
Overclocking with the H81M-P33 is fairly straightforward. The shipping UEFI, version 1.4, had no problem booting up and recognizing the Pentium G3258. I grabbed the latest BIOS file directly from MSI and used the built-in MFlash utility to update to v.1.7, which also updates the Intel Management Engine. After a couple of reboots, the CPU multiplier was adjustable from 8 to 80 using the number pad’s '+' and '–' keys. For fun, I set the ratio to 40x with automatic voltages and it fired up at 4.0 GHz at 1.200 V. The configuration was stable under Prime95, so if I didn't want to push any further, the overclock would have been that easy.
I already knew some enthusiasts were having a hard time getting the G3258 beyond 4.0 GHz with the stock cooler, while others lucked-out with chips able to reach 4.5 GHz. There are no guarantees in overclocking, but I was quietly hoping for at least 4.2 GHz at 1.2 V. That turned out to be overly optimistic; this CPU needed lots of voltage to pass 4.1 GHz.
Determined to reach 4.2 GHz, I jumped to 1.275 V, which crashed within minutes under load. At 1.29 V, the overclock lasted over 20 minutes in Prime95, but temperatures were peaking at 80 degrees. That's where I quit, knowing I was already above the voltage level I'd use for testing. So, I started looking for the lowest stable voltage at 4.1 GHz.

The highest RAM frequency available with the Pentium installed was 1400 MT/s, but I left it at 1333 MT/s and fought for lower latencies. Increased to 1.545 V, numerous passes of MemTest 86+ ran error-free at 7-7-7-21 1T.

As mentioned, Sapphire’s Dual-X R9 270 has a slightly overclocked core, reaching up to 945 MHz out of the box, while its 2 GB of GDDR5 memory operates at a reference 1400 MHz. To start, I fired up the latest version (4.8.6) of Sapphire’s Trixx tweaking utility.
The core topped out at 1030 MHz using its default voltage. Reaching stability at R9 270X speeds of 1050 MHz required a bump to 1.225 V. I then set the graphics fan to 100%, gauging maximum frequency at a pegged 1.300 V, finally giving up stability when the GPU hit 1070 MHz. Given such modest gains, I dropped back to 1050 MHz.
Next, I started bumping up the GDDR5, eventually reaching a stable 1510 MHz. I dialed this back down to 1500 MHz (6000 MT/s), and put the final overclock through more than an hour of real-world gaming without issues.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. After completing Far Cry 3’s most demanding benchmark runs, I dropped to 1280x720 and the system blue-screened. Minor voltage bumps and clock reductions didn’t solve the issue. I had to individually re-test the CPU, RAM, and graphics overclocks over again, encountering no problem. As soon as I put them back together, the random reboots returned under light gaming loads.
Based on the event ID, I suspected the graphics card wasn’t getting sufficient voltage. But was it the power supply, motherboard, the single 6-pin power lead, dynamic voltage control, or some combination? I wanted to force a constant voltage under 3D loads, but had already discovered that the Trixx utility shut down any time I touched the settings tab. So I tried MSI AfterBurner. But it was unable to adjust or monitor the voltage. While I hate admitting defeat, I was out of time and had to move on. I dropped back to stock graphics clock rates for their guaranteed stability, and counted on Intel's Pentium for the largest gains. Then I ran all of my single-screen tests before calling it a night.
The next morning, I wanted to try one more idea before hooking up my triple-monitor setup. Considering that I reverted back to an older version of CPU-Z to properly read the Pentium’s voltage, how about trying an older version of Trixx? Lo and behold, build 4.8.2 gave me a functioning settings tab, which opened up the option to Force Constant Voltage and Disable ULPS (Ultra-Low Power State). ULPS was already disabled, but forcing a constant voltage solved the problem. I could now happily run lighter-load tests without fail.
- Overclocking Haswell On The Cheap
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply And Optical Drive
- Assembling Our Gaming Box
- The Trials (And Tribulations) Of Overclocking
- How We Tested Our Q3 2014 Budget Gaming PC Build
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Audio And Video
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: Compression
- Results: Arma 3 And Battlefield 4
- Results: Far Cry 3 And Grid 2
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Performance Summary
- Did We Build a Better Machine?
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. Im paraphrasing a popular power supply testing site. Max wattage is about 553ish which is a good deal more than rated. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html
When toms reviewed this CPU it was shown to have poor latency
For a 500$ build i would probably do a 6300+265 build. 600$ i would probably jump the build up to a I5+265 or 8320+270X.
Pentium G3258 - $69.97
NZXT Kraken X31 - $73.98
Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO - $203.99
G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 - $184.99
Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX - $349.99
NZXT Phantom 530 (White) - $121.98
EVGA 650W ATX12V - $64.99 (not sure about its power good signal value?)
Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer - $16.99
Asus VG248QE Monitor - $264.99
D-Link DWA-171 802.11a/b/g/n/ac USB 2.0 - $29.27
Logitech MK550 w/Laser Mouse - $49.99
Corsair Vengeance 2100 - $79.99
Logitech Z506 155W 5.1ch - $69.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (32/64-bit) - $170.99
Total: $2200
What you guys think? Usage? Racing Games at homes, audio/video encoding etc. I don't need K CPUs because I'm not in a hurry in this case.
Power source: 100% green aka Solar energy.
i use i3-4130 btw.
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
To be more specific, the VP450 lacks PFC circuitry and as you said, this is required for 80+ certification. If the VP450 had it, it might manage 80+ Bronze.
I bought one last month to replace an old PSU (Antec SmartPower SL350) that got damaged by a power surge. At a glance, it looks like a nice little unit... and it is tier-2b too, which means close to as-good-as-it-gets.
you could possibly get mobo for half of your estimated price and put this money towards better CPU(that's necessary for video/audio encoding).
Also Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98 is overkill, you'll be better off with 256GB SSD & 3 TB regular HDD = more capacity and your saved money could be spent on better PSU(Seasonic, Corsair, whatever).
You may want to put Antec at the first place in that list. Look them up as they are oldest and second to none in power supply companys. Seasonic was once their main manufacturer and many of their units are designed off Antecs leading power supply designs. Look up on newegg for example the highest rated power supply and you will see the Antec earthwatt 380. At the 650 Watt they again are the highest rated with Seasonic in about a second place. Their 750 hcg is about a tight with Corsairs much higher priced HX 750i.
Trust me that PSU is the best part of that build. While it doesn't have a second PCI-e power plug you could use a molex to PCI-e connecter and run a R9 285. Again this power supply is highly under rated in both watts and Amps output.
This is what Corsair is doing now, with their CX (and I believe GS) lines; CWT builds them with Samxon capacitors that can't take heat. If you're interested, you can read more about these over on the badcaps.org forum.
P.S. I have a Phenom II x4 in one of CPUs and have built with more AMD CPUs then intel but that doesn't mean I spew this AMD "future proof" jargon line