3770k OC!!!!!!!!

[henfai]

Hi, I have no idea what I am doing at all but I see this feature called cpu level up/turbov evo and wanted to try overclocking. I guess I have 2 questions. 1) is this process reversible as in can I get my pre-oc condition back after oc-ing? and 2) I have a hyper 212+ and I want to try 4.20 GHz first. Is the chip going to heat up quite a bit or would it still be at considerably decent temperatures? Oh and it's running at about 29-35*c idling. THANKS!

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Hey there! 🙂 yes! it's reversible....worst comes to worst you can always clear CMOS (see manual) to return to stock settings. The CPU will heat up when OCing. 4.2 not so much but run a good temperature monitoring program like RealTemp or core temp to keep an eye on temperatures. idle temps are not so important load temps are the ones to watch (although, of course, high idle temps mean you shouldn't really load up the CPU).
You can't run various monitoring programs at the same time and get good readings so be careful not to have AI suite (for example) running in the background with something else like real temp trying to read temps.

The presets are OK but not ideal for OCing much better to read up and take control yourself....voltages with presets are usually higher than they need to be etc.

There are a couple of guides around this forum that in general will apply even if not every BIOS option applies to your board...

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?5836-ASUS-Rampage-IV-Extreme-Easy-Overclock-Guide&country=&...
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?19186-ASUS-ROG-Maximus-V-Formula-UEFI-OC-Tuning-Guide&count...

[HiVizMan]

My advice is stay well away from the pre-sets. Read the guides and try stuff. Your key guide is your temps of your CPU. Use HWmonitor or Coretemp not AISuite to monitor.

[henfai]

Okay now about checking stability. I have done some research and I see some running for 5 minutes and call it stable and some runs at for 24 hours to consider it stable. I am looking to use prime95 for stress test. How long should I be looking at leaving it on for?

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Everyone has their own opinions on this but honestly the best stability test is running the computer normally. If you play games play some games etc. Maybe 15 minutes of prime will show you if your temps are within limits and if your voltage is too low. In the end though running prime just means you can run prime. Many have toasted their CPU running prime for hours and then crashed surfing the internet or loading a game....
Everything in moderation applies to stability testing too!;)

[HiVizMan]

My favorite is the many times on this forum you hear the guys compain that after passing prime for 10 or more hours their system crashes when playing WOW for ten minutes, or immeadiatly they watch a video from you tube. Just kills me each time.

The myth that is the stability test is just that. All you prove is t hat your system can pass that test at that time. There is no certainty that you will pass it again, or that your system is stable. I like the real world stuff, load up your system with heaps of memory intensive applications and enter sleep. Wait an hour or two and wake, if you can.

But there is value in the stress tests, mainly from a heat point of view. And I am not taking away from the skill that is needed in getting your system to pass a stress test for many hours at the low voltages that some of the guys are able to achieve.