Upgrade advice please.....

[CFC_Conky]

Hello all,

BD, you current machine is a virtual clone of the one I 'retired' for my current rig.

Fitz,

I have an i7 4770 chip but I see mostly i5 chips in gaming computers, is there a difference? My current rig is out of warranty so I might be persuaded to try overclocking. Any advice?

Perhaps we should revive Killarigs  .

Pip, pip,
Conky

Hi Conky,

It can get complicated as there is a bit of a crossover but basically i7's generally have larger caches and quad core i7's will hyperthread to 8 threads whereas i5's top out at 4 threads. i7's tend to have higher clock speeds as well. You do pay for the extras though!

For the sort of gaming we do, the extra threads won't be of much use (though the i5 I chose is a quad core rather than dual). There isn't a huge amount out there that will really take advantage of more than 4 threads. If money is no object, go with the i7 but you can get a good i5 chip if you choose wisely.

With regards to overclocking, let me know the following:

Is it a K series chip? (i7 4770K)
What is your motherboard model
What is your current max load temp of the cpu
What sort of cpu cooler do you have

Let me know and I'll start looking at putting a little guide together.

Fitz

I haven't forgot about you Fitz, here's some of the info you requested:

CPU: i7-4770K
MB: Asus Z87-c LGA1150 ATX
Apparently the max temp for the i7 4770K is 105C, with most used sites saying it is safe to run at 85C-90C. Stock max temp from Intel is 67C.
Big fan on the cpu, according to the receipt 120mm

Pip, pip,
Conky

[=CfC=Fitz]

Hi Conky,

Sorry I should have been more specific. When I said what is the max load temp your cpu I meant what temperature does your cpu get to when your pc is at 100% load.

Download Realtemp GT

https://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/ install and first check your idle temps. Then run the Benchmarking, it will run through several loops maxing your cpu and slowly drop it down to idle again so you can see the effectiveness of your cooler.

I'm guessing that you have the stock intel cooler as the fan is only part of the equation. A 120mm fan on a megahalems will get you much further than a stock cooler with a 120mm fan. You may need to replace your cooler to overclock. The recent intel coolers can barely keep a stock chip from overheating. The closed loop watercoolers are pretty good and reasonably cheap now.

Ok so, test your cpu under stress and check your full load temps, if they get close to the max your cpu can handle, stop immediately and let me know. Otherwise, just let me know what the max temps were and how well it cooled when the stress was reduced.

I'll have a look at putting some basic OC guidance together.

[CFC_Conky]

Ok Fitz, I'll do that.

Come to think of it and after looking under the bonnet, the 120mm fan was for the case, the country has the stockmIntel fan, albeit a fairly large one.

Pip, pip,
Conky

[=CfC=Father Ted]

the country has the stockmIntel fan, albeit a fairly large one.

Say again Conkers - your banter's not coming through clearly...?

[CFC_Conky]

the country has the stockmIntel fan, albeit a fairly large one.

Say again Conkers - your banter's not coming through clearly...?

@#$%^! Autocorrect! 

[CFC_Conky]

Hi Fitz,

I ran the software although I did load some of the stuff they suggested, not much guidance on it. Anyway, the idle temps are ~28C-30C and I conducted a four minute load test and got the temps up to 52C. The cpu will automatically overclock up to 3.9Ghz from stock 3.4Ghz depending on the load.

Pip, pip,
Conky

[=CfC=Fitz]

Hi Conky,

Well the temps aren't bad, though four minutes is fairly short for a test. I tend to run mine for at least 30 mins (and a lot of overclockers run them for 24hrs!)

3.9Ghz at boost is also pretty good, though we'll need to turn boost off to overclock. Just remember that your cpu will be running at over 100% speed all the time. The temps will really only get going under load, but you will have a hotter idle as well.

I'll get back to you with details shortly.

[=CfC=Fitz]

Sorry it's taking a while btw, it's a little different than what I'm used to. I'd be happy to work through it sat at the machine but there are a lot more variables. Mainly things that you need to turn off or just manually set as they are set to vary on load at stock and this makes oc'ing unstable.

Do you have a second machine you could skype me on whilst you attempt it?

[CFC_Conky]

Sorry it's taking a while btw, it's a little different than what I'm used to. I'd be happy to work through it sat at the machine but there are a lot more variables. Mainly things that you need to turn off or just manually set as they are set to vary on load at stock and this makes oc'ing unstable.

Do you have a second machine you could skype me on whilst you attempt it?

Hi Fitz,

I'll run another test and see what happens. I'm a bit overrun at the moment but I am able to Skype/Facetime/etc on another device. i'll let you know when I can spare some time to play around with it.

Pip, pip,
Conky