Final Tweeks and Optimizations on New Build

[lucasssan]

Hello,

I came here before buying my components and found this to be an incredibly helpful community. Now, I've finished successfully building my first gaming pc. I've installed windows, updated drivers, and basically it's ready to go.

Having put the time and energy into doing this thing right, I want to make sure that I get the most out of the parts I have. Basically, I'm looking for ideas how to optimize what I have built in BIOS or however else.

Components:

i5 3570k
Powercolor HD7870
8gb ram
ASRock z77 Extreme 4
BenQ xl2420t 120hz


So, I fiddled around in BIOS a bit and got the memory up to 1600mhz where it should be. But I was wondering what other BIOS settings I should look at, and importantly how to get the most out of the 120hz monitor and 7870 gpu. Perhaps a gentle overclocking, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jtenorj]

I hope you have a decent aftermarket cpu cooler like a hyper 212 or the extra money spent on an unlocked cpu will go to waste.

you may well be able to get over 1200mhz core on that hd7870. If you are trying to 3d game at 1080p(120hz), that may not be enough.

 

[lucasssan]

I do have the hyper 212. Not really trying to 3d game at the moment. So, what do I need to do? I'm assuming some BIOS changes, but not quite sure how to begin on that.

 

[jtenorj]

not really sure what bios changes(if any) will provide a notable performance gain. Obviously pushing i5 3570K past 4ghz can make an observable difference, but relatively minor changes to ram(25% more clock speed) won't make much difference to games when you are using a discrete graphics card. maybe if you were using intel hd graphics or the gpu inside an amd apu, but not in this case. making sure you are running at pcie 3.0 speed won't make a tangible difference at this time, either. tweaks to the base clock will throw other clocks like sata out of spec and cause problems. You could mess with ram timing and voltage, but that will make as little difference as changing ram clocks. just crank up the cpu mulitplier and test for stability. Overclock the gpu on your video card and test. overclock the ram on you video card and test. Those are the main performance tweaks you will likely notice while gaming.