Is my hardware Overclockable?

[aaron4k]

Hi, I recently received some old hardware which I've been using to run a lightweight minecraft server on windows 10. (I know there are people who will say "why dont you use linux" and to those people, I know nothing about linux :).
Anyway, I just want to know if I'm using this setup to its full potential, and if not, how do I get it at its max/stable overclock? Or can it be overclocked at all?
Specs:
CPU: intel core i7-3770 (non k) @3.40ghz base & up to 3.90ghz boost
MOBO: Asus P8H67-M PRO (all default settings)
BIOS: 3904 x64 (04/27/2013)
Cooler: Hyper 212 black
GPU: Nvidia GTX 580
Storage: standard 256gb hdd (will be upgrading to an ssd soon)
PSU: 750 watt

[Shimejii]

3770 is not overclockable by conventional means, and that motherboard does not help. Budget boards generally dont let you do very much. You would have to see what bios menu that mobo has and what exactly is changable.

[Hinjima]

7 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

Hi, I recently received some old hardware which I've been using to run a lightweight minecraft server on windows 10. (I know there are people who will say "why dont you use linux" and to those people, I know nothing about linux :).
Anyway, I just want to know if I'm using this setup to its full potential, and if not, how do I get it at its max/stable overclock? Or can it be overclocked at all?
Specs:
CPU: intel core i7-3770 (non k) @3.40ghz base & up to 3.90ghz boost
MOBO: Asus P8H67-M PRO (all default settings)
BIOS: 3904 x64 (04/27/2013)
Cooler: Hyper 212 black
GPU: Nvidia GTX 580
Storage: standard 256gb hdd (will be upgrading to an ssd soon)
PSU: 750 watt

The 3770 can only be overclocked by changing the BCLK but this can cause issues with the CPU and the gains are not really worth it. This also depends on the motherboard.

The GTX 580 can be overclocked however and this is something you can try
You could gain 3-5fps by doing this.

 

[aaron4k]

5 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

The 3770 can only be overclocked by changing the BCLK but this can cause issues with the CPU and the gains are not really worth it. This also depends on the motherboard.

The GTX 580 can be overclocked however and this is something you can try
You could gain 3-5fps by doing this.

 

Well, I'm not exactly using it to game on lol, I have a gaming pc that I use. Thing is, I just want to figure out if I should just leave it where its at, or if I could tweak a few things to make it better, without breaking it.

[Hinjima]

2 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

Well, I'm not exactly using it to game on lol, I have a gaming pc that I use. Thing is, I just want to figure out if I should just leave it where its at, or if I could tweak a few things to make it better, without breaking it.

Nah, I would leave it alone. I see no reason to try and overclock this system for your use case.

[aaron4k]

9 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

3770 is not overclockable by conventional means, and that motherboard does not help. Budget boards generally dont let you do very much. You would have to see what bios menu that mobo has and what exactly is changable.

its a uefi bios utility in advanced mode (its a hybrid uefi with easy and advanced modes) , most of the settings like core voltage and dram voltage etc etc, are all set to auto. if i change any of those values, will i get any gains without breaking anything?
current values are as follows (according to ai tweaker)

Ai Overclock Tuner: auto

EPU Power Saving Mode: disabled

DRAM Timing Control: All Primary, Secondary, and Third timings set to Auto

CPU Power Management:

 - CPU Ratio: auto

 - Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology: Enabled

 - Turbo Mode: enabled

 - Turbo Mode Parameters: all set to auto

CPU: 1.070V (AUTO)

DRAM: 1.350V (AUTO)

VCCIO: 1.020V (AUTO)

CPU PLL: 1.800V (AUTO)

PCH: 1.050V (AUTO)

CPU Load-line Calibration: auto

CPU Spread Spectrum "might enhance BCLK overclocking ability": auto

 

[aaron4k]

8 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

Nah, I would leave it alone. I see no reason to try and overclock this system for your use case.

Yeah, because looking into this, looks like a deep rabbit hole lol

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Bclk can be pushed to 105-108 and that board should have bclk capabilities

 

Ram multi set to 16x for 1600 ddr3 since thats the max the 3770 supports which isnt considered oc (basically means you cant set higher ratios without a z board), itll be at 1680 ddr3 or 1728 ddr3 which is still really slow and most sticks will be able to handle it, and from my experience asus 67/68 boards seem to hsve decent 4 stick oc capability so even if you are running quad stick quad rank 1728 should be no issue

 

for lazy tweaks rams wise you can set trefi to 9999 or 65536/30 depending on how high it goes and tfaw to 1, the rest of the subtimings youll have to send pics of the rams and their labels + black ics to identify them and know what theyre actually capable of, 4gbit ics are unlikely to do <200trfc but 2gbit and 1gbit should have no issues with 100trfc and below

 

Cpu voltages wise you should be able to set and forget with a - 20mv offset alongside vpll set to 1.65v to slightly reduce temps

 

 

Aside from bclk tweaking and ram tweaking there isnt much you can do for the cpu + rams but you should still see abit of performance gain and its really easy to do so why the hell not

 

As for the gpu you can overclock via msi afterburner

[Hinjima]

Just now, aaron4k said:

Yeah, because looking into this, looks like a deep rabbit hole lol

Oh it is.. I started overclocking 25 years ago and I still do it, not really for the performance but I just absolutely love pushing my hardware as much as I can and see what I can get

You won't get any noticeable performance gain by overclocking the GTX 580 for your server.

You could however overclock your main gaming PC for some extra juice!

 

[aaron4k]

2 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

Oh it is.. I started overclocking 25 years ago and I still do it, not really for the performance but I just absolutely love pushing my hardware as much as I can and see what I can get

You won't get any noticeable performance gain by overclocking the GTX 580 for your server.

You could however overclock your main gaming PC for some extra juice!

 

for my main rig, im pushing a ryzen 7 5800x3d with a rog b450-f gaming paired with a msi spurimX 24gb rtx 3090, runs like a bull lol. I think ill mess with the BCLK just a little and see what happens

[aaron4k]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Bclk can be pushed to 105-108 and that board should have bclk capabilities

 

Ram multi set to 16x for 1600 ddr3 since thats the max the 3770 supports which isnt considered oc (basically means you cant set higher ratios without a z board), itll be at 1680 ddr3 or 1728 ddr3 which is still really slow and most sticks will be able to handle it, and from my experience asus 67/68 boards seem to hsve decent 4 stick oc capability so even if you are running quad stick quad rank 1728 should be no issue

 

for lazy tweaks rams wise you can set trefi to 9999 or 65536/30 depending on how high it goes and tfaw to 1, the rest of the subtimings youll have to send pics of the rams and their labels + black ics to identify them and know what theyre actually capable of, 4gbit ics are unlikely to do <200trfc but 2gbit and 1gbit should have no issues with 100trfc and below

 

Cpu voltages wise you should be able to set and forget with a - 20mv offset alongside vpll set to 1.65v to slightly reduce temps

 

 

Aside from bclk tweaking and ram tweaking there isnt much you can do for the cpu + rams but you should still see abit of performance gain and its really easy to do so why the hell not

 

As for the gpu you can overclock via msi afterburner

Okay, I understood about half of that lol. For ram, Ive got 4 8gb sticks equaling to 32gb @1600mhz

for ram, I dont exactly see a ram multiplier anywhere, only a memory frequency setting, which is currently set to auto, but can be raised from 1600 to 1800 (could be higher or lower but there is no in between from 16 to 18. I also dont see anything regarding "trefi" or "tfaw" or really anything in that part of your statement.
I see I can switch the Ai Overclock Tuner from auto to manual, that way I can change the BCLK value.
as far as setting a offset, which value would i subtract the 20mv from? and by "vpll" are you referring to the cpu pll voltage?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

12 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

Okay, I understood about half of that lol. For ram, Ive got 4 8gb sticks equaling to 32gb @1600mhz

for ram, I dont exactly see a ram multiplier anywhere, only a memory frequency setting, which is currently set to auto, but can be raised from 1600 to 1800 (could be higher or lower but there is no in between from 16 to 18. I also dont see anything regarding "trefi" or "tfaw" or really anything in that part of your statement.
I see I can switch the Ai Overclock Tuner from auto to manual, that

way I can change the BCLK value.
as far as setting a offset, which value would i subtract the 20mv from? and by "vpll" are you referring to the cpu pll voltage?

