Still having O.C. issues
Still having O.C. issues
Hey everyone!
I’ve studied everything I could about overclocking my system. So far, I’m just dealing with headaches.
First, the build setup…
Night hawk 117 case with fans connected to MOBO
Asus 970 Pro Gaming Aura board
Vishera 8350 FX proc
Evo 212 cooler
MSI RAEDON 270 X O.C. GPU
Two 8GB RAM sticks at 2133 MHz (brand doesn’t matter)
1500 W power supply
2 x 500 GB HDD in RAID configuration
I’ve read everything I could find, watched all the overclocking videos available, and rechecked some reviews to catch anything I might have overlooked.
So here’s what I’ve been doing, what might be missing?
I changed my BIOS settings for the memory sticks. This adjusted my heat link to 2400 and my voltage ratio to 2200. The CPU ratio is set at 20 with a multiplier of 200 for the 4013K.
I tested using Prime95, monitored with a speed fan, and checked hwinfo. After about two hours, I reached around 53°C.
Then I increased the CPU ratio to 20.5, restarted, crashed repeatedly, then reset everything. After that, I tried again with a voltage reset, and after a few hours of testing, the temps stabilized at about 58°C. It seemed stable enough. I restarted, increased the CPU ratio to 21, and after several hours it reached around 63°C. That’s pretty hot. If I push it to 68+, I risk damaging it.
At a 20.5 CPU ratio it worked, but online crashes occurred. Why? Wasn’t that less demanding?
I saw build sheets suggesting 4900 K with the same processor, using both FSB speed and CPU ratio to boost performance.
This makes me think I might have made a critical mistake…
Who can help me? I know the risks of overclocking and asking for advice online. My approach is straightforward: I use auto settings for bench tests. But soon I ran out of cooling capacity in about 75 seconds. So I lowered the voltage to around 1.225 to start without overheating, and kept everything else auto. With temps in the high 40s to low 50s, I could run 4K for hours.
Once I reached the lowest safe voltage, I increased the CPU ratio by 0.5 and added more power gradually until it started and stayed stable.
I disabled PCIe expansion and some other settings in the BIOS—cooling fans off via sensors, HPC enabled, and everything set as per guides. That helped a lot.
I faced serious thermal problems until I switched fan control from the case’s default setting to sensor-based control. It took longer to reach temperature, but it improved cooling.
I also had a 120mm CPU cooler fan, another around 3 inches behind at the rear of the case for exhaust, both plugged into the CPU slots on my MOBO. There were two 140mm fans blowing hot air out and a 140mm and a 120mm fan drawing in cool air from the front lower side. I even modified the case slightly to ensure a fan blew over the back of the socket.
I can share photos or videos of the setup, maybe someone more experienced can spot any mistakes I missed.
that's about it for that cooler. if you like, you can search for reviews of 212.it—it's a decent budget cooler, but that's roughly it. anyone interested in getting one for free? I have one. i think you're overclocking, though, because you can. to me, it's like hot rodding a car. what i'd do is remove all the extra fans and go back to the original case setup, then add the cooler and restart. turn off turbo boost, keep it quiet, and set your CPU voltage to stock. don't worry about links or ratios yet—you won't notice much performance gain anyway. this is the same board i own, so if you really want to tweak these settings, they can be adjusted manually in bios. bump the multiplier until the system crashes, then adjust the CPU voltage until it stabilizes.
for beginners a superior cooler is essential for handling any solid OC. I used an 212 on my FX 6300 which suffered significant overheating above 4GHz. I upgraded to an NH D14 Noctua and achieved stable temperatures around 4.5GHz. I only have three case fans total—one front, one rear, and one on top. The side intake actually raised temperatures, so I removed it. More fans aren't always the solution. How are you managing it now?
For starters, a better cooler is essential if you plan to run decent OC. I used an 212 on my FX 6300 and faced serious overheating above 4GHz. Added an NH-D14 Noctua and achieved stable temps around 4.5GHz. I only had three case fans—one front, one rear, and one on top—and a side intake that actually raised temperatures. More fans don’t always help. What’s your current setup?
that's about it for that cooler. if you like, you can look up reviews of 212.it—it's a decent budget cooler, but that's about it. anyone interested in getting one for free? I have one. i think you're overclocking, though, because you can. to me, it's like hot rodding a car. what i'd do is remove all the extra fans and go back to the original case setup, then add the cooler and restart. turn off turbo boost, keep it quiet, and set your cpu voltage to stock. don't worry about the link or nb ratio just yet—you won't notice much performance improvement anyway. this is the same board i've had before, so if you really want to mess with these settings, they can be adjusted manually in bios. bump the multiplier until the system crashes, then adjust the cpu voltage until it stabilizes, and try the multiplier again. keep experimenting.
don't feel pressured to save money on CPU coolers. Air coolers tend to last longer and can be repurposed for future setups as long as new backplates are available.