I just overclocked my processor. Now what?

[The Useless Member]

Is there anything I should know about, any problems? (other than cooling) Any incompatibilities or problems with games?

Core i7 3770K OC'd @ 4.0 GHz

[paradamed]

Im not an expert but I can give you some basic hints. Other members of this forum have a lot more knowledge about the issue. First security always comes first when overclocking. Never ever do something without the appropriate knowledge with the risk of ruining your system. Always make sure you have some decent cooling and good temperatures. Never try to overclock with the stock coolers that come with the preocessor. Read good tutorials for oc or ask for help if you have the slightest doubt about what you are doing. Never play too much with the processor voltages unless you are totally sure about what you are doing cause there are big chances to ruin your processor or reduce its lifespan. Make sure to turn off some features in the bios such as the automatic clock boosting of the i5 and i7 processors, for example. Considering you did an overclocking in an appropriate way the next step is to test the stability of your oc. Generally it is recomended to use stress tests using software such as prime 95 which will point out to errors. Errors in stress tests can basically mean 2 things. First you need higher voltages but in order to increase the voltages you have to be sure there is appropriate temperatures cause increasing voltages will increase temperatures. Second, if you cant increase voltages because you are already running on high temperatures and the system is unstable you will probably have to reduce a little bit the overclock speed you just created. Also be very careful with stress tests. They will push your processors and temperatures to the limits which can even in worst case scenario ruin your system which is not common cause intel processors will automatically reduce the clock speeds once critical temperatures are areached but I think it is not impossible to happen. Well I think this as far as my knowledge goes, not very much but I hope to be of some help.

[Totalheadache]

i agree with the above. you need to run some stress tests whilst monitoring temps i.e intelburntest/prime95/or occt

some progs u can find here..

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Generic-Utilities_c8.html

check your cpu's heat threshold. ideally something under 70c with 100%full load after a few hrs stress testing if fine..(mines around 65c under ibt).

some cpu's need a bigger jump in vcore to get stable at certain speeds(mines a co not a do so needs a big whack of vcore). luck of the draw..

if you are worried about temps back down the speed and the vcore.

no harm will come to the cpu as long as your temps are relatively low. when testing if you see temps get up to around 80c i'd start to worry a bit and back off..

rem the stress testing programs are pushing the processor to the max to see it's stable. you will hardly ever see these high temperatures in everyday use..so if you are around 70c under stress test but stable then that's fine.

i run 24/7 4gh and to do that i have turned off powersaving features in bios. (c1e and eist for me and perhaps others, you need to read the manual). you might have something that's called vdoop...that might help to reduce temps but wont effect cpu speed..again could effect stability so you might have to try on/off.

also there is hyper-threading. some people find turning this off lets them reach higher speed on the cpu..i keep mine on. (it's debeatable its relation to games performance i think).

generally running your ram at a lower or speed it's meant to be run at is also better for stability, although you can run it higher but that needs some fine tuning. i run mine lower as running at say 1523 mhz as opposed to stock 1600 doesnt degrade perf and I find helps oc more easily.

i always run the occasional coretemp just to see my temps arent high. ofc having a dustfree/clean fans helps.

just about to put my cpu on water which makes a huge diff.

and in terms of games if your overclock is stable in re cpu there should be no trouble. i think it's a myth/bad info if people say a cpu overclock can cause crashes in games. a bad cpu overclock is just that and will effect the whole pc..i.e it will most likely crash on you.

stress testers will usually pick up on this within minutes..

tw's arent probably the best games to test out a cpu overclock on due to the poor optimisation. run some other benchmarks to see how much fps gain..

[Crazyeyesreaper]

4 GHz is nothing your fine run a stress test try Intel Burn Test or LinX, set to use all threads and set usage to maximum set it to 15 runs if it passes your good keep track of Temps

the CPU is safe till 105c but keep it under 90c when using IBT etc,

the 3770k uses Thermal Interface Material aka TIM under its metal IHS, where as previous Sandy Bridge and Nehalem etc chips use Solder

Solder is roughly 800% more effective than TIM at exhanging heat, im halfassing this argument but thats the basic gist of it,

depending on your cooler 4.5-4.6GHz is attainable,

if you stress test and temps hit 90c your TYPICAL load temps will be in the 70-80 range which is safe for Ivy Bridge CPUs. just dont continously stress test the CPU otherwise youll dry out the TIM inside the IHS and your CPU will get hotter and run hotter as the TIM dries it becomes less able to transfer Heat.

[The Useless Member]

My thermal display kept on telling me it was 37-38C degress.

Either this was doing its job http://www.asetek.com/desktop/cpu-coolers/510lc.html

Or my thermal display is bad at reading temperatures.

Everytime, I got this as a result. Result: 3.254258e-002

[Oberbefehlshaber]

the 3770k uses Thermal Interface Material aka TIM under its metal IHS, where as previous Sandy Bridge and Nehalem etc chips use Solder

Solder is roughly 800% more effective than TIM at exhanging heat, im halfassing this argument but thats the basic gist of it.

Really? I was thinking about asking you why your 3770 is so hot under load, my 2500 is @4.3 and barely gets above 60c on prime95. I just got a zalman air cooler.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

again Sandy bridge is a 95w CPU thus it automatically recieved solder beneeath the IHS fusing the CPU Die package to the IHS,

Any CPUs under 95w aka 77w CPUs IE Ivy Bridge get TIM instead, its why Ivy Bridge temps are all over the place chips with good TIM placement amount etc run a few degrees cooler etc etc,

Intel did the same thing with their Core 2 Duo cpus its why chips like the 8400 overclocked better than the 5000 series etc as some used TIM others Solder.