Vpll = cpu pll

Cpu core voltage should have an offset mode, offset sign set to - and then put 20 as the offset (which defaults at 0)

 

Trefi and tfaw should be in the dram timings submenu

 

Memory freq sets the ram multi, 16x = 1600mhz and 18x = 1800mhz, but does the 1800mhz multi work? and are there any other ram frequency settings available? Like 2000 or 2133, also board is limited to 2200 and wont go past that looking at my p8z68 deluxe alongside hwbot subs

 

 

As for the ram 32gb is a 4 stick quad rank config but the board and imc should have no trouble pushing it since were dealing with really slow speeds (2200 and below), just send pictures of the label and the text on the black ics mainly to know what the ic manufacturer is since the revisions dont really matter again due to low freq and the revisions being quite similar for 4gbit ics

 

hynix can push 3000+ whilst samsung is stuck at 2400 ish and micron is probably the same but needs 2v+ which i doubt that board can set, definitely 4gbit ics so im just putting up what you can expect for 4gbit ics

[aaron4k]

24 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Vpll = cpu pll

Cpu core voltage should have an offset mode, offset sign set to - and then put 20 as the offset (which defaults at 0)

 

Trefi and tfaw should be in the dram timings submenu

 

Memory freq sets the ram multi, 16x = 1600mhz and 18x = 1800mhz, but does the 1800mhz multi work? and are there any other ram frequency settings available? Like 2000 or 2133, also board is limited to 2200 and wont go past that looking at my p8z68 deluxe alongside hwbot subs

 

 

As for the ram 32gb is a 4 stick quad rank config but the board and imc should have no trouble pushing it since were dealing with really slow speeds (2200 and below), just send pictures of the label and the text on the black ics mainly to know what the ic manufacturer is since the revisions dont really matter again due to low freq and the revisions being quite similar for 4gbit ics

 

hynix can push 3000+ whilst samsung is stuck at 2400 ish and micron is probably the same but needs 2v+ which i doubt that board can set, definitely 4gbit ics so im just putting up what you can expect for 4gbit ics

for the vpll, it says the minimum is 1.80v and the max is 1.90v, although im not exactly worried about temps, does this really matter to change?
also, when i change the cpu offset mode sign from + to -, and i try to press the "-" button on the cpu voltage, it stays at auto, unless i press the "+" button, then it increases at .005v increments, says the minimum is -0.315v and max is +0.005v (current value is at 1.070v on auto) changing this also changes the dram voltage to 1.650v after save and restart.

as for ram, the memory frequency goes from 800mhz to 2800, and when upping the bclk to 107.0, changes those values to 856mhz to 2996mhz

also changing the bclk value from 100 to 107 changes the targer dram speed from 1600 to 1712

also, for ram, i dont think ill need to do much or be able to for that matter since ive only got 2 matching stick from hynix and one low profile all 3 of those pc3, and one from another brand thats pc3l, but all 4 put out 1600mhz, and i am able to have 1712 mhz stable as the memcheck feature tells me

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 minute ago, aaron4k said:

for the vpll, it says the minimum is 1.80v and the max is 1.90v, although im not exactly worried about temps, does this really matter to change?

Just a minor tweak so doesnt really matter that much especially if you arent having high temps

 

2 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

also, when i change the cpu offset mode sign from + to -, and i try to press the "-" button on the cpu voltage, it stays at auto, unless i press the "+" button, then it increases at .005v increments, says the minimum is -0.315v and max is +0.005v (current value is at 1.070v on auto) changing this also changes the dram voltage to 1.650v after save and restart.

