# New CPU cooler installed, and I want to overclock.



## The VCR King (Jan 15, 2016)

I went to MicroCenter and I got my Zalman installed and got some new thermal paste and my PC is actually running about 10 degrees F cooler than it used to, and I want to get into overclocking. I don't want to go insane with overclocking, but I want to learn how to LIGHTLY OC my rig. Can someone please teach me or give me some tips? Thank you!


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## beers (Jan 15, 2016)

Go into BIOS.
Increase CPU multiplier by 1x.
You've now overclocked.


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## The VCR King (Jan 15, 2016)

beers said:


> Go into BIOS.
> Increase CPU multiplier by 1x.
> You've now overclocked.


Wow... it's that easy? Thanks!


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## voyagerfan99 (Jan 15, 2016)

beers said:


> Go into BIOS.
> Increase CPU multiplier by 1x.
> You've now overclocked.


Expanding on this....

Go into BIOS
Increase CPU multiplier a small amount
Boot into Windows
Restart and repeat increasing multiplier by small amounts until you BSOD on boot
Bring down CPU multiplier a drop or two until you can boot into Windows without BSOD
Boot into Windows and test with Prime95 for several hours to ensure stability
If you BSOD with Prime95 then boot into BIOS and decrease the multiplier.
Repeat testing with Prime95


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

I've run into a problem... My computer boots so fast that when I power it on and get to the MSI splash screen, by the time the keyboard has connected Windows is already booting. It's too fast and I can't get into my BIOS, and I don't know what key I need anyways, but I think its F8.


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## Darren (Jan 16, 2016)

Prime95 is known to pull more power than your CPU is designed for. I would get instability on my 8320 at stock clocks with Prime. I think it's ok with Intel chips, but AMD chips don't get along with it well.

I use the CPU-Z bench/stress. It's probably not as intensive as some things, but unless you're trying to pull off insane overclocks or want absolute stability it's probably fine for mild overclocking.

Install MSI FastBoot. It will let you reboot it automatically into the BIOS. Once in there disable any Windows 8 boot option or any type of fast boot. Also make sure all your USB/legacy stuff is enabled so it can see your keyboard.


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

Darren said:


> Prime95 is known to pull more power than your CPU is designed for. I would get instability on my 8320 at stock clocks with Prime. I think it's ok with Intel chips, but AMD chips don't get along with it well.
> 
> I use the CPU-Z bench/stress. It's probably not as intensive as some things, but unless you're trying to pull off insane overclocks or want absolute stability it's probably fine for mild overclocking.


I don't want to do anything big at all. I want to just experiment with small OCs because I honestly have no idea what the heck I'm doing and I want to learn a bit before I go larger-scale on overclocking.


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## Darren (Jan 16, 2016)

No need for the language, even if you censor it....

Just use the CPU-Z thing then. I don't trust Prime95 anymore. There's a "Bench" tab on the newer version of CPU-Z and a button that says "stress". You can use that. I'd let it run for at least 30 mins once you reach a clock you want to stick with. I usually just run mine for 15 mins or so and if it's good, I'll call it good. If it crashes later on I'll downclock it myself.


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

Darren said:


> *No need for the language, even if you censor it....*
> 
> Just use the CPU-Z thing then. I don't trust Prime95 anymore. There's a "Bench" tab on the newer version of CPU-Z and a button that says "stress". You can use that. I'd let it run for at least 30 mins once you reach a clock you want to stick with. I usually just run mine for 15 mins or so and if it's good, I'll call it good. If it crashes later on I'll downclock it myself.


I edited my original post, sorry  and I have the new version of CPU-Z. I'll bench it tomorrow when I get a chance. Thanks!


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

See, I really do want to put some REAL overclocks on my rig, but deep down I'm paranoid that I'm going to screw up and fry my system or something


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## voyagerfan99 (Jan 16, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> See, I really do want to put some REAL overclocks on my rig, but deep down I'm paranoid that I'm going to screw up and fry my system or something


You won't fry it. Maybe if this was 15 years ago you would have. But the fact that you don't know what you're doing doesn't help.

Also as far as your computer booting too fast, make sure your keyboard isn't in a usb3 port.


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

voyagerfan99 said:


> You won't fry it. Maybe if this was 15 years ago you would have. But the fact that you don't know what you're doing doesn't help.
> 
> Also as far as your computer booting too fast, make sure your keyboard isn't in a usb3 port.


It's not. It's a wireless K370 and its paired with a unifying dongle along with my M510 mouse.


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## beers (Jan 16, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I've run into a problem... My computer boots so fast that when I power it on and get to the MSI splash screen, by the time the keyboard has connected Windows is already booting. It's too fast and I can't get into my BIOS, and I don't know wh



Did you install as UEFI or legacy BIOS?


