Complete noob :) looking for basics advices !

[soufleuse]

Hello everyone, i am very new to OC .. but i'd like to get familliar with it !

 

I had my first overclocking experience recently @ Lan ETS with the HWbot crew.

 

I would like to build a small rig to get familliar with it, i have a test bench i can use to build it , and a CX600M power supply. (friend almost gave it to me) i was wondering what kind of motherboard and CPU should i start with (remember i have nearly no experience)

 

i do travel all the time so my computer at home is a laptop, it's really my first time building something

 

i was thinking in buying (used) something like i3-5 or even i7(but i think its a lil expensive to start with).

 

i also have no experience in bios mods.

 

Another question i had was is the ram ammount ihave on the motherboard is really important ? if so how much should i get 8gb ? 16gb ? also should i get a gpu or should i use the integrated gpu ?

 

thanks for your time and help !!

[websmile]

Depending on system you use, i3 should be ok, on 1151 lots of mainboard have option to unlock OC on this, these are nice chips then. For the start 2x4gb should do the job., your power supply is also OK. On the brand and model of the mainboard, I guess there are people more versatile than me, I use Asus ROG boards atm, but these are not cheap. IGP for the start is ok, you can buy a small used vga as well if you want, but graphics card is easy to upgrade normally when you want one or bigger model later. Modding BIOS is normally not needed - but you will have to learn how the settings there work, and you will succeed in this, there are also helpful guides

Edited April 22, 2016 by websmile

[Lucky_n00b]

Hello everyone, i am very new to OC .. but i'd like to get familliar with it !

 

I had my first overclocking experience recently @ Lan ETS with the HWbot crew.

 

I would like to build a small rig to get familliar with it, i have a test bench i can use to build it , and a CX600M power supply. (friend almost gave it to me) i was wondering what kind of motherboard and CPU should i start with (remember i have nearly no experience)

 

i do travel all the time so my computer at home is a laptop, it's really my first time building something

 

i was thinking in buying (used) something like i3-5 or even i7(but i think its a lil expensive to start with).

 

i also have no experience in bios mods.

 

Another question i had was is the ram ammount ihave on the motherboard is really important ? if so how much should i get 8gb ? 16gb ? also should i get a gpu or should i use the integrated gpu ?

 

thanks for your time and help !!

 

Hi there, congratulations for your first step in overclocking!

You already have a working laptop, so that makes things easier to pick a PC just for learning overclocking.

 

Here's what I recommend for some first time-builder: Keep things cheap and simple (so on the rare case you do break it, it's not that big of a deal)

 

Depending on budget, there's lots you can choose. I wanted to give skylake i3 to do Non-K OC since it's more modern and upgradeable, but Z170 motherboard and the platform overall cost are not that cheap, and since the oc is 'unofficial' there's a couple things you cannot do with non-K OC (IGP is disabled, XTU is crippled without AVX), so I'm probably not going to suggest that.

 

Some of my really cheap options but still offers plenty to learn are:

 

A) Intel Based, DDR3

Processor: Pentium G3258 Anniversary

Motherboard: Any Cheap Z97, like ASRock Z97 Anniversary Board

RAM: Any cheap 2x4GB DDR3 will do, in my country the Team Vulcan DDR3-2133 2x4GB can be had for 50 USD, and that's using quite a good ICs that can reach 2600+ on some system

GPU: Integrated(IGP) will do

SSD: Any 120GB SSD

Cooling: No need to be too fancy, something along the lines of medium-sized Heatsink are Enermax ETS-T40

 

or

 

B) AMD APU based, DDR3

Processor: AMD A8-7650K or 7670K

Motherboard: Any cheap A88X motherboard(even some A68 will do), ASUS A88XM-A or ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

RAM: Same as above, cheap 2x4GB DDR3 will do

GPU: AMD's integrated GPU is quite powerful

SSD: Same as above

Cooling: AMD A8-7650K/7670K offers a '95W' quiet cooler that's OK-ish to do some mild OC, but if you can spend more to buy medium-sized heatsink why not

 

Any two of the above should be suffice to learn the basics of overclocking, such as:

- Knowing what BIOS variables to change

- What software to change settings on-the-fly on the OS

- I suggest Integrated graphics since IGP tuning involves playing a lot with RAM as well, which will be important in competitive OC later

- Learning the benchmarks(just running some benchmark to see what variables increases the score, etc)

- The more important things, these two platform can scale quite well using more advanced cooling if you wish to do so (like waterchiller / Dry Ice when you're ready)

 

I think to make your learning process easier, no need to think about BIOS mods & hardware mods on the first try, your priority should be:

1) Knowing what your system can do, and how to maximise it

2) Installing some benchmarks and running it on your system, while figuring out how to maximise the score

 

Hope that helps

[soufleuse]

wow guys thanks for the answers !! these are really great it will sure help me alot !

 

I'll look look into it ! ill keep you posted once my frist platforms is built ! i like the fact that i could get better performance with the setup when ready to upgrade cooling also !!

[soufleuse]

Hi there, congratulations for your first step in overclocking!