Set to -0.020v

Dram volt can be left alone

 

3 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

as for ram, the memory frequency goes from 800mhz to 2800, and when upping the bclk to 107.0, changes those values to 856mhz to 2996mhz

also changing the bclk value from 100 to 107 changes the targer dram speed from 1600 to 1712

also, for ram, i dont think ill need to do much or be able to for that matter since ive only got 2 matching stick from hynix and one low profile all 3 of those pc3, and one from another brand thats pc3l, but all 4 put out 1600mhz, and i am able to have 1712 mhz stable as the memcheck feature tells me

I guess you can just leave it be

Use prime95 largeffts to stress test the rams

[aaron4k]

13 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Just a minor tweak so doesnt really matter that much especially if you arent having high temps

 

Set to -0.020v

Dram volt can be left alone

 

I guess you can just leave it be

Use prime95 largeffts to stress test the rams

yeah i dont get high temps to begin with, so ill leave that alone

[aaron4k]

29 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Just a minor tweak so doesnt really matter that much especially if you arent having high temps

 

Set to -0.020v

Dram volt can be left alone

 

I guess you can just leave it be

Use prime95 largeffts to stress test the rams

alright, quick update.
anything passed 107 on the BCLK frequency didnt boot and i got a "overclocking failed" message.
lowering it to 106.3 for a frequency value of 1700mhz rebooted successfully, bringing the memory frequency to 1700mhz and the cpu speed to 3631mhz

everything seems to be stable now, no reboot issues. gonna run some tests to be sure.

[aaron4k]

1 minute ago, aaron4k said:

alright, quick update.
anything passed 107 on the BCLK frequency didnt boot and i got a "overclocking failed" message.
lowering it to 106.3 for a frequency value of 1700mhz rebooted successfully, bringing the memory frequency to 1700mhz and the cpu speed to 3631mhz

everything seems to be stable now, no reboot issues. gonna run some tests to be sure.

spoke a little too soon there lol, after rebooting with those settings, i blue screened immediately after. Lowered BCLK to 106, and restarted, bluescreened again. lowering it to 105 seemed to work, but after logging in, and starting task manager, another blue screen. so ill just use the "EZ Mode" ASUS OPtimal/Performance mode and completely forget about this whole shabang. If I want to do this in the future, I'll just get a cpu "K" model with a decent mobo and continue there.

[aaron4k]

2 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

spoke a little too soon there lol, after rebooting with those settings, i blue screened immediately after. Lowered BCLK to 106, and restarted, bluescreened again. lowering it to 105 seemed to work, but after logging in, and starting task manager, another blue screen. so ill just use the "EZ Mode" ASUS OPtimal/Performance mode and completely forget about this whole shabang. If I want to do this in the future, I'll just get a cpu "K" model with a decent mobo and continue there.

okay, nevermind. Im sorry for not trying everything before saying stuff in here, seems the ram just isnt as capable of pushing passed 1600 like i thought it would. doesnt seem to work anyway. what i did was raise the bclk value back up to 108 and change the ram target value to 1512, but the cpu speed changing to 3690mhz and successfully booting into windows 10
that being said, after starting cpu-z and running a multicore stress test, task manager says the clock speed is at 3.67 (solid), while cpu-z clock/core speed is hovering around 3994-3995 mhz and when not running the stress test, it fluctuates anywhere from 4211.80mhz and 1727.92mhz, but task manager is saying 3.4ghz, any idea what that means?

