Thread: Overclocking Tutorial. All you need to know.

All credit given to Toms Hardware.

This tutorial should cover everything you need to know about overclocking, from hardware to settings to software. All prices are *ESTIMATES* and vary depending on country, site, and whether it is on sale of course. Prices may or may not include tax and/or shipping, again depending on location of purchaser, site, and whether it is on sale. Mostly prices should just give you an idea of the relative prices of heatsinks. Also all prices are in USD.

First off, note that neither I take ANY responsibility for anything that may happen in the course of following this guide. Overclocking is hard on components and can result in stuff breaking. If your house burns down, or your computer blows the local power routing station's fuses, it's your problem. While I (and many others) consider overclocking to be safe as long as it is done responsibly, i highly recommend that you practice on an old computer you have laying around even if it's just with stock components. Much of overclocking is simply experience, and the more you have before you attempt to oc your brand new 4000$ rig, the less chance of something going wrong.

Note that I liberally take ideas from www.tomshardware.com; that site is what taught me most of the basic ideas behind overclocking that i know, even though the specific items that i recommend may be different from theirs. Also note that i do not get into water/TEC/peltier/other exotic cooling systems, as i dont have the first-hand experience to do so, dont keep up on whats new in that area, and if you're going that hardcore, youd damn well better know enough about what youre doing that you dont need my help. Plus they are FAR more expensive, and tend to be less transferrable and safe.

Many people will look at this and think "my god, all this stuff costs almost as much as a computer itself" -- and you're right, if you get all of it. But you can do low-level overclocking with stock stuff, mid-level with just a new cpu heatsink/fan, and most importantly, much of this stuff can transfer to your next computer. Every few generations, youll need a new heatsink, but fans, ram fans, north/southbridge fans, hdd coolers, etc can migrate from one computer to another almost indefinately. So you're not just investing in THIS computer, but all your future computers as well.

Stage 1 - Hardware:

Before even attempting anything but the most rudimentary overclocking, you need to have the hardware that will allow you to do it.

CPU:

the main part of any overclocking is the CPU. there are three parts of hardware in cpu overclocking:

CPU:

The actual CPU itself is probably the most important choice. I highly recommend the quad 6600, and really dont think there is any other choice at the moment. MAKE SURE you get a stepping G0 model! This cpu should run between 250 and 300$.

Heatsink:

For general overclocking, i recommend the Ultra 120 by thermalright: http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/pro...W50aHVzaWFzdA== . It is a good average-level overclocking heatsink. You can pick your own fan, and it delivers great performance at a decent price. It should be 50-60$.

For low-level overclocking, i recommend the Zalman 9500 or 9700. It is easy to use, as they both come with a fan (and speed dial) built in, and are very quiet yet give good performance. the 9500 should be 40-50$ and the 9700 should be ~60$

For ultimate overclocking, i recommend the IFX-14 http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/pro...W50aHVzaWFzdA== . It should be 70-80$. It supports 2 fans normally, and you can stick a third fan of 38mm or less width (ToxicWasted) inbetween the two towers.

Fans:

Check the fan section later in the tut for general fan stuff.

I recommend the Tornado series (iirc, sold by Vantec but the fans are manufactured by Sunon) -- they should run in the 20$ range, and come in 80 and 120mm sizes. Be aware that these are LOUD but also provide what *I* believe to be the best performance.

Finally, if you want more performance you can try lapping your heatsink and/or cpu. LAPPING VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY. Therefore i suggest lapping the heatsink but not the cpu, but it's your choice. Use a lapping kit, dont try and do it with household materials. The actual instructions on how to lap your heatsink/cpu are beyond the scope of this tutorial, but there are plenty of lapping kits and guides out there. And no, they arent expensive.

Ram:



Overclocking your ram will yield minimal results for most things (some people run benches like compression programs or video encoding or game benchmarks to test faster ram, and claim there is no difference in real life applications. they are idiots -- those programs dont use much memory bandwidth, so of COURSE there will be no difference. try using a program that uses lots of memory bandwidth, and you'll see a difference -- but again, for most uses the increase is minimal). The primary reason to overclock your ram is that you *have to* to overclock your cpu, unless the cpu is unlocked. That said, ram is much more complicated than the cpu, as there are far more brands and models out there. Iit has three components as well: the ram, the heatspreader, and the fans.

Ram:

As far as brand, any major brand will do, however i personally like G.Skill and PQI. Patriot, Kingston, Corsair, and many other major brands are fine too though. Do NOT get some random brand. For more info, see the building your own pc tutorial.

For speed, you should get at LEAST 1066mhz (pc8500) ddr2, if you have money to burn then go ddr3.

Many people have no clue what ram "timings" are; i could go in-depth as to what they mean, but it is unimportant. All you need to know is that lower is better. You need at MOST 5-5-5-15 for overclocking ram, and 4-4-4-12 would be great; it is very difficult to find fast ram that has timings lower than that, as the faster the ram gets the higher the timings get in general. Again, for more info, see the building your own pc tutorial.

Voltage is something you need to pay attention to for two reasons: 1) make sure your motherboard SUPPORTS the voltage your ram runs at; any board geared to overclockers should support any voltage range you're going to need, however many non-overclocking boards do not support voltages above 1.8. 2) higher voltage runs hotter. That means that 5-5-5-18 ram running at 2.1v can often beat 5-5-5-15 ram running at 2.3v, as the former ram can have its voltage knocked up and hit faster speeds.

Finally, ram is very hit-or-miss (CPUs are too, but to a much lesser extent). ALL ram you buy should at a minimum be able to operate at box specs; beyond that, it's luck of the draw. Some sticks will only reach their package specs, while some can far exceed them. Look up the sticks you plan on buying to get an idea of their overclocking reputation, but it is still largely luck.

As far as channels, pretty much any modern board should have dual channel ddr2 or better. Make SURE your board supports dual channel however. This also means that you should ALWAYS buy ram in pairs; running 2x1gb sticks is (theoretically) twice as fast as 1x2gb stick; also, theoretically a quality board should have no difference between 2x2gb sticks and 4x1gb sticks, however there are reports that there is some performance lost, plus it generates more heat, so i suggest sticking to 2 sticks whenever possible. Make SURE they are the same exact stick -- dont buy one of one brand and one of the other, or even different models of the same brand. Preferably purchase them in a kit (where both sticks come in the same package). This is also usually cheaper.

Ram prices are far too varied and change too often for me to bother putting them on here, but plan on spending 50-400$ depending on the quality and quantity of ram, as well as how much you plan on overclocking. Yet again, check the build your own pc tutorial for some recommendations.

Heatspreaders:

These, by contrast, are all pretty much the same. There are minor variations between models, but basically as long as you have them, you're set. Most ram you buy should have them already on, but if by some chance it doesnt, be sure to buy some. It should run you ~3$ for a heatspreader kit.

Fans:

Many people dont even realize they make fans for ram. They do. They arent expensive. I recommend them if you are doing more than a little overclocking. They should run you 10-20$ (keep in mind that you will likely need 2 of them as you should be using dual channel; also, the Thermalright one can be tough to fit on if your ram channels are too close together).

Motherboard:

I am not going to go into which mobo to get; they change often, and there is a wide range. Look up reviews, and pick a good overclocking mobo. Just be sure it *supports* overclocking cpu and ram as well as voltage regulation for those two and Northbridge. You can save some cash if it comes with heatsinks on your Northbridge, Southbridge, etc, unless you're going to do heavy overclocking, in which case you'll have to replace them anyways. You can check the build your own pc tutorial for more info.

As far as keeping your mobo cool, this is probably the most overlooked part of overclocking. I recommend you put these: TigerDirect.com 404 Error - Page Not Found on all of your chips (north/south bridge, chipset, etc). They are 20$ each.

Hard Drives:

While not technically related to overclocking (no, you cant overclock hdds, and I wouldnt recommend doing so even if you could), overclocking generates more heat in the case and so you can run into heat problems with them, also they generate heat which can affect your overclocking. Plus if you use them alot or have many of them you'll run into problems anyways, so I figured I'd include them.

there are two things to consider with hdds: location, and heatsinks.

Location:

Is important in several ways: 1) are they in front of fans? (good) 2) where in the airflow are they? (airflow is covered later) 3) where are they in relation to other components.

