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 Lynnfield 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 “prerequisits” section.
64 Comments
[...] making it better. Good guide! Just a thought, but you may want to link to this picture from this guide so that some of the new guys don't get confused when their board's bios uses different terminology. [...]
[...] a little more specific questions and you will get all the help you need. I'd suggest starting here. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ 2) Maybe I'm biased because I have a couple 460's but I really don't see a 560 as being all that [...]
[...] [...]
[...] version when I was learning, check out the explainations and definitions, sorry for being so brief Here __________________ Core i7 4GHz+ Club 4.0 Official Scythe Gentle Typhoon Club Bloomfield OC [...]
[...] and DRAM voltage that is the problem. OP, read this. Follow it. Your problem will be solved. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ [...]
[...] But there should be 1 other voltage option. QPI – VTT Here is a pretty simple guide for it – http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ __________________ Vantage – P23847 – Q9550 @ 4.50 – 3DMark06 – 23425i5-760 Club – EP45 UD3 [...]
[...] Asus Maximus III Formula Owners Thread If you new to overclocking you should read this first, 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield H70 is enough for a 3,6, could even be enough for 4,0. Also go to "User CP", Edit [...]
[...] [...]
Please register in the forums and make a thread in the Intel section to receive the fastest and most comprehensive responses to your questions: http://www.techreaction.net/forums
I followed the guide, and after step 1, CPU-Z should display CPU=2250 MHz and Memory=450 MHZ.
CPU-Z shows me 2250 MHz but for Memory it shows 903.8 MHz, what am i doing wrong?
For the record DRAM is 903.8 MHz (that is what i should look at right?)
[...] flashed the newest BIOS (A72), and started from the optimal settings. I'm following a guide I found here. So far, I've been able to set the clock ratio to x15, the memory to 2:6, and the bclock to 150MHz. [...]
[...] as far as the available guides here at OCN, but another one you might want to look at is this one: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ Hope this addresses at least some of your [...]
[...] the voltage without it being dangerous. and what is the average overclock of ram. how many mhz? QPI/VTT explained My mem sticks have XMP rated at 1.35v 1600Mhz. But I already tried up to 1.65v and still safe. [...]
Excellent guide – gave the courage to try with my new system (Core i7 875 and 8 G ECZ PC3 28600 memory on GIG p55-USB3 MB). Before I start, the base line sensor test results with real temp 3.6 is:
53, 49, 52 and 49 C. Under maximum stress with IntelBurn Test gave:
IntelBurnTest v2.50
Created by AgentGOD
—————————-
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU K 875 @ 2.93GHz
Clock Speed: 2.93 GHz
Active Physical Cores: 8
Total System Memory: 8183 MB
Stress Level: Maximum (5949 MB)
Testing started on 12/8/2010 7:28:39 PM
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[19:35:50] 381.807 35.7809 3.295432e-002
Testing ended on 12/8/2010 7:35:50 PM
Test Result: Success.
How do you rate the cooling in this system – I have a cooler master hyper 212 plus.
Thanks
Sujeeth
[...] a good guide: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…e-lynnfield/3/ [...]
awesome guide! thank a lot for your time sharing with us and taking your time to improve it. I will be following it to OC my new i7 860
[...] It also contains pictures of my bios and what ever you see is what I see The guide I used: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ On page 2 theres a translation guide for all of you that don't have an ASUS motherboard, with [...]
[...] situation shown in picture and this is the guide I'm using: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ Attached Thumbnails __________________ function showHide(what){ [...]
[...] is a great guide check it out dude! http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ [...]
With the bclock at 190 and the mem ratio at 3, the memory should operate at DDR3-1140. If it’s at DDR3-1440, then your using the x4 ratio.
If you follow the steps in the guide, you would not:
“Last, I went back to 190 freq and I bumped the multiplier up to 21″
….my guide is written to avoid large changes like that which make troublshooting difficult.
Your temps and voltage ranges sound just fine
Go back and take things a little slower and I think you’ll do fine 
So I followed this guide to OC my i5 760. I am new to OCing. I have the cosair H50 cooling system. So I found it reaches 190 freq x 15 multiplier vtt was around 1.22V running at idle temp of 40′s and low 50′s. Is this normal? when tested under intelburntest temp reaches low 80′s and mostly in 70′s. Is this ok?
