i3 550 Overclocking assistance

[P4killer_]

just because someone else has got up to 4ghz does not in any way mean that you can. you kinda going about the whole process wrong.

to find ur max oc ur suppossed to go up in smal steps, given that there are many variables that can effect the stabilty of the platform, test harshly and if it passes, go back and bump up again.

it takes hours not just ohh turn the multiplier here fsb here and poof 4ghz.

on your specific question, id first check to see what ur temps are at full load oon stock settings to see if you really have headroom thermally.

if so, and you likely do have decent temps you have to take the mobo into account almost more so than the cpu. i mean the cpu basically is voltage, heat and clock

the mobo is voltages, transfer rates, well to keep it short just everything

idk about ur specific hard as im not an intel person myself, but double check ur hyper threading clocks, on the mobo, the nb and sb links etc

check your memory voltages and especially the timings...

if ur really new to oc'in either learn up first or just leave ur timings alone.

but again, oc'ing is about steps.

first leave everything stock. start with the cpu bump up ur clock step by step untill u reach unstabilty. try to adjust the dividers to keep the memory and mobo cose to stock speeds.

then try a but more voltage and see if u get ur cpu a lil but higher.. since ur on air i wouldnt reccomend too much more than a lil voltage increase.. just google ur cpus voltage ie:. core i3 550 max voltage, you should easily find the range to play with

then once uve gotten ur cpu max, move onto memory bumping up 100mhz or so every step depending on your cooling MAYBE a lil more voltage but if any component is easily broken by improper voltage its mem. heck sometimes decreasing voltage gets ur higher. i usually liked using prime 95 and memtest for stability test. mobo testing usually falls in line with mem testing as the link speeds etc are interrelated.

also idk if your populating all the mobo mem slots? some mobos "like" to have certain slots used when oc'ing

also, possibly look into a mobo firmware update. many times older firmware dont oc well or dont even auto detect memory speeds so that might help.

also, many of the new chipsets have "turbo" mode that auto oc for you... if your lazy

anyway im tired, and not up on computers like i used to be, but if you take anything away from this its that just because john down the street got 4ghz even with mathcing hardware does not at all mean that you will, and that its very much a slow ass step by step process especially if you want rock solid stable. oh and intel < Amd and really oc'ers run liquid haha

good luck

and go do some research

edit - omg my spelling is terible when its dark and im tired lol oops

Edited June 25, 2011 by P4killer_

[S15_Silvia]

Everything this guy said was dead on...except that little inequality in the last line

[manofthehour]

I have an Intel E8500 running with about a 1GHz overclock, but that's on a P45 board. Everything changed with the switch to the iX series...I'll look into it and get back on here.

just because someone else has got up to 4ghz does not in any way mean that you can. you kinda going about the whole process wrong.

to find ur max oc ur suppossed to go up in smal steps, given that there are many variables that can effect the stabilty of the platform, test harshly and if it passes, go back and bump up again.

it takes hours not just ohh turn the multiplier here fsb here and poof 4ghz.

on your specific question, id first check to see what ur temps are at full load oon stock settings to see if you really have headroom thermally.

if so, and you likely do have decent temps you have to take the mobo into account almost more so than the cpu. i mean the cpu basically is voltage, heat and clock

the mobo is voltages, transfer rates, well to keep it short just everything

idk about ur specific hard as im not an intel person myself, but double check ur hyper threading clocks, on the mobo, the nb and sb links etc

check your memory voltages and especially the timings...

if ur really new to oc'in either learn up first or just leave ur timings alone.

but again, oc'ing is about steps.

first leave everything stock. start with the cpu bump up ur clock step by step untill u reach unstabilty. try to adjust the dividers to keep the memory and mobo cose to stock speeds.

then try a but more voltage and see if u get ur cpu a lil but higher.. since ur on air i wouldnt reccomend too much more than a lil voltage increase.. just google ur cpus voltage ie:. core i3 550 max voltage, you should easily find the range to play with

then once uve gotten ur cpu max, move onto memory bumping up 100mhz or so every step depending on your cooling MAYBE a lil more voltage but if any component is easily broken by improper voltage its mem. heck sometimes decreasing voltage gets ur higher. i usually liked using prime 95 and memtest for stability test. mobo testing usually falls in line with mem testing as the link speeds etc are interrelated.

also idk if your populating all the mobo mem slots? some mobos "like" to have certain slots used when oc'ing

also, possibly look into a mobo firmware update. many times older firmware dont oc well or dont even auto detect memory speeds so that might help.

also, many of the new chipsets have "turbo" mode that auto oc for you... if your lazy

anyway im tired, and not up on computers like i used to be, but if you take anything away from this its that just because john down the street got 4ghz even with mathcing hardware does not at all mean that you will, and that its very much a slow ass step by step process especially if you want rock solid stable. oh and intel < Amd and really oc'ers run liquid haha

good luck

and go do some research

edit - omg my spelling is terible when its dark and im tired lol oops

Yea I totally forgot about this post on here LOL. So I got my i3 up to 4.1GHz @ 1.35V Vcore and got my memory timings down to 8-8-8-20. Everythings stable so far running Prime95 for about 7 hours now... Never touches 65C either. Thanks for the help though, I figured I'd do better posting on a overclocking oriented website LOL.