Any need for OC if I only intend to game?

[Rukhage]

Hi I'm a total newb here so I apologize for my unintended ignorance.

 

I've recently built myself my first rig with some nice decent components. Now I know my MoBo has some nice OC features (it's a Maximus III Formula), but I don't know if I should tax them.

 

My questions basically are, should I run stress tests, and if I do, will it burn out my system when I want this rig to last me some years? And if I run stress tests, which software should I use to give me the best results?

 

Specs:

 

Mobo: Asus Maximus III Formula

CPU: Intel i5-750

RAM: 2x2GB Kingston 1066Mhz

GPU: ATI Radeon 3850HD 1GB

Heatsink: Noctua NH C12P-SE14

PSU: Corsair TX650W

[Boinker]

Of course you should run stress tests. Really in my experience it has not been the stress test that burn down the CPU, its the guy using too much voltage, running to close to a processors max temps or just improper settings being imputed without understanding what they do. The only other thing that will really burn them up quickly is pushing up to hard and too fast.

 

 

Now before you venture into overclocking just understand that your projected componet life span will be limited from the under normal cercumstances settings. Now there are ways to counter this.

 

 

One: stay inside the factory recommened voltage limits or below the red on the motherboard Bios.

two: the cooler the better. As stated the cooler you keep them the longer life span you will be able to obtain.

Three: Do your homework before overclocking anything. I will post info Databases and A few guides for you to help you.

Four:Monitor your system: Examples are to Have plenty of monitoring software available. I am using an Asus board so I use Asus PC probe, CPU-Z to see my settings and Core temp to monitor my temperatures. You can Also use hardware monitor from where CPU-Z is. Use GPU-z as the GPU form of CPU-z. For my Nvidia cards I use MSI afterburner and OCCT GPU test to verify stabilty but im not sure for your Radeon cards what you would need. Seek out the manufacture to see what they have to say or use.

Five: stabilty test: Intel burn test, OCCT or Prime95. OCCT is going to give you the best stabilty of the three as its the ringer of stabilty tests IMHO.

Six: Enjoy yourself.

 

Here is some information about your Processor that you should Know www.CPU-World.com

Here is a guide for I7 overclocking. its mainly for 1366 but I would like you to read it as its a good read. Guide

 

 

Read up and that should get you started. BTW: Enjoy it. THats what its for.

[Rukhage]

Thanks! I'll give all of this a good read.

[Rukhage]

The other thing I should ask is if benchmarking and running these stress tests will improve the performance of my rig. Again apologies for my ignorance.

[wevsspot]

The other thing I should ask is if benchmarking and running these stress tests will improve the performance of my rig. Again apologies for my ignorance.

Hi Ruk - first let me welcome you to OCC. We're glad that you decided to join our world class forums

 

Benchmarking and stress testing WILL NOT improve the performance of your rig. All they will do is give you indications of what (or whether) your overclocking is;

 

a) yielding positive performance improvements

b) stable under stressful operating conditions

 

Boinker gave you some excellent advice and resources. That will get you started.

 

For me the keys to successful overclocking are knowledge, patience and caution. Take baby steps, and don't change things when you don't have any idea what they do.

[Rukhage]

Well I've used some of the OC software that Asus provided for my MoBo. It made a couple of tuneups on its own and I managed to improve system performance by 39% without compromising system integrity. Voltage and temperatures are all within normal.

 

I'll probably run a stress test later. How long should I run Prime95 without destroying my rig?

[Hoody_s13]

If I were you, ditch the Asus OC software and do all this through your bios. I'd only use that software if I was trying to refine my blck up or down a few points.

 

You also want to avoid using the automatic settings for overclocking, as these can generally overvolt your cpu and you can get a better overclock yourself! As everyone will say here, read up and understand everything your changing.

 

I would run Intel burn test for 20 passes on standard, set your threads to 4 (for the i5 750 - since it has no hyperthreading and has 4 cores). If that fails, your overclock isnt stable and you need to lower your clock or up the voltage. If it passes and depending if you want a higher clock or not, you can either try to go higher, or run prime95 blend test for 24 hours to test for complete system stability. It takes about 8 hours for a complete blend test to run, but to be on the safe side if its a overclock you want to keep for a long time, run 3 tests (24 hours). Keep a check on your CPU temps, especially during the IBT runs as this will stress it a lot.

 

I think it was mentioned before, you wont destroy your rig/cpu doing stress tests, unless your overvolting the cpu or running your temperatures too high...

 

Also, forgot to mention, when running Prime95, remember to click on the 'Advanced' tab and check 'Round off checking'. This is important, since your system might be close to stable, where it isnt locking up or blue screening, but the cpu calculations are off.

Edited May 17, 2011 by hoody_s13

[VaporX]

I am kind of suprised that no one has asked this yet, is your system not gaming well? The reason I ask is that if you are having issues with your games then I can see the concern that the system might need tweaking but if the games are running well I would let it be and enjoy the gaming.

[Rukhage]

Well it never hurts to know a bit more of this. I think I'll just OC lightly for starters and then maybe when I'm more literate I'll try it on a less critical rig.

[Rukhage]

I'm running a blend on Prime95 on normal settings just to get the baseline of what my loads are like. So far I'm 5 hours into the test and the max core temp I'm getting is 52°C and my voltage hasn't budged a decimal point. I'm guessing that's all good.

[Speedway]

You should never OC for gaming.......unless you want more fps

[Hoody_s13]

Ruk how did you overclock go, what blck/multi and what sort of voltages??

 

Blend test is to test the overall stability of your system as in CPU, memory and motherboard.

If your using prime95 and want to stress you CPU which is the core of your overclock, run small fft's test. I guarantee you'll see higher temps. Either way if your blend test is running ok so far should be fine. Small ftt's is similar too intel burn test as it will really stress the CPU quickly too see if it's stable.

 

What games do you play anyway?