If you are concerned about hdd heat, do NOT put them next to other hdds! leave a space in the bay. Also, if you use your opticals often, try not to put your hdds next to them either. Large cases (full towers especially) are good for this.

Heatsinks:

Are also made for hdds. There are two kinds: enclosures, and mounted heatsinks. Enclosures are expensive (20-50$) and take up a full bay slot (where optical drives normally go); they also give the best performance. However, they are overkill unless you have a full tower (with lots of full bays) and tons of cash to burn. Therefore i recommend mounted heatsinks. You can pick these up for ~5$ a piece (ie TigerDirect.com 404 Error - Page Not Found but brand doesnt really matter here), and can mount them on hdds mounted in bays if you leave a slot empty. A perfect configuration if you have three half bays (where hdds go) is this Bay 1: Hdd w/heatsink facing down, Bay 2: Empty, Bay 3: Hdd w/heatsink facing up. Thus, the two heatsinks both share the middle bay, allowing you to have two hdds in three slots.

Graphics Cards:

I havent really fooled around with aftermarket graphics heatsinks, as they are usually expensive and not terribly effective. But a few exceptions exist, so feel free to experiment if you wish. be forewarned however that doing so will void your warranty.

What i *will* do is add additional heatsinks and/or fans (generally taken from old computers/PSUs) onto the top side of the graphics card; just be sure it doesnt touch the circuit board or you risk damaging the card. You can also mount a fan above/below the intake fan for the graphics card, which will increase the airflow somewhat.

Power Supply:

there are four things that matter about PSUs:

1) Does it have enough power for your system (dont go too far over as the more power the psu generates, the hotter it will run). Also check the individual rail power and voltage amounts.
2) Does the air go in the correct direction for your case airflow (if you are comfortable with this kind of stuff, on many PSUs you can open it and flip the fan around to reverse the direction.
3) The efficiency (higher efficiency generates less heat, which is good).
4) Stability. Make sure it has rock solid voltage regulation. This is VERY important for overclocking.

Case:

I highly recommend a full tower case for overclocking. The extra room lets you space components out, gives you more room for fans, and makes it easier to work inside the case. Personally i recommend lian-li cases, particularly the PC-70, which i use, however they also have 15+ hdd slot cases for those with many hdds, and other specialized cases. Point being, try to pick a solid aluminum, full-tower case which has good reviews. The case should run 100-300$ if you follow these suggestions.

Airflow:

ok, many people argue over airflow, and to be honest there are cases where every imaginable configuration would be best. however, most often the general idea is to take in air in the front and expel it out the back. you can add as many fans as you feel comfortable with (there are adaptors that put fans into blank optical slots and you can also mount them in the pci exhaust openings). Also, you can use special airflow-increasing cables (such as round IDE cables), and use cable ties to keep other cables together and out of the way.

Fans:

ok, now for fans in general. there are three things you should be concerned with about fans:

Size: The Length (80mm is normal, 120mm is large, but there are both larger and smaller) and in some cases the depth/width too. Also, occasionally weight can matter. The larger the fan, the more CFM it can move and the quieter it will be while doing so.
CFM: How many cubic feet of air it moves per minute. More = better.
Noise: In db or decibals, more = louder. For some this won't matter at all, and for some this will be very important.

Now, as stated above, the larger the fan the more cfm it can move at a lower db. So just for example, it may be something like this (these are just examples):

130 cfm: only 120mm can do it, ~50db
100 cfm: 80@50db, 120@40db
80 cfm: 80@40 db, 120@30db

There are also adaptors that let you use a 120mm fan in a 80mm slot, a 80mm fan in a 60mm slot, etc. Just keep in mind that if mounted horizontally it will exert more torque on the mounting brackets since the adaptor will work like a lever.

