[SOLVED] How do I overclock a locked CPU on an OEM board?

[Budgeteer_262]

Hi All,

I want to overclock my CPU because it is bottlenecking my GPU.

I'm a novice (albeit very determined) hardware enthusiast who has managed to build a Frankenstein gaming PC out of bits that others had thrown away and by heavily abusing a dell OptiPlex 3020. The specs are as follows:

Intel Core i7 4770
AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB
8GB 1600Mhz Kingston DDR3 (Dual Channel)
2 X Seagate 500GB HDD
650W 80+ Wide Ranging Active PFC PSU + 255W 80+ Gold Active PFC PSU

I built this PC for the grand total of £50. I only needed to buy the GPU.

However, the CPU is locked and the motherboard is the cheapo H81 chipset so overclocking would seem kinda impossible. However, I know for sure that other people have managed to overclock on similar dell OEM boards by using Programs like SetFSB along with an identified PPL for their motherboard. I have tried every single PPL on the dropdown menu in SetFSB and none of them applied, albeit these programs rarely receive updates so it may not have had the PPL i was looking for.

Hence I am here to ask if anyone can help me get my i7 4770 singing the song of speed and the poetry of power? I know that the multiplier method works on the H81 chipset. My problem is getting it to work with my specific OEM motherboard (which won't be recognised by preset programs). As for power, the 650W unit exclusively powers the GPU (don't ask why) and the 255W powers everything else including the CPU. I can easily swap some of those 12V CPU pins to come from the 650 rather than the 255 so power for overclocking is no issue, neither are thermals (initially at least). I have already overclocked the GPU (worsening the bottlenecking) which is able to go as far as +203Mhz on the core, even on a crappy reference blower cooler. I also think that my CPU could be high binned too because it performs 6% above average in benchmarks even before overclocking. I will need every Hz I can get out of it to meet the demand of the monstrous 300W+ (now at least ) gas guzzling R9 290.

So any help in getting the chip overclocked would be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

An image to give you an idea, note that I am working on fitting watercooling ..... for £30 🆒

 

[Dj0gany]

Your cpu is far from bottlenecking your R9 290.
I have a i3 3240 with R9 380,now that is bottlenecking.
Actually you can pair your i7 with a 1080ti,perfect pair.
You wont get much (if any) benefits trying to 'overclock' a locked cpu.
Your build has much potential to say the least xD
I see a full cpu/gpu cooling loop, i like that gpu mount, i think your cpu waterblock is a bit out of the place but i think you can sort that out xD .
Your build is 'unique' to say the least : )

 

[USAFRet]

I want to overclock my CPU because it is bottlenecking my GPU.

How did you determine this?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Spending money on water cooling for a locked cpu in locked board is very wasteful, and cheap water-cooling is a good way to have liquid damage to your pc.

You aren't going to be able to overclock easily. Even if you do manage to find a way, I would highly recommend against overclocking an i7 on the vrm of an oem board. It's not designed for that.

 

[Budgeteer_262]

Yep, so with regards to bottlenecking it is not exactly a huge bottleneck but I am definitely loosing in excess of 10% of my FPS (on the overclocked R9 290) in heavy CPU bound and Modern titles. Below are some benchmarks I got off a website: (https://www.cpuagent.com)

Rise of the Tomb Raider 1080p Ultra R9 290 (stock)

With i9 10900K

With i7 4770

I can also convert the GPU cooler you saw in the IMG into a CPU cooler by using this CPU cooler top plate with the same copper baseplate and screws and mounting. So (until I get a waterblock for 10p) i can either choose to water-cool the CPU or the GPU. Given that the CPU is the bottleneck and that it is not overclocked already (so it will have the better initial clocks per volt overhead overclock compared to the already overclocked GPU) it would make more sense to water-cool the CPU. Furthermore, I have a de-lidding tool (see img) which I have tested before and I will use on my i7 4770 if I can get an overclock on it.

And yes, obviously water-cooling a locked CPU is exactly the kind of thing a glitzy and overspending noob would do, but why else do you think that I asked for help on getting it overclocked? It's because I need to choose between the two. And what's the point of using water on the GPU to go further if I won't see an FPS uplift due to the bottleneck anyway?

