Crysis was:
a) put CPU to stock speed
b) loaded a specific level (VSYNC must be OFF)
c) slowly turned my man around and wrote down the MAX and MIN frame rates that FRAPS shows
d) overclock, then repeat b) and c) to see if there's much difference

*Also, if you already achieve 60FPS VSYNC overclocking won't make a difference either since you've capped your frame rate (unless it periodically dips below 60FPS).

(I generally tweak my settings to achieve 60FPS most of the time with VSYNC enabled).
 

mad2

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That sounds like a bug.
 

mad2

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I believe cpu-z shows voltages also.