Caffeinated Man Productions

Use the information provided in this guide at your own risk.  I do not consider my self to be an expert.  I am not responsible for any damage caused by doing what was suggested in this guide.

I am using an Intel q9550 and Asus P5Q Pro Turbo in this guide.

Overclock - to raise the speed of the CPU, GPU, memory, or any buses with the quantifier that tells its speed: “hertz”.

Overclocking is a great way to get more bang for your buck.  Overclocking is very easy; it’s just the fact that you could really mess things up that makes it seem hard.  First you will NEED the following:

• An after market heatsink (for LGA 775 sockets I recommend the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro) Note: You may need to get thermal paste as well
• Know what type of CPU you have (This guide is geared towards Intel’s Duo and Quad series, but should apply to others)
• Have a good power supply (not some no name 400 watt PSU)
• Calculator
• Core Temp
• Prime95
• CPU-Z

First, Download CPU-Z.  Run it and look for ‘Core Voltage’ (should be something like 1.insertnumbers V).  Write down that entire number (usually 4 digit number).  You will need this later.

Now go to http://intel.com and look up your CPU.  Once you have selected your CPU you should get a page with a lot of information you may not understand.  You will only need to look for 1 thing on this page, the ‘VID Voltage Range’ (Refer to the image below).

The VID Voltage Range is the range of power that can go to your CPU.  Anything higher than the range has the potential to fry your CPU which will destroy it.  That being said it won’t fry at exactly the max or .001 over.  Some people are bold enough to surpass the range, however I would recommend against it as it will shorten your CPU lifespan.  On top of this, you can still fry your CPU if you keep the voltage in the defined range.  This will happen if you have a faulty heat sink, poorly installed heat sink, or you are using the Intel heatsink.  The Intel heatsink will cool your CPU at the factory set speeds, but will not sufficiently cool at a high overclock.
Now at this point we are assuming you know what CPU you have, the voltage range, have an after market heatsink, have a good power supply and have a calculator handy.

Restart your computer and go into your bios (for mine I press the delete key, may be different for you)

Upon entering the Bios you will see something like this:

You don’t need to worry about anything on this page.  In the top part of the Bios you will see a navigation bar.  Use your arrow keys select a different page.  You will want to navigate to the ‘Chip set’ sub menu (In my 3 computers I have found that it is usually the 2nd or 3rd navigation tab, from there look for a sub menu called ‘Chip Set’ or something that would relate to a chip set) You should end up with a page somewhat similar to this (Note my page may be missing things you may have, and yours may be missing things mine has)

Next we will be disabling a few settings.  This is done to improve performance when overclocking.

On this menu you will want to disable the ‘C1E Support’ and ‘Intel SpeedStep Tech’ you can also disable the other things that are marked disabled in the picture if you wish.

NOTE:  If you have CPU Spread Spectrum and or PCIE Spread Spectrum on this page, or any page you may visit you SHOULD DISABLE them!

Now depending on your bios, you may have the next 2 parts in the same page as where you currently are, or it may be listed else where.  Regardless of bios you WILL have the next 2 parts.

Next you will want to look for the FSB Frequency setting.  This is either located in the ‘Chip Set’ page, a sub menu in the same area as the ‘Chip Set’ page, in a tab called ‘AI Tweaker’, or some where completely different.  It will be some where so keep looking if you can’t find it!

First you need to know this: My CPU, the q9550, has a multiplier of 8.5.  This means you multiply the FSB Frequency by 8.5 to get your GHZ value.  As you can see my ‘FSB Frequency’ is set to 441.  441X8.5=3748.5 or 3.75 GHZ.  Some bios may have this set to a much higher number.  If this is the case divide it by 4, and then multiply it by the CPU’s multiplier.  You can find your CPU’s multiplier at http://intel.com.  Some bios will have the multiplier variable next to the FSB Frequency.  If this is the case ignore it.  Multipliers are usually set to the highest setting they can go, so you can’t overclock using only multipliers.  Last, if you are unable to change the FSB Frequency, look for a setting on the page that is set to auto, switch each one, one by one, to manual until it allows you to edit the FSB frequency (for me it was ‘AI Overclock Tuner’).

Ok so now we know where the FSB Frequency is.  We are almost ready to over clock.  Next you will need to find the ‘CPU Voltage’.  In some cases it’s on the same page as everything else we have looked at.  Other wise it will be in a tab related to power.  Look at the picture below to see what it will look like.

Usually it is set to AUTO, if you are going to overclock you should set it to what it was innately running at (the value we got at the beginning of this guide!).  Now we can go back to the FSB Frequency.  My Q9550 was originally running at 333 FSB Frequency.  Now I have it at 441, BUT that does NOT mean you should make that big of a jump right away.  I recommend you do the following:

1. Add 15-20 MHz onto your FSB Frequency.
2. Save bios, exit
3. Boot
4. Open Core Temp and Prime 95
5. Run 1 blend cycle in Prime 95
6. If no errors repeat 1-6 until you get an error or a core fails

If a core failed or you got an error go back into bios and add a little power to your CPU Voltage.  Usually it will only allow you in increase in steps, bump up the power 1-2 steps but don’t go over the max voltage specified by Intel

Repeat 1-6 until you get an error.  If you have reached the point where your temps are 10-15 degrees Celsius from the max temp (some people prefer lower, extends CPU life-span) then you have reached your highest safe voltage, however you can still add more FSB Frequency.  Heat is mostly generated by the voltage rating and not the FSB Frequency.  That being said don’t go over board because you can still mess up your CPU and bios in the process, not to mention your cores would always fail in a matter of seconds if they don’t have enough power.  The max overclock to expect is around 15-20% compared to the default GHZ.

That’s it!  When overclocking use common sense and don’t expect miracles out of your CPU.  EVERY CPU is different even if it’s the same model as another persons CPU.  My q9550 may reach 4 GHZ, but yours may only be able to reach 3.5 GHZ.  Keep that in mind when overclocking.

Also some bios are easy to overclock with, while others are much more complex.  My Asus P5Q Pro Turbo was VERY easy to overclock, almost all the settings were on 1 page.

Just remember:  Stay in the recommended Voltage range, Watch the temps, and use your common sense.  Just because Intel says your max voltage is 1.3625 doesn’t mean you should set it to 1.3625, I personally would never go over 1.300.