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## The VCR King (Jan 16, 2016)

beers said:


> Did you install as UEFI or legacy BIOS?


I've never touched my BIOS and I have no idea what UEFI or LEGACY means. Sorry


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## spirit (Jan 16, 2016)

Once you're able to get into your BIOS (maybe try resetting it by moving the BIOS jumper on your board?), take a look at Linus' video about overclocking the Phenom II X6:






I know he is using a different board and cooling to you but you should get an idea about what to do. Linus' videos are good, he's very knowledgeable. As others have said, keep the voltage as low as possible and the multiplier as high as possible and stress test to make sure your system is staying stable. Your board looks like it was fairly high-end with the 890FX chipset so you should be able to do a decent overclock. What cooling did you go for the end?

If the system crashes a lot or the board has difficulty booting (eg may turn on and off automatically a lot) you likely need to do one of two things:
- Increase the voltage a tiny bit to support your multiplier
- Reduce the multiplier so you can use the voltage you have specified

If the system runs too hot you need to reduce the voltage because voltage = heat. The general rule of thumb is that you don't want the CPU to go over 80C at 100% load (various stress tests like Prime95 will max the CPU load out to 100%). You may also want to do more real-world stuff, for example play a game or encode a video and monitor the temperature too whilst you do those.

That's basically all there is to overclocking a multiplier-unlocked CPU like the Phenom II X6.


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## The VCR King (Jan 28, 2016)

I'm not overclocking right now because I'm just too scared but I am going to do a Prime95 test and see how it runs stock.


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## beers (Jan 28, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I am going to do a Prime95 test and see how it runs stock.



I don't understand what you'd actually be accomplishing here.


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## Laquer Head (Jan 28, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I'm not overclocking right now because I'm just too scared but I am going to do a Prime95 test and see how it runs stock.



If you get stuck and need a step by step on installing basic programs to your computer, just let us know. We can start another thread, if needed... Geek Squad is standing by....


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## Geoff (Jan 28, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I'm not overclocking right now because I'm just too scared but I am going to do a Prime95 test and see how it runs stock.


The only thing that will prove is if you installed your heatsink and thermal paste correctly, if not it will overheat and throttle/shut down.  Are you really trying to stress test a CPU that's running at stock frequencies though?


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## Darren (Jan 28, 2016)

Geoff said:


> The only thing that will prove is if you installed your heatsink and thermal paste correctly, if not it will overheat and throttle/shut down.  Are you really trying to stress test a CPU that's running at stock frequencies though?



Prime95 would shut down cores on my 8320 at stock clocks while every other stress test I used would be fine.


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## spirit (Jan 28, 2016)

beers said:


> I don't understand what you'd actually be accomplishing here.


Maybe he just wants to see how hot it runs at 100% load at stock. Nothing wrong with that. I know he bought this cooler so that he can overclock, but even if he doesn't want to now there's no problem with that because it will still allow his CPU to run much cooler than if it were cooled by the stock cooler.


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## Darren (Jan 28, 2016)

That too^. 

Whenever I overclock I'll bench/stress at stock clocks so I have a frame of reference for bench scores and temperatures.


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## spirit (Jan 28, 2016)

Darren said:


> That too^.
> 
> Whenever I overclock I'll bench/stress at stock clocks so I have a frame of reference for bench scores and temperatures.


Yeah it's good to see the differences. It helps to judge whether your overclock is good in terms of temperatures too.

Let this guy do what he wants.


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## JerseyJames (Jan 29, 2016)

see the OP's M/board is MSI
Got an ASUS board with some pretty good software to "auto tune" an OC
has a "fast" (which I run) And an "extreme" button. never tried "extreme" as the
"fast" will send the temps toward the danger zone if the 6 cores go 100% (stock air cooler, 120mm fan in & 120mm fan out)

basic specs...
OS :Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

Board: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
UEFI: American Megatrends Inc. 1503 01/11/2013

STOCK: 3.2 gigahertz AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
OC: 3.73 gigahertz on ASUS auto tune = fast


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## The VCR King (Jan 29, 2016)

spirit said:


> Maybe he just wants to see how hot it runs at 100% load at stock. Nothing wrong with that. I know he bought this cooler so that he can overclock, but even if he doesn't want to now there's no problem with that because it will still allow his CPU to run much cooler than if it were cooled by the stock cooler.


I just woke up and my PC is still running Prime95 Benchmark after what, 10 hours or so? I stopped the test and I couldn't decipher the results, I don't understand it. I'll torture test my rig this weekend tho.