Also, those are really not cheap water-cooling components, however cheap I may have got them for (a 480 very thick EK copper rad + 140 x3 EK thick copper rad + Phanteks fittings + two of those d5 thermaltake reservoir pumps you saw all for £30 to be precise). I will be using the 140 X 3 Cool stream SE rad from EK, with beautiful Phanteks fittings and a Thermaltake D5 Pump and reservoir on the initial loop -may use the 2nd rad and pump later in a 2nd loop. All the components (including the fittings) are copper based so there won't even be galvanic corrosion. I will even be using metallic based thermal compound. Though I should probably admit that my water-cooling rig will have a few secrets as dirty as my cable management. 😏

Concerning cooling the VRM's; i will make sure that there is some proper airflow over those mobo VRMs and monitor them closely. Anyway, I won't need to pump that much power though them to reach the performance I need.

I may be a novice but I am not exactly complacent. However, I am a novice so I do need some help overclocking that i7 with this damned OEM board. Need any more info about my "rig" ? Just ask.

 

[USAFRet]

We out here can't see your google pics.

 

[Budgeteer_262]

here they are:

i7 4770 (68 FPS Avrg)

i9 10900K (73 FPS Avrg)

CPU Cooler

The PC

(refer to my previous comment)

 

[NightHawkRMX]

So your loosing 5fps. Sounds like virtually no bottleneck going on to me. That's negligible

 

[USAFRet]

here they are:

i7 4770 (68 FPS Avrg)

i9 10900K (73 FPS Avrg)

CPU Cooler

(refer to my previous comment)

So you're comparing across 6 generations of CPU, and see a 5FPS difference?

There is no "bottleneck".

 

[Budgeteer_262]

Allow me to elaborate:

In Cyberpunk 2077 I encounter Stuttering in some areas and I also had similar issues when testing in FlightSim 2020, both at reasonable settings. I know that having 8GB of Ram is part of the issue however, especially in Cyberpunk, I often get very volatile frame dips (not to be confused with stuttering) which are not as a result of the GPU or memory. Sometimes the GPU reads at below 80% utilisation which is really not good as I need as much FPS as I can get in Cyberpunk. Especially when I only have 35-40 FPS in the first place, a 7 FPS difference would be a meaningful improvement. Oh and no, it's not a driver issue, nor an out of date v/bios or a background prog.

Also, I use my CPU and GPU for rendering and advanced fluid computational dynamics. But aside from that, if I can increase CPU performance and I even have the option to put it under water, why the hell wouldn't I overclock it? I have overclocked a poor i5 2600k to 4.8Ghz on cheapo oem cooing so why would I not try the same here?

So you're comparing across 6 generations of CPU, and see a 5FPS difference?

Does that mean that a higher clock speed won't make any difference because it is a deep architectural deficit rather than a simple bottleneck?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Sadly an overclock doesn't fix 4 cores, which is probably a fair bit of your issue.

 

[USAFRet]

Does that mean that a higher clock speed won't make any difference because it is a deep architectural deficit rather than a simple bottleneck?

Yes. (well, not a 'deficit', but rather a generational change)
GHz is NOT the main determinant.

Compare the clock speed of a Pentium IV Prescott (HT 571) from 2005 (3.80GHz), and a i7-9700k from 2018 (3.60GHz base)
Looking at only that number, you'd think the P IV Prescott is "faster" than the 9700k.

You can't just OC a CPU to overcome 8 years of advancement.

And you can't OC that CPU on that motherboard anyway, no matter how much liquid you throw at it.

 

[Budgeteer_262]

I completely understand that there are other things at play like the cache, the way it is distributed, the IPC and the lithography. I am not aiming to match an i9 10900K (and create a bonfire in the process). However, clock speed is the only metric by which I can increase the chips performance. So yes, I am not referring to other variables because I have no control over something like the IPC. And yes, having four cores is probably not that great but they are hyperthreaded and I can alleviate this setback somewhat by making the cores I actually have work faster. Furthermore, if it was actually a core count issue then it would be stuttering and not volatile fps. So no, I am not expecting the chip to behave like a 10th Gen one but a 10-20% (or even higher) performance uplift should definitely help. And yes, at that point the GPU would be the bottleneck so I would arguably be getting the same FPS as an i9 10900k in that system. So actually yes, I am trying to overcome 8 years of advancement, as it specifically relates to this rig and this CPU.

