Whats the best way to overclock the CPU?

badcrc · 30 Jul 2016

The OP could get more poke by swapping out the cpu for something better. The cpu list for his mobo shows all manner of i5s and i7s are supported. Prices vary a lot for older chips - best to shop around.

kipper · 30 Jul 2016

Actually you can overclock the i3 2120.......even though it is a non-K processor you can increase the the FSB but at best you will only get 200-300mgz increase.....it is a very tricky thing to try and really not worth the effort IMHO anyways.........not only do you put your CPU at risk but other components as well.......

kbronski · 05 Aug 2016

There are a lot of ways to OC CPUs mate, and a lot of great suggestions have been made here. The route I took (which, ironically, I would not recommend) was to use ASUS AI Suite to dial in an overclock, and then go back into the BIOS and fine-tune core ratios and voltage offsets from there. It ended up being a bit of a backwards process that was more pain than it was pleasure. Also, don't feel you have to "go big or go home" when overclocking. A mild to moderate overclock that is stable will serve you better than an extreme overclock that crashes every other time you boot your PC.

LMiller7 · 05 Aug 2016

Overclocking means operating outside the limits specified by the manufacturer. That is not something to be taken lightly. There are potential risks, primarily overheating and instability. You can have instability without overheating and it may occur only under very specific and unusual situations.

Learning how to overclock is relatively easy. Learning how to do it safely is more difficult. Overclocking is an experimental process. One system may overclock safely to a specific level with no problems at all while another with the exact same specs may have serious problems.

CountMike · 06 Aug 2016

LMiller7 said:

Overclocking means operating outside the limits specified by the manufacturer. That is not something to be taken lightly. There are potential risks, primarily overheating and instability. You can have instability without overheating and it may occur only under very specific and unusual situations.

Learning how to overclock is relatively easy. Learning how to do it safely is more difficult. Overclocking is an experimental process. One system may overclock safely to a specific level with no problems at all while another with the exact same specs may have serious problems.

And very gradual process too. Change, test, benchmark, change, test, benchmark, change, test, benchmark..... until you get to top stable state. Make sure BIOS/CMOS reset switch is at hand all the time.

davefaz · 08 Aug 2016

Without checking whether you can overclock or not, I would always recommend "Intel Extreme Tuning Utility". It happens to be very useful for monitoring system cooling and things like that and can resolve issues in the BIOS where the CPU is being run outside of normal tolerances ( solve system overheating and so on ).