New to OC - want some adivces

[MultipleParadox]

-- Posting in General HW section as I am looking for general advices, not specific to GPU or CPU --

Hi all,

I've been owning that PC (custom) for a good 3 years now and just decided on trying to OC it to get more juice out of it, after having upgraded my GPU
I'd say I've been successful so far but I stayed quite conservative I'd say

Here's a comparison of stock vs current Oc'd settings; You can see some details about my hardware in there already (more details about this below):

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/6338793/fs/6339977


I was wondering about how much more juice you'd think I could safely get out of this
And also, would adding an extra 8gb Ram would actually make a difference? (yes, running win10 64Bit)
This is primarily a gaming pc

To OC the CPU I simply used the automatic OC Tuner feature of the MoBo as I wasn't too sure about doing it manually. I read it wasn't the best way to OC but I felt safer doing that, especially since it literally takes seconds vs hours of tuning

Any advices/recommendations is more than welcome!

Thanks


--
(I dont have my actual OC settings' details on hand right now)
Hardware:
Asus Sabertooth Z77
Intel 3770k (base clock now at ~103mhz, 41x multiplier - I dont recall voltage)
-- Cooled by a Corsair H50
Evga GTX980ti ACX2.0+ SC+
2x4gb Kingston Ram. IIRC it's 9-9-9-27 - currently set to XMP profile, 1600mhz
Thermaltake TR2 700W PSU (or is it 750?)
OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD

 

[Dlaw]

On an H50, I wouldn't expect much more than that. What are your temps like now?

 

[MultipleParadox]

While running stress cpu test with my first OC attempt at 4.5ghz (stock voltage) I was reaching in the 80-82 degrees Celsius

IIRC, with the OC tuner settings at 4.2ghz, I was getting about 70-72C, maybe slightly more, while gaming (GTA V at max settings)

I can recheck tonight or tomorrow to be sure of those numbers though

 

[bob4933]

If youre hitting 4.5ghz on stock voltage, thats ridiculous. 82 while stress testing is fine for an ivy bridge cpu. Really fine consider 4.5ghz and an h50 haha

 

[MultipleParadox]

I was reaching 4.5ghz on stock voltage yes,but was not super stable (I should have mentioned that )

Had a few crashes using line with that
So that's when I decided to try that OC tuner feature instead

 

[bob4933]

First, its typically in your best interest to NOT use "overclocking software". It usually slaps WAY too much voltage and is no where near as stable as a manual bios setup. Considering that, I'd recommend going back to stock and trying again.

You also have a pretty stout mother board. Your main limit will be that crappy water cooler. Typically stay around 1.25-1.3v for a reliable and (mostly) safe voltage. If yours boots at 4.5ghz on stock voltage, its likely not going to take much more to get that stable.

In general, the process is to basically go back to stock, remove power saving options, find your p state at stock voltage, then slowly add voltage to get the next level stable. For initial testing I do a single run of intel burn test (lets you know if you hit a thermal wall VERY quickly), followed by 10 minutes of prime 95. If both of those pass, I continue until p95 fails quickly or I reach a thermal or voltage wall. I just started getting into intel overclocking myself, lemme know how you fare.

 

[MultipleParadox]

First, its typically in your best interest to NOT use "overclocking software". It usually slaps WAY too much voltage and is no where near as stable as a manual bios setup.

yes I read about that

Just to clarify one thing though, I haven't use a "software" as in "Windows Software"
OC Tuner is a feature in the MoBo UEFI A.I Tweaker. It is being reviewed here

Again, I'm not sure about the exact settings it used, I'll come back with more details when I have a chance

Thanks for the inputs so far!

 

[bob4933]

Ah I see, youre using the asus profiles. Those may be "ok", but youre still better off just grunting it out and doing it yourself the right way.

 

[MultipleParadox]

So here's the settings used by OC tuner

Blck/peg free: 103
Core ratio limit: 41 for all cores
Cpu bus speed: auto
Memory frequently: ddr3-1373mhz?
Cpu power thermal control: 130
Dram power thermal control: 110
Dram voltage: 1.65
Cpu voltage auto

Everything else is set to auto

Making any sense?

 

[Mandrake4565]

So here's the settings used by OC tuner

Blck/peg free: 103
Core ratio limit: 41 for all cores
Cpu bus speed: auto
Memory frequently: ddr3-1373mhz?
Cpu power thermal control: 130
Dram power thermal control: 110
Dram voltage: 1.65
Cpu voltage auto

Everything else is set to auto

Making any sense?

I highlighted the problem with using auto overclocking software/tools. As said above it will usually give too much voltage and it almost always drops the Dram clock speed which isn't helping you. Go here and read how to do it properly in the BIOS.