Hi everyone.
I'm very new to the Overclocking world - always had a keen interest, but never really got around to building a computer capable of it.
I finally bit the bullet and have put together what I think is a reasonable rig, but now that I've been doing some research into how to go about effectively overclocking it, I have been finding it very overwhelming.
This is the rig I've put together:
Intel Core I7-5930K 3.70GHZ
Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 CPU Cooler System
Corsair Vengeance Lpx 16GB 4X4GB DDR4-2666MHZ C16 XMP 2.0 1.2V Quad Channel Memory Kit
ASUS X99-A Motherboard
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Strix 1075MHZ 6GB 7.01GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 3xDisplayPort PCI-E
Corsair CS750M CS Modular 80 Plus GOLD-RATE 750W 12V Power Supply
I was originally going to just use the AI Suite 3/Dual Intelligent Processors 5 software that comes with the X99 for my overclocking needs, but upon researching, I have found that the vast majority of people seem to disagree with using Windows-based overclocking and suggest tinkering with the BIOS instead.
Whilst I found the prospect very intimidating, when I learned that people suggest tinkering purely with the ratios and the voltage, I thought that couldn't be too difficult to delve into so I shouldn't bow to my own fears and should just bite the bullet.
I went into the BIOS to try and locate the settings that need to be changed, and whilst I think I found the voltage setting for the CPU Core, I am unsure what all I need to change regarding the multipliers.
The thing that worries me most is that when I went in to activate Profile 1 with regards to the XMP settings for my RAM and tried applying the setting, I got a warning indicating that a lot of other changes would have to be made - the one that stood out the most was the BCLK being changed from 100Mhz - a lot of what I read (and yes, it seemed to be Haswell, not Haswell-E - I couldn't find a lot about the latter) seemed to imply that the BCLK should be left at the default, so I was worried that the XMP was altering that to a higher speed. Is this safe/normal? How do I optimize my RAM whilst optimizing the CPU/GPU?
I should also mention that I am really only looking to OC for gaming purposes, so I'm not looking for a crazy OC. Just something stable that won't have much impact on the longevity of my system/CPU/GPU. I was thinking somewhere from 4.2 to 4.4 should be easily attainable whilst maintaining a low-ish voltage. I've read that one wants the voltage to be at or under 1.3, though I also read that up to 1.4 would be safe as well.
Could someone please shed some light on all the conflicting information? And maybe just give me a little bit of a guide as to what order I should go about doing this in? And how best to get to that sweet spot?
I find it very confusing that I read in one place to start with the CPU and then the memory, but yet if I were to do that, and if activating an XMP profile changes the clock settings, would that not go against the CPU settings that I would have applied?
I'm sorry if I seem like a total n00b - I kind of am when it comes to this, but I am very eager to learn, and would really, really appreciate some guidance and a little hand holding here.
Thanks a lot!
I'm very new to the Overclocking world - always had a keen interest, but never really got around to building a computer capable of it.
I finally bit the bullet and have put together what I think is a reasonable rig, but now that I've been doing some research into how to go about effectively overclocking it, I have been finding it very overwhelming.
This is the rig I've put together:
Intel Core I7-5930K 3.70GHZ
Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 CPU Cooler System
Corsair Vengeance Lpx 16GB 4X4GB DDR4-2666MHZ C16 XMP 2.0 1.2V Quad Channel Memory Kit
ASUS X99-A Motherboard
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Strix 1075MHZ 6GB 7.01GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 3xDisplayPort PCI-E
Corsair CS750M CS Modular 80 Plus GOLD-RATE 750W 12V Power Supply
I was originally going to just use the AI Suite 3/Dual Intelligent Processors 5 software that comes with the X99 for my overclocking needs, but upon researching, I have found that the vast majority of people seem to disagree with using Windows-based overclocking and suggest tinkering with the BIOS instead.
Whilst I found the prospect very intimidating, when I learned that people suggest tinkering purely with the ratios and the voltage, I thought that couldn't be too difficult to delve into so I shouldn't bow to my own fears and should just bite the bullet.
I went into the BIOS to try and locate the settings that need to be changed, and whilst I think I found the voltage setting for the CPU Core, I am unsure what all I need to change regarding the multipliers.
The thing that worries me most is that when I went in to activate Profile 1 with regards to the XMP settings for my RAM and tried applying the setting, I got a warning indicating that a lot of other changes would have to be made - the one that stood out the most was the BCLK being changed from 100Mhz - a lot of what I read (and yes, it seemed to be Haswell, not Haswell-E - I couldn't find a lot about the latter) seemed to imply that the BCLK should be left at the default, so I was worried that the XMP was altering that to a higher speed. Is this safe/normal? How do I optimize my RAM whilst optimizing the CPU/GPU?
I should also mention that I am really only looking to OC for gaming purposes, so I'm not looking for a crazy OC. Just something stable that won't have much impact on the longevity of my system/CPU/GPU. I was thinking somewhere from 4.2 to 4.4 should be easily attainable whilst maintaining a low-ish voltage. I've read that one wants the voltage to be at or under 1.3, though I also read that up to 1.4 would be safe as well.
Could someone please shed some light on all the conflicting information? And maybe just give me a little bit of a guide as to what order I should go about doing this in? And how best to get to that sweet spot?
I find it very confusing that I read in one place to start with the CPU and then the memory, but yet if I were to do that, and if activating an XMP profile changes the clock settings, would that not go against the CPU settings that I would have applied?
I'm sorry if I seem like a total n00b - I kind of am when it comes to this, but I am very eager to learn, and would really, really appreciate some guidance and a little hand holding here.
Thanks a lot!