Complete Overclocking Noob

[jakeme]

I ordered a PC, and it will be arriving imminently. It's mainly a gaming PC, and I will mostly use it to play games such as DayZ and Guild Wars 2, things such as that.

I'm sure my PC will be good enough as it is, but I've heard overclocking is entirely possible and in most cases quite safe. I'd be interested in doing it if it meant significant performance gains while gaming, but if it won't make much of a difference then I will just forego it.

Here are my PC specs:

Case ZALMAN Z11 PLUS BLACK MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)
Extra Case Fans 2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
Change to: NONE
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD


As you can see, it has a cooling system in it, and the case is also good for cooling. If anyone can go over this and tell me if it would be wise, or unnecessary, that would be fantastic.

Also, as I am such a noob, I don't know how to perform an overclock, so I would appreciate a step-by-step guide on what to do. I know it seems like I'm just asking for you guys to do all the work (I am), but if you can provide any help at all I will be most grateful.

If you need any more info please just post.

Cheers!

 

[keynes]

Hi,
For most games it won't give you any significant performance difference and you may get some instability issues. If you still want to carry on with overclocking your cpu I'd suggest contacting PCS to get the correct settings for your spec. Asus Suite has also the option for overclocking your cpu without the need to change settings in your bios, I think it is auto tuning.

 

[Wolvo7]

Yeah as Keynes said the general consensus is that OC won't really help for gaming. It would be useful if you're using programs that are very CPU dependent but in terms of fps you'll only see a slight improvement if any.

Having said that OCing is quite easy nowadays esp with the built in tools like the AI suite so in your case if you wanted to you could just load one of the presets and it would do all the work for you. I wouldn't try to go for a high OC esp with the H40 as it's designed for moderate overclocks.

If you want to do it yourself here are a few guides I've bookmarked. In this case you should take some time to familiarize yourself with the terminology and the important points like max vcore voltage etc.

http://www.thinkcomputers.org/intel-ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide/
http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end
http://forum.computerlounge.co.nz/y...luxe---Overclocking-Guide-For-Ivy-Bridge.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7jwCe0QXT0