How do you overclock a Sandy Bridge?

[AllanCameron]

I've been reading some posts about the new Sandy Bridge that Intel is touting as their "biggest improvement" in performance gain in the company's history. Sounds like I have heard this before though.

But anyway, is it true that there is no straightforward way to overclock this puppy? Also, why is Intel locking some of their chips now?

 

[RJR]

There will be "K" unlocked versions, buy one and enjoy.

 

[etk]

As RJR said, you can overclock the multipliers on the K series chips for Sandy Bridge coming in DEC/JAN

Clock rates are determined by a crystal which sets a frequency, a series of logic chips can multiply and change that frequency output. Currently, there are several crystals and even more logic in chips in order to accomplish the various frequencies needed. Intel is trying to only have one base crystal and a variety of multipliers to get the buss speeds for the CPU, RAM, PCIE BUS, SATA BUS, etc. As more and more of the "chipset" moves on the the CPU, this simplifies their design.

You will still be able to adjust the multipliers for Memory, and (for a K series chip) CPU.

The problem is that your HDD will go haywire when you overclock it (since everything will be connected, when you OC your CPU via the base frequiency, your USB, HDD, etc will also overclock). It's possible motherboard makers will find some workaround, and it's possible that the Socket 2011 Chips won't have this limitation. We'll all find out all the details over the next month or so.

 

[Murissokah]

I find it hard to believe no motherboard manufacturer will add a prescaler+PLL set to the USB/SATA/PCI-E controllers. It should be painfully easy to do and would make overclocking so much easier (or no harder than it used to be).

As for why they locked the multipliers, actually, they kinda always did that, only unlocking the 1000+ dollar extreme editions. They now unlock a few of the cheaper ones, marked as "K" versions.

If what you meant by locking is why is Intel tying everything to a single clock, then I can think of a few reasons. It's cheaper to design mobos, reduces a few complications and possible instability from bad sync., and also prevents internal competition from the lower end chips.

 

[AllanCameron]

The problem is that your HDD will go haywire when you overclock it (since everything will be connected, when you OC your CPU via the base frequiency, your USB, HDD, etc will also overclock).

I heard the bus speed will be kept slow (around 100 MHz) and that the multiplier will be ridiculously high (40+) and that means it won't affect the USB and HDD.

I have been googling around with "overclock" and "sandy bridge" as search terms.

 

[etk]

I heard the bus speed will be kept slow (around 100 MHz) and that the multiplier will be ridiculously high (40+) and that means it won't affect the USB and HDD.

I have been googling around with "overclock" and "sandy bridge" as search terms.

Try reading my post again, paying special attention to the word "base frequency" in the third paragraph.

 

[AllanCameron]

Try reading my post again, paying special attention to the word "base frequency" in the third paragraph.

Second paragraph maybe? I see what you mean now.

And I did see another post about an overclocked Sandy Bridge being designed by Liquid Nitrogen Overclocking using two different GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards.

http://www.liquidnitrogenoverclocking.com/news_09.shtml

But that page is dated November 15! I guess they were unawares that even pages not linked into your site are found by the google web crawlers.

 

[AllanCameron]

Best answer selected by AllanCameron.