Needs help overclocking 17 920

[ianeatsdonuts]

hey brand new at overclocking and i was hoping if someone could explain what i have to do to overclock my 920 to something relatively high.


my specs are
asus rampage ii extreme
intel 17 920
corsair dominator ram
coolermaster v8 cooler
evga gtx 295 card
1000 watt psu
1 terabyte hdd


thanks

 

[SpidersWeb]

Congratulations on the build, looks nicely specced.

Before we help, please read the i7 Overclocking Guide:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/253365-11-core-overclocking-guide

 

[ianeatsdonuts]

i have looked at that but unfortunately i cant understand it because my bios is setup very differently

 

[SpidersWeb]

Ok well the basics (keeping it simple):
- use RealTemp to watch your core temperatures
- use Prime95 to test stability (Blend for RAM/CPU, SmallFFT for CPU heat)
- use CPU-Z to get processor speed etc

CPU-Z and Realtemp will give more useful information when you have Prime95 providing a load (idle temps aren't terribly relevant, and at idle the processor may drop its clock speed by itself).
The process:

- Increase BClck slightly (might also be called FSB or CPU Reference Clock or CPU base block etc etc)
- Boot windows and run your tests
- Repeat until you get a failure.
- Then increase Vcore (CPU voltage).
- Then repeat from start.

Also use the settings/instructions regarding QPI etc that are in the guide. You don't want your memory to get in the way of finding a stable overclock.

You'll reach a point where you're limited by either:
- heat (try to stay at or below 70C under load) OR
- vcore (I cant officially recommend a maximum, but I'd stay under 1.4V myself unless you read different) OR
- the system wont get stable with more Vcore - in this situation, decrease BClk until stable again.

At that point you've done a basic overclock, and can come back to ask more questions There are lots of other small things that let you go a little higher, and when finished you'll probably want to adjust the QPI etc (I run a Core2, so don't have QPI settings, and I'm unfamiliar). But deal with that when you get there.

I'm not sure what your BIOS looks like, but hopefully you can find BClk and Vcore.
Do as much reading as you can, more knowledge is always a good thing
Hopefully that helps. If not, feel free to ask more.

Edit: actually really the guide is very good, the layout of the BIOS isn't important, you need to understand what you're changing, and once you do you should be able to find it in your BIOS reasonably easy. The most important thing in the guide is telling you what needs changing.