Surely overclocking isn't this easy?

[Kusimeka]

Hey guys, I'm new to overclocking and yes i have read the guides and to be honest a lot of it is hard to grasp. I took a look at my bios and was looking at all the options, one area said "target cpu speed" so i put in 4ghz and rebooted. Now it's saying i have 4ghz? I literally did nothing. Is it really now 4ghz?

http://i.imgur.com/ZLfU3gz.jpg

my motherboard is asrock z87 extreme 4.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Is it really now 4ghz

Yes it is at 4Ghz; whether it is stable at that speed is another thing all together, keep a close eye on temps.

atb (all the best)

Law-II

 

[Frick]

Sure. That's basic overclocking, and it is that easy. It's if you're an extreme clocker and want to squeeze every wee dram of speed out of your CPU it gets more complicated.

EDIT: And I think those modern CPU's clock fairly well. 4Ghz should be a breeze, but as Law says, keep an eye on temps and stress test properly.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Up through the end of Socket 775 era overclocking could be alot of work. Now though, it really is that easy. But you still need to monitor like Law said, to make sure it doesn't overvolt on you, causing high temps. But even those tweaks are alot easier than it was back in the dark days of overclocking!

 

[Kusimeka]

Thanks a lot guys. I was just worried i may have done something horribly wrong and it would be doing bad to my computer

What should i use to stress test and what should i be looking out for? My aim was 4.2ghz.

 

[Hood]

The TPU Wizard Of OC (cadaveca) has already answered all your questions and more in his comprehensive article on the subject - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Haswell_OC_Guide/

 

[MightyMission]

Prime 95 is pretty harsh but not bad for stability testing.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205
like everyone else, I'd recommend keeping a close eye on temps though
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/Real_Temp/
I understand AsRock boards have a tendency to overvolt, mine does it too.

Got to love the 2nd/3rd/4th gen i5/i7 cpu's for making overclocking very easy!

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Not just temps but pay attention to voltages under load too. Lots of boards overvolt more than really needed on these "easy" OC settings and/or "AUTO" in order to help ensure stability. The board and bios engineers know what they are doing so not trying to give you the impression that it is that easy to fry something but definitely should be aware of this. Something like HWMonitor (from the CPU-Z folks) can show you voltage values for various components and then you can google like "1.98v safe for Q6600" or whatever...

But, really, as long as temps are in line you are generally fine.

 

[Keullo-e]

Intel Burn Test & Prime95 are my favourite stress tests, I would recommend those. And also like guys already said, look at the temperatures during stress tests. HWMonitor is my choice in temperature monitoring (it shows minimum, current and maximum temperatures & voltages)

 

[da20valve]

Thanks a lot guys. I was just worried i may have done something horribly wrong and it would be doing bad to my computer

What should i use to stress test and what should i be looking out for? My aim was 4.2ghz.

Get a better cooler if you're going to do this, you will probably find it raised the voltage also, download CPUZ and Prime95 and test, this will see if its stable and what voltage you are using.

I would take it back to normal and run prime 95 and cpuz and see what voltage it is, then I would go into bios and set the voltage to that, then you can raise it up to 4.2ghz (should run on stock voltage), if you don't set the voltage Asrock will set the voltage a lot higher then you actually need (common problem with the Asrock boards and with a standard cooler I wouldn't recommend it.