Overclocking Considerations
Overclocking
When it comes to overclocking, all aspects must be considered. The Pentium G3258 has proven to be a mini beast at 4.5 to 4.7GHz, but getting there will require an after market cooler plus a capable Z-series motherboard. Our entry-level MSI H81M-P33 has all the necessary voltage and multiplier adjustments to push it well above 4.0GHz. This time the board shipped with the latest Version 1.7 UEFI and was able to OC right out of the box.
Last quarter’s overclocking theme and budgetary freedoms caused me to select a large, well-ventilated enclosure. However this time I wanted to keep the costs lower going with a mATX case. It was now even more important to take things in moderation while monitoring temperatures. However, come testing time, we were already experiencing frigid outdoor temperatures, and the lab was abnormally cool. So I didn’t even want to bother dialing in a maximum overclock that may result in component death come mid-Summer’s heat.
If your H81 motherboard supports voltage adjustment and unofficial overclocking, then there’s a good chance you can push a G3258 to 4.0 GHz. I started at 1.20V and backed it down in 0.01V increments until quickly losing stability at 1.18V. From here, I could re-enable EIST to idle the CPU speed down, but I still was pinned at 1.19V, unable to stick any Adaptive Voltage measures.
Our Pentium doesn’t support DDR3-1600 or higher, so I pondered just leaving the RAM alone at 1.5V, as most people would probably do. But since this is an SBM, and the guy who writes up the value comparison is also our resident memory expert, I decided to seek lower timings with a moderate voltage increase. These modules were less accommodating than last quarter, returning one error on the second pass of Memtest 86+ when set to the same settings. The best I could do, 7-8-8-24 1T proved stable through 3 passes, plus some gaming.
When it came time to overclock the graphics card, I again practiced restraint. I factored in the small enclosure, overclocked processor, entry-level motherboard shy of component heatsinks, and a graphics cooler that circulates heat within the case. Sure these parts are cheap to replace, but the goal here was a mild 24/7 overclock, which could hopefully remain in effect 365 days a year. So although MSI OverDrive did allow tampering with Voltages, I decided not to venture down that path. Stability was lost at 1160MHz, and I stopped testing the GDDR5 at 1510MHz. Test settings were then dialed down to 1140MHz core, and 1500MHz (6000MT/s) memory.