Also my DRAM multiplier on my MSI board, it has ratio I can only select Auto, 3, 4, and 5. So I am using 3 which usually puts it at 1440 mhz. Is this correct?
When I got my system to boot with 200 freq x 15 multiplier vtt is 1.35 (is this vtt ok or too high?) When I run intelburntest it crashes or in about 20 seconds says its complete with no errors. I cant get the test to run all the way through. What am I doing wrong.? ALso I have noticed when I run Prime95 my CPU core temps do not reach near as high temperatures as intelburntest. When I run Prime95 it runs several test 5min worth fine no errors.
Last, I went back to 190 freq and I bumped the multiplier up to 21. (should I use 20 or 21?) and I couldnt get my system to boot. I changed the vcore to 1.3V and still could not get it running. This is where I am at. What do I need to do to get my system to run at 190 freq?
I would also like to go to 200 freq if possible or close to 4 ghz
[...] actually take a look at this guide, it's written with i7's in mind. It's a little different than 775 overclocking, so if you're [...]
Great Guide. Great approach, and it helped me isolate the Vtt voltage and find the limits for BCLK and my memory speed. Where I had a lot of difficulty was with increasing the CPU speed. I found that as I increased my Vcore I could not get to a stable CPU when increasing over 3.4Ghz. My target was 4Ghz (182×22). What I finally figured out that enabled me to get to 3.6Ghz was to lower Vtt. Then to get over 3.6 / 3.8 Ghz I also needed to increase Vpll to 1.9V. Maybe this is just for my motherboard or the I7-870 but increasing voltages does not always get the system stable and in fact sometimes you may need to decrease Vtt at high clock speeds to get the system stable.
Thanks amalgam! Yes, I stand by my recommendation. I don’t want to go into too much detail here because it gets very confusing very quickly for most readers. For more information, please refer to Intel’s technical documentation here: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/designex/322167.pdf
To put it simply, when overclocking….Intel specifications are going to be exceeded….in it’s essence, that what overclocking is all about
Concerning the 72.7 degrees temp figure that some people throw around, yes you will find reference to it in the documentation I linked (“Tcase_max” Table 6.2)….but it is assuming stock speeds & voltages, it is based on a formula that will output a different figure once you factor in our overclocking measures. The other important note about that figure is that is is the “Tcase” temp sensor built into your CPU…my suggestion (as referenced in the guide) is to watch the individual core temps, not the “Tcase” temp
Hi, thank-you for the guide! This is my first attempt at overclocking and I have an i5-750 and overclocked to 3.9 (195×20), stable for 2 hrs in prime (haven’t tested longer), and will be using your guide to start over and do another oc. My temps are are up to 77 in prime right now with the 3.9 oc. My vtt is 1.26 and my vcore is 1.36. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see your suggestion of under 99 degrees being still reasonable temperatures. Are you sure that is ok? Or am I misunderstanding something? Because I thought my temperatures were too high because many people say intel suggests 72.7 as the max. Thanks for your reply!
[...] on overclocking. Here are some external links that you would help you in overclocking i5-760: 1. 3 Step Overclocking guide – Lynnfield 2. Make sure your mobo has LOTES sockets for safer and higher OC(4.0 and up) 3. Worldwide [...]
[...] i have been following an OC guide. here it is: 3 Step Guide to Overclocking – Lynnfield It is a step by step guide on how to find the limitations of your cpu, and find the optimal [...]
[...] this guide specifically aimed at overclocking Lynnfields http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ About the 1333MHz RAM you will just have to adjust the memory multiplier for it. 3.0 Should be a [...]
[...] step by step guide. Hope you guys found this very helpful especially for the newbies! ^_^ 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield [...]
[...] and up to date (Guide's I've been looking at to get a general idea along with my other research: 1st 2nd 3rd ) [...]
[...] just set according to spec for the RAM you have. A pretty decent guide I saw floating around. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ __________________ Cooler Master Storm Sniper Club– The Asus P6X58D Premium Thread –The PPD [...]
[...] you to 4.0. Lots of good guides around. This looks like a pretty decent guide for Lynnfield. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ [...]
[...] you can change the CPU Ratio. A good guide for you to check out while you wait on your new cooler. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ Don't be scared to go threw and change a bunch of stuff. Just don't hit F10 to save unless you are [...]
[...] 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield | TechREACTION All you need baby! [...]
[...] [...]
[...] Another question, what should the ioh voltage be? iam am using a updated 3 step guide found here :http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ is it up to date [...]
