It looks complicated at first, but it gets really easy. Just keep it simple, higher speeds means it needs more power, so higher voltage = more power running through your CPU = more heat = needs better cooling.
As for FSB, depends whether or not you have the later model Intel CPU’s, you overclock them bumping the BCLK (baseclock) unless you have an unlocked multiplier on your CPU (only the most expensive model has this so don’t worry about that). Lets say your baseclock is 133 MHz and your multiplier is x21, that means 21x133 MHz = 2.8 GHz
If you want to overclock, you increase the baseclock to 171 MHz with a multiplier of x21, this gives you 21x171 MHz = 3.6 GHz
In order to get your PC to boot or get into Windows (and run stability tests without bluescreening) you’ll have to increase stuff like vCore voltage. There’s complete articles on what settings you can use for certain overclocks (you’ll still have to tweak it as not every component is the same for everyone).
Programs like Prime95 will stress your CPU at full load for many hours, if your CPU manages to complete roughly 8 hours of stress then it’s stable (= no bluescreens) and ofcourse check out the min, max and average temperatures to see if they’re acceptable (average around 65 C max at load and 80 C peak temperature, CPU will slow itself down above 71 C)
To get a decent overclock proper cooling (copper heatsinks) and thermal compound is a must.
I currently have an i7 930 running at 3.44 GHz (164x21) @ 1.24v
This CPU can reach 4 GHz easily but it’s fucking warm this time of year and due to temperature issues I’ll keep it at 3.44 GHz
Use CPU-z to check your CPU info and RealTemp to check temperatures.
Here’s mine:
(my temps are 8-10 C higher than usual)
