Overclocking for Beginners

[Billy_Mays]

I'm going to be finishing my build next week and I'm getting an X4-860K and I have an Croyrig M9A (single fan) and I have a MSI Twin Frozr GTX 770 and a 450w psu (EVGA 450BV) how far can I OC both of them because I want the free performance 

PS I know it's an older platform

Edited June 12, 2017 by Billy_Mays
Wrong CPU name

[Wolly9102]

depends on the silicon lottery. No chip is the same, you just have to try and see how far you get.

[MrMcMuffinJr]

i was looking up the tdp for the a8-860k and there is no such thing.

[Zando_]

From my limited knowledge, you just find the max temp they can handle, find the max voltage, then keep cranking up the voltage and clock in small increments until you hit the voltage/temp limit or it crashes. 

[MrMcMuffinJr]

if you really mean x4-860k. it has a tdp of 95w and the cooler is 120w

[Billy_Mays]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

From my limited knowledge, you just find the max temp they can handle, find the max voltage, then keep cranking up the voltage and clock in small increments until you hit the voltage/temp limit or it crashes. 

Ok I'm very new to Ocing because I've dealt with a laptop with over a year

[Billy_Mays]

Just now, MrMcMuffinJr said:

if you really mean x4-860k. it has a tdp of 95w and the cooler is 120w

Oops I forgot it 

[Zando_]

Just now, Billy_Mays said:

Ok I'm very new to Ocing because I've dealt with a laptop with over a year

Same here, been on laptops since forever, only started using a desktop maybe a year ago (longer if you count iMacs as a desktop, but you can't fiddle with the hardware). And my mobo and CPU are locked.  Getting Ryzen ASAP though, so that'll be changing.

[Billy_Mays]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Same here, been on laptops since forever, only started using a desktop maybe a year ago (longer if you count iMacs as a desktop, but you can't fiddle with the hardware). And my mobo and CPU are locked.  Getting Ryzen ASAP though, so that'll be changing.

Yep so I have to stay below 70c

[Zando_]

Just now, Billy_Mays said:

Yep so I have to stay below 70c

I think the CPU flat out shuts off at 100C, and GPUs generally around 90C or something. So a safe temp would be around 75C, but if you can keep it below 70C it should run awesome. 

[MrMcMuffinJr]

2 minutes ago, Billy_Mays said:

Yep so I have to stay below 70c

70c=safe 80c=getting too hot 90c=way too hot 100c=turn off pc and rethink your ability to overclock and or restart from scratch

[Billy_Mays]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

I think the CPU flat out shuts off at 100C, and GPUs generally around 90C or something. So a safe temp would be around 75C, but if you can keep it below 70C it should run awesome. 

Google says 72c and the gpu is 98c

[Zando_]

Just now, Billy_Mays said:

Google says 72c and the gpu is 98c

Wow that's a low max temp for a CPU! I'd just try and keep the CPU under 70C then, and the GPU under 80. 

[Billy_Mays]

1 minute ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

70c=safe 80c=getting too hot 90c=way too hot 100c=turn off pc and rethink your ability to overclock and or restart from scratch

Ok I'll try 4.3

[Billy_Mays]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Wow that's a low max temp for a CPU! I'd just try and keep the CPU under 70C then, and the GPU under 80. 

Yeah that's what I'm aiming for 

[MrMcMuffinJr]

nahhhhhhh 4.4

[Billy_Mays]

Just now, MrMcMuffinJr said:

nahhhhhhh 4.4

I don't want to risk my hardware and I have a 450 watt psu

[LUUD18]

4 minutes ago, Billy_Mays said:

I don't want to risk my hardware and I have a 450 watt psu

Changing the frequency will never hurt your hardware. It's the voltage that kills.

[Billy_Mays]

14 minutes ago, LUUD18 said:

Changing the frequency will never hurt your hardware. It's the voltage that kills.

I'm new to OC'ing

[Lord Sephington]

2 hours ago, Billy_Mays said:

I'm going to be finishing my build next week and I'm getting an X4-860K and I have an Croyrig M9A (single fan) and I have a MSI Twin Frozr GTX 770 and a 450w psu (EVGA 450BV) how far can I OC both of them because I want the free performance 

PS I know it's an older platform

i was able to get my 860k to 4.25GHz using asus a88xm-a with a cooler master hyper tx3 evo cooler. i dont know pretty much anything about overclocking but i went into the AI tweak and went from 100 to 115 and it upped cpu speed and ram speed to 1960mhz from 1600. i have ran prime 95 and it is a nice stable overclock it seems and im surprised seems i dont know what i was doing lol.

 

the 860k is a decent chip in my opinion especially for a socket type with not much to better it.

[Billy_Mays]

24 minutes ago, jaybob85 said:

i was able to get my 860k to 4.25GHz using asus a88xm-a with a cooler master hyper tx3 evo cooler. i dont know pretty much anything about overclocking but i went into the AI tweak and went from 100 to 115 and it upped cpu speed and ram speed to 1960mhz from 1600. i have ran prime 95 and it is a nice stable overclock it seems and im surprised seems i dont know what i was doing lol.

 

the 860k is a decent chip in my opinion especially for a socket type with not much to better it.

Yeah but I'm on a budget so I probably can't get a good OC on it (Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3HP)

[Lord Sephington]

2 hours ago, Billy_Mays said:

Yeah but I'm on a budget so I probably can't get a good OC on it (Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3HP)

im not sure on how well gigabyte boards will overclock, it just depends on how good the VRM is and most boards have pretty good components on them even at a budget level.

From what i have gathered as long as you dont adjust voltages and only use small steps with increasing the overclock then as far as i know you cant go too wrong as if you have a bad overclock most boards will have some sort of protection and let you change back settings before damage is done.

 

and also make sure your motherboard has the latest available BIOS, as when i 1st tried overclocking i was on the 1st BIOS available and it would not allow an overclock of any form, even preventing the 4ghz boost clock on the 860k. i updated to newest BIOS and havent had an issue (unless i go to far with an overclock)