And you can't OC that CPU on that motherboard anyway, no matter how much liquid you throw at it.

yes I can, I have known other people online who have overclocked on the H81 chipset and some examples of it being done specifically on the same series of (albeit not the same) dell oem motherboards as the one I have. If you mean it can't be done because of the chokes and bad vrm's then I would tell you that the majority of the clock speed boost people get from an OC (unless you are on LN2) is the segment before the silicon requires further power input to maintain it's stability. Hence, overheating the chokes is not really a concern yet. So yes you can overclock on that board. The difference here is that I have not paid a fat premium like most consumers so that they get a nice linen lined GUI in the bios and so that any goldfish could do it and a lot of fancy lights and shiny plating to make them feel special when they are actually quite average. And yes, OC hardware has better power delivery and better cooling. However, overclocking has always been about taking advantage of every possible margin of error left behind, and not by throwing money at the problem to buy larger margins in the form of beefier hardware. Simple. All I am looking to do is to fully potentialize the margins I have not yet filled. As of now, the vrms come in at around 41* under load and they receive hefty airflow from the cpu cooler. That's what i call margin to use up. And yes, there are less of them so a lot more power will flow through very few channels but why is that a problem providing it stays at decent temperatures? Anyway, i will probably not even end up overvolting by much or at all because I will have already used up most of the CPUs margins before I ever need to turn up the power, as aforementioned. Given how limited the software that I would be using, I probably would have no control over them anyway.

Was there a different reason for it not being impossible? If so, good to know because it would be pointless doing all this if it were impossible anyway. But if you say it's impossible because big daddy Intel did not give "permission" or because my mobo does not have "Godlike" written on it with shiny lights and an OC stamp of approval so that I know that "MSI thinks its a good idea", then that's not really going to help. But i don't think that's what you meant.

So yes, I am here on this forum because unlike the rest, I don't have a fluffy GUI and a big green tick from Intel, but I know that it is still possible. Hence, I am after the PPL or a way to find it, and a functioning program which I can use it in conjunction with. I also think that i can possibly break the 5ghz barrier (even on air because on 4th gen chips part of the power delivery is actually on the chip itself which takes a lot of the burden from the mobo and reduces the need for precise and stable voltage). Furthermore, this CPU has a higher turbo than that old i5 2600k and Haswell was orientated around good power delivery. I don't expect performance to increase proportionally but do you really think that going from 3.8 to 5Ghz would not do anything?

 

[Zerk2012]

I completely understand that there are other things at play like the cache, the way it is distributed, the IPC and the lithography. I am not aiming to match an i9 10900K (and create a bonfire in the process). However, clock speed is the only metric by which I can increase the chips performance. So yes, I am not referring to other variables because I have no control over something like the IPC. And yes, having four cores is probably not that great but they are hyperthreaded and I can alleviate this setback somewhat by making the cores I actually have work faster. Furthermore, if it was actually a core count issue then it would be stuttering and not volatile fps. So no, I am not expecting the chip to behave like a 10th Gen one but a 10-20% (or even higher) performance uplift should definitely help. And yes, at that point the GPU would be the bottleneck so I would arguably be getting the same FPS as an i9 10900k in that system. So actually yes, I am trying to overcome 8 years of advancement, as it specifically relates to this rig and this CPU.



yes I can, I have known other people online who have overclocked on the H81 chipset and some examples of it being done specifically on the same series of (albeit not the same) dell oem motherboards as the one I have. If you mean it can't be done because of the chokes and bad vrm's then I would tell you that the majority of the clock speed boost people get from an OC (unless you are on LN2) is the segment before the silicon requires further power input to maintain it's stability. Hence, overheating the chokes is not really a concern yet. So yes you can overclock on that board. The difference here is that I have not paid a fat premium like most consumers so that they get a nice linen lined GUI in the bios and so that any goldfish could do it and a lot of fancy lights and shiny plating to make them feel special when they are actually quite average. And yes, OC hardware has better power delivery and better cooling. However, overclocking has always been about taking advantage of every possible margin of error left behind, and not by throwing money at the problem to buy larger margins in the form of beefier hardware. Simple. All I am looking to do is to fully potentialize the margins I have not yet filled. As of now, the vrms come in at around 41* under load and they receive hefty airflow from the cpu cooler. That's what i call margin to use up. And yes, there are less of them so a lot more power will flow through very few channels but why is that a problem providing it stays at decent temperatures? Anyway, i will probably not even end up overvolting by much or at all because I will have already used up most of the CPUs margins before I ever need to turn up the power, as aforementioned. Given how limited the software that I would be using, I probably would have no control over them anyway.

