Liquid-Cooled Stock Athlon II X4 630: Let's Overclock!

[docbadwrench]

There's a catch. I am not so technical.

So, there's this long thread that I've been active in over the last few days. By the end, I determined that my videocard was driving the my system heat quite high. Along the way, though, I picked up a Corsair H80i liquid cooling system. Now I have a quad-core CPU that, under pretty heavy load, doesn't get hotter than 31 deg C.

So now I want to Overclock, but I don't want to toast my CPU and I'm really bad at math. Do any of you have any recommendations for tools/resources.

I have a bunch of diagnostic tools (Speedfan, AIDA64, a few others), but I only have one overclocking tool - AMD Overdrive - and that thing is dense and scares the crap out of me. So far, the few videos I've started watching begin with a variation on "it's pretty simple" and then lose me in a maze of basic calculations that don't leave me terribly informed, since I can't find exactly my hardware configuration.

My hardware configuration:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 (2.8 MHz)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P (v1)
Chipset: AMD 770, AMD K10
VC: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Click here to download an HTML file of my configuration from the Computer heading of AIDA64.

 

[docbadwrench]

Any thoughts? I did a little research, but damn if I can't work up the courage to use the AMD overclocking tool. It intimidates me.

 

[swagswagswag]

liquid like in terminator 2? won't last long.

 

[rubix_1011]

H80i isn't that fantastic of a cooler and performs about as well as good air coolers on the market. But, since you've already purchased it, how are your idle and load temps now? Have you read through overclocking guides? Have you accounted for the temperature issues 100%? Sounds like you could suffer from poor case airflow, but without knowing more details, it's difficult to say at the moment.

If you haven't already done so, avoid any Windows application or GUI overclocking tools. Overclocking should only be done from the BIOS.

 

[docbadwrench]

I am actually content to leave this alone, especially with any kind of risk. I would much rather have stability than endlessly tweak [and possibly destroy] my CPU.

Excellent. Thanks so much for the added perspective.

 

[rubix_1011]

Ok, sounds like a plan. It still should be very possible, I would just ensure good, proper airflow to the best of your ability and ensure that your overclocking is a well planned out venture. It's far more rewarding and can net you better results when doing so. But in the meantime, it seems like you have it all sorted out and just wanting to see how everything runs. Hopefully this keeps you on track for doing so.