Quick Voltage question about Overclocking.

xe-cute

xe-cute

xe-cute

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If I don't change the voltage and keep an eye on my temperatures.

Am I right in thinking that I can't possibly damage a CPU?

Is it considered safe to overclock as far as you can without changing voltages and whilst keeping an eye on your temps?

As you can tell I'm a complete noob.

Going to do some reading up, but was just wondering if this was a safe way to start an overclock before getting the confidence to then change voltages for pushing further.

Jeez, hope I'm making some sense here.

Just I am going to order an i7 930 and want to know before hand the risk of an easy overclock (I'd like to get it at 4ghz, but only hwen I get the confidence - Will 1st just want a completely safe easy overclock with no risk).

P.S. Also getting my post count up for free P&P :D
 
You're correct, without upping voltages or raising temps really high you are VERY unlikely to damage your cpu. At some point you will need to up them to maintain stability, but you can usually get quite far on stock volts.
 
Thats how we all do it, we first see how far we can go with stock volts, the only thing that will stop u is instability, heat won't be a factor when it comes to stock volt overclocking.

So see how that goes, and only add abit of vcore if it becomes unstable, make a note of ur cpu's recomended max temp, and volts, and try and stay below them.

But basicly no need to worry about heat when doing stock volt clocking, you will reach instabiliity well before u reach high temps.
 
yea you want the lowest voltages with the highest results, that is what you aim for, as more voltages means higher temps .

i found that most of the new intels can OC on stock voltages. if you do some research on your specific cpu you will find stock voltages.

the corsair memory often requires an increase in voltages, it is best to go on to manufacture website for your ram and cpu and check for ideal voltages and then search for the top OC'ers and see what voltages they used at the highest oc' and you can get an idea of where to work between.
 
Cheers for the help peeps. All of a sudden everything seems so much clearer.

I mean as long as I don't change the voltage and made a critical error with some crazy multiplier than the system would simply not boot up past BIOS. But end of day no harm done. Just need to lower back down the multiplier?

So basically it is safe as houses until you start tweaking the Vcore/voltage (they both same thing?) and that is only when it gets a bit dodgey and hot.

So just keep within that chips max voltage & keep an eye on the temps so they stay within the limit too?
I;m guessing wrong voltages and temps are what blow a CPU and not wrong multiplier.

Wow, sounds so easy now.

(or can voltage & multiplier combine to blow a CPU right away on boot up - as in slight increase in voltage within range, but completely wrong multiplier setting)?

Don't worry I'm going to go off and do some reading too.
I did a few years ago but I've forgot it all hehe. Thank god for Google.
 
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Multi is'nt a problem,by that i mean instabilty comes when the cpu tries to run at a faster speed, but without the required voltage. All it will do then is try to boot, fail, try to boot fail and so on, untill it reverts back to normal, and tells u the overclock has failed, at that point, u simply add a tad more voltage to the cpu.

Becuase the Front side bus, or whatever its called now on the newer stuff, is a lot lower then it used to be, the cpu's therefor have high multiplyers, but don't worry about that, u can only change it downwards, unless u buy the extreme edition and yeh thats not cheap lol.

Main thing is, keep under the recomended voltage on the cpu, use a decent cooler, read up on guides, and as allways never be affraid to ask, thats what the forums are for.
 
Alternativly if ur buying all new, u may wanna think about getting either a pre-overclocked bundle (if u have case psu and the like), or pre-overclocked full system.

As the overclocks are guaranteed, and you have it saved in the bios, its not as fun as doing it urself, but it gets u an overclocked system to play with, with the back up of knowing u have a profile that is saved that works, allways an option.
 
Ah where's the fun in that! Nothing better than getting your slow-ass cpu running quickly :) Stay withing max recommended volts and temps and you'll be fine. Just remember to do it in small increments, testing stability with prime95/orthos/intel burn test/LinX as you go to see what your load temps are and to make sure it runs under load! See how far she'll go :)
 
I was thinking of buying this overclocked bundle with the water cooling, but then thought I may as well save the £45 and do it myself (well add the £45 towards a Solid State Drive purchase).

However, I'm not sure yet whether I am comfortable with water cooling as never done one before. I'm in to music production and would love to have a fully quiet system though. Including a passive Direct X 11 GFX card for the odd gaming session (although I do own PS3 & Xbox360 and so not gamed on PC for awhile now - so not that important).

I've never overclocked before that much, usually just an instant auto 5% increase that I know can't do any real damage.

However, I may push things further this time as the benefits of overclocking seems to get greater year-by-year.
 
Well the watercooled systems they offer, are extremely well built.

The reason i mentioned the bundles, was that there is a overclock profile in the bios which they save, and ofcourse if u wanted to try urself, you could, but having the luxuray of that saved profile as back up incase.

I agree with dev, it can be fun tweaking it urself, but some of us are just weirdo's like that, orthers may like the ease of the bundles, and the security of the saved profiles.
 
If you want WC, which can be quite a fiddle, then I would go with the bundle to get a bit of peace of mind, and as bifday points out, you can always go back to stock and give it a go yourself with the OC profile there in case it goes pear shaped lol. £45 is worth it for a WC build, but if you were going with air I'd say you were right to save some dosh and spend a good few hours/days tweaking your settings.
 
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