Was there a different reason for it not being impossible? If so, good to know because it would be pointless doing all this if it were impossible anyway. But if you say it's impossible because big daddy Intel did not give "permission" or because my mobo does not have "Godlike" written on it with shiny lights and an OC stamp of approval so that I know that "MSI thinks its a good idea", then that's not really going to help. But i don't think that's what you meant.

So yes, I am here on this forum because unlike the rest, I don't have a fluffy GUI and a big green tick from Intel, but I know that it is still possible. Hence, I am after the PPL or a way to find it, and a functioning program which I can use it in conjunction with. I also think that i can possibly break the 5ghz barrier (even on air because on 4th gen chips part of the power delivery is actually on the chip itself which takes a lot of the burden from the mobo and reduces the need for precise and stable voltage). Furthermore, this CPU has a higher turbo than that old i5 2600k and Haswell was orientated around good power delivery. I don't expect performance to increase proportionally but do you really think that going from 3.8 to 5Ghz would not do anything?

yes I can, I have known other people online who have overclocked on the H81 chipset and some examples of it being done specifically on the same series of (albeit not the same) dell oem motherboards as the one I have

Dell OEM's are locked.
Since you know you can overclock with it then do it.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

yes I can, I have known other people online who have overclocked on the H81 chipset and some examples of it being done specifically on the same series of (albeit not the same) dell oem motherboards as the one I have.

If you know its possible and how to do it, go ahead and try it using the same means these other people did.

You asked, and we answered. We are telling you that is not able to be done via safe nor conventional means. You clearly should agree given you have not been able to get any overclock working.

Furthermore, if it was actually a core count issue then it would be stuttering and not volatile fps.

From Oxford Dictionary: Volatile means "liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse."
Rapidly changing framerate IS stutter, meaning the issue you have right now could very well be core count related.

So actually yes, I am trying to overcome 8 years of advancement, as it specifically relates to this rig and this CPU.

Physically impossible.

Was there a different reason for it not being impossible? If so, good to know because it would be pointless doing all this if it were impossible anyway. But if you say it's impossible because big daddy Intel did not give "permission" or because my mobo does not have "Godlike" written on it with shiny lights and an OC stamp of approval so that I know that "MSI thinks its a good idea", then that's not really going to help. But i don't think that's what you meant.

The reason is indeed artificial limitations. But even though they are artificial, they work. You can't oc on a system where multiple parts have overclocking functionality intentionally disabled. If you knew how to, you would be editing microcode or something right not, and not asking here.

(even on air because on 4th gen chips part of the power delivery is actually on the chip itself which takes a lot of the burden from the mobo and reduces the need for precise and stable voltage).

Power delivery isn't on the CPU. That's not how a vrm works.

And you aren't getting 5ghz, probably not even 4ghz if you could oc. Thinking you can is ridiculous. Haswell doesn't clock like Sandy bridge, where I could take a 2700k and get 4.1ghz on a stock cooler, or 5ghz with a good cooler.

My 4770k and Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 motherboard with a Corsair 240mm couldn't manage more than 4.2ghz without thermal throttling. And that is a combo that actually supports overclocking. Even if you could OC you are not going to be able to get 5ghz with a locked and worse binned cpu, jerry rigged hazard cooler, and dell oem motherboard with a vrm that is nowhere near as good.

I think you need to take a reality check.

 

[Budgeteer_262]

I don't know how to do it for my specific board because I have no idea what the PPL (clock generator) is despite scanning the board for hours. That's why I'm here. And because there may be complications beyond that.

However, I am quite sure that is not flat out impossible after having looked through what other people had to say. To be clear, mine is a dell OptiPlex 3020 motherboard with the h81 chipset.

Solved: 3010, CPU overclock - Dell Community (read further down)
Overlclocking a Dell Optiplex 3020, is it even possible? | Overclock.net (hence why I mentioned needing the PPL and SetFSB)
(1) overclocking and OEM computer | Tom's Hardware Forum (I need a new unlocked bios to flash in or a clock generator so I can increase the base frequency from 100Mhz). Instead of doing 100 X 38 =3.8Ghz it would do 131.57 X 38 = 5Ghz since the chip is locked and I can't change that multiplier. I need a way to change that base multiplier as you see in the example.

