[SOLVED] Overclocking my system ?

[yonatans]

I want to overclock my system, but I don't know how to do it and which components to oc and also what cooling do I need to buy for it?
PC specs:

CPU - Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU cooling - ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler
mobo - Asus TUF Z270 MARK 2 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
memory - Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-2400 CL15 Memory
Kingston HyperX Fury 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL15 Memory
ssd - Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
hdd - Western Digital Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card
case - Corsair SPEC-ALPHA ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU - Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
monitor - Samsung C24F390 24.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor

I'd be happy if you tell me which components are worth OC and also what do I need for it
thx from advance, Yonatan

 

[Lutfij]

The PSU in your build is the part that concerns me the most, you're asked to invest in a reliably build PSU . To add, what sort of an overclocking target are you looking at? CPU overclock alone or ram overclocking as well? Speaking of ram, what is the frequency of your ram kit? BIOS version for your motherboard at the time of writing? Ambient room air temps...? This will help us guage if you've got that headroom, though part of it is diminished with that PSU. how old is the PSU, btw?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I want to overclock my system, but I don't know how to do it and which components to oc and also what cooling do I need to buy for it?

For what purpose?
Just for sport? To find out at what OC levels your system gets broken?

In your setup I'd ditch 1 x 8 GB ram module. It is currently ruining dual channel mode.

I'd be happy if you tell me which components are worth OC

Generally - it's not worth it.

 

[Eximo]

MSI Afterburner is pretty straight forward for GPU overclocking. Just look up Nvidia Pascal overclocking, not really much to do other than monitor temperatures and increase sliders.

CPU overclocking is a little more complicated. I suggest reading through a few overclocking guides.

Kaby Lake Overclocking Guide [With Statistics]

www.overclock.net

 

[yonatans]

The PSU in your build is the part that concerns me the most, you're asked to invest in a reliably build PSU. To add, what sort of an overclocking target are you looking at? CPU overclock alone or ram overclocking as well? Speaking of ram, what is the frequency of your ram kit? BIOS version for your motherboard at the time of writing? Ambient room air temps...? This will help us gauge if you've got that headroom, though part of it is diminished with that PSU. how old is the PSU, btw?

I know the system has been built for overclocking (or at least part of it) so I would like to overclock whatever I can(?)
Yes, I would like to overclock the CPU. about the ram, I think it can't go further from 2400 because the CPU won't accept higher speed (maybe I'm wrong about it).
My ram speed/frequency is 2400 after I activated the XMP profile (for some reason it was on 2100).
My bios version is 1009.
I would say my room temperature is about 23 celsius.
My PSU like all my system is 3.5 years old
I didn't choose the parts, the man in the computers store built it for me.

 

[yonatans]

I had from the start the 8 GB stick and last year I bought another 2x16 GB of the same speed (2400) to match the 8 GB one. I know it was a bad decision to buy it but I didn't understand enough at the time.
I have the order go as 16 8 16 to achieve dual channel. Should I keep the 8 GB or not?
And I want OC to achieve higher performances, why don't you think I should do it?

 

[yonatans]

MSI Afterburner is pretty straight forward for GPU overclocking. Just look up Nvidia Pascal overclocking, not really much to do other than monitor temperatures and increase sliders.

CPU overclocking is a little more complicated. I suggest reading through a few overclocking guides.

Kaby Lake Overclocking Guide [With Statistics]

www.overclock.net

I read part of the guide but I understood I don't have enough cooling for my CPU so I cant start OC but I also don't know which AIO CPU cooling to buy.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Should I keep the 8 GB or not?

You should remove it.

And I want OC to achieve higher performances, why don't you think I should do it?

Overclocking is no free performance. You're paying with life expectancy of your hardware.

 

[yonatans]

You should remove it.
can you please explain to me why?
Overclocking is no free performance. You're paying with life expectancy of your hardware.

I read somewhere that if do the overclock right (cooling it enough and not pushing it too much), the expectancy should not reduce. If you can explain that to me as well, ill thank you as ill understand better

 

[SkyNetRising]

I read somewhere that if do the overclock right (cooling it enough and not pushing it too much), the expectancy should not reduce. If you can explain that to me as well, ill thank you as ill understand better

That is for expert overclockers, who know what they're doing.
You're clearly not experienced enough. It is very easy to push too hard and cause damage. Then you have to replace damaged hardware.

Generally benefits are not worth expenses, added risks, vigorous testing and time spent.

You spend money for new cooler, better airflow pc case, more fans. Spend several days of overclock tuning and testing.
Let's say - your game normally runs at 60 fps. With overclocking you get ~10 % fps improvement (~66 fps).
Was it all worth it? Nothing really changed.

