I have been seeing a lot of people here struggling with overclocking their computer cpu's and motherboard settings, there are some simple basic steps you can take before you start. Some of these may seem obvious, but are often overlooked, here are some important key things to remember.
The most obvious ones first, and then some other facts you should know.
Check the forums for your motherboard manufacturer for common issues before you start, this way you will be aware of the problems other people have experienced.
Make sure that you have good airflow outside of the cabinet, if your case is stuck in a corner surrounded by walls or other hard surfaces; the hot air is not circulating away from the cabinet.
If the ambient temperature (the weather) is warm, this can make a huge difference to your overall temps.
Make sure that the airflow in your case is good, this does not just mean plenty of fans, but make sure that the wires are not blocking airflow too.
Having an exhaust fan will often help blow out the hot air rather than just having the hot air blow around the case. This means reverse one of the fans so that the hot air is blowing out too.
An aftermarket cooler is always going to give better overclocks than a stock one. This means that if you see that someone else has a great overclock and you don’t, it is likely because they are using a better cooling system, so don’t expect the same results.
Motherboards are different and will obtain different results.
Here are some other things to keep in mind.
You can usually control the cpu fan in the BIOS, so take advantage of this.
Don’t try to overclock the ram the pcie bus and the cpu etc… at the same time, start with one thing first, and when you have a stable clock on that item, then move onto the next. If you are trying to overclock everything at once, then you won’t know what is causing your system to destabilize.
Find out what your memory timings are supposed to be before you start, the memory will really help stabilize a good overclock if it is set correctly.
If you are using Arctic 5 or a similar Thermal Paste, don’t over do it, research the amount to apply first. Many people make the mistake of putting too much paste on, and this will stop it from working properly.
Make sure the BIOS is the most up to date, this can hugely impact your overclock.
Make sure you have all of your OS drivers up to date too (this means things like the VIA, or Nvidia chipset drivers) Make sure that 3rd party tweaking tools/software are not installed and utilized, until after you have finished overclocking in the BIOS.
My personal suggestion, if you are going to tweak the voltages, the only ones you should be touching are the ram and the cpu, leave the rest on auto unless you really know what you are doing.
Start with BIOS defaults, and then adjust to hardware defaults for your hardware, then start tweaking to overclock. And again…. remember…. overclock one thing at a time… for example…start with the processor and when it is stable, then move to the ram… and so on. This way you will know exactly what is causing the system to destabilize rather than trying to guess.
Less is better than more; start low and work up slowly, you are less likely to cause any damage.
My final words...forewarned is forearmed ....
happy overclocking
The most obvious ones first, and then some other facts you should know.
Check the forums for your motherboard manufacturer for common issues before you start, this way you will be aware of the problems other people have experienced.
Make sure that you have good airflow outside of the cabinet, if your case is stuck in a corner surrounded by walls or other hard surfaces; the hot air is not circulating away from the cabinet.
If the ambient temperature (the weather) is warm, this can make a huge difference to your overall temps.
Make sure that the airflow in your case is good, this does not just mean plenty of fans, but make sure that the wires are not blocking airflow too.
Having an exhaust fan will often help blow out the hot air rather than just having the hot air blow around the case. This means reverse one of the fans so that the hot air is blowing out too.
An aftermarket cooler is always going to give better overclocks than a stock one. This means that if you see that someone else has a great overclock and you don’t, it is likely because they are using a better cooling system, so don’t expect the same results.
Motherboards are different and will obtain different results.
Here are some other things to keep in mind.
You can usually control the cpu fan in the BIOS, so take advantage of this.
Don’t try to overclock the ram the pcie bus and the cpu etc… at the same time, start with one thing first, and when you have a stable clock on that item, then move onto the next. If you are trying to overclock everything at once, then you won’t know what is causing your system to destabilize.
Find out what your memory timings are supposed to be before you start, the memory will really help stabilize a good overclock if it is set correctly.
If you are using Arctic 5 or a similar Thermal Paste, don’t over do it, research the amount to apply first. Many people make the mistake of putting too much paste on, and this will stop it from working properly.
Make sure the BIOS is the most up to date, this can hugely impact your overclock.
Make sure you have all of your OS drivers up to date too (this means things like the VIA, or Nvidia chipset drivers) Make sure that 3rd party tweaking tools/software are not installed and utilized, until after you have finished overclocking in the BIOS.
My personal suggestion, if you are going to tweak the voltages, the only ones you should be touching are the ram and the cpu, leave the rest on auto unless you really know what you are doing.
Start with BIOS defaults, and then adjust to hardware defaults for your hardware, then start tweaking to overclock. And again…. remember…. overclock one thing at a time… for example…start with the processor and when it is stable, then move to the ram… and so on. This way you will know exactly what is causing the system to destabilize rather than trying to guess.
Less is better than more; start low and work up slowly, you are less likely to cause any damage.
My final words...forewarned is forearmed ....
happy overclocking
