Overclock with Asus (z97-A)

[RunLuke]

Hello, my previous motherboard had a lovely BIOS and I knew how to work with it, it was a gigabyte board and very easy to overclock.

Now I have an Asus board, I'm sort of confused, everything is "auto this" "EPU" "OV Voltage" and "XMP switches" on the motherboard, which do I leave on, which off and such?

It's running stable at 4,7GHZ (i7 4790K) which is fine, but I didn't actually do anything other than changing the "Core Ratio Limit", what I'd like is more control, but a lot of options, even if set to manual, don't allow any user-input (another "auto-"box shows up).

I probably don't need all those things, but hot damn, dat graphical UI in the UEFI is not working for me...

Is there some sort of "how to move out of 1996 and into 2014".guide for Asus motherboards and OC'ing? I've read a few, but they seem to be changing options I am unable to mess about with

 

[TheMentalist]

Some tutorials about overclocking with Z97 ASUS motherboards:
http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/6572/asus-z97-pro-intel-z97-motherboard-circuit-and-overclocking-guide/index4.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5uLU5lp6S8
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-z97-a-and-z97-deluxe-motherboard-review,11.html

Some good information:
https://pcdiy.asus.com/2014/05/z97-4770k-overclocking-experience/

 

[RunLuke]

Cheers mentalist!

 

[RunLuke]

Hmm, seems I'm stuck on the XMP, my memory either doesn't support it or is broken, wtf.

 

[RunLuke]

I worked it out, I'm now stable at 4.8Ghz

 

[TheMentalist]

Good work mate. 😉

 

[RunLuke]

Thanks! I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm able to hit 5, I get it to boot, I've run parts of some benchmarks before crash, but I have no idea what I'm doing and what voltages to aim for, where I might end up frying stuff and such, but I'd like to get to 5 😉

 

[TheMentalist]

Wow, 5Ghz is pretty high for that chip.
Check the temps of everything, keep them cool.
As for the voltages, make small jumps, +.15v everytime. Keep it under 1.3-1.325v, going higher might physically damage the CPU.

 

[RunLuke]

Yeah, it seems cool enough at 4.8, 4.9 works too, but I'm not too comfortable upping the voltage more, it's t 1.296-ish at 4.8, lacking experience with this MB and CPU, the whole UEFI thing is very new too, so I'm very much in the blind going further!

 

[TheMentalist]

4.8 is a good overclock, you're lucky you got a good chip 😀