overclocking i5 3570 k on msi Z77A-G43

[rohela]

Hi guys

I am building a new gaming rig in a week or so depending when the money comes in and am on sort of a budget I opted for the i5 3570k and the msi Z77A-G43. Long story short I want to get the most out of the 3570k on my mobo thinking about 4-4.3 GHz or more. Can anyone guide me on how to safely and efficiently overclock my cpu bare in my this will be the first time I am overclocking. These are the rest of my specs:

4GB transcend jet Ram 1600Mhz
Sapphire HD7770, 1GB 128bit super overclocked 1150Mhz
Cooler Master K380
Thermaltake LitePower, 650w
Deepcool IceEdge 300, aluminum base + 3x heatpipes push pull fan config
Western Digital Caviar Green 1tb
LG DVD burner

Is the Deepcool IceEdge 300 good enough for this sort of overcloock
any help will be much appreciated.

 

[scorpinock2]

The i5 will run very cool, you will not get the best temperatures with the cooler you have but 4.2 should be doable on that cooler if you have good airflow in your case. Just bump up the multiplier and voltage little by little, rebooting to stress test every so often. Also, consider raising the FSB and nothbridge and QPI voltages to raise stability and RAM speed as well, doing this will negate the need to bump up the multiplier so much and therefore not need as much voltage on the CPU.

 

[steddora]

With that cooler, you should easily be able to hit 4.2Ghz. Just make sure to read about setting voltages. Honestly for a newbie for overclocking I'd simply stick with fixed voltages and start low.

My method for overclocking is CPU only as I hate putting any more clock on the motherboard/FSB as it adds additional stress to almost everything. I run my board stock with my chip overclocked this way I don't have to worry about PCI-e stability, Ram stability, or motherboard/NB stability. That's the beautiful thing about an unlocked K-Series.

First things first, find out the voltage for your stock speed's voltage for your CPU. My 2600k ran stock at about 1.15v. I locked my voltage to 1.150v and went from there. I was stable clear up to 3.9Ghz. 4Ghz required a boost to 1.2v to manage to hold stable with Prime95 for 24 hours.

Now there's the secret. Find the speed and voltage combination. I prefer using IntelBurnTest to watch temperatures. BEWARE, IntelBurnTest is a "light" method of getting good stability ratings but definitely will push your CPU to the thermal limits. Under my current setup I hit 60C on IBT, there's almost nothing in the world that would ever cause the thermal stress on my processor like IBT can. So in my eyes, I see IBT as clearly a thermal test and "light" stability test. If you pass IBT with decent temperatures and all the results match; you're probably good enough to do a 24h prime95 stress test.

So, my method involves finding the frequency and what voltage IBT will pass at. Watch those temperatures with a monitor and don't let it get too high. I personally hate anything over 70C but some people run their gear that way 24/7. I'm not sure if you know but the processor you have much like many Intel processors will shut down at a certain thermal step. Most likely 105C the processor will go into "emergency" mode and switch off to protect itself. Before that it will do something called Throttling that downsteps the clock/cores to help reduce heat output.

Either way, stay away from those at all costs. I've only had one chip ever hit a thermal max and it was because of a faulty HSF. That saved the chip from burning up. However I wouldn't account for it being a 100% guarantee to save a chip.

So make a goal of say 4.2Ghz and start working your way up. Set yourself a max temperature and stick to it. Remember, the Mhz increases will increase temperatures but not nearly as much as more voltage will. As you gain experience and learn you'll find out that it's pretty simple for a beginner. However to get those awesome overclocks; these boards today have a LOT of features to get every last Mhz out of the CPU.

I hope this helps out. And remember as always, keep an eye on temperatures and don't push to much voltage to the processor. Double if not triple check every settings before applying. Read and learn and experience the wonderful world of overclocking! May the chip gods be in your favor!

 

[rohela]

Best answer selected by rohela.