overclocking with Micro ATX and 450W?

[thedingohunter]

I would like to know if my Motherboard and PSU can handle an overclock to maybe 4-4.3 Ghz.

Specs:
i5 3570K
HD Radeon 7770 Ghz Edition (MSI)
8GB (2x4) Corsair Vengeance (1600)
Micro ATX b75 MSI
Thermaltake 450W PSU
I have 2 80mm fans as well

 

[jlan86]

Looks like your bottleneck in this case is going to be that motherboard. Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible motherboard. It has a UEFI BIOS with *some* overclocking options (but probably not a whole lot of manual control), but it is an inexpensive microATX board. The 3570K on the other hand has a great reputation. I don't have as much experience overclocking Intel as I do AMD, but I would hope to be able to get a 20% OC out of that by setting the base clock from 100 to 120. I'd then turn Turbo off and manually set the multiplier to x36. This should give you 4.32GHz which that i5 can do, but I'm not sure if it can do it on your board. It's definitely the most popular gaming CPU right now, so you should be able to find plenty of overclocking guides for it. You might have to settle for a base clock of 110 and x38 multiplier (4.18 GHz).

 

[thedingohunter]

thanks a lot man! that helps a lot! Do you think that a 450W PSU will be sufficient for it?

 

[jlan86]

thanks a lot man! that helps a lot! Do you think that a 450W PSU will be sufficient for it?

That depends on how good the power supply is. With power supplies, not all watts are created equal. I'd take a really high quality 450 over a really cheap 550. I've got an FX-4350 overclocked to 4.5GHz and two Radeon 7770s running in Crossfire, and my Rosewill 450 handles it just fine, but it's a good 80 Plus Gold certified Crossfire/SLI certified power supply. Clean power is better than more power when it comes to overclocking. You need a power supply that can deliver steady, even power. You should be OK.