As for overclocking a locked Intel CPU, it is definitely possible as a standalone thing (especially with these older Haswell's). Some say that it is possible to do it with an unlocked chip or an unlocked bios but not both. That is however undermined by others who have managed to overclock locked Haswell i3s and similarly locked and OEM boards. Doubtless, such an OC would require either some perilous bios flash or the kind of toying that no average consumer would ever do however there are people who have done it. Because of how specialised this is and because very few have the knowledge to say definitively yes or no as to if this overclocking is possible, I hope you can understand my reluctance in agreeing that it is not possible because of a lack of an extensive and indisputable explanation which categorically disproves it.

But that is exactly what I am after: A bios I could flash or a program to use or the PPL or how to find it for my specific board. Hence, if anyone needs more info or details to help identify my board (and specifically my PPL) please just say so.

 

[Dj0gany]

I would just stop trying to overclock a locked cpu and upgrade your GPU.
Trust me your cpu is nowhere near bottlenecking your graphics card, Cyberpunk is a extremelly GPU demanding game and milking your CPU wouldnt solve your problems.
And those 'overclocks' that those people did are really hard to do and i honestly wouldnt even bother, especially on a OEM motherboard.
Just accept it how it is.

 

[Budgeteer_262]

i honestly wouldnt even bother

Well yes, you wouldn't bother but then again you are not me. So there you have it. I would bother, I am bothering about it. That is a matter of choice.

And yes of course getting a better GPU would probably help somewhat (though it would incentivise CPU overclocking even more) however my problem is that the next meaningful upgrade compared to my overclocked R9 290 could cost me a bare minimum of £150, and I would definitely not be seeing three times the performance, in fact a hell of a lot less than that. The reason why I have built this system so cheaply is because of how extremely limited my resources are and that (£50 being a lot for me as i am a minor) as a result I was extremely focused on getting the very best for my money. I think I have done pretty well but that stock clocked CPU serves as further potential and futureproofing, hence why I am ready to go to great lengths to get it overclocked. Bearing this in mind, buying a new GPU for thrice what I paid for my entire system to see a performance boost of around 30% would seem pretty bad, assuming I could even afford such a GPU. (would love to be proved wrong on that)

And i am probably wrong about the cpu causing a bottleneck because i would probably see an fps boost with a better gpu on the same cpu but overclocking would help remove the 10% (approx) performance penalty of using an older architecture. Still, a 10% performance boost for free is pretty huge compared to paying 300% of my systems entire build cost for a performance boost of 30%. Also think that in games like Cyberpunk that would actually become more like a 15-20% boost. And yes, Cyberpunk is a monster of a game but in this particular case it is suggestive that my cpu is the one that is most struggling to keep up, as is indicated by observations showing how the game is also extraordinarily CPU bound and by the stuttering (at settings where niether ram nor vram would max out). However, maybe you are right, I couldn't say for sure and I wouldn't wasn't to question your judgement on it as if I knew any better. however, as mentioned, I'm not just doing this because of a fear of bottlenecking, I'm also doing it because I have specific CPU workflows I need to run through for my various other engineering and design projects.

So yes, I could be bothered, bothered enough to try something that's really hard. As you may have guessed, I really hate leaving things how they are, especially with the tantalising knowledge that it is ..... somehow ..... possible. If it was not "really hard" I probably wound not have started this post and could easily have done it through a YouTube video or something.

So if anyone knows someone who has done anything like this before or someone who can guide me through this vast and dangerous ocean (getting it overclocked) over which very few have crossed and almost all say is impossible to cross, I would be grateful and honoured to join the 0.00001%percnter pioneers who have defied the will of the gods (Intel and Board Partners) and are on the lush pastures of a largely undiscovered continent.

Pardon the pun. It's just that I'm quite determined because I know for sure (or sure enough) that there must logically be a way to do this. If it was actually impossible (with an extensive and all encompassing explanation why) then I wouldn't blame you for calling me a flat earhter. But this is different; in the same way pure nuclear fusion is "very hard" to do, but there is no concrete explanation which categorically justifies that it is impossible. That's why people are still working on achieving it, And that's where I come in. So if anyone thinks they know enough to help, I would be very grateful.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I still don't understand how you expect 5ghz to work. With a 4770k and a z97 you are unlikely to get that close to 5ghz, unless you are using exotic cooling.

