New Overclocking Build

[Koal7]

Hi everybody. I am choosing hardware for a major system overhaul, and could use a little advise/help.

 

I'm one of those weird people who like building a system and tweaking much more than gaming. I'm aiming this build at teaching myself how to overclock. My current ancient AMD based system cant really do much.

 

My thoughts are a very solid mid/high end z97 motherboard with a couple AIO coolers mounted to CPU and GPU.

 

CPU: I want to start with a Pentium G3258 because its cheap, so if I burn it up oh well. They are also supposed to be easy and fun to get a huge boost out of. Later I can move up the line to an i5 or i7 if I want something more impressive.

 

GPU: At first I will probably just stick with my Sapphire 6950. Later on I will probably grab a 970 or two to play with.

 

Here are the questions:

 

First: I keep hearing everyone say a cheap new motherboard will do the same clocks as an expensive one, so buy for the features you want. That sounds great from a price standpoint but is it really true. Do the high end boards with expensive high end power delivery really offer no improvements, even at the ragged edge when I just want to get it to boot and get a screenshot.

To add to that, what features do i really want? do I need to use the voltage points and monitor with an external multi meter. If I am really pushing my system what features will I really use.

 

 Second: I don't know how much cooling overhead I need at all. Would it be massive overkill to put an H100 on a dual core haswell? CPUs are trending towards cooler operation all the time but I want to be able to throw some massive volts at a cooler and know it will be ok. Should I look at a full custom loop, or am I over thinking this and a something like an h70 will be fine.

 

I know this is a lot of information thrown together and a lot of questions, but I would like to use some knowledge from more experienced people.

[brob]

To a point more expensive motherboards are better because they do have much better and heftier power control and distribution components.

 

If you have a multi-meter sophisticated enough to be useful monitoring minute fluctuations in voltages and like to use it then you might want to consider a motherboard with appropriate contact points. Otherwise don't bother. There are plenty of settings in enthusiast level BIOS to keep most people happy.

 

A Haswell cpu is supposed to shut down if its internal temperature gets to the point of imminent damage. The better the cooler, the more likely one is going to be able to reach the maximum passively cooled oc available on a particular cpu. That said, simply because one has better cooling does not mean that one will get a stable oc past a certain point. The H100i is not the best AIO available. But it is pretty decent. Given that the G3258 is known to oc fairly well with the stock cooler, you could start there. Or perhaps go with a fairly inexpensive but decent cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO or slightly better Noctua NH-U12S.

[KemoKa]

Hi everybody. I am choosing hardware for a major system overhaul, and could use a little advise/help.

 

I'm one of those weird people who like building a system and tweaking much more than gaming. I'm aiming this build at teaching myself how to overclock. My current ancient AMD based system cant really do much.

 

My thoughts are a very solid mid/high end z97 motherboard with a couple AIO coolers mounted to CPU and GPU.

 

CPU: I want to start with a Pentium G3258 because its cheap, so if I burn it up oh well. They are also supposed to be easy and fun to get a huge boost out of. Later I can move up the line to an i5 or i7 if I want something more impressive.

 

GPU: At first I will probably just stick with my Sapphire 6950. Later on I will probably grab a 970 or two to play with.

 

Here are the questions:

 

First: I keep hearing everyone say a cheap new motherboard will do the same clocks as an expensive one, so buy for the features you want. That sounds great from a price standpoint but is it really true. Do the high end boards with expensive high end power delivery really offer no improvements, even at the ragged edge when I just want to get it to boot and get a screenshot.

To add to that, what features do i really want? do I need to use the voltage points and monitor with an external multi meter. If I am really pushing my system what features will I really use.

 

 Second: I don't know how much cooling overhead I need at all. Would it be massive overkill to put an H100 on a dual core haswell? CPUs are trending towards cooler operation all the time but I want to be able to throw some massive volts at a cooler and know it will be ok. Should I look at a full custom loop, or am I over thinking this and a something like an h70 will be fine.

 

I know this is a lot of information thrown together and a lot of questions, but I would like to use some knowledge from more experienced people.

Spending hundreds of dollars (yes, you heard that right) on a custom water cooling loop is WAAAAY too overkill and simply insane for something like a G3258. Of course, if you were planning on later upgrading the system later to a Devil's Canyon or a Haswell 1.0 core processor, or even to Skylake later and then overclocking the absolute shit out of it, then I would understand more, but not completely (unless you want to make your system look awesome -- then I understand completely.)

For what you have, in my opinion, an AIO makes more sense, especially if you're considering upgrading later, but price-to-performance is much lower unless you live in a fridge. I would say if you don't plan on upgrading, get something like a CM Hyper 212. It's reviews on the internet for basic overclocking are astounding.