Overclocking

[Omnipotent]

Intel® Core™ i7-870 2.93 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [+314]
Intel® Core™ i7-860 2.80 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [+0]
Intel® Core™ i5-750 2.66 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [-86]




No Overclocking [-49]
Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [-30]
Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+0]
Ultimate OC (Ultimate Overclock 30% or more) [+50]


Those are my options. What Ghz would overclocking bump the 2.80 I selected if I did the Extreme Overclock?

P.S wth is a Asus 6GB SATA-III Card?

[vanidin]

well every processor overclocks differently but if they are guaranteeing a 30%+ then your looking at 3.6ish gigahertz I believe. Really though, do you want to pay someone else to go into the bios and change a setting you could yourself?

What are you going to be doing with this system? If this is going to be a gaming system you may want to consider an I5 and putting the savings into a beefier or even a second video card.

the "Asus 6bg Sata III card" is just a serial ata interface card that supports the 6gb/sec transfer speeds. That is the device that your cpu uses to communicate with the hard drive.

[Pikarya]

Save yourself $49 and do it yourself. It takes less than 10 minutes, if that.

[Omnipotent]

Save yourself $49 and do it yourself. It takes less than 10 minutes, if that.

Can someone link me as to how to OC my PC? I would definetaly do it myself, I would consider myself above average in the "PC" world.

Also using this PC for gaming. Atm have a ATI Radeon 5770 1GB Card set out. I think that should suffice.

[Pikarya]

Can someone link me as to how to OC my PC? I would definetaly do it myself, I would consider myself above average in the "PC" world.

Also using this PC for gaming. Atm have a ATI Radeon 5770 1GB Card set out. I think that should suffice.

The manual that comes with your motherboard usually has a very simple guide within it. Overclocking is commonplace now so many manufacturers try to make it simple on the customer. Don't worry, if you can read english you're good to go.

[viperlasson]

You do it in your bios. There's two things you can manipulate, the front side bus, and the multiplier. Your multiplier is usually capped by default, so just inch up the FSB by 10, save, restart. If your computer posts, then its safe to increase again.

For example, my e8400 has a multiplier of x9 and a FSB of 425 MHz right now, making it ~3.8GHz. A whole 800 MHz overclock, which is awesome.

[Omnipotent]

You do it in your bios. There's two things you can manipulate, the front side bus, and the multiplier. Your multiplier is usually capped by default, so just inch up the FSB by 10, save, restart. If your computer posts, then its safe to increase again.

For example, my e8400 has a multiplier of x9 and a FSB of 425 MHz right now, making it ~3.8GHz. A whole 800 MHz overclock, which is awesome.

What do you mean by post?

[Cephius]

POSTing is what it's called when your motherboard completes its diagnostics checks and passes control of the computer to the operating system.

Basically overclocking is a very time consuming process and isn't for the newbie.

[Minions]

POSTing is what it's called when your motherboard completes its diagnostics checks and passes control of the computer to the operating system.

Basically overclocking is a very time consuming process and isn't for the newbie.

A lot of overclocking, small overclocking is not all that difficult. There are many guides on doing it. I chose to do it, then revert back to normal, as the excess heat was really not with the marginal gain.

I would say if you can successfully build a PC in the first place, you should be able to OC it with little difficulty. But as others have said, some CPU's won't reach the numbers that others will, its kinda random.

[Amastacia]

POSTing is what it's called when your motherboard completes its diagnostics checks and passes control of the computer to the operating system.

Basically overclocking is a very time consuming process and isn't for the newbie.

With proper cooling, a conservative overclock on an i7 860 should basically be set it and forget it.

If you're trying to get close to 4GHz, it's definitely not newbie land, but lower isn't terribly stressful to get set up.

That being said, I think the proper answer for the OP is to not pay for overclocking from his system builder, and NOT do it himself.

The built-in "Turbo" feature on the 800 series i7s works very well, and if he's not cared about overclocking to this point, he'll probably be better off in the long run stock clocked with Turbo enabled.

Significant overclocks on the 800 series i7s requires altering voltage due to the finicky onboard PCIe controller, and if he's not comfortable doing that, he'll get more net benefit from Turbo than a higher clock speed.

Edit: Yes, I know, slightly contradictory statements, but for smaller overclocks the voltage ranges required are pretty well documented, so a Google search would get him in the infield of the right ballpark.

[fishstix]

Although it's fun to max things out, the question is, do you really need it? Are you really going to notice a difference between 150 fps and 200? Would it be worth it at the expense of shortening your hardware lifespan?

[Blubbartron]

You'd be surprised just what the difference between 2.66 GHz and 3.2 GHz can do. The CPU is still a bottleneck to your computer, even if everything else is pretty good. That mild OC situation I presented right there was the difference between my old rig not being able to play 1080p movies smoothly, and having no hiccups whatsoever. Decompressing video/audio files requires a fuckload of power.

[Cephius]

With proper cooling, a conservative overclock on an i7 860 should basically be set it and forget it.

If you're trying to get close to 4GHz, it's definitely not newbie land, but lower isn't terribly stressful to get set up.

That being said, I think the proper answer for the OP is to not pay for overclocking from his system builder, and NOT do it himself.

The built-in "Turbo" feature on the 800 series i7s works very well, and if he's not cared about overclocking to this point, he'll probably be better off in the long run stock clocked with Turbo enabled.

Significant overclocks on the 800 series i7s requires altering voltage due to the finicky onboard PCIe controller, and if he's not comfortable doing that, he'll get more net benefit from Turbo than a higher clock speed.

Edit: Yes, I know, slightly contradictory statements, but for smaller overclocks the voltage ranges required are pretty well documented, so a Google search would get him in the infield of the right ballpark.

Even following google guides, a fair amount of user experience is necessary due to the unpredictable nature that comes with overclocking. One chip may require far less voltage to get to a certain speed than another chip of the same revision. A great deal of care combined with trial and error is required to get a stable overclock. In the process, it's very easy to overvolt something or drastically reduce the life of the processor when stress testing.

My point wasn't that overclocking is zomg hard and should only be left to computer pros, but the potential risks sometimes outweigh the benefits, especially if you're not a power user. I'd admit the risks these days are much less due to motherboard and processor fail safes that shut off your shit if you supply too much juice or if it gets too hot. Still, I would advise a first time overclocker to at least have help from someone who knows what they're doing.

That said, overclocking can double or triple the relative value of your processor and is worth investigating if you play high-end games, do video editing, program compiling, or enjoy these kinds of nerdscapades. A couple years ago I got my Q6600 up to 3.6Ghz (A 66% overclock! unheard of back in the day) effectively making a $200 processor worth the same as a $1000 dollar one.

[Deadgye]

The CPU is still a bottleneck to your computer

Mmmm, with resolutions and graphic options the way they are today, it's pretty easy to make the gpu the bottleneck of your computer.

[Omnipotent]

So recommending which % increase if I were to do it. Heavy gaming, no programming or techy shit is what I am using it for.

[Amastacia]

So recommending which % increase if I were to do it. Heavy gaming, no programming or techy shit is what I am using it for.

What games do you play? And at what resolutions? And with what video card?

Game engine, resolution, and graphics hardware all can play a significant impact on whether you're CPU or GPU bound.

If you're GPU bound, overclocking isn't going to do a whole lot, and you're better off using the built in "overclocking" feature that is Turbo, and leaving well enough alone.

[njitjk68]

You should not pay them to overclock for you, as Turbo mode will get things done for you on it's own.

Intel® Core™ i7-870 2.93 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [+314]
Intel® Core™ i7-860 2.80 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [+0]
Intel® Core™ i5-750 2.66 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156 [-86]
No Overclocking [-49]

Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [-30]
i7-870 -> 3.22 GHz
i7-860 -> 3.08 GHz
i5-750 -> 2.926 GHz

Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+0]
i7-870 -> 3.516 GHz
i7-860 -> 3.36 GHz
i5-750 -> 3.192 GHz

Ultimate OC (Ultimate Overclock 30% or more) [+50]
i7-870 -> 3.809 GHz
i7-860 -> 3.64 GHz
i5-750 -> 3.458 GHz

Turbo Mode
i7-870 -> 3.6 GHz
i7-860 -> 3.46 GHz
i5-750 -> 3.2 GHz

As you can see, the 10% and 20% overclock is a scam as Turbo mode will do more than that. ~200 more MHz for $50 - (-$49) = $99 may or may not be worth it to you. My opinion would be no and to just let Turbo mode do it for you, as these chips are beasts, even at stock, for pretty much any game out now and for a while to come.

[Omnipotent]

Is turbo mode something I need to turn on manually? Or does it come automatically on.

[njitjk68]

Turbo mode is a feature that comes with i5/i7 processor. I don't remember if it was on by default. If it is not, it can be turned on easily by going into bios and turning the option on.

[Amastacia]

Is turbo mode something I need to turn on manually? Or does it come automatically on.

It is on by default.

The way it works (in a nutshell) is that when only some of the cores are being stressed, it will bump up the clock speed dynamically so that the cores in use can run faster.

When all 4 cores are heavily loaded, it runs at its stock rated speed. When none of the 4 cores are heavily loaded, EIST still kicks in to reduce idle power consumption.

In between is where the magic happens, and is actually very relevant to gaming since many are not written to be multi-core aware/friendly. Some newer games and engines are better at splitting various major tasks (rendering, physics, and basic functions, for instance) into separate threads that can run on separate cores. Older games and some newer games don't really do that and have a hard time making use of more than 1-2 cores.

How much the speed is increased is dependent on how many cores are in use. You get the most boost when 1 core is being used, and then scales down from there.