[aaron4k]

2 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Bclk can be pushed to 105-108 and that board should have bclk capabilities

 

Ram multi set to 16x for 1600 ddr3 since thats the max the 3770 supports which isnt considered oc (basically means you cant set higher ratios without a z board), itll be at 1680 ddr3 or 1728 ddr3 which is still really slow and most sticks will be able to handle it, and from my experience asus 67/68 boards seem to hsve decent 4 stick oc capability so even if you are running quad stick quad rank 1728 should be no issue

 

for lazy tweaks rams wise you can set trefi to 9999 or 65536/30 depending on how high it goes and tfaw to 1, the rest of the subtimings youll have to send pics of the rams and their labels + black ics to identify them and know what theyre actually capable of, 4gbit ics are unlikely to do <200trfc but 2gbit and 1gbit should have no issues with 100trfc and below

 

Cpu voltages wise you should be able to set and forget with a - 20mv offset alongside vpll set to 1.65v to slightly reduce temps

 

 

Aside from bclk tweaking and ram tweaking there isnt much you can do for the cpu + rams but you should still see abit of performance gain and its really easy to do so why the hell not

 

As for the gpu you can overclock via msi afterburner

is 108 the max bclk i can do? hwinfo64 is telling me the core clocks are 3995.8mhz solid while stress testing via cpu-z, but turning off the test changes it to all cores sitting at 4211.8mhz and a few of the cores changing to 1727.9mhz and 3590.8mhz and back to 4211.8mhz again.. is this normal behavior for a bclk value of 108?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

18 minutes ago, aaron4k said:

okay, nevermind. Im sorry for not trying everything before saying stuff in here, seems the ram just isnt as capable of pushing passed 1600 like i thought it would. doesnt seem to work anyway. what i did was raise the bclk value back up to 108 and change the ram target value to 1512, but the cpu speed changing to 3690mhz and successfully booting into windows 10
that being said, after starting cpu-z and running a multicore stress test, task manager says the clock speed is at 3.67 (solid), while cpu-z clock/core speed is hovering around 3994-3995 mhz and when not running the stress test, it fluctuates anywhere from 4211.80mhz and 1727.92mhz, but task manager is saying 3.4ghz, any idea what that means?

Well it is mix matched rams so best you can do is set trefi to 9999 or 65535/30 and tfaw set to 1 and be done with it

 

As for cpu freq follow what cpuz says and ignore the rest, taskmanager spits out bullshit freq numbers most of the time

 

And 108 bclk is pretty good, looks like you happen to have one of those good chips that can push 108+ bclk on air

 

1 minute ago, aaron4k said:

is 108 the max bclk i can do? hwinfo64 is telling me the core clocks are 3995.8mhz solid while stress testing via cpu-z, but turning off the test changes it to all cores sitting at 4211.8mhz and a few of the cores changing to 1727.9mhz and 3590.8mhz and back to 4211.8mhz again.. is this normal behavior for a bclk value of 108?

You can try to push bclk higher but i doubt youll breach 110 cause thats ln2 territory unless your 3770 is a golden sample

[aaron4k]

1 minute ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

And 108 bclk is pretty good, looks like you happen to have one of those good chips that can push 108+ bclk on air

 

You can try to push bclk higher but i doubt youll breach 110 cause thats ln2 territory unless your 3770 is a golden sample

ill try and push it further than 108 just for sh*ts and gigs, see what happens.
but it would be pretty damn cool if it was one of those golden samples to be able to run like a horse. Ill be back with an update in a sec

[aaron4k]

32 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

You can try to push bclk higher but i doubt youll breach 110 cause thats ln2 territory unless your 3770 is a golden sample

tried it, failed it lol. anything passed 108 is going to take a huge dump. Ill keep it at 108 and keep the ram at 1512mhz and be satisfied lol. Might look into a different setup for a server in the future anyway so im not too worried about the longevity of it.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, aaron4k said:

tried it, failed it lol. anything passed 108 is going to take a huge dump. Ill keep it at 108 and keep the ram at 1512mhz and be satisfied lol. Might look into a different setup for a server in the future anyway so im not too worried about the longevity of it.

Still a pretty good chip

 

And might aswell debunk the data corruption and whatever other nonsense surrounding bclk oc the longer you run it and it stays stable without issue