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 Clarkdale 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 the prior 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 that 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.
23 Comments
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For the ones who overclock with turbo boost enable and you want to test the last notch of turbo multi. Like for myself an i5-650 X26 on one thread. You start Intel Burn Test on any number of core and you start task manager and select affinity with the core 0 for test
Or 2 core if you like for me it will be 25X multi
3-4 cores X24 multi
hope it helps
Fantastic guide. In the past i had spent days trying to overclock my Q6600 and my only accomplishment would be the BSOD! This time I’ve manged to OC my i5 650 dual core to 4.2 GHz easily. Tried to get it to 4.4 but the Vcore was too high @ 1.425…………once again many thanx for an easy to follow guide
Hey _Ra_…thanks for stopping by. Can you make a thread in our forums? It’s a better place to have conversation
http://www.techreaction.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=18
Thank you the guide
But i have problem.
This is my pc:
Intel Core i3-540 K0 3,07Ghz
Gigabyte GA H55M-D2H
2X2gbyte Kingston value 1333Mhz CL9
Chieftech gps-450
Gigabyte HD5770 1GB GDDR5
My OC:
http://prohardver.hu/dl/upc/2011-01/217403_kepkivagas.jpg
CPU Vcore: 1,26875V
QPI/VTT voltage: 1,210V
Ram voltage: 1,64V
If I increase the value of blck: the pc is not stable
If I increase the the multiplier: the pc is not stable
If i increase the voltage(qpi or cpu): BIOS crash.
I dont know what is the problem.
Please help me! (and sorry my bad english, i am a hungarian guy. 
)
[...] had please read this guide it helps alot as well as the people who replied to this thread. Guide: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…e-clarkdale/3/ Thanks again for everyone's help and if i get lucky and do something absurd like 4.6-8ghz i'll be [...]
[...] had a i5 650. Great chip, got mine to 5.6 (proof) i found this to be helpful: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-clarkdale/ If you are getting no-post, it is more than likely lack of vtt volts. when you start to get above [...]
Hey
thanks for reply , Cores a I3-560 .
I did Read that bit i think i understod it and i set the iGPU Frequence to 550 Mhz as im aming for the #1 OC , Ill read through guide again to make sure i didnt miss anything , Thanks Will do
Ben
Hey Ben…sounds like an iGPU problem. Did you read the last section on page 2?
“iGPU frequency = (set iGPU freq) x (set bclock freq) / 133″
If you have any more problems or concerns, please post a thread in the forums so it gets more exposure
Miah
Hey , Nice Guide
I tryed it and had It at 180Mhz BCLK , loaded OS and was running IntelBurn And the screen just goes all fuzzy Colours and i have to reset PC , Is this a stababilaty Issue or me been Stupid ?
Thanks
[...] rezonabile nu ar trebui sa ai probleme. Daca nu ai prea multa experienta la OC te poti documenta aici, aici si [...]
[...] 540 overclock help I read a few guides including this one: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…e-clarkdale/4/ Could anyone give me ballpark voltages to be trying for 4ghz to 4.4ghz? Does vtt matter as much [...]
[...] His guide for Lynnfields is pretty good and I don't doubt that his Clarkdale guide is as well. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-clarkdale/ __________________ — The Asus P6X58D Premium & E Thread –The PPD Police! in pursuit of a [...]
urm on isolating cpu from bclock u say set the CPU clock ratio to x14 and then you say set first fsb to 150 which would boot @ 2100Mhz but later you have this
Sample #1 – CPU = 2400MHz, QPI = 3300MHz, memory = 450MHz
did u mean set it to x16? or have i completely missed something ?
Yes that helps, thaks a lot. So, the IMC voltage is QPI/VTT voltage. Too, bad my range is too limited – from 1.10V to 1.20V with a 0.05V interval. That gives me only 3 steps. I managed to run the IntelBurnTest for one hour stable at 184MHz BCLK (i3 540 with stock cooler) at 1.15V IMC. Tonight I’ll continue with step 2 “Optimize Memory Frequency”. Thanks again – great guide.
1) Very interesting….looks like Asus can’t even standardize their own BIOS terminology…I used a ROG board to fill out the table for Asus. Below are the values you can match up to under “Asus” in the table.
1. [same]
2. QPI/DRAM Core Voltage
3. DRAM Bus Voltages
4. [not important]
5. [same]
6. [same]
So, in your BIOS the QPI/VTT voltage is called “QPI/DRAM Core Voltage”
2) I think you’re confusion concerning step two is due to the fact you’re confusing what you are overclocking. From the 1st section of Step #2
“My suggestion for now is to focus on getting the IMC overclocked to the memory’s rated speed (cause remember, the IMC is only rated to run at DDR3-1066).”
So, step 2 is not really about overclocking memroy, which is why I suggest locking in the DRAM voltage…..it’s about overclocking the memory controller to reach the default memory speed….and for that, we again need to focus on QPI/DRAM Core Voltage like you did in step one….but in step #2 you’ll likely have to push it a bit higher.
Sorry about the delayed response…..did I answer your question?
This is very good and comprehensive guide. It is very helpful for new overclockers like me. Thanks a lot.
I have couple of questions, though.
1) I have an Asus P7H55-M Pro motherboard and some of the terminology doesn’t match the comparison table above. My mobo has 6 different types of voltages:
1. CPU Voltage – from 0.85V to 1.60V with a 0.00625V interval,
2. IMC Voltage – from 1.10V to 1.20V with a 0.05V interval,
3. DRAM Voltage – from 1.2V to 2.2V with a 0.10V interval,
4. CPU PLL Voltage – from 1.8V to 2.15V with a 0.05V interval,
5. PCH Voltage – from 1.05V to 1.40V with a 0.05V interval,
6. iGPU Voltage – from 0.5V to 1.75V with a 0.0125V interval,
Which of these voltages would be the QPI/VTT voltage, as it is not mentioned anywhere in my BIOS (except for the QPI Frequency).
2) In step 1 “Maximize Bclock Frequency” the voltage that is tweaked is the bclock voltage (QPI/VTT). In step 3 “Stabilize CPU Frequency” we start with CPU Vcore 1.2V and the vcore is later tweaked. In step 3.5 “iGPU Overclocking” respectively we tweak the iGPU Voltage. However, in step 2 “Optimize Memory Frequency” we manually set the DRAM Voltage to 1.65V, but later on the guide states that we have to “raise the CPU VTT voltage by 0.0125V” (if the IntelBurnTest fails).
Please help.
Great guide. Thank you so much. So much detail and no, you’re not repeating yourself, you needed to explain everything or else I wouldn’t understand as much as I do now. This is the only ‘real’ guide to overclocking the Core i3.
[...] i am a complete idiot. I figured out why my overclocks werent stable. I saw THIS guide and read over it, and i guess i was missing a LOT of the stuff i was supposed to do, namely the IMC [...]