Overclocking an i3 530?

antcole

antcole

antcole

Associate
Joined
28 Feb 2008
Posts
19
Hello there,

I am quite new to overclocking CPU's and have only done it once before (on a e8200) so was wondering if you guys could help me out.

I currently have a i3 530 @2.93GHz which I am looking to overclock. Now i don't want a massive overclock, maybe just to about 3.5ghz?

At the moment the multiplier is x22 and the bus speed is at 133.3MHz.

My mobo is a Gigabyte h55m-ud2h.

Many thanks
Ant
 
I have a spare system with a i3 540 (3ghz) running at 3.8ghz perfectly stable, I just lowered the memory multiplier then raised the base clock until the memory was back at the correct overall speed, this resulted in the cpu running 800 mhz faster. To go higher I would most likely have to mess with voltages and more complicated stuff so I left it there, its a nice boost for free.
 
OK, thanks. Can you please give me the exact number you lowered the memory mutiplier by and the amount you raised the 'base clock'? Sorry, I'm not very clued up on this yet.

Many thanks
Ant
 
Basically if I remember right (cant reboot the machine as the are virtual servers on it), in the bios you see something like this (in my case):

CPU speed: 3000
B clock: 133
Multi: 23
Memory ratio: 10:1
Memory: 1333

Something like that, basically its showing what the base clock is multiplied by to get the cpu/memory speeds, you cant change the CPU multi but you can change the B clock and ram ratio.

I did this to the ram multi (dropping the ram speed):

CPU speed: 3000
B clock: 133
Multi: 23
Memory ratio: 8:1
Memory: 1064

Then I increased the B clock until the ram was almost back to normal, thus also raising the cpu speed:

CPU speed: 3818
B clock: 166
Multi: 23
Memory ratio: 8:1
Memory: 1328

By lowering the ram multi more or buying faster ram I could have got the cpu higher but I believe that would require voltage adjusting and stuff, and this is perfectly stable and gives a nice boost in benchmarks for free so im happy with it.
 


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

hope that helps. Stable all through summer etc etc.....

Dunno if i could push it anymore though:)

Or if anyone has suggestions for my oc settings.

I have a M4 ssd drive so it fliessssssssssssssss
 
As a general rule of thumb when overclocking, first find the stock voltage of the chip, and then take 10% above that is the safe max voltage. Another thing you can do is check other processors with the same architecture. Since other Nehalem chips are clocked at 3.3GHz, I'd expect 3.3GHz or slightly more (with a good chip) is doable without a voltage increase. Gavin has posted a particularly decent OC but you can see he has used a >10% vcore bump, which is fine if you have a high end cooler.

Some other results here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2921/5

Also there is something to note about 3.8GHz, at that speed an i3 530 becomes faster than the fastest Sandybridge i3!
 
JonSmith said:
As a general rule of thumb when overclocking, first find the stock voltage of the chip, and then take 10% above that is the safe max voltage. Another thing you can do is check other processors with the same architecture. Since other Nehalem chips are clocked at 3.3GHz, I'd expect 3.3GHz or slightly more (with a good chip) is doable without a voltage increase. Gavin has posted a particularly decent OC but you can see he has used a >10% vcore bump, which is fine if you have a high end cooler.

Some other results here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2921/5

Also there is something to note about 3.8GHz, at that speed an i3 530 becomes faster than the fastest Sandybridge i3!
Click to expand...


Ill try and lower the v core a little tomorrow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom