Is This Decent for My First CPU + Memory Overclock?

[the_ultra_code]

Hello Tom's Hardware members!

I just wanted to share with you my experience of overclocking a CPU + RAM for the first time, partly to get your guys' feedback.

Some background: the PC that is the focus of this thread is the last of the retro gaming PCs that I plan to build, and also acts as currently the most powerful system I own. Here are the specs (at least what's important):

• 
  ■ Intel Core i5-750
  ■ Arctic Freezer 33 eSports ONE CPU cooler
  ■ Asus P7H55-M motherboard
  ■ 8GB (4GBx2) kit of G.Skill Sniper DDR3-2133 PC3-17000 RAM (F3-17000CL9D-8GBSR)
  ■ EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
  ■ Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion soundcard
  ■ Crucial MX500 ~512GB SSD
  ■ SanDisk SSD Plus ~120GB SSD
  ■ Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD
  ■ Corsair CX550 550W 80 Plus Bronze PSU

The reason I went with Intel's first generation in their Core series was this was one of the last, if not the last generation of Intel CPUs to have full Windows XP support; the same goes for Nvidia's 700 series cards. That is also why I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi card.

You see, this system can triple boot - Windows 10 Pro on the Crucial SSD (default boot), Windows XP Professional SP3 on the WD HDD, and Linux Mint (latest) on the SanDisk SSD. I have Windows 10 for playing some Windows XP games, Vista games, and beyond, Windows XP, for, well, other XP games that work only in XP or that are worth playing in XP, and Linux Mint, well, for whenever I want to use Linux (that LInux installation was from a now dismantled, crappy Core 2 Duo build I was using previously).

Any who, I won't go into detail explaining the entire point in this PC (I will go into this later on VOGONS - my username there is "the_ultra_code" if you care to find me ). Instead, time to get to the reason for this thread - my attempt at overclocking.

Knowing that this system was no-way going to be able to handle a "full" overclock of the i5-750 to any degree (besides, for a noob like me, I believed that was out of the question) and I did not want my rig to go through watts like they were nothing, I decided to aim for a lowly overclock of 3.5GHz, which is below the 3.6GHz threshold, where I would have had to then dabble with voltages (I believe that is a whole other can of worms), as shown here ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-750-overclock,2438-3.html ).

So, with some help from this guide ( http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/ ) and this guide ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CHs5_TdpXE ), I managed to get my i5 to sit stable (so far) at 3.52GHz (x16 multiplier, 220 base clock, "Auto" voltage across the board), and my RAM overclocked to 2200MHz (again, "Auto" everything, voltage and timings). After putting this PC through multiple AIDA64 stress tests (lasting from 5 to 10 minutes) along the way, running Cinebench R15 3 times, running Prime95 twice (again from about 5 to at most 15 minutes), and playing a Quick Play game of Overwatch, I have experienced no problems whatsoever, and things feel just a bit smoother.

When I ran AIDA64's stress test, my CPU never went above 61 C, and during the "Blend" and "Small FFTs" Prime95 torture tests never went about 65 C.

So you guys know what my BIOS settings are, here are some photos of various BIOS screens:

• 
  ■ https://i.imgur.com/Yri7aiu.jpg
  ■ https://i.imgur.com/vSAeh08.jpg
  ■ https://i.imgur.com/YjDqMFS.jpg
  ■ https://i.imgur.com/u4JsHrM.jpg
  ■ https://i.imgur.com/F5kBO2a.jpg

I think overall, things could not have gone smoother.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking now, and yes, I plan to run a lot more tests and for a lot longer than a few minutes to ensure the stability of my overclock, but so far, since this is just a minor overclock, and with how stable it is now (I mean, I am typing this post on the PC itself), I would have to say I am pretty confident with the overclock.

However, I do have a few questions that I would like someone to answer for me:

■ Is 65 C a good max temperature to see in Prime95?
■ Is having the kit of RAM I have in this system overclocked to 2200MHz, well, okay, given the overclock only 67MHz from the kit's rated speed?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback, comments, tips and tricks, etc, that you guys have to leave in this thread. This thread is meant to both strengthen my pride ( ) as well as maybe get some critical feedback with my overclock, as I am not 100% I did it the "best" way possible.

 

[Vogner16]

great job on a first attempt! first gen I series are quite easy to OC. you likely have more you can go with CPU.

just as a hint. ram overclocks are cool and all (ive done a lot of them) but unless your rocking an amd APU or the more recent ryzen CPU's they are kinda pointless. 65C is cold for a CPU. I usually overclock to the thermal limit for my cooler running prime95. sometimes a little past that. ive done 75C on a H100i 240mm watercooler with a massive 4.9 OC on my old 8350. still runs 5 years later lol. temps are fine.

 

[the_ultra_code]

First of all Vogner, thanks!

Second of all, regarding RAM overclocking, yeah, I expected that, but it does not hurt to do so.

Third, 75 C sounds insane to me (well, "insane"). Running the CPU at 75 C makes me shudder, although laptop solutions can run hotter, so *balancing scales*, I guess it's safe.