Shuttle SZ77R5 - Fan and Overclocking

SplitzMagic · 5 Jul 2012 at 09:54

Hi guys I am new to this forum so I hope you all welcome me with open arms

Basically I have been building a Shuttle SZ77R5 with the following spec

Intel i5 2500k - Wanting to overclock to 4.5GHZ
8GB Vengeance Ram
Samsung 830 128gb SSD
GTX 680
Asetek 545LC Water Cooling
Asetek custom cooling fan

My question is, how do I go about overclocking? I am looking to achieve a stable 4.5GHZ. I understand I have to mod the bios but when on the overclocking page in the bios I cannot understand anything on there as the values/settings are different from other BIOS'

I also need to know how to get SpeedFan working with the shuttle as I cannot get SpeedFan to control it.

Any help would be appreciated

Doomedspeed · 5 Jul 2012 at 11:22

Welcome,

Firstly, that looks an awesome build.

Can you post a screenshot of the bios, atall or a picture? It may help.

Your looking for something like "frequency settings". The goal is to find the CPU multiplier. It shoudl be set to X33 at stock.

SplitzMagic · 5 Jul 2012 at 17:17

Oh I see, I am currently at work now but as soon as I get in I can post a screen shot.

Its really getting on my nerves as every time I changed the settings it would stay at 3.3Ghz :S

In the multiplier it was set to 37 by default so I think that is with the turbo boost.

I will be back shortly

SplitzMagic · 5 Jul 2012 at 17:19

Oh and thanks for the heads up on my system

SimonMaltby · 5 Jul 2012 at 19:22

Overclocking with the SZ77R5 is really easy, however there are a few things which you need to do to maximise the overclock.

Firstly make sure you have the latest Bios installed 107 or 108 - 108 is the latest 107 is the one i'm currently using.

In frequency / voltage you need to adjust the multiplier - if you want 4.5 change it to 45. I suggest changing it slowly and checking how stable the system is each time by running a stress testing application i.e. Prime95 for a few minutes.

You may also need to increase the CPU voltage a little... you may get away with anything from +50mv to +150mv depending on how lucky you are with your CPU.

You will see that the CPU speed will vary when in windows. It will use speedstep to keep the multiplier and voltage as low as it can for the task the computer is doing... so it may even drop to 1600MHz... the Multiplier you set in the bios is the maximum it will go to.

Finally, Shuttle have put in protection for the VRM's by limiting the current that the CPU can draw, there are two settings a short term and a long term value. These are the adjustments you see under the multiplier in the Bios... I forget what they are called. When using the CPU if it exceeds the current limit the multiplier will be reduced... Without adjusting these value you may not see greater than 3.7GHz regardless on the multiplier you have set. I would just set these to thier maximum values until you have the rest of the system how you want it and then you can look at reducing them if you wish to.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more help.

BigBANGtheory · 16 Jul 2012 at 10:11

Having read Simon Maltby's excellent review article on the SZ77R5 and realisation of OC potential with the Asetek 545LC 92mm cooler I was left troubled by having to live with the onboard audio.

Indeed this seems to be a problem with other microITX options, but atleast the SZ77R5 has 2 slots.

The Shuttle has a PCIe x16 slot and a x4 slot, the later of which is obviously covered over by a dual slot GPU, leaving too little room for a PCIe extension cable (as Simon pointed out).

So I was thinking as a solution could you use a PCIe x16 extender riser card to raise the height of the GPU (with a little case modding at the back) which would then allow you to get access to and use a PCIe x4 extension cable to mount say an Asus Xonar D2X horizontally above the GPU?

SimonMaltby · 16 Jul 2012 at 10:23

BigBANGtheory said:
So I was thinking as a solution could you use a PCIe x16 extender riser card to raise the height of the GPU (with a little case modding at the back) which would then allow you to get access to and use a PCIe x4 extension cable to mount say an Asus Xonar D2X horizontally above the GPU?

A great idea and I tried to do something similar with an SATA card, however, although I think it possible I found that the extenders were all just too tall to allow the GPU to fit into its slot properly. This may vary with different GPU's and also i'm confident that the extender could be made shorter.

There was certainly room above the GPU / Water cooler for a card to sit.

I have to say that I paid no attention to Audio as I always use audio via HDMI myself.

BigBANGtheory · 16 Jul 2012 at 10:59

There looks like there is enough clearance in the case to raise the GPU by +10mm (thus giving access to the 2nd slot), so basically using 2 extenders one for each slot.

Then you could drill in some extra ventilation holes to almost isolate the GPU cooling using the reference design GPU coolers.

I'm not a case modder myself but it does seem with some minor DIY changes the Shuttle SZ77R5 can offer up its 2nd PCIe slot.

DIZZY DAZZLER 2 · 18 Jul 2012 at 21:55

Guys i am thinking of getting one of thes shuttle units to use a 3570k etc. can you confirm if the mobo can support 5.1 surround sound via the opticAl port and advise if its any good. I am currently using a asus xonar d2x but it wont fit with my gtx 680 gpu.