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## voyagerfan99 (Jan 29, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I just woke up and my PC is still running Prime95 Benchmark after what, 10 hours or so? I stopped the test and I couldn't decipher the results, I don't understand it. I'll torture test my rig this weekend tho.


As long as you don't see a worker thread crashing you're fine.


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## beers (Jan 29, 2016)

You might find that Intel Burn Test is a bit more intuitive.


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## The VCR King (Jan 29, 2016)

beers said:


> You might find that Intel Burn Test is a bit more intuitive.


Will that work, being that it's an AMD system?


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## Geoff (Jan 29, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I just woke up and my PC is still running Prime95 Benchmark after what, 10 hours or so? I stopped the test and I couldn't decipher the results, I don't understand it. I'll torture test my rig this weekend tho.


You don't consider 10 hours of Prime95 enough of a torture test for a stock rig?


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## spirit (Jan 29, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> I just woke up and my PC is still running Prime95 Benchmark after what, 10 hours or so? I stopped the test and I couldn't decipher the results, I don't understand it. I'll torture test my rig this weekend tho.


Yeah the test goes on indefinitely. It doesn't stop unless it crashes or you stop it.

It won't tell you the temperature - you need a program like CoreTemp or SpeedFan to do that. All that Prime95 does is ramp your CPU up to 100% load.

It sounds like it didn't crash so I think it's fair to say your system is stable. Usually it'll crash pretty quickly if there are problems.


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## The VCR King (Mar 29, 2016)

OK now that I got my new PSU installed and my PC is stable I'm really itchin' to overclock now. My PC is currently running at 3.2ghz. What incriments should I increase my clock speed by and is there any software to do this, because my PC boots too fast and by the time my USB ports power up and my keyboard is connected I'm already loading Windows. I've never been in my BIOS.


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## Darren (Mar 29, 2016)

Download LiveUpdate and install MSI FastBoot. That will enable you to get into your BIOS

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/890FXAGD65.html#down-utility


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## The VCR King (Mar 29, 2016)

Darren said:


> Download LiveUpdate and install MSI FastBoot. That will enable you to get into your BIOS
> 
> https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/support/890FXAGD65.html#down-utility


THANK YOU! My PC boots so darn fast. I have the MSI splash screen for like .5 seconds and then BOOM! I'm booting into Windows _then_ my keyboard connects.


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## The VCR King (Mar 29, 2016)

I have a BIOS question. Is there a way to set it up so that even if my PC is powered off there is still power going to the USB ports so I can use my PC as a giant phone charger even when it's shut off?


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## beers (Mar 29, 2016)

The VCR King said:


> THANK YOU! My PC boots so darn fast.


If you're still using the HDD instead of SSD then this statement is false.


The VCR King said:


> I have a BIOS question. Is there a way to set it up so that even if my PC is powered off there is still power going to the USB ports so I can use my PC as a giant phone charger even when it's shut off?


A lot of BIOSes have a 'USB Charging' option that does what you outlined.


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## The VCR King (Mar 29, 2016)

beers said:


> If you're still using the HDD instead of SSD then this statement is false.
> 
> A lot of BIOSes have a 'USB Charging' option that does what you outlined.


How can I tell if mine has it? And would this mean the power supply would be running like the fan in it because the motherboard is drawing power? The USB charging option would be helpful but IDK if I got it.

I know I need a bios update but I'm afraid I'll screw up and brick the board


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## johnb35 (Mar 29, 2016)

Msi's utility is called supercharger, which is listed as a download for your board.  I don't see a bios setting in the manual for your board.  Install the utility, connect your phone and see if it charges.  Then shut your pc off and see if it still charges.


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## The VCR King (Mar 29, 2016)

johnb35 said:


> Msi's utility is called supercharger, which is listed as a download for your board.  I don't see a bios setting in the manual for your board.  Install the utility, connect your phone and see if it charges.  Then shut your pc off and see if it still charges.


How can I tell which USB port on my motherboard is the designated "Supercharger" port?


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## C4C (Mar 29, 2016)

Your USB connector should be plugged into the red usb port on your mobo

Video for reference!


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## The VCR King (Mar 30, 2016)

Just discovered I had Supercharger this whole time and I figured out that my Supercharger header is connected to my front case USB.


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## Intel_man (Apr 12, 2016)

Man, reading up on this thread makes me get jealous of the availability of unlocked multipliers these days. Overclocking on locked cpu's a pain in the butt to get right/efficient.


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## Jiniix (Apr 13, 2016)

Hehe, yeah. Unlocked multiplier is a gift from god. I've overclocked countless Q6600s and E7200s, which is fun, but time consuming


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## Intel_man (Apr 13, 2016)

Yea, my i7 920 is great to OC. Just would be even better if it was unlocked.


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