The rule with fans is simple: fit as many as you can, of as high cfm as you can, while maintaining a bearable level of noise. Fanmates are extremely useful, as they fit any fan with a dial that lets you turn up/down the rpms of a fan (lower rpm = less cfm, but less db); so if you cant stand the sound of a tornado, you can put a fanmate on it and turn it down. Generally the higher the cfm the more efficient a fan is, so a tornado fanmated down to 30db will generally move more cfm than a fan that makes 30db at stock speed. Of course this is a rule of thumb. Fanmates CANNOT increase the rpm of a fan, turning the fanmate all the way up simply makes it run at ~100% of its stock speed (there is a tiny amount of inefficiency, so the fan may run at 98 or 99% of its stock cfm even with the fanmate all the way up); you can get fanmates plenty of places, for example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835118217 and they should be ~5$ or less.

For ultra overclocking, there are 200+ cfm fans, but they are expensive and VERY loud. Some examples are:

Delta 120mm 220 cfm @ 59 db: Delta GFB1212VHW 120x76mm Very High Speed -- 40$

Thinner Delta 120mm 220 cfm @ 65 db: Delta TFB1212GHE 120x38mm Extreme High Speed -- 30$
Note however that the larger fan will beat the smaller one on heatsink mountings as the larger is a huge, dual-fan setup with very good backpressure resistance, while the thinner one has much less.

Finally, the highest cfm 12v fan in existence: the FrozenCPU 172x150mm fan 265 cfm @ 54.4 db FrozenCPU 172x150mm Fan (265 CFM) - FrozenCPU.com -- 50$
Unfortunately, it is 172x150, which means you will have problems fitting it anywhere. And it comes replete with these fun warnings: "Warning:Due to the size of the impeller, the fan is not able to reduce speed immediately after loss of power and can remain dangerous until its blades finally come to rest. (This may take as long as 10 seconds.)" and "Note: When using this fan on your case we recommend that you use it to exhaust air and not intake air to avoid damage to your components." Yep, it moves so much air that it can CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPONENTS. And if your finger gets in there, you can kiss it goodbye (though they do sell a grille for it).

Stage 2 - Software:

Now, you have fitted your computer with all this nifty overclocking hardware, so it's almost time to start running up the clocks. But first, you need to be able to monitor your temperatures to make sure your computer doesn't turn into slag.

I recommend speedfan for temp sensing, however there are also other tools (such as Motherboard Monitor and CoreTemp). If you're feeling frisky, you can use all three. As long as it senses the temps of what you are overclocking, you're fine. Just make sure it can sense chip temps on your mobo if you're cpu overclocking, as your north/southbridges can also overheat. Keep in mind that some programs will misreport the temperature of certain components -- either look online to see if you need to specify an offset, or test it beforehand to determine if there is adjustment needed.
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the first step in overclocking is to get a baseline. so turn on your cpu utilizer of choice and run it for an hour to get your max temps. i recommend a nifty little tool called cpugrab (from microsoft), as it is free, small and easy to use (plus i have it for slowing down older games). just run it, set the slider to 100%, set the process to lowest priority, and hit start. if you have multiple cores, you will need to run an instance for each core, as it isnt multithreaded. when you're done, just record the temperatures and stop cpugrab. note that this does not affect anything else, just your cpu. obviously we'll have to use other programs later on to test more components.

next, you should reboot; it's time to prepare the other components prior to overclocking the cpu.

Stage 3 - Overclocking:

keep in mind that i take this very slowly and methodically. you can always rush it, but you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! also, if at any point during this process the computer will not boot, you need to reset the bios. you will then have to reenter ALL of the settings again.

boot into your bios. go to the ram settings, and set the speed to the minimum it supports, and relax the latencies (ie, if the default is 5-5-5-15, go to 6-6-6-18 or something similar). this is so that we dont accidentally max out the ram while we are trying to max out the cpu. next, you'll want to bump up your northbridge frequency (if your mobo supports it) -- so increase the voltage a bit. this depends quite a bit on the mobo; mine has nice little guides that are black (normal range), yellow (performance range) and red (danger range) -- if you have a heatsink on it, set it to the very start of the danger range, if not set it to the top of the performance range. this should only be a little difference. also, disable anything in the bios you're not using (floppy drive, optical drives, parallel ports, etc) -- you can reenable them later, we just dont want them interfering with the tests. finally, fix your cpu settings. turn off any special settings like energy saving, etc. they will just mess with the cpu, and often make it run slower. i cant precisely list the settings as it varies from cpu to cpu and mobo to mobo -- if you see a cpu setting, google it to see what it does -- if it doesnt make it run faster, disable it. this is also a good time to set the max temp in the bios if your mobo supports it (i recommend you get a bios that does) -- again, the temp to set it at varies considerably from cpu to cpu, but ~70C is a good rule of thumb. however, as this is a precise science, i recommend you look up your particular CPU to see what the experts recommend.