 

[mamasan2000]

The way I started overclocking was, I was sitting on a system that was 3-4 years down the line and performance wasn't all that great. Didn't want to buy a new system just yet. I thought, what the hey, might as well overclock it. If it dies, I get to buy a new system. If it survives, well, free performance so I can use it for another year. That was 20 years ago. Today, it's just fun for me. I don't mind the extra performance but I also know the limitations. I find out limitations first before I touch anything. How much voltage to not kill parts within the week or a day? Or a year for that matter. What clocks can I expect? What settings should I dabble with and by how much?

You do research first. If that's too much reading, forget about it.

If you care about your components and don't know exactly what you are doing, I would advise against overclocking. Learn the hardware first. How it works, how everything functions and talks to each other. For instance, why is FSB overclocking sometimes, if not most of the time, bad?

But if you want to read about it, heres a resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/wiki/index
Gotta start somewhere. And remember: ALL silicone is different. It has variations. Doesn't matter if it is the CPU, RAM, GPU or Motherboard. It all varies by a certain degree. It's why there is such a denotation as a "golden sample". That's a very good part, high quality. It's also a lottery. You never know how good or bad a quality-part you get. You gotta test it. One guy used these clocks and voltages, doesn't mean it will work for you.
Manufacturers separate the wheat from the chaff. It's called "binning". They test every part. The functioning subpar parts are still sold to you but of course at slower clocks, lower quality and less money. But they also don't test every part to the limit. They don't have the time of day. If you sell millions of units, you can't spend a day testing every single one.

 

[Karadjgne]

Overclocking any particular cpu in theory is all the same, doesn't make a beans difference what motherboard or ram is used. The only thing there is some names might be slightly different, but What they do is exactly the same. So research about overclocking a 7600k. Asus ROG forums is a good place, as is overclockers.com, techpowerup and others.

You need to get educated as to what affects things have and what affects things cause, how some settings shouldn't be changed and how others affect different settings.

And when you think you are done, start following trails. If the guide talks about LLC, go find out exactly what that is. If the LLC explanation talks about vcore and VID and ring voltages, chase those down, follow every rabbit.

Just don't copy others. Your setup is different, your cpu is different, your numbers will likely be different. Treat any numbers you find as guides, not gospel. Unless it says increase by a # and no more, you'll treat that as gospel.

There's not much that goes into actual OC, there's a ton of stuff that goes into a successful, stable OC. Knowing the difference is half the battle.

 

[mamasan2000]

In regards to cooling a CPU, I've always run an AIO, 240mm radiator. Corsair AIOs. Now, I don't really like their software/firmware. It was very buggy for a long time. Would not recognize my AIO at all unless I used a specific version of the firmware/drivers for the AIO. That was maybe 10 years ago. Then I got a new one, similar, I had no issues that I remember. But my latest one is also Corsair h100i but the european version IIRC. Comes with no software. And has no software/firmware support, that's fine with me. I control fans via BIOS.
There are probably better AIO brands for a certain segment/price but I like to go with what I know.

Talking about fans. These AIOs often come with silent fans, 1500-1600 RPM max. That's not enough cooling for me. I have always replaced them with 2300-2500 RPM fans. Of course I don't run them at max speed but if CPU is loaded 100% in a synthetic benchmark like OCCT, I need all the RPM and CFM I can get. The default fans wouldn't cool the radiator enough and my CPU would overheat. I run the fans somewhere around 1500-2200 RPM. They get loud at the top end, really loud. Think a beefy GPU and fan is running 100% speed. But it's not really a problem if you game. My AMD Ryzen sits at 20-40% utilization in most games. GPU fan will be louder and that is not running full bore either.

For GPU. You can build a custom watercooling loop and a GPU block, very expensive or you try to eek a few more Mhz with the help of liquid metal paste. Liquid metal is too messy for my taste and it needs to be replaced something like every 6 months. Normal paste you should change every 2-3 years. That is my limit.
Well, there was a kinda DIY watercooling kit IIRC. Can't remember the brand name but it was quite universal I think. It was always questionable to me. A bit cheaper than a normal kit though. I don't know if they are still around.
Hmm, there are some DIY kits from Thermaltake etc, for CPU and GPU. Interesting. One example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q2HL58S?tag=romanceun-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1&keywords=Gpu Water Cooling Kit I haven't seen reviews, i wonder if they are any good. Checking reviews on Amazon, the pump tends to die within months and you get a leak. Not nice. Looks like 'avoid at all costs'.

For RAM, you have RAM coolers. Certain RAM ICs don't tend to like heat, over 50-60 C. It's a cooler that mounts of top of RAM and has a small fan or two. Generally not necessary.
Extreme overclockers are running open benches (no case) and they slap a 120mm fan on top of RAM.

