Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even address their specific problem. I’ve also seen too much trial and error overclocking, unless you get lucky it tends to be far too time consuming a frustrating. What I’ve attempted to do is create a very simple three step guide for overclocking Bloomfield and Gulftown based CPUs. If you want to continue searching out other opinions, please consider each suggestion with caution. Some will undoubtedly be great, some will not.
Disclaimer
I am not responsible for any bad things that happen to you or your computer as a result of you following this guide, nor is techreaction.net. My goal is for this guide to be a safe overclocking guideline, but the burden for damaged hardware lies on the user performing the overclock! Overclocking can damage hardware and in most cases will void your warranties.
Prerequisites
In an earlier version of this guide, I requested that you have some basic knowledge of your motherboards BIOS. While I have not addressed every motherboard on the market, I have included details for the top enthusiast brands. But as before, please do not be afraid to get into your BIOS and have a look around, if you are ever concerned that you may have changed a setting erroneously, you can always load defaults, and start over. Most boards have a CMOS reset button on them now-a-days, if not check your user manual for the location of the CMOS reset jumper…please ensure you know the location before getting started.
This guide is independent of your cooling system. Whether you are using the stock Intel cooler or if you’re pushing to the extreme with phase change cooling, the basic steps remain the same. One thing that is far too common are mistakes mounting your cooling system, specifically the application of the thermal interface material (TIM). If you don’t have much experience mounting cooling apparatus, please refer to this excellent guide from Arctic Silver.
Methodology
Determining methods for finding a stable overclock are highly controversial, everyone has their own definition of a stable system, but when I refer to “stable” in this guide, I am referring to the stability of your selected “stability test.” So for a power user or gamer who wants a reliable system that won’t ever crash due to an overclock pushed too far, you’d need to test with a program that will load all of the cores and threads applicable to your CPU, OCCT and IntelBurnTest are two popular choices. OCCT uses the same algorithm as Prime95 but has a more friendly interface. IntelBurnTest uses the Intel linpak binaries to stress the system and also has an easy to use interface. In this guide I may use testing this is insufficient in your opinion. It is only a guidline and if you feel more testing is necessary for your system, by all means feel free.
So with that in mind, we will attempt to isolate each portion of the system and overclock one step at a time. This may seem time consuming at first glance, but rest assured this will potentially save you hours of troubleshooting and frustration. So go slow, and follow each step very carefully.
BIOS familiarization
If you’ve found my guide online, my guess is you’re looking for more than a basic overclock. If you’re not, and all you’d like is something simple, please redirect your attention to your motherboard manufacturer’s website and download the latest overclocking utility. For basic 10-20% overclocking, they work pretty well. There is “Gigabyte EasyTune6“, “Asus TurboV EVO“, “MSI Control Center“, and “eVGA eleet“. This guide is written to take it to the next level, for THAT we need to do the overclocking from the BIOS.
Speaking of which, before we begin, please check your motherboard manufacturer’s website for the latest version of your BIOS. Usually enthusiast level boards will have BIOS engineers tweaking them for months or years to improve overclocking support. Unless you have a reason to stay with your current BIOS, I’d update to the newest version.
If you don’t know how to access the BIOS, please refer to your motherboard’s owner’s manual for instruction. While you’re there, find out how to “clear CMOS”. As I mentioned in the introduction to this guide, it’s important you know how to properly “clear CMOS” before we begin.
Secondly, the first thing to do after powering up the new system is to enter the BIOS and find the “hardware monitor” area and verify the CPU temperature is reasonable based on your cooling. If not, please power down the system and verify the mounting of your cooling apparatus (refer to the guide linked in the “prerequisites” section above).
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Hi,
I followed this guide to give a new life to an “old” i7 920 (stepping C0/C1) + GA-EX58-UD3R (BIOS FI) + 6 GB GSkill DDR3 1866 + Antec Kuhler H2O 650.
It’s my first overclocking attempt.
Approach is very clear and straightforward : I reached easily 3.6 GHz BCLK = 180 (CPU multiplier = 20, RAM multiplier = 8, Uncore multiplier = 18), with CPU voltage = 1.325 V, QPI voltage = 1.34 V and RAM voltage = Auto (1.5 V). Load temperature = 57 °C, load power consumption = 255 W, idle temperature = 47 °C, idle power consumption = 234 W.
I couldnt rise BCLK beyond and I am very conscious that I didnt reach a max overclock, but I am still happy with this, as this computer is mainly used for batch processing of video files with Handbrake and Avidemux (Mint LMDE MATE 201403).
Many thanks to miahallenp !
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Nice Guide, Been a while for me, added a few new bits to an Existing well OC’d i7 920 rig, Had a few instability issues and thought I’d already tweaked it but have had to start from scratch, this Guide Is very useful.
I would Like to add a few points that you haven’t covered, And although I’m not your daily OC’r I did sometime a while back have a period of 2 years when I got my kicks out of it and was avidly spending to much time in front of a PC OC’ing.
There are some combinations of hardware that certain i7 setups do not like even Uncore settings, even Bclk like 200, or 180, and mine is one of them, I followed your guide as a refreshment of having to re OC my rig after its been stable for 3-4 years due to adding new hardware.
and I went for sample 2 as although I have a fully water cooled rig, I have small reservoirs & require quite high voltage on Vcore & QPi due to the 2000mhz GSkill P Storm ram I have.
My Rig Is
Mobo set up
GigaByte X58A UD7 Rev-1 Bios F7
Bloomfield i7 920 @ 4.2ghz 1.39v
EK Nickel CPU WB
EK Nickel full Mofset, NB & SB WB,
Black Ice GTX 240 all copper radiator 4x 240 fans P&P
Laing DDC 18w
12Gb Gskill Perfect Storm 1980mhz @ 8-8-8-20 1.66v
QPI 1.47v
2x Evga GTX780 SLi
EK Full WB on GTX780′s
Black Ice GTX 240 all copper radiator 4 x 240 fans P&P
Laing DDC 18w
PNY GTX 240 dedicated Physix
XSPC Dual Res, 2x 5.25 bay both pumps mounted directly beneath
2x Corsair Force GT 240Gb In XMS Raid
1x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB storage
ENERMAX Revolution 85+ Gold PSU
Samsung Blue ray/DVD/CD Drive
Cooler Master HAF Heavily Modded case
Alphacool LCD
Roebust Fan Controller & 12v,5v,3.5v Rail Fan PCB
ALL Bits power Chrome compression fittings with 3/4 OD 1/2 ID tubing 2 tone blue & Green for dual loop
regards mike
I didn’t realize how old these comments were, but in case anybody is perusing in the future as I am, I will say I have it under control now. I ended up fiddling with some settings, particularly lowering to be exactly double of my current spd rather than double what spd will be, reason being is my spd was going to stay at 6x rather than increase to 8x like sample #1 suggested. This caused bios to fail to post and repeatedly reboot so I CMOS jumped it.
After reconfiguring again & triple checking, as well as setting qpi ratio to x36 (I forgot that it was recommended earlier in the guide introduction before the actual guide begins), and besides that the only thing I did was turn some other voltages off auto and set them to what would be recommended later on in the guide… For example setting vcore to it’s starting recommendation, as well as dram voltage to 1.5 (stock).
Idk how but last night I was at 60-65 at 190 bclk as opposed to 85-90 as before when I got that high. I figure some of those voltages being on auto was making them messy. I suppose this means I should suggest those standard/base recommended settings described later in the guide should be mentioned in the beginning, at least as a troubleshooting suggestion. Naturally I left everything that isn’t touched in the guide on auto as recommended. I only changed what would eventually be changed off auto and on to its starting point setting.
Now when I get home I’m gonna run memtest after tightening memory timings (I don’t believe I have to go through the 150-190 bclk testing again because I’m not actually raising the spd past 6, since I’m going for 190×21 = 3990 on 1333mhz ram, which would put it at 1540 at x8 and even if I could stabilize it I don’t see a point (first time oc so I’m happy enough as it is).
I think I’ll go through the 150-190 bclk again in case tightening timings requires stability testing as well, even though they’re being set to manufacturer ratings. I assume this is the correct and safe thing to do? (Test anyway even when underclocking).
Anyway enough rambling. I highly doubt any of this monologue was necessary but maybe it’ll help a future browser. If anyone does happen to see this page, has this guide become slightly outdated at all? I know that it is still very useful and will get me where I want to be, but I’ve also read about 20x multipliers being less stable than 19 or 21, which this guide doesn’t mention at all. Are there other tidbits that have been discovered or fine tuned since? Either way I can see this is still a fantastic all in one go to guide especially for a first time oc’er. Incredibly easy to understand and I am very happy I am finally able to do this with my adequate cooling. Thanks goes to the author for his help, which if I am any proof will guide people for years to come – as long as bloomfields are still in use, at the very least.
How hot should you be after only the first bclk increases and stress tests? Like literally setting the qpi/vtt, low spd, and low multiplier in those first steps. With my new phanteks cooler (the big one) my temps before changing anything were good, high 30s idle 55 load. After resetting to optimized defaults & beginning this guide, the first test at 15x150bclk I was 70 load. Now 80-83 at 180 bclk.
Nowhere I can find anybody complaining about increased temps from simply raising bclk, especially by utilizing this guide’s method of lowering the multiplier to isolate first. Running i7 930 on x58a-ud3r following sample 1 roughly.
Mind you I’ve yet to blue screen but consider a failure in prime 95 a failure. I’ve upped qpi/vtt by 0.020 once, to 1.220. I’m worried what I’ll see when I get deeper into this guide… Why would my temps go so crazy?
@ miahallen, Cool Story Bro.
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