What makes you think a locked cpu, locked oem board, and jenk cooler can do it.

 

[Dj0gany]

Well yes, you wouldn't bother but then again you are not me. So there you have it. I would bother, I am bothering about it. That is a matter of choice.

And yes of course getting a better GPU would probably help somewhat (though it would incentivise CPU overclocking even more) however my problem is that the next meaningful upgrade compared to my overclocked R9 290 could cost me a bare minimum of £150, and I would definitely not be seeing three times the performance, in fact a hell of a lot less than that. The reason why I have built this system so cheaply is because of how extremely limited my resources are and that (£50 being a lot for me as i am a minor) as a result I was extremely focused on getting the very best for my money. I think I have done pretty well but that stock clocked CPU serves as further potential and futureproofing, hence why I am ready to go to great lengths to get it overclocked. Bearing this in mind, buying a new GPU for thrice what I paid for my entire system to see a performance boost of around 30% would seem pretty bad, assuming I could even afford such a GPU. (would love to be proved wrong on that)

And i am probably wrong about the cpu causing a bottleneck because i would probably see an fps boost with a better gpu on the same cpu but overclocking would help remove the 10% (approx) performance penalty of using an older architecture. Still, a 10% performance boost for free is pretty huge compared to paying 300% of my systems entire build cost for a performance boost of 30%. Also think that in games like Cyberpunk that would actually become more like a 15-20% boost. And yes, Cyberpunk is a monster of a game but in this particular case it is suggestive that my cpu is the one that is most struggling to keep up, as is indicated by observations showing how the game is also extraordinarily CPU bound and by the stuttering (at settings where niether ram nor vram would max out). However, maybe you are right, I couldn't say for sure and I wouldn't wasn't to question your judgement on it as if I knew any better. however, as mentioned, I'm not just doing this because of a fear of bottlenecking, I'm also doing it because I have specific CPU workflows I need to run through for my various other engineering and design projects.

So yes, I could be bothered, bothered enough to try something that's really hard. As you may have guessed, I really hate leaving things how they are, especially with the tantalising knowledge that it is ..... somehow ..... possible. If it was not "really hard" I probably wound not have started this post and could easily have done it through a YouTube video or something.

So if anyone knows someone who has done anything like this before or someone who can guide me through this vast and dangerous ocean (getting it overclocked) over which very few have crossed and almost all say is impossible to cross, I would be grateful and honoured to join the 0.00001%percnter pioneers who have defied the will of the gods (Intel and Board Partners) and are on the lush pastures of a largely undiscovered continent.

Pardon the pun. It's just that I'm quite determined because I know for sure (or sure enough) that there must logically be a way to do this. If it was actually impossible (with an extensive and all encompassing explanation why) then I wouldn't blame you for calling me a flat earhter. But this is different; in the same way pure nuclear fusion is "very hard" to do, but there is no concrete explanation which categorically justifies that it is impossible. That's why people are still working on achieving it, And that's where I come in. So if anyone thinks they know enough to help, I would be very grateful.

I am in (or should i say was) in the same place as you,
A minor,Locked cpu (i3 3240), OEM motherboard (Lenovo IH61m from ThinkCentre Edge 72) and a will do to what it takes to get that 1% performance boost.
I adore your optimism and commitment, i really do, since i know how it feels to know something can be achievable through many headaches and let-downs,but i dont see a clear path of doing this my friend.
You are very limited by your motherboard to say the least,which just decreases your chances of achieving a already hardly achievable goal,if that makes sense.
If you are really commited to doing this, i would search for a motherboard made by ASUS,GIGABYTE,MSI or anything except OEM, and seeing if anybody has done anything similar to what you desire doing.
If it is possibly with above mentioned motherboard's i would look into buying one and testing yourself.
I've just accepted that i cant do anything but save for a new cpu/mobo/ram combo after waisting 100$ on a i7 3770 and a new mobo THAT WERE BOTH FAULTY on arrival (ofcourse i couldnt get my money back).
170$ from November 2020 (my birthday) to today, still got a lot of time to save up money until June comes, since i plan to buy the combo then.
I wish you all the best : )

 

[NightHawkRMX]

There were a fair bit of locked boards from haswell era that could overclock, IIRC many from asrock. But oem boards? no.

