3 Step - Core i3, i5, and i7 Overclocking Guides (now includes Sandy Bridge)

[miahallen]

Hello XtremeSystems

I've looked around the web, and all of the mainstream sites have overclocking guides of some sort, but they're a bit too tame for an user who REALLY wants to learn how to push their system the XS way

I've spent a lot of time over the last few months writing, revising, and attempting to perfect overclocking guides for the latest generations of Intel CPUs. Many of you may have seen the previous revision posted at overclockers.com. But I really wanted to take that guide to the next level. These guides are not OCing templates....those are already plentiful, but have very limited effectiveness.
I've seen way too much "give me the settings" type of trial-and-error overclocking going on. If you are serious about pushing your system, a methodical approach is the fastest, and most effective way to do so.

I felt the best way to start was with an introduction comparing the different choices for LGA1156 and LGA1366 platofrms, and it turned into a buyers guide. It should be a good reasource for power users looking for a recommendation on which series to purchase.
Intel Core i3 i5 and i7 Buyers Guide

I broke the overclocking portion of the guide down into three parts, so that I could tailor each section to the specific audiences's needs. I ended up with three very thorough overclocking guides that avoid the fluff, and focus on the good stuff.

3 Step Overclocking Guide - Gulftown and Bloomfield

3 Step Overclocking Guide - Lynnfield

3 Step Overclocking Guide - Clarkdale

3 Step Overclocking Guide - Sandy Bridge

As you work through the guides, take your time and do it right. If you run into problems, take note of where you are at in the process. Take a screenshot of the problem if possible. Start a new thread with the attached screenshot and all of the relevent system information. And we will do our best to help you achieve a good solid, hardcore overclock

Any comments and criticizms are very welcome. Although I have striven for perfection, I know these guides are still far from it.

If anyone is interested in following my work, please do so here, thanks

[The Duke]

great reads ... maybe I will go back and play with my 920 a little more

[Movieman]

What? No "Overclocking dual westmere's on the SR2"?
For shame...For shame....

[EnJoY]

What? No "Overclocking dual westmere's on the SR2"?
For shame...For shame....

I agree...totally unacceptable.

[miahallen]

Lol

[Boulard83]

haha !


great guide ! Good job

[Movieman]

I agree...totally unacceptable.

Been thinking, I could probably write up a decent one myself..
I think I have more experience with it than anyone except Peter and I haven't broken mine..yet..
Sucker has been at 100% load since Mid March and not one hiccup..

[SiGfever]

Excellent writeup. It must have taken a lot of time and hard work to compile such detailed information on multiple platforms, thank you. I downloaded and printed it to try my hand at pushing my i7 920 D0 rig farther. I have gotten a lot of good help and information @ XS (as always) and this is the most detailed "How To Steps" that I have seen anywhere.

P.S. I was using your writeup from Overclockers.com

[Utnorris]

First, this should be stickied. Second, awesome writeup, somewhat simple for the buyers guide, but I like the straight forward recommendations, K.I.S.S. is always good in a guide. Thank you for the time and effort, this couldn't have come at a better time as I am debating on downgrading my system and the buying guide helped a lot.

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

sticky this for sure, it will help so many people and it is written very well, excellent work miahallen

[Frag Maniac]

I basically have two problems with OCing guides. One, some try to make it sound too simple, and in reality every chip responds differently to OCing, so the rules of thumb can feel as if you're using nothing but your thumbs. Two, most of them are written for extreme OCing. Give me a break with this crap. Whatever happened to merely trying to avoid a bottleneck and actually stopping at that point vs trying to get as much as you can out of a chip? A max OC only stresses the CPU unnecessarily if you only want to game on it.

The more OCing guides I read, the less I want to bother with it, especially on a 1366 i7 chip. In reality the only slight bottleneck you're going to get is a fairly small percentage of frames on the more optimized games, so you never see the extra frames because you're still WAY above 60 FPS even with that bottleneck. On high resource games the FPS are nearly the same without an OC because those games are so GPU dependent the CPU doesn't factor in as much.

Bottom line, whether OCing for benchmarks, bottlenecks or bragging rights, it still boils down to something that isn't really necessary for most games.

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

I basically have two problems with OCing guides. One, some try to make it sound too simple, and in reality every chip responds differently to OCing, so the rules of thumb can feel as if you're using nothing but your thumbs. Two, most of them are written for extreme OCing. Give me a break with this crap. Whatever happened to merely trying to avoid a bottleneck and actually stopping at that point vs trying to get as much as you can out of a chip? A max OC only stresses the CPU unnecessarily if you only want to game on it.

The more OCing guides I read, the less I want to bother with it, especially on a 1366 i7 chip. In reality the only slight bottleneck you're going to get is a fairly small percentage of frames on the more optimized games, so you never see the extra frames because you're still WAY above 60 FPS even with that bottleneck. On high resource games the FPS are nearly the same without an OC because those games are so GPU dependent the CPU doesn't factor in as much.

Bottom line, whether OCing for benchmarks, bottlenecks or bragging rights, it still boils down to something that isn't really necessary for most games.

well because this is xtreme systems

[miahallen]

Thanks for the props guys

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

Thanks for the props guys

very leet

[9joker6]

Great Job m8, i've been looking for this guide so far!!!

Excellent

[Movieman]

Thread stuck..

[miahallen]

Thanks Dave

[Planet]

Finally Dave did something usefull around here

[Brave758]

Fantastic been looking for one like this for ages esp with the gulftown included

[ZoLKoRn]

Nice knowledge for all, Thanks for sharing Miahallen

[miahallen]

Thanks ZoLKoRn

If anyone is interested in following my work, please do so here, thanks

[runmc]

I read this guide a couple of wks ago and found it very informative. It's a very structured and straight forward plan. If you don't have a plan like this you'll be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Nice job Miah

[miahallen]

Thanks Ron

[miahallen]

Bump for Sandy Bridge

[Johnny87au]

oh wow mia, Bookmarked for reference <3