Overclocking help

[GeorgeKellow]

I'm going to attempt to do my first overclock manually, i've got a few questions 

 

I've got a i5 4670k cpu

When should I start turning up the voltage? 

can I go to 4.0 without turning the voltage up?

How do I know if I have too much voltage?

How do I know if its unstable?

[Moonzy]

20 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

When should I start turning up the voltage? 

when your clock speed is unstable and u still want to push it further

20 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

can I go to 4.0 without turning the voltage up?

depends on your processor really... silicon lottery

20 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

How do I know if I have too much voltage?

when you can back down a couple mV and your system is still stable, but try not to go above 1.35 volts

20 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

How do I know if its unstable?

stress test with programs like Aida 64 for 30 mins for rough stability test, for a full one, run it for 12 or 24 or even 48 hours

if it crashes midway, its unstable

[RS2007GOD]

im no expert but i generaly use Asus Realbench and Aida64 stress tests for checking stability, and only add voltage if the tests fails or i blue screen adding small amounts at a time 0.050 roughly (no more than this, less is fine). and as far as im aware theres noway tot ell if its to much volts but if it passes at xx amount of ghz with yy amount of voltage, lower the volage and rerun the tests if it passes, reapeat the process till it fails then use the last amount that past

[X1XNobleX1X]

12 minutes ago, GeorgeKellow said:

I'm going to attempt to do my first overclock manually, i've got a few questions 

 

I've got a i5 4670k cpu

When should I start turning up the voltage? 

can I go to 4.0 without turning the voltage up?

How do I know if I have too much voltage?

How do I know if its unstable?

5

I've got a i5 4670k cpu

When should I start turning up the voltage?  - When you reach a clock speed that crashes

can I go to 4.0 without turning the voltage up? - Possibly, every CPU is different, you may win the "silicon lottery"

How do I know if I have too much voltage? - 1.3V is max voltage set by Intel for long term usage. 1.35V is fine for 24/7 use though.

How do I know if its unstable? - It crashes when benchmarking.

[KettyKoala]

You should start by upping the frequency in increments of 200Mhz, after each increase, you should run a stress test for half an hour to test if it is "stable". Personally I use OCCT (http://www.ocbase.com/) as a stress tester, but there are others out there such as Prime95 and Aida64. While stress testing, you should also monitor your CPU temperature, which can be done using HW monitor (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html), if your CPU reaches around 85C, then personally, I would recommend reducing your clock and voltage a bit. At the point that you find your CPU isn't stable, you should increase your voltage by .02V, and keep increasing until you find that it is stable. Repeat this process until you find the point where your CPU gets too hot, once you think you've found your max stable overclock, run a stress test for +12 hours to test whether it is fully stable. You will know if it isn't stable as you will get a BSOD (Blue screen) or your PC hangs when booting or goes into a repeating boot cycle.

 

There are a few other things that come into it though, I would recommend doing some further research before jumping into things.

 

[KettyKoala]

Another thing to mention... To increase you CPU frequency, you will need to overclock your multiplier. Your frequency will work out to: 

 

Base clock (100) x multiplier = Frequency

 

This means that if your CPU was clocked at 3.5Ghz, you would have a multiplier of x35... So obviously to increase your frequency by 200Mhz, you would need to increase this to x37 

[GeorgeKellow]

Just now, KettyKoala said:

Another thing to mention... To increase you CPU frequency, you will need to overclock your multiplier. Your frequency will work out to: 

 

Base clock (100) x multiplier = Frequency

 

This means that if your CPU was clocked at 3.5Ghz, you would have a multiplier of x35... So obviously to increase your frequency by 200Mhz, you would need to increase this to x37 

I've got to 4.0ghz on the normal 1.1 voltage and its running prime 95 stress test and its running between 47-56*c

[KettyKoala]

Just now, GeorgeKellow said:

I've got to 4.0ghz on the normal 1.1 voltage and its running prime 95 stress test and its running between 47-56*c

Nice work, did you do any research? You might end up needing to use this thing called load-line calibration, which prevents your CPU from under-volting under load spikes. Also, remember to stress test for half an hour after each time you increase the frequency and/or voltage.

[GeorgeKellow]

4 minutes ago, KettyKoala said:

Nice work, did you do any research? You might end up needing to use this thing called load-line calibration, which prevents your CPU from under-volting under load spikes. Also, remember to stress test for half an hour after each time you increase the frequency and/or voltage.

I'm going to work now so I'll run the stress test for 5 hours. I'm oc to 4.2 now 

[RS2007GOD]

Hey i just thought about this and maybe your voltage is set to "Auto" so your motherboard sets it for you, hence why your not failing the tests. Im pretty sure this isnt reccomended as they tend to be very generous as to how much voltage they use, often much more than is actualy needed. I dont know if this is a worry for you but id double check that its not using far to much. Like noble said in the earlier post nothing over 1.3v is reccomended by intel but 1.35v is fine. I see you said it's at 1.1v if thats what you manualy set, ignore this  gl

11 hours ago, GeorgeKellow said:

I'm going to work now so I'll run the stress test for 5 hours. I'm oc to 4.2 now