Not able to overclock CPU

[twisted4000]

I posted this thread earlier, but I didn't get a correct response... let's try this again.

Well I looked allover my BIOS and I can't seem to find the utility that allows you to overclock the CPU, I've looked everywhere. It's an ECS board that came with a factory-made PC, but almost every part is replaced and upgraded now, though.

I've reset the BIOS and did all that, as well. I just can't find it anywhere, is there some sort of jumper on the motherboard that will unlock the CPU or something like that?

I'm kinda new to overclocking, but I think I know enough to understand what I'm doing, yes, I understand all the dangers and such on overclocking. It's an E5400 Dual-Core processor by Intel, clocked at 2.7GHz. I was planning on jacking it up a bit to 3.0-3.2GHz. Nothing really fancy, but I have my reasons to want it a bit higher.

When you clock at about 3.4GHz or so, I heard you need to set the voltage higher or something, well, I won't be doing that, I'm just gonna do a slight overclock. My cooling is fairly good, as well, the CPU is currently running at around 38C.

Please help, thanks.

Bonus question, I'm currently overclocking my GPU with software... someone once said that selecting the "apply overclocking at system startup" checkbox is bad to do... uh... is it?

Thanks again.

 

[ko888]

If that motherboard is from a consumer desktop computer (e.g. Acer, Dell, Gateway, HP, Sony, etc.) it will be using an OEM motherboard that has a locked down BIOS that doesn't allow overclocking.

The BIOS is locked down/crippled (i.e. settings that allow overclocking have been removed) to prevent overclocking so that their customer support don't have to deal with noobs that have screwed up their system by making a setting change that prevents their system from booting up.

If you want to overclock then you will have to buy a real motherboard unless you know how to hack/modify BIOS code to create an unlocked BIOS.

For the GPU you should not apply overclocked settings at startup because that just causes the graphics card to run at a higher clock speed when the extra performance is not needed and consumes more power generating excess heat. The overclocked settings should only be in effect while you're using an application that benefits from the increased performance settings otherwise you're essentially decreasing the lifespan of your GPU.

 

[twisted4000]

Best answer selected by Twisted4000.

 

[twisted4000]

Thanks so much, I was just realizing why my GPU was running at 90C when I was playing games, lol. I unchecked it, now.

Looks like it's time to buy another motherboard. I wanted a new CPU and DDR3 RAM, anyway, so now would be a good time to swap out the old ECS. Thanks for the reply.