Hi, I've recently put together the following system: Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel i5-3570K 8GB Corsair DDR3 (2 x 4GB) Thermaltake SP-530PCWEU PSU Arctic Freezer i30 Can anybody offer any advice on overclocking this system? All the guides are for 2500k processors.
They overclock the same way really. Keep the voltage at stock and keep bringing up the multi untill it becomes unstable. You should get 4.4 easy
How did you mount your i30? Does it really cover the first DIMM or the first PCI-E slot, depending on orientation?
I mounted it with the fan extracting towards the back of the case. It covers the first DIMM slot. However, you have to unclip the fan housing in order to assemble the HSF. There are metal plates that need to be screwed into the base of the HSF assembly so that it can be fitted to an LGA1155 motherboard. You can't access the screws unless you remove the fan housing. This is achieved by unclipping the fan shroud, *NOT* by unscrewing the hex key screws. With the fan housing removed, you can access the DIMM slot and add/remove RAM. There are no included instructions with the fan and nothing on the Arctic Cooling website. It is a very fiddly installation. I did it on my own and it would have been a lot easier with a second pair of hands. It it seems to be very effective at cooling. I'm getting temps of 29C idle and 54C full load (Prime95 Max heat test) - Arctic Silver 5 and Antec P180 case. If you are thinking of buying one, just be aware how big it is - i.e. MASSIVE. The P180 case is a beast and the HSF is almost touching the side panel. Any bigger and I wouldn't be able to close the case. _______ Now... About that overclock! I've updated my BIOS to the UEFI BIOS http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4015#bios What voltages, etc, should I be using? My last PC was an Athlon 64 x2 4200+, so I'm not familiar with either Intel chipsets or these new newfangled UEFI BIOS styles
Vcore is only voltage of relevance if your not pushing 4.8ghz + Find out the stock voltage of your chip set it boot then increase the multi 1 at a time until it refuses to go into windows. Increase voltage in 0.1 increments. Run prime 95 to test for stability 15 mins is fine You should be able to safely hit 4.5 ghz in under 1hr.
If it covers the first DIMM slot, you're limited to using really tiny memory modules, or use only 3 slots. I wonder these will fit under the fan.
That RAM would fit under the fan. These are what I'm using. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...0-(1600)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-165v ______ I've increased the clock speed to 4.4GHz. I had to set the BIOS voltage to 1.43V to achieve a stable system. However, my motherboard appears to be 'undervolting' by 0.1V. According to CPU-Z, the voltage is stable. Is this normal for some motherboards? Could it be reporting the wrong voltage? The temperature is maxing out at 65C, which I think is OK. Should I try and push things a bit further?
The variation in Vcore is due to increased consumption when at full load. It's normal, and usually referred to as "vdroop". Here's a very good article about it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2404/5
That is after a few hours of Prime95 maximum heat test. I've found there is a bit of a problem with my motherboard BIOS. Before I began overclocking, I upgraded to the UEFI BIOS. There doesn't appear to be a Load Line Calibration setting available with this BIOS. I tried 'downgrading' to the latest Award BIOS (version FD). This does have the Load Line Calibration setting available, but the maximum multiplier is 38x. Is anybody aware of another BIOS for this motherboard that has full multiplier settings and LLC? ___ EDIT: Would the 'revision 1' BIOS versions be compatible with the 'revision 2' of the motherboard? http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3897#bios http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4015#bios _____ EDIT2: Apparently, BIOS FB for Rev.2 boards is a good overclocker. I'll try that and report back on voltages/temps.
Overclocking an Ivy Bridge chip on the Z68 chipset has always yielded significantly worse results when compared to Z77.
