First Build, Looking for some honest opinions on my OC.

[Rishkoi]

Hey everyone, I just finished my first PC build, everything is running great, I just thought I'd check with the pros and see if it sounds about right! I'll add everything I think that is relevant.

Mothrboard: ASRock Extreme4 Z77
CPU: i7-3770k
PSU: 850W Thermaltake
Heatsink: Hyper EVO 212 (No Push Pull Dual Fan, Still a noob, I'm trying my best!!)
Thermal Compund: Arctic Silver 5
Case: Coolermaster HAF 922
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
RAM: 12GB

Hopefully that gives you an idea what parts i'm working with, now here are my results with "100% Prime95 Torture Test!" (In-Place, Large FFTs, for 6hours)

Speed: 4.8GHz
Max Temp: 79 Degrees
Max Volt: 1.29


So, there you have it. Does everything look about right? Any glaring issues?

 

[Rustyy117]

Hi,

Your overclock looks really good, 4.8Ghz is excellent for a 3770K especially with that voltage. 79C is quite hot but IMO it's ok for stress testing.

How long did you run P95 for?

 

[Rishkoi]

Wow, that was a speedy reply! I ran the "in-place large FFTs" test for about 6 hours give or take. I think I just got lucky with the chip being so easy to OC out of the box, must me because I'm irish (;

For the Volts test, I used "CPU-Z" and the Temps from "Core Temp"

 

[Rustyy117]

Wow, that was a speedy reply! I ran the "in-place large FFTs" test for about 6 hours give or take. I think I just got lucky with the chip being so easy to OC out of the box, must me because I'm irish (;

For the Volts test, I used "CPU-Z" and the Temps from "Core Temp"

Yeah it looks like you have a nice slab of silicon

6 hours is pretty good, I always recommend 8+ hours (I've had overclocks fail at 7 hours P95 before) , but it's obviously down to you whether you stress test for longer.

 

[Rishkoi]

I read about how two processors that are the exact same model can have vast differences, so lucky me!

Also, You think I should give it another torture test? You're the expert here, not me. I took 2 hours trying to get my Ethernet Controller Driver Updated... Its been a step by step experience. I haven't failed until I've given up!

Also, If I could steal some additional feedback, is a Push + Pull worth it on a Hyper Evo 212? Also, What would you say is the Max Temp. and Max Voltage? And a last thing, a failed OC leads to a blue screen correct? (I got a blue screen occasionally when pushing the chip too hard, just making sure this is normal)

 

[Rustyy117]

I read about how two processors that are the exact same model can have vast differences, so lucky me!

Also, You think I should give it another torture test? You're the expert here, not me. I took 2 hours trying to get my Ethernet Controller Driver Updated... Its been a step by step experience. I haven't failed until I've given up!

Also, If I could steal some additional feedback, is a Push + Pull worth it on a Hyper Evo 212? Also, What would you say is the Max Temp. and Max Voltage? And a last thing, a failed OC leads to a blue screen correct? (I got a blue screen occasionally when pushing the chip too hard, just making sure this is normal)

Haha yeah, it's commonly known as the silicon lottery, congrats on your winning ticket

Adding a second fan for push/pull usually only drops the temps by a few degrees in my experience.
If the current fan can't effectively push(or pull) air through the heatsink then a second fan will help temps, on the other hand if the current fan has enough static pressure to easily pass enough airflow through the heatsink then your unlikely to see much of a difference at all.

I would say if you have a spare fan laying around then strap it to the Evo and see if it helps or not.

Max safe voltage for 24/7 I would say about 1.35V and a max temp of about 72C under load
I guess my recommendations are quite Conservative but it's not my CPU so I'm erring on the side of caution.

BSOD's (Blue Screen Of Death) are very common when overclocking, so are system hangs, crashes, software becoming unresponsive ETC...

 

[Rishkoi]

Oh, I'm doing really well on the Volts I guess! I was actually worried I was overdoing it because on the BIOS, the Volts I set were near the bottom of choices :x

As for temps, are you speaking in terms of, 72C, 24/7 for daily use? Or 72C for an 8Hour+ 100% Torture test?

And give it to me straight, does this OC get the seal of approval, or should I lower the OC?

 

[Rustyy117]

Oh, I'm doing really well on the Volts I guess! I was actually worried I was overdoing it because on the BIOS, the Volts I set were near the bottom of choices :x

As for temps, are you speaking in terms of, 72C, 24/7 for daily use? Or 72C for an 8Hour+ 100% Torture test?

And give it to me straight, does this OC get the seal of approval, or should I lower the OC?

No need to worry, 1.29V is perfectly fine for a 3770K.

I mean 72C under daily usage, stress testing causes really high temps that you're unlikely to see during normal use, so although 79C is quite high I don't think you'll see that high a temp during every day use.

I'd keep the overclock as it is, I see no reason to reduce it.

 

[Rishkoi]

Awesome! Thanks for all your help and feedback! It was very much appreciated, and gave me a good first impression of Toms Hardware!

 

[Rustyy117]

Awesome! Thanks for all your help and feedback! It was very much appreciated, and gave me a good first impression of Toms Hardware!

No problem, glad I could help.

 

[Rishkoi]

Say... you wouldn't happen to know anything about a slight GPU Overclock would you?

I have an EVGA GeForce 660, and I've never overclocked a GPU before. Heck, I've only overclocked anything once, and that was my CPU haha.

If you could point me in the right direction...?

 

[Rustyy117]

Say... you wouldn't happen to know anything about a slight GPU Overclock would you?

I have an EVGA GeForce 660, and I've never overclocked a GPU before. Heck, I've only overclocked anything once, and that was my CPU haha.

If you could point me in the right direction...?

Yeah I've done my fair share of GPU overclocking so maybe I can give you some advice.

Firstly you'll need a program to overclock your GPU with, MSI Afterburner is a common program for this - http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

It's always best to overclock one thing at a time, so although you can overclock the core clock and memory frequency, start with one or the other.

Increase the clock speed by a small amount (something like 25Mhz), click apply and then test your overclock to see if it's stable. A benchmark or game will be fine for this. If it's stable increase the clock speed again.
Repeat this process until it becomes unstable at which point you'll have two options, you can either reduce the overclock or increase the voltage (if you decide to increase the voltage you may have to go into "settings" and then check the box next to "unlock voltage control") to regain stability.
Then move onto the memory (or core if you started with the memory) and repeat the process.

A few things to note, if there's a power control slider then move it all the way to the right, this allows your card to use more power if needed.
Increasing the voltage only affects the core clock, not the memory.

Make sure to watch your temps carefully, find out what is safe for your card in terms of voltage and temps.

If you get any artifacts, bluescreens, crashes, ETC... then it's not stable.
Anyway hope that gets you started.

 

[mr1hm]

nice chip, seems similar to mine

i feel that P95 can't really assure you "real world" stability no matter how long you test it, so if you find any random crashes/BSODs out of the blue, id probably recommend trying out AIDA64's stress test. if you're feeling gutsy, only leave the "FPU Test" checked; imo, you pass this test for 15-20min you're good to go

 

[Rishkoi]

Oh my god, give a guy a warning mr1hm. That test shot my Temps to 90C+! If I would have left that on, I could have friend my chip :/

Please try and lay things out in a better manner, no offense. I'm not pushing benchmarks here. I'm playing Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door and Kingdom Hearts on my PC....

 

[Rishkoi]

To put it kindly. I'm no expert. I tried to stay in the guidelines of the OC guide, and was just checking to see if everything seemed okay, and the chip would last at least 2+ years.

My cable wire management was awful, I forgot to put brackets in the back of the motherboard and had to redo everything, I have no plate cover on my Motherboard Ports, I put the heatsink in backwards.... Needless to say, It was a miracle I got it working in just under 72 hours.

Here is a pic before I moved my heatsink to face the vent haha.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/v/1369094_528190087270521_367097969_n.jpg?oh=479431dc61d66802c0f241f865bbfe02&oe=5264EA76

So please, when someone says they are an amateur. Don't send them to take the mother of all torture tests without a heads up.


I appreciate the comment however. I'm responsible for my own ignorance.

From the research I've done. Prime95 is for casual computer enthusiasts, and Aida64 more for the OC professionals who are using their computers to the fullest day in and day out.

-----

UPDATE: I ran 2 games at Ultra settings wihile recording dual screens and I never reached 65+ degrees.

Can someone just confirm that this is a safe OC? I thought I was all good but now m1 has me thinking I'm killing my cpu o_o

 

[mr1hm]

i did say "if you're feeling gutsy..." but, next time i'll be a bit more specific

"the mother of all torture tests," will confirm the stability of your overclock. overclocking isn't that simple later down the road, especially when aiming for high overclocks such as you are now (or when random issues start occurring), so even if your CPU seems stable now, what if a random crash happens later? you can try messing around with a slightly higher voltage/slightly less voltage so you can check if it makes any differences just to give yourself that extra verification.

it's not your own ignorance, rather the process of learning to overclock.

to say P95 is for the casual OCer and AIDA is for the OC professionals isn't incorrect however, it's not the way you want to look at it. P95 stresses your chip to an extent (there are OCer's out there that use P95 specifically for memory stability testing) however it'll miss specific areas of the CPU that can be very important for games and different programs.

AIDA64 is hard stress test but, not an unrealistic one either; that FPU stress test will hit every single instruction set on the CPU. hence the extreme temperatures and extremely low amount of time to determine the stability of your overclock.

hitting 90C for a few seconds is fine and not as dangerous as you think it is however, 90C over a course/period of time may definitely degrade your CPU. the Tj Max for Ivy Bridge is 105C, it can handle some heat.

also, your CPU is just fine @ 65C or under... if you'd like to try an reduce the risk of degradation further, just keep your temperature under 70C-72C and CPU Voltage under 1.30v.

i was somewhat confused on the pic, did you place the heatsink so that it's facing upwards?