Overclocking an i7 2600K on air

[to0kenZA]

Hi guys,

I got my new i7 and ASUS motherboard last week and I've been thinking about playing around a bit with the overclocking. Anyone with the Sandy Bridge chipset, please shed some light!

I have done some research and I see people are overclocking this beast up to 5.2GHz on air and even higher than that with more extreme cooling. How mad is that?

My only concern is, someone told me that DDR3 RAM can only go up to 1333Mhz on this chipset so how the hell do these okes manage to get their RAM speeds so high? In the regions of 1833 - 2000MHZ?

Also, I've seen that there are two methods of overclocking. One would be the conventional system where you just input the values manually in the BIOS, like with all old boards.

The other method is to use the Stepping where it overclocks only when it needs the power and not while it's idling. That's very cool.

Has anyone here overclocked their i7 yet?



My PC specs:


ASUS P8P67 Deluxe
Intel i7 2600k
ASUS GTX580 DirectCU II
Kingston HyperX DDR3-2133 (They didn't have Corsair in stock - but this is good as well )
Coolermaster V8 air cooler

[Lycanthrope]

Why would you want to overclock it? Is it slow?

[frank007]

I was also thinking of overclocking. These rigs are too slow. lol! OC is just for fun probably just to see what the rig is capable of! 5.2GHz is mad though.

[to0kenZA]

Why would you want to overclock it? Is it slow?

Who wouldn't want to?! If this bad boy can go safely up to 5GHZ I'll want to do it sooner or later! Maybe not JUST YET, but you can definitely make this CPU work for you for much longer than you intended it to, if that's the case! It's an enthusiast thing :P

I was also thinking of overclocking. These rigs are too slow. lol! OC is just for fun probably just to see what the rig is capable of! 5.2GHz is mad though.

Yeah dude, way too slow! I'm so dissapoint! xD

No but on a serious note, this is one monster of a processor. I could never have imagined.... Currently, it overclocks itself to about 4.4Ghz on "stock" ASUS settings, with the stepping, so I just want to see how far I can take it manually. It's not like it's my first time overlocking a machine, just my first time with Intel.

[Lycanthrope]

Who wouldn't want to?! If this bad boy can go safely up to 5GHZ I'll want to do it sooner or later! Maybe not JUST YET, but you can definitely make this CPU work for you for much longer than you intended it to, if that's the case! It's an enthusiast thing :P

You know what they say: don't fix it if it isn't broken

[OGBuzz]

well


i cant really shed light on your i7

but it seems the general trend is that the newer CPU seem to be able to reach higher clockspeeds

i pushed the X6 1055T to 4GHZ this weekend, howver it went well over 60 degress so my cooling which i might add is after-market is plain [email protected]

im actually now looking for a better cooler, however i have not benched what 2.8 GHZ to 4.0GHZ on an X6 really adds to oevrall FPS etc cause of the heat issue

plus really i dont think OC'ing is really needed, its doing VERY well in-game as is

[Maplassie]

I overclocked my DVD Rom and now it can read Blu Ray

[OGBuzz]

I overclocked my DVD Rom and now it can read Blu Ray

no Plassie

thats called "underpricing"

clearly they sold you a Blu ray for the price of a DVD-ROM

enjoy it

[frank007]

I overclocked my DVD Rom and now it can read Blu Ray

Jees man did you also do that? I tried it this weekend and got it to ready HD DVD and then BluRay with a bit more tweaking! Its insane!

[to0kenZA]

You know what they say: don't fix it if it isn't broken

Not fixing things that aren't broken is for simple minded people! Haha, kidding- but seriously, I like playing around.

@buzz: The reason the new Intels can go so high is because of their improved architecture. I've got a lot to read up on still, but these CPUs are something else.

@Plassie: Thanks for the input there buddy! :P