PCFormat Forum Archive

I have recently put a new PC together (specs in signature). I was not planning to o/clock this just yet but the ASUS M/B came supplied with something called EPU-6 (Windows based o/clock software) so I started playing with it.

Without any o/clock I get a 3D mark score of around 18200. With a 10% o/clock (2,9GHz) I get this up to 20200. I can also see a small improvement in frame rates in FSX (the only game I am using).

Three questions then:
1. On the standard air cooling as supplield with the CPU, is this relatively OK (safe)?
2. Would it be better to rather diable the EPU6 and make the change in the BIOS rather?
3. On standard air cooling as supplied with the CPU, what is a realistic and stable limit for a typical Core i7 920 installation by adjusting only the BIOS BCLK (base clock) upwards, not any voltages etc?

Im no expert but from what I read everywhere its better to do OCing in the BIOS.

Get a aftermarket cooler, it will help keep the temps down and protect the CPU against any damage that may be caused from excessive high temp periods.

i7 overclocking is a little more complicated than that.

theres alot to consider. yes temps is a MAJOR role in overclocking but it all comes down to voltages.

For a 4ghz oc using a H50 or a TRUE you want 1.34v vcore (depends on you're CPU) 1.36v QPI (21x multiplier or 19x NEVER a even multi) As high as possible uncore but not at the edge of stability. 1.6v on you're ram if you have semi-decent ram.

You can start looking at VTT and PLL at a later stage when you want to lower the VCore for stability.

PLL: 1.82
VTT: 1.3
QPI PLL: 1.2
IOH Core: 1.2

MK4 GTI 20VT wrote:Im no expert but from what I read everywhere its better to do OCing in the BIOS.

You would get the speed much faster in the bios and most overclocking software give you 10% or less in performance. Software keeps the pc safe...

cyberfox271 wrote:

MK4 GTI 20VT wrote:Im no expert but from what I read everywhere its better to do OCing in the BIOS.

You would get the speed much faster in the bios and most overclocking software give you 10% or less in performance. Software keeps the pc safe...

Why would bios be less safe than say than submerging you pc in mineral oil for overclocking. Why would software give you less performance when it adjusts bios settings in real time, in all likely event the software may not have all the little cool tweaks that the bios has however you could do all the little tweaks in the bios and do the actual OC with software.

Simply makes no sense.

I recently got hold of an AMD K6 system where you have to manual oc via jumpers and the like which has far less fail safe OC protocols than current generation hardware.

From what I've heard about OC software is that the max is still safe with stock coolers...

Well Stock cooling won't get you far, and wiz I also have a K6 system here and I can't believe that that was how we did it wow things have changed.

THE_STIG wrote:Well Stock cooling won't get you far, and wiz I also have a K6 system here and I can't believe that that was how we did it wow things have changed.

Yeah still reading up on the K6 system want to check which voltage I can use goes from 2.2 (default) to 2.8 and bus speed up to 7.0 and ram divider of 33mhz(I think) so still trying to figure if I should go with 2.6v to get the extra 300MHZ.Not worried if I blow the cpu got another 4 to play around with till I get it right

Has the very first AGP ports and a 4MB rage3D card

wizardofid wrote:

THE_STIG wrote:Well Stock cooling won't get you far, and wiz I also have a K6 system here and I can't believe that that was how we did it wow things have changed.

Yeah still reading up on the K6 system want to check which voltage I can use goes from 2.2 (default) to 2.8 and bus speed up to 7.0 and ram divider of 33mhz(I think) so still trying to figure if I should go with 2.6v to get the extra 300MHZ.Not worried if I blow the cpu got another 4 to play around with till I get it right

Has the very first AGP ports and a 4MB rage3D card

So what are the specs of this rig my K6 has:
500mhz K6-2 (chomper XT)
Gigabyte GA-5AA mobo(had to do some repairs on it)
Ati Rage 128 pro (32MB in an AGP 2X port)
256Mb Pc 100 sdram
20gb Segate HDD
Creative sound blaster 16.

So that is the rig, have OC'ed it to 600mhz before(poped a cap though)

THE_STIG wrote:

wizardofid wrote:

THE_STIG wrote:Well Stock cooling won't get you far, and wiz I also have a K6 system here and I can't believe that that was how we did it wow things have changed.

Yeah still reading up on the K6 system want to check which voltage I can use goes from 2.2 (default) to 2.8 and bus speed up to 7.0 and ram divider of 33mhz(I think) so still trying to figure if I should go with 2.6v to get the extra 300MHZ.Not worried if I blow the cpu got another 4 to play around with till I get it right

Has the very first AGP ports and a 4MB rage3D card

So what are the specs of this rig my K6 has:
500mhz K6-2 (chomper XT)
Gigabyte GA-5AA mobo(had to do some repairs on it)
Ati Rage 128 pro (32MB in an AGP 2X port)
256Mb Pc 100 sdram
20gb Segate HDD
Creative sound blaster 16.

So that is the rig, have OC'ed it to 600mhz before(poped a cap though)

Nope yours pwns !
Correction it has an S3 trio card 4MB and much to my surprise a working Quantum Fireball 4 gig HDD.This thing is like brand spanking new was NEVER used I removed it from the original packaging checked the voltage readings on this XT PSU is still good

@wiz so you still using the XT psu, I could not find any so I use a normal 250watt atx psu(the mobo has both connectors AT and ATX), but could you give more info on the specs, CPU speed, mobo ....

THE_STIG wrote:@wiz so you still using the XT psu, I could not find any so I use a normal 250watt atx psu(the mobo has both connectors AT and ATX), but could you give more info on the specs, CPU speed, mobo ....

400MHZ (OC 550mhz)
192 Ram (3 slots) and I just remembered how K6 systems would be picky about ram comobo's and configs
Supports xt and atx
No name brand EP some thing blah blah via chipset supports USB but sadly no connector came with sourcing would be nearly
impossible.I think it is a 16 pin USB port.
crystal sound card

But I am going to strip that system as I have a PIII Costa-Rica 650MHZ Board and Chip which should be a wee bit faster.

wizardofid wrote:

THE_STIG wrote:@wiz so you still using the XT psu, I could not find any so I use a normal 250watt atx psu(the mobo has both connectors AT and ATX), but could you give more info on the specs, CPU speed, mobo ....

400MHZ (OC 550mhz)
192 Ram (3 slots) and I just remembered how K6 systems would be picky about ram comobo's and configs
Supports xt and atx
No name brand EP some thing blah blah via chipset supports USB but sadly no connector came with sourcing would be nearly
impossible.I think it is a 16 pin USB port.
crystal sound card

But I am going to strip that system as I have a PIII Costa-Rica 650MHZ Board and Chip which should be a wee bit faster.

The pIII will be way faster , I had to make my own usb adapters(lost the origionals), if you want the usb header go to a schools old pc store room I found lots in there. Just for interest sake I am using the K6-2 pc right now to type this.

And I also have a PIII pc, 2 in fact one 500mhz and one at 750Mhz

the 500mhz p3:

PIII 500mhz slot 1
Gigabyte Ga-BX2000
512mb pc100 sdram
40Gb hdd
Ati readon 9250 (128mb)
creative soundblaster awe32
it was used as a server in its previous life(that is what the lables sugest anyway).

The 750mhz:

750Mhz PIII skt 370
Aopen ax34 mobo
640mb pc 133 Sdram
Nvidia Fx5500 (256mb)
40gb hdd
onboard sound (AD.. something or other)

@greg
Stock Air cooling won't be able to cope with the temperatures of a decent OC, and I prefer OC'ing in the bios since you dont have to rely on 3rd party software to do the job.

Got an overclocking program, it's like useless. Doesn't wanna save settings, it gives me this weird error message. At least bios is guaranteed changes.