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But Pineau says in the past year of teaching 500+ amateurs how to overclock at HWBot events, so far not a single bit of equipment has been damaged. That’s okay! Reboot, reload your XTU profile, and give the CPU what it likely needs for more speed: voltage.Īdding voltage is the scariest part of overclocking, because it’s the only thing that really has a chance of damaging your CPU. Once you’ve added a bit of speed, one of those benchmarks will probably crash your system. Getting more speed is as simple as bumping up the multiplier by 1x, then running the benchmark to test stability. Now you have a good starting point for your overclock. If the system doesn’t crash, go to the Profiles tab and save a new profile. To be safe, simply increase the multiplier by 1x, then run the XTU benchmark. Each tick of the multiplier is 100 MHz of speed you’re adding to your CPU.
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The key tool here is the multiplier, which you want to increase for all cores. Once you’re back in Windows, run XTU’s Memory Stress Test for at least a few minutes to make sure the XMP profile is stable. After applying this profile, you’ll need to reboot. Profile #1 is always a good starting point. This overclocks your RAM to a predetermined speed that should be stable. Now, if your motherboard BIOS provides memory information, it’s time to enable an XMP profile. Worst case, your power bill goes up a little bit. Don’t worry about them damaging your CPU these limits will ensure the CPU gets the maximum amount of power it needs from the PSU so it’ll never be throttled, but it isn’t dangerous there are still safeties in place that will protect the CPU.
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You can turn these sliders all the way up. There are a couple of settings Pineau recommends changing before you start adding speed: the Turbo Boost Power Max and Processor Current Limit.ĭepending on your system, you may also have a Turbo Boost Short Power Max option to increase as well. This will give you a reference point for how much faster your PC is once you’re finished tuning it. Run XTU’s built-in benchmark before you start overclocking and upload your score to HWBot if you’re interested in keeping a profile. Overclocking with Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility
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