O/C bundles worth it ?

Uther · 3 Oct 2011 at 21:59

I'm thinking of upgrading to a i5 2500k system. The store seems to have some good bundles for around £350 (cpu/mobo/ram) which is the sort of price I am thinking of paying (plus £150 or so for gfx card) so, are the bundles worth the money, or would I be better off just overclocking the i5 myself?

Buchanan0204 · 3 Oct 2011 at 22:02

Depends how good your overclocking patience/skills are?

Nickyyy · 3 Oct 2011 at 22:04

The OC is guarantee'd under warranty ?

mikeo · 3 Oct 2011 at 22:05

Depending on what sort of OC you are looking for, the SB CPU's are very easy to OC yourself. If only (only!) looking for something like 4.2... Then just change the turbo boost values from 3.7/3.6/3.5/3.4 to 4.2/4.2/4.2/4.2 and leave everything else on auto. With Intel speedstep etc. left on, even the cpu voltage is pretty reasonable (1.28v under load on my system during 8 hour prime95 run).

If looking for more. Then there are loads of guides on the WEB. And even then, there is very little you need to change in the BIOS. Doesn't need saying I know, but just make sure you pick up a decent CPU cooler. Even here you don't need to go mad. As the SB chips look to run pretty cool anyway.

Good luck and have fun.

Uther · 3 Oct 2011 at 22:11

Actually I think I would be quite happy with 4.2!

mikeo · 3 Oct 2011 at 22:21

Uther said:
Actually I think I would be quite happy with 4.2!

I know some folks change the main ratio, disable turbo boost and manually set voltages etc. But if only looking for what is in effect a mild OC for this chip, I can't see the point myself. Each to their own though. Only my opinion, not knocking anyone here

I think the only other changes I made in the BIOS was to force my RAM to run at the correct speed / timings / and voltage nearer to 1.5v (as recommended for SB chips). Other than this, set AHCI and I've been good to go since then. Four months on and not a single BSOD or problem and my system gets thrashed pretty hard (work and play so to speak).