Inexpensive Intel overclocking bench

[Fryeguy22]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and have an odd question/idea. 

I want to start overclocking as a hobby but I don't want to subject my main system to the errors I could make and burn it up. So my thought is to get a relatively inexpensive dual core and motherboard to test overclocking theory's and learn hands on what a stable overclock feels and looks like in contrast to an unstable one. I learned a bit with my hasswell i5 but don't want to push the limits as to what I can do to it due to it being my primary system. 

 

Long story short what would be an inexpensive unlocked processor (preferably intel) and motherboard combo?

 

thanks for your thoughts!

[1Reshiram12]

You're basically paying a $100 dollar premium for overclocking abilities with intel, if you're ok with amd you can save a decent amount between the cheaper processor and the cheaper mobo. Also, do you want an actual test bench or just a regular case?

[aisle9]

Any H81 board and a G3258 would be a great jumping off point. Very forgiving CPU thanks to its low TDP, and you're looking at well under $100 for the pair. Don't even need an aftermarket cooler to get the G3258 up to 4.2-ish GHz.

 

If you want to go bottom of the bargain basement barrel, you can find systems with an overclockable LGA775 mobo and a Core 2 Duo or Quad lying around for $15-20 at yard sales every now and then, assuming you're willing to clean them up and BYO hard drive.

 

As long as you're careful with your voltage and monitoring temps, overclocking is really safe these days. A good mobo (even an ok one) makes overclocking very straightforward, and most give you helpful color-coded idiot warnings (i.e., setting your vCore to 2.0 will make it bright red, and the board probably won't even let you do it). It's possible to take life off of your CPU with an overclock that's too aggressive, like running a Ryzen CPU at 1.45v. It won't kill the chip, but it will degrade it more quickly. It's hard to just straight-up kill your CPU by overclocking it these days unless that was your goal at the onset.

[Princess Luna]

In my personal opinion there are better hobbies, I mean you overclock old chips cool...  once done what you'll do in half hour what's next? you'll not even use the system...

 

To make all worse overclocking Intel mainstream since skylake isn't worth it... locked i7's on cheapest boards outperforms the most overclocked i5's on the most expensive boards. While the performance difference between a locked i7 and an overclocked i7 really isn't as big as it sometimes looks like from all these miss leading videos.

 

In short words it is a super premium tag for a placebo effect return...

[MechPilot524]

Yeah, the 3258s were great.

 

But there's one problem with the 3258: it's officially "end of life" according to Intel's ARK page. They're not really in supply anymore, so you're paying extra for a new one. You're not gonna walk into a Micro Center or a Fry's and find one on the shelf.

So, ignoring the used market - where you can find just about anything if you look hard enough - you could go for an i3-7350k. It'll set you back $140 atm, but it's a more capable chip than Pentiums. And it's the cheapest up-to-date Intel chip that comes unlocked - the 3258 was and still is the only unlocked Pentium.

 

I know you're saying Intel, but don't forget Team Red in this one too. AMD's been trying to be overclocker-friendly for years. Pretty much all their chips are overclockable. I'd recommend an Athlon X4 (the 845 may not be a great choice, it's technically locked), or a lower-level FX chip like a 4300 or 6350. An 8350 might even be fun to play with. Those chips still seem to generally be in good supply still. I wouldn't recommend Ryzen for pure overclocking if you're starting out: most reviewers seemed to hit a wall between 3.9 and 4.1 GHz for all the Ryzen chips on basic cooling remaining in recommended core voltage limits. You might make some nice progress if you delid it or something, but not starter material for sure.

 

 

Don't forget that Kaby and Ryzen won't play nice with anything other than Windows 10. It seems to take some tweaking and workarounds to get windows 7 to work with them.

 

But being able to make a certain piece of silicon of a certain quality do more than it was rated to do can be a great hobby if it's what you're interested in!

[Fryeguy22]

Awesome advice guys! I just did some reading and i'm thinking i'm gonna take a look at the red team! (Unless I find a screaming deal on an i3 that is) The Athlon X4 or the FX-4300 look promising! 

Thank you all