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i5 overclock

It's a total lottery mate, you could get anything from, but unless you are the worlds unluckiest person, you should hit 4.4Ghz ish without touching the volts.
 
cheers guys, anything is better than the 3.11ghz im running at the moment.

is that board any good, its the cheepest z68 board availible
 
The G43 G3's have a locked cpu voltage adjustment, and therefore only allow 'Auto' in the bios. This results in a more generous application of voltage when overclocking, but I've never seen mine go above 1.36 at 4.5ghz.

This post has excellent information for overclocking an MSI board;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18340310

but be aware that the G43 series are a budget z68 mobo, and they have less features than the more expensive boards. That being said, I've been very happy with mine for the price. The build quality is solid and the number of USB & SATA ports acceptable for the price. The bios are easy to setup, and the windows based utilities and bios tool are also straight forward.

If you can't be bothered with faffing about in the bios, the OC genie function works without issue, but to only a 4.12 ghz maximum. It will also disable all power saving features, and therefore consume a lot more juice at idle.

Also be aware that these boards are only a single GPU board, even though they are advertised as crossfire; the second PCIE slot runs at too slow a speed to be a viable option imo.

Another possibility for a good budget z68 mobo would be this one;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

This board has a manual cpu voltage adjustment, and a traditional bios. Othwerwise the features set is similar to the MSI, and indeed the Asus entry level z68 board. Due to the manual voltage adjustment, you may well see a higher overclock than the MSI. Of course, altering the voltage manually in increments will allow you to set a higher overclock at much lower temps than using an auto setting.

I personally had to try 3 of the gigabyte boards before going for the MSI. But I'll put that down to my own bad luck, as I've always had good Gigabyte mobo's in the past. The z68ap-d3 has been given rave reviews by a lot of people, and must therefore be worth putting on your shortlist.
 
thanks wolf, with ur cooler, what are ur temps with the g43? was planning on some kind of stand alone water coolong beit the antec khuler or corsair ones.
 
I've been trying out different combinations recently with the 620, and with two Akasa Apache's on Push pull, I am getting a maximum of 69 degrees after 20 runs of IBT on high. This is with the fans on 3/4 speed for a balance of low noise and cooling performance. I've also mounted the rad with the fans drawing air in from outside the case, and exiting out of my top case fans.

I've always had huge cpu coolers in the past, and been through my fair share of Noctuas and titans. I opted for the Kuhler 620 knowing that I shouldn't expect high overclocking performance out of the G43 mobo. Neatness and freeing up space were my priorities, with quiteness and cooling a close second. With that in mind, I am happy with my choice so far.

I was able to get the 620 for £40 on offer here at OCUK. But, be aware that you really do need to change the fans on them if you want quieter running with increased performance. This of course, increases the expense unless you already have a couple of decent quiet fans knocking about. So, at the moment, the Kuhler is £47. Add two decent fans at £10 each, and you may as well buy a silver arrow instead.

A good air cooler such as the coolermaster 212 evo, the Gelid tranquillo, and the Corsair A50 all provide equal if not better performance than the kuhler 620 out of the box, at a much cheaper cost. But, you will be faced with a big chunk of aluminium and copper in your case. ;)
 
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