[...] OCing my i5. No work today, and I'm bored. Are there any (simple) guides I can use? Try this. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ __________________ Cooler Master Storm Sniper Club– The Asus P6X58D Premium Thread –The PPD [...]
[...] up a bit on it before you start, just so you understand how it works. You can start with this, 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield Then you can head over to i7 875K Club & Discussion, lots of people ready to help you. [...]
[...] http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ This looks to be a pretty good guide for lynnfields. I could probably be more helpful but I'm not at all sure yet as to all the differences between overclocking a Lynnfield and the Bloomfield and don't want to steer you wrong. __________________ Cooler Master Storm Sniper Club– The Asus P6X58D Premium Thread –The PPD Police! in pursuit of a cure Tinker [...]
[...] those same voltages, it is stable at a bclk of 167MHz and a cpu multi of 24. I heartily recommend Miahallen's 3-step method. I modified it a bit, but that's basically how I found my own overclock. Given that you have a [...]
[...] like that might make that OC unstable, you can try to turn them on after you get a stable OC. Here's a guide if you haven't read one yet, updated on the 7th of September so it's fairly new and the guy [...]
[...] My HWBot profile Intel CPU buyer's guide 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Bloomfield & Gulftown 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield 3 Step Overclocking Guide – Clarkdale Heat My small and powerful gaming rig! [...]
[...] I hate that kids voice, sounds like a slightly manlier Justin Gayber. OC'ing isn't that hard, read this if you want, probably one of the best guides out there IMO. Love the stuff that Miahallen does. [...]
[...] [...]
Mate, I just wanted to say a big thankyou to you for creating this guide. It has taught some excellent fundamentals and I’m sure I will refer to it A LOT it in the future. Great work.
Cheers.
[...] linked in crossfire and OCing the primary. any help or points in the right direction? Here is a link to a guide for overclocking a lynnfield chip. I'd recommend reading several basic overclocking [...]
[...] Overclocking Guide Remember that our memory controller is on the same die as our cpu. Look at my voltages as an example of what you might use. The Vtt is important, as Miah says, but don't get it too hot. Intel used to tell us the absolute max was 1.21v. Now it says the absolute max is 1.4v. I keep mine under 1.21v except when I am playing around. I also don't push my Vcore too hard, but for another reason: push that too high and your chip heats up. Don't try to push your memory too hard. Speeding up the memory does very little to speed up your system. So back off. Although mine is now at 1820MHz (182MHz base clock, 10x RAM multiplier), for example I used to run it at 1456 MHz (x8). Play with your system. For example, using Miah's advice I set my cpu multi to 9x and was able to run my bclk to 232MHz. Later I was able to run my cpu clock to 4664MHz. Of course, nothing was stable at those speeds. You wouldn't try to do any work at 4664 – you'd really get your cpu very hot very soon. But you can play with parameters. Turn off Speed Step and the other C-states. Then with Turbo Boost on Auto or Enabled you can get to 4GHz with a bclk of only 182. Otherwise, if you disable TB your make cpu multi is 21x, so you'll need a bclk of 191 to get to 4GHz. Have fun. __________________ 1. The Well Dressed Megahalems – 65 fans tested in 112 configurations on the same rig so they can be directly compared. 2. Case exhaust with no case fans: free your airflow. 3. Lubricate your fan. 4. How to mount 3 fans on a D14. 5. Ziptie screw. HT & LLC enabled PLL 1.8v PCH 1.12v; Mem 8-8-7-27 tRC 47 tRFC 88 Vdimm 1.616v | Case: 2 GT AP-14's, 1 AP-12, 1 Kaze Maru 1200, 1 KM 500 [...]
[...] could also read over this, some stuff will be different, but the basic idea is the same. http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/…ide-lynnfield/ [...]
Thanks for the question….we’ve learned a lot since I published the first guide, and my comment about the PCH in the previous guide turnout out to be false.
Awesome guide! Just one question though, in this you write that the PCH should be bumped up quite a lot, since my motherboard can only go to 1.15 I had a look around and in your previous guide you used IOH in the place of PCH, you also said:
“No…as stated in the guide, these should be left on “auto”…Raising the PCH is a bad idea, and I’ve heard can burn HW pretty quick…I have not found it to help an OC at all. ”
So is the use of PCH in this guide a typo or is it intentional?
Cheers!
Newer Comments »