You already have a working laptop, so that makes things easier to pick a PC just for learning overclocking.

 

Here's what I recommend for some first time-builder: Keep things cheap and simple (so on the rare case you do break it, it's not that big of a deal)

 

Depending on budget, there's lots you can choose. I wanted to give skylake i3 to do Non-K OC since it's more modern and upgradeable, but Z170 motherboard and the platform overall cost are not that cheap, and since the oc is 'unofficial' there's a couple things you cannot do with non-K OC (IGP is disabled, XTU is crippled without AVX), so I'm probably not going to suggest that.

 

Some of my really cheap options but still offers plenty to learn are:

 

A) Intel Based, DDR3

Processor: Pentium G3258 Anniversary

Motherboard: Any Cheap Z97, like ASRock Z97 Anniversary Board

RAM: Any cheap 2x4GB DDR3 will do, in my country the Team Vulcan DDR3-2133 2x4GB can be had for 50 USD, and that's using quite a good ICs that can reach 2600+ on some system

GPU: Integrated(IGP) will do

SSD: Any 120GB SSD

Cooling: No need to be too fancy, something along the lines of medium-sized Heatsink are Enermax ETS-T40

 

or

 

B) AMD APU based, DDR3

Processor: AMD A8-7650K or 7670K

Motherboard: Any cheap A88X motherboard(even some A68 will do), ASUS A88XM-A or ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+

RAM: Same as above, cheap 2x4GB DDR3 will do

GPU: AMD's integrated GPU is quite powerful

SSD: Same as above

Cooling: AMD A8-7650K/7670K offers a '95W' quiet cooler that's OK-ish to do some mild OC, but if you can spend more to buy medium-sized heatsink why not

 

Any two of the above should be suffice to learn the basics of overclocking, such as:

- Knowing what BIOS variables to change

- What software to change settings on-the-fly on the OS

- I suggest Integrated graphics since IGP tuning involves playing a lot with RAM as well, which will be important in competitive OC later

- Learning the benchmarks(just running some benchmark to see what variables increases the score, etc)

- The more important things, these two platform can scale quite well using more advanced cooling if you wish to do so (like waterchiller / Dry Ice when you're ready)

 

I think to make your learning process easier, no need to think about BIOS mods & hardware mods on the first try, your priority should be:

1) Knowing what your system can do, and how to maximise it

2) Installing some benchmarks and running it on your system, while figuring out how to maximise the score

 

Hope that helps

 

 

I think ill go with the intel based ddr3 config !!

I think i can manage to find parts to build it ! Would you recommend used gear ? Ive seen some forums i could find what i need i guess

[Lucky_n00b]

I think ill go with the intel based ddr3 config !!

I think i can manage to find parts to build it ! Would you recommend used gear ? Ive seen some forums i could find what i need i guess

 

Used gear is okay, you just have to make sure all its functions are working as intended, especially the motherboard, since it controls most of the overclocking functions.

 

The 'safe' option for used gear are CPU and RAM(not easy to damage these, unless the one overclocking it goes too far), but usually i recommend buying new motherboard if you have no experience testing it. But if you have friends to help you check the conditions, you could consider buying used mobo.

[soufleuse]

If your new to overclocking I'd buy something that's easy to oc like a am3 setup with a black edition phenom2. As for ram, that's a chach 22. Some setups are limited with more then x amount of ram. 775 setups often crap out with more then 2 2gb sticks with high overclocks. Other don't.

What ever you go with be sure it's cheap, replaceable and easy to overclock.

 

Well all i need is on the way now ! i did order some stuff

 

I'll use :

 

Mobo Asrock z97 (found pretty cheap ones new)

CPU : Pentium g3258

GPU : going to use integrated one

RAM : Some kingston ddr3

SSD : Kingston 120g (found a cheap one)

Cooler : Cooler Master hyper 212 evo

Power Supply : CX600M

 

Thanks for all the help i should receive missing parts in the current week ill be able to try it next weekend when im back from work or in 2 weeks (i can really test it since i have 9 days off )

[soufleuse]

Should do good. I aways recommend am3 setup with a black edition cpu as thier cheap and replaceable. Not to mention easy to oc. But pentiums are a lot of fun and forgiving.

 

i just have 0 experience with amd cpu's

 

i have only a little with intels but that's a something at least

[soufleuse]

It's really not that big of a difference. Every platform is different, it's not a amd vr Intel, but cpu core and chipset vr cpu core and chipset.

 

A 775 or 1366 setup will overclock different them say a 2011 setup. The same principles apply on etch different setup but to really push the system you need to know all the little tricks with the chipset/cpu combo.

 

With a am3 black edition setup you can learn to oc by both multiplers and bus speed. But with how things are these days you really don't need to be all that good with overclocking by bus speeds unless if you want to bench older stuff. Most CPUs have unlocked multiplers these days and in manny cases you can't go far if anywhere without a unlocked multi.

 

 

Anyway the setup you picked is a good one. I'm sure your have fun with it.

 

Yeah and anyway i can change it when im tired

 

I'd like to try old stuff when i'll be confident like old pentiums ! Looks a liil bit tricky tho