 

[yonatans]

The way I started overclocking was, I was sitting on a system that was 3-4 years down the line and performance wasn't all that great. Didn't want to buy a new system just yet. I thought, what the hey, might as well overclock it. If it dies, I get to buy a new system. If it survives, well, free performance so I can use it for another year. That was 20 years ago. Today, it's just fun for me. I don't mind the extra performance but I also know the limitations. I find out limitations first before I touch anything. How much voltage to not kill parts within the week or a day? Or a year for that matter. What clocks can I expect? What settings should I dabble with and by how much?

You do research first. If that's too much reading, forget about it.

If you care about your components and don't know exactly what you are doing, I would advise against overclocking. Learn the hardware first. How it works, how everything functions and talks to each other. For instance, why is FSB overclocking sometimes, if not most of the time, bad?

But if you want to read about it, heres a resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/wiki/index
Gotta start somewhere. And remember: ALL silicone is different. It has variations. Doesn't matter if it is the CPU, RAM, GPU or Motherboard. It all varies by a certain degree. It's why there is such a denotation as a "golden sample". That's a very good part, high quality. It's also a lottery. You never know how good or bad a quality-part you get. You gotta test it. One guy used these clocks and voltages, doesn't mean it will work for you.
Manufacturers separate the wheat from the chaff. It's called "binning". They test every part. The functioning subpar parts are still sold to you but of course at slower clocks, lower quality and less money. But they also don't test every part to the limit. They don't have the time of day. If you sell millions of units, you can't spend a day testing every single one.

I understand, thank you

 

[yonatans]

Overclocking any particular cpu in theory is all the same, doesn't make a beans difference what motherboard or ram is used. The only thing there is some names might be slightly different, but What they do is exactly the same. So research about overclocking a 7600k. Asus ROG forums is a good place, as is overclockers.com, techpowerup and others.

You need to get educated as to what affects things have and what affects things cause, how some settings shouldn't be changed and how others affect different settings.

And when you think you are done, start following trails. If the guide talks about LLC, go find out exactly what that is. If the LLC explanation talks about vcore and VID and ring voltages, chase those down, follow every rabbit.

Just don't copy others. Your setup is different, your cpu is different, your numbers will likely be different. Treat any numbers you find as guides, not gospel. Unless it says increase by a # and no more, you'll treat that as gospel.

There's not much that goes into actual OC, there's a ton of stuff that goes into a successful, stable OC. Knowing the difference is half the battle.

thank you as well, really appreciate the help

 

[mamasan2000]

Overclocking any particular cpu in theory is all the same, doesn't make a beans difference what motherboard or ram is used...

Motherboard matters. Specifically the VRM. If you have a cheap mobo with a weak VRM, it might overheat, might have bad transient response (I think this can crash your system) etc. I like to think of transient response as high load to idle or vice versa. So 50-100% load on cpu to 1-10% at idle or vice versa.
I'd like to compare this to car engines. You have a car with 200 horsepower. You might be able to "overclock" it to 250 HP without changing a part in the engine. But if you want 400 HP, you are going to have to replace parts in the engine = parts on the motherboard = buying a better motherboard.
When you OC, you increase the voltage and/or the clocks, both increasing the amount of energy needed, therefor the wattage that goes thru the VRM and CPU. At stock it might be 120 watts. Overclocked, 200 watts. The system needs more energy or in the car analogy, more horsepower.


You might even need a beefier PSU for this. I have been fine with 850 W PSU for 15 years. Overclocking both CPU (AIO-cooling) and GPU (stock fan). I can't afford the top of the line, so it's midrange CPU and GPU, around 300-500$ dollar parts for both. So CPU around 200 watts, GPU 300 watts, overclocked. Harddisks pull about 20-25 w, SSD under 10, case fans next to nothing, 1w or so per fan.

Going to the extreme, what do extreme CPU overclockers use? The LN2 crowd. Expensive motherboards, top of the line, 500$+ mobos. High quality PSU with 1000 watts or more. Especially if they overclock the GPU as well. A CPU can easily pull 400 watts. GPU will pull even more watts. They are ~300 watts at stock, the beefy ones. 3090 and 6900XT.


Intel doesn't care that much about RAM speed. Ryzen does.
The 1060 3 gig is not really comparable to a 1060 6 gig. The 3 gig is more in line with a 1050 or something. Another scammy move by Nvidia. Just so you know.

 

[Karadjgne]

Motherboard doesn't matter to the 'theory' of overclocking. Only its physical ability. Raising or lowering vcore or LLC or ring voltages, disabling c-states, increasing power limits, turbo current factors etc is exactly the same on a cheap gigabyte mobo as it is on the most extreme asus LN2 designed board. Even the cpu is of little importance, OC 7600k is the same as OC 7700k or 6600k or 6700k.

The procedures for OC that 7600k on op's mobo are identical to any other, so it matters not where or how Op gets educated, whether that's a review done with an msi mobo or a Biostar. Only the names are somewhat different, but the application is not.

You can learn how to OC from any source, don't discount something because it's name or a component is different.