Can I jump to a little under where my CPU should overclock to and slowly work up?

[Peebugger]

Everything I am reading says to jump the CPU by a small amount, test, rinse and repeat. Why can't I just jump it up a bit (still a lot under what everyone else has OC'd their same CPU to online) and then slowly start to jump up to find the best setting for my system? (I am new to overclocking and have only overclocked my GPU before)

 

[Y0GI]

That is exactly what I did: start off with a big jump and then fine tune from there.

Yogi

 

[Adroid]

Before you do anything, check your temperatures and make sure everything is installed right.

I recommend you read forums and find out what people with a similar build are getting. For instance with a 3570k and a Z77 you might start at 1.25V @ 4.5ghz and see if it boots to windows. If it boots, check temperatures. If temperatures are good, run prime 95 for a couple minutes (keeping a close eye on temps).

If it doesn't crash, up the multiplier. If it does crash, up the voltage. If it starts getting hotter than you want, lower both the voltage and clock until it gets to where you are comfortable with it.

Crashes/reboots are common ground when overclocking. For that reason, it is important to have a system designed to overclock with proper cooling. Most name brand overclocking capable boards have dual bios etc for good reason.

 

[Adroid]

P.S. And yes the "safest" way may be to slowly up multiplier to find the tipping point. I am personally way to impatient for that. It will take hours to days to find a stable and solid OC. Having a target OC based on proper research can cut the chase a bit.

I bought the ivy bridge system expecting to get 4.2-4.5 ghz clock. Sure other people are getting 4.7 or more, but I didn't want to pay that much for a cooler or push the system that hard. My 3570k @ 4.3 is a very reasonable and "safe" overclock. Also, a i5 @ 4.3GHZ will pretty much max out any graphic card on the market. Sure if I had a pair of Titans or R290X I would want to squeeze more out of it, but for a single graphics card solution you aren't going to gain a whole heck of a lot with 200 mhz additional OC on a 3570K. That said, you will notice a significant gain from 3.4ghz to 4.3ghz.