 

[Dj0gany]

H81 mobo's that are not OEM go anywhere from $40-$70 on used market in my country.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Buying any hardware that old, used, is a fool's game. Sometimes people have to do it, because they can save a system that is still doing what they need it to for a lot less than the cost of a new system, but in MOST cases, the money spent on ANYTHING that old is a waste that would have been much better spent going towards the purchase of an entirely new motherboard, CPU and memory (Platform change). That's because in MOST cases we're not talking about new old stock (And even new old stock that old will likely have suffered from some amount of capacitor aging and metal whiskering), we're talking about fully used parts.

And buying used parts that have already seen the majority of their useful life pass by, no less. That makes it pretty foolhardy outside of a handful of situations and what makes it worse is that in MOST cases you are not going to find an aftermarket board you even would have ANY possibility or chance of being able to overclock on that would fit in the majority of Dell, HP or Lenovo prebuilt OEM cases anyhow since most of them are proprietary designs rather than standard form factors.

And even if you could, you would NEVER get even a fraction of the performance you'd get from simply discarding the system and building a modern i3 build. By comparison, the latest Gen i3's destroy your 4th gen i7 in both single and multithreaded performance, by a large margin, and even beat out the 4770k by about half a mile as well.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-10100-vs-Intel-i7-4770K/3717vs1919

Even a 4790k with as high of an overclock as you could put on it would not begin to come close to touching the performance of any of the current gen i3's, much less any current Gen i5, i7 or i9, even from the last couple of generations of both Intel and AMD.

The bottom line here is, as you've been told already, what you want to do can't be done and even if you managed to do it you'd find that the gains were minimal and would bring you nowhere near anything that's been released over the last three years.

Save your money and replace your graphics card, first, then make a plan to upgrade the platform at some point. That is your best path to moving forward in terms of eliminating problems with gaming performance and overall capability.

 

[Dj0gany]

Buying any hardware that old, used, is a fool's game. Sometimes people have to do it, because they can save a system that is still doing what they need it to for a lot less than the cost of a new system, but in MOST cases, the money spent on ANYTHING that old is a waste that would have been much better spent going towards the purchase of an entirely new motherboard, CPU and memory (Platform change). That's because in MOST cases we're not talking about new old stock (And even new old stock that old will likely have suffered from some amount of capacitor aging and metal whiskering), we're talking about fully used parts.

And buying used parts that have already seen the majority of their useful life pass by, no less. That makes it pretty foolhardy outside of a handful of situations and what makes it worse is that in MOST cases you are not going to find an aftermarket board you even would have ANY possibility or chance of being able to overclock on that would fit in the majority of Dell, HP or Lenovo prebuilt OEM cases anyhow since most of them are proprietary designs rather than standard form factors.

And even if you could, you would NEVER get even a fraction of the performance you'd get from simply discarding the system and building a modern i3 build. By comparison, the latest Gen i3's destroy your 4th gen i7 in both single and multithreaded performance, by a large margin, and even beat out the 4770k by about half a mile as well.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-10100-vs-Intel-i7-4770K/3717vs1919

Even a 4790k with as high of an overclock as you could put on it would not begin to come close to touching the performance of any of the current gen i3's, much less any current Gen i5, i7 or i9, even from the last couple of generations of both Intel and AMD.

The bottom line here is, as you've been told already, what you want to do can't be done and even if you managed to do it you'd find that the gains were minimal and would bring you nowhere near anything that's been released over the last three years.

Save your money and replace your graphics card, first, then make a plan to upgrade the platform at some point. That is your best path to moving forward in terms of eliminating problems with gaming performance and overall capability.

@Budgeteer_262
" And even if you could, you would NEVER get even a fraction of the performance you'd get from simply discarding the system and building a modern i3 build. By comparison, the latest Gen i3's destroy your 4th gen i7 in both single and multithreaded performance, by a large margin, and even beat out the 4770k by about half a mile as well.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-10100-vs-Intel-i7-4770K/3717vs1919 "
That right there is the main reason im going for a newer platform.

Edit: Instead of chasing something that wouldnt be noticable.

 

[popatim]

You won't come anywhere close to 5ghz inna locked haswell chip because all you can do is change the base clock a few MHz (typically) before you start corrupting the other busses. In Haswell the bclk is tied to just about everything so one you cross the line, usually the first thing you notice is you've crashed and now corrupted Windows and need to install it again.

BTW - you can't find the PLL because there isn't one. The bclk generator was moved inside the cpu for haswell (iirc)