Guide to overclocking an i5.

[Aidan Sandri]

Been toosing up if I should do it or not.. I have an i5-750 @ 2.66ghz (stock speed) with a UD3 mobo and my CPU cooler is an Arctic Alpine 11 pro.

Is that CPU Cooler any good? At the end of the year I plan to change it to either a Coolermaster V8 Pro or Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, feedback on that would be great please  So as I was saying, how high do you think I would get with the current CPU Cooler? And if anybody who has an i5-750 can you tell me what steps you did to overclock and how big the improvement is?

[Phil Manhart]

Well, OC'ing is pretty easy these days... no more jumpers or soldering like the old days... 

Without making this a two page post, here's a great link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-750-overclock,2438.html

Using their method should do you fine, just be careful and not to over do it!

Also, I use an Arctic Freezer 7 Rev 2 and am not happy with it, I would much rather have a V8 or True-120 to cool it. It's quiet... but doesn't keep the temps down like the two I mentioned do. With your heatsink/fan just watch the temps with speedfan ( http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php ) when you boot into Windows and make sure she doesn't go over 70 under full load.

Phil

[Aidan Sandri]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for that guide.. Ive read it before, but never really made sense to me.. Could you possibly be able to explain it a bit clearier than that website did please?

[Phil Manhart]

Okay, here goes. I'll try and keep it simple.

First off: YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR CPU, RAM, MOTHERBOARD, OS INSTALLATION SO BE CAREFUL AND ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE! (but don't actually physically cut anything of course!)

The basic terms you need to know:

Bus Speed (FSB)

CPU Multiplier (FSB x CPU Multiplier = CPU Clock Speed)

Ram Multiplier (determines RAM speed by multiplying FSB)

Vcore (Voltage supplied to the CPU)

What you will be attempting to do is modify your FSB, CPU Multiplier, Ram Multiplier (to keep the RAM safe and operating at it's rated speed for the best read/write rates) and Vcore to achieve an overclock. All the while monitoring your temperatures and system stability.

To begin with, familiarize yourself with your BIOS and hardware. Learn the pages of the BIOS (especially where to adjust your FSB, CPU Multiplier, RAM Multiplier and voltages). Make sure you know what your RAM is rated for, such as 1200, 1600, 1800.

To start overclocking, simply increase your FSB to achieve an overclock of 3.0 Ghz, your BIOS should display what speed this will be on the screen or if not you can simply use a calculator (FSBxCPU Multiplier). Make sure that the RAM Multiplier is set in order to keep the RAM at or below it's prescribed speed (i.e. in my case my RAM is rated for 1600 Mhz). Boot into Windows and you have done a simple overclock!

From here you keep adjusting your FSB, checking your RAM for correct speed, and booting into Windows.

Do this until you reach 3.6 Ghz, which will be a nice big jump from stock speeds. You should be able to do this without setting your CPU Multiplier above 20 or raising your Vcore voltage. Once you have reached this, boot up FSX and try a nice long flight over dense scenery to really tax the CPU and check for stability. I recommend running Speedfan to monitor you temps while running FSX also!

If you are happy with the results, stay at 3.6 Ghz, or you can go even higher! Going higher may require tweaking your Vcore and other voltages, supplying more voltage to the CPU and other components in order to compensate for the higher clock speeds.

Once you get the hang of the BIOS and overclocking, the terms that are used in that Toms Hardware link I posted should make a lot more sense and can help guide you the rest of the way, but if you need more explanation I'm happy to help!

Good luck!

Phil