now save your settings, and boot back into windows (or your os of choice -- in which case you're using entirely different software than that im mentioning) and open up any tool that lets you overclock in-os. on my pc, the mobo came with software that lets you do it, but there is also third party stuff. start up cpugrab again (remember to set it to the lowest priority so it doesnt interfere with what you're doing) and start upping the clock speed. you can probably jump large steps at first, but once the temp starts to get hot, youll have to take it slow. start going in very small increments, and waiting 5-10 minutes between steps. you are trying to get the clock as high as you can before the computer locks up or reboots. if you have good equipment, this will be long before the temp gets very high. this is just giving you a ballpark idea of where to start when you start doing the bios overclocking.

as soon as you encounter trouble, reboot into the bios and set your cpu speed to the LAST speed that worked. now, if the temperature was still pretty low, you probably need to increase the cpu voltage. keep in mind that increasing the cpu voltage will significantly increase the temp, so ALWAYS do it at the lowest possible increment. now, reboot into the OS. run cpugrab for an hour. if the computer locks or reboots (or overheats beyond safe levels) then you need to turn the speed down. if it doesnt, you can turn the speed up. keep doing this step until you encounter problems. at this point, again, if the temp is still low you need to increase the voltage, then repeat the steps until increasing the voltage yields a LOWER max stable speed than the previous voltage, at which point you can drop the voltage down to the old level and you're done (for the moment); now, you need to run a full battery. i suggest running a program that is specifically made for overclocking testing, for at least 8 hours. the program will stress test every component in your computer (well ok not sound or hdds). if you encounter problems, you need to step the cpu down a bit and try again. OPTIONALLY, you can try messing with the northbridge settings again to make sure thats not overheating or bottlenecking, but the odds of that are low, and this adds quite a bit of time to the whole process.

next, you need to max your ram out. again enter the bios, and leave the timings at their relaxed settings. increase the ram speed and boot to the OS. repeat this till you encounter problems, then go to the last setting that worked, and run the 8-hour test again. then boot into the os again and start increasing the timings (each INDIVIDUALLY! starting with the first number first) slowly, again booting to the OS, until you get problems, then drop it go the last working number and move on to the next timing setting. if you're feeling frisky, try upping the voltage and see if you can push your performance higher. just be aware of the heat! generally high-performance ram should handle 2.3v, but 2.5v is really pushing it -- i dont recommend you go above 2.4v and even then only if you know how to properly monitor your ram temp (keep in mind, this is in general -- voltages *do* vary from brand to brand). once your timings are set, run the 8-hour test again. if everything is A-OK, then your CPU and RAM are set.

now, reenable all your bios settings to normal (though i still recommend leaving anything unneeded disabled), boot up again and run the test for 8 hours AGAIN. once you have done this, you are DONE!

as for graphics card overclocking, there are many utilities that do this (ati has excellent first-party tools) and it is essentially the same thing -- turn down the memory, then find your max gpu speed, then find your max memory speed. but of course you can do this all in the os and your computer *shouldnt* lock up so this wont take nearly as long.

Just like to point out that if you're planning on OC'ing, there are different methods for different chipsets. My suggestions would be to go to your motherboard manufacturer's website, head to their forums and look for OC guides specific to you MoBo/CPU. There you should also find guides to OC'ing your RAM (as anyone running an i7 will be using DDR3 which tends to have higher timings and lower voltages than the DDR2 listed here).

Other than that, tis a nice first step guide. And if it's your first time... go slow.

going slow is key. you def dont want to rush... and hurt your chipset

I followed this tutorial long time ago when i overclocked my quad core (q6600) from 2.4 to 3.6 Ghz on air.
Great tutorial.

Ahh! Didnt know that I could find an overclocking tutorial here as well! Thanks for this! Just nice when I am thinking whether to overclock my rig. Hopefully, I will have some nice results by reading this great tutorial!