Overclocking has changed - a little guidance needed.

Egon · 5 May 2015 at 10:08

It's been... a while, 7 years since my last MB and CPU change. Back then things were simple. The BIOS on my new motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - is so different, things have moved on somewhat in BIOS software eh!

Let's just assume I'm a noob (as I feel like it tbh), so I need an idiots guide for overclocking my i5-4690k. I also purchased 8GB of 2400mhz RAM (TeamGroup Vulcan Red), so want to get the best out of these too.

Any decent guides out there for this combo?
Also what monitoring and testing software should I be downloading to check for a stable overclock?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Egon · 8 May 2015 at 10:12

Not sure yet Stulid, still haven't replaced the stock cooler. What sort of speeds are people managing on air? Is 4.5 achievable? I'm happy to test 4Ghz out to begin with if it's just a single multiplier change and see how that goes. Then once I receive the brackets from Noctua, I can push for higher.

From what I have read it seems that RAM is no longer tied to the FSB (is that term even relevant any more?) like it used to be and the overclock on the RAM is independent. Is that right, or am I misinterpreting things?

The RAM I purchased is 2400Mhz rated and is currently running at 1600... so I'd like to push that up a bit.

Egon · 8 May 2015 at 12:03

OK, thanks, I'll give it a shot this weekend when I have some time. I'll stick with 4Ghz for the time being too.

Egon · 9 May 2015 at 18:44

Followed your advice and loaded the XMP profile for the memory so that is now running at 2400, confirmed in CPU-Z.

I upped the the multiplier for the CPU to 40 so that is now running at 4Ghz. Haven't touched the 'vcore loadline calibration' that you mentioned though.

Ran a quick benchmark in Asus Realbench that was suggested my MrMD. idle temps are arounf 30 and max temps during the bench reached 73.