[nicros]

I just got my new system together, an mATX build with an Asus P8P67-M Pro mobo, i5-2500k, 8G corsair vengeance 1600 ram, and a corsair H70 cooler.

Super happy with the build, but I have some questions about overclocking.

Primarily, why should I not use the Asus Turbo V EVO software to overclock? Everywhere I see articles about overclocking, everyone pooh poohs the OC software and says you gotta do it in bios.

I played with this utility a bit, and got a 4.7 stable OC pretty much in 10 minutes. And speedstep appears to be still enabled, so my machine is nice and cool when not under load and then kicks it in when load testing.

My last build I spent DAYS OCing my board- and while that was fun for me, its pretty clear there is a lot of time and money being invested in these tools, so it seems inevitable that at some point there is no point to using bios to overclock.

I'm wondering if that time is now.

What am I missing? If I have a 4.7OC which is fine by me, is stable in prime95, and IBT, what are the reasons I should go and spend a lot of time noodling in the bios? Squeezing out 4.8 may not be worth it.

But to be honest, I don't MIND doing that, but I don't know what the point would be- if there are real technical reasons why I should go OC in bios, I would very much like to hear them!

Thanks!

 

[iscariot]

Would like to see some responses on this out of curiousity.

 

[Draygonn]

Usually those auto-overclockers ramp voltages up higher than your chip needs.

However, I have used ASUS's BIOS OCing for an ASROCK P45X3 Deluxe and sure enough it got everything perfect for my E8400 on the first try. Hit 4.0 and 500 FSB with low voltage. YMMV.

 

[Juggalo23451]

Stability,
Won't overvolt components

 

[POONBERRY]

With Intel's unlocked chips plus the new SB architecture there is much less reason to OC in BIOS. There are only a few settings that need to be changed, and none require a reboot. Other than vdroop and a few other things.

For example on X58 your board reboots every time you change your uncore speed. I haven't OCed P67 yet but the "system agent" thing looks pretty simple. For all the people shouting about stability and overvoltage... you can set voltage manually instead of having it auto scale(your argument is invalid

).

 

[Sethy666]

Nice OC.

OCing with software will usually result in higher volatges than necessary. This will result in higher temps or dangerous voltages.

Example - when I OCed to 4GHz with software, my PLL was set at 1.8v. It should never go above 1.5v...

You may certainly use the software to gain a ballpark setting and then transfer the inputs to your BIOS and fine tune from there.

Its not just a purist thing... these are very real reasons not to rely on software Ocing.

 

[Dopamin3]

The better question is, why software? When you set it in the bios, you don't need 3rd party applications just to run your settings the way you want it. Running all that extra software is unnecessary, and you would have to redial in your settings when changing between operating systems (e.g. dual boot or a new installation). When using an operating system like Linux, it is also probable that these software tools are not readily available.

The only reason to use software (minus GPU stuff like Afterburner) is to squeeze out the last few Mhz for benching or something where you might not normally be able to POST. Informally, in my own personal view, I like to think software is for people who don't really know what they're doing. BIOS is where the men go.

 

[Diabolical999]

There's more overclocking options in BIOS than there are in any Windows-based overclocking software. Have always viewed it as a generic form of overclocking. I'd rather overclock my hardware in BIOS, not in a Windows environment, nor after Windows loads.

 

[POONBERRY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diabolical999;13080906
There's more overclocking options in BIOS than there are in any Windows-based overclocking software.

I agree with this. And even if you can change some of those "deep down" settings (IOH/ICH clock skew, CPU clock drive, PCI-E clock drive etc) the OC program will tell you that the new settings will be applied at the next reboot, which kind of defeats the purpose of software OC.

 

[nicros]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dopamin3;13080868
The better question is, why software?

The better reason for software is.... time. 10 min vs hours. Time is not cheap, at least I don't feel my time is. That would be the main reason for me.

 

[POONBERRY]

well most of us are nerds in a basement with no life so we have PLENTY of time to waste!

 

[Dopamin3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicros The better reason for software is.... time. 10 min vs hours. Time is not cheap, at least I don't feel my time is. That would be the main reason for me.

I don't understand your argument. Most BIOSes have profile banks, so you can save your basic template and work off of that. You boot up into the bios, change your settings, then boot to Windows. Then you can test for stability. If you crash, you reboot and repeat the process. It's basically the same thing with software but in a different order. You would boot, go to Windows, change settings in software, then test for stability. If you have a hard crash, go through the settings again.

I think it's insane you would say it takes hours to overclock in the bios but yet only 10 minutes for software. I will agree that software is probably faster, but definitely only by a very slim amount of time.

 

[HOTSHOT$]

The overall result might be the same but I think you learn more about your machine when you do the overclock in the bios. At the end of the day its up to you mate.

 

[tehPwnzah]

no not exactly. Software overclocking is unstable. But i agree with poonberry. All we need is redhat to troll a lil

 

[nagle3092]

When I had my Crosshair IV Formula I experimented with Asus Turbo V a little and after a while my computer started acting really weird. Random blue screen, instant shutdowns, boot problems all kinds of things. I had a stable oc before I tried it using the bios and used it just to experiment a little with some things. I think it was starting to corrupt the bios or something to that degree. I think it was happening because of the random shutdowns or bluescreens we get from stress testing our oc's and since this software directly manipulates the bios. It cant be good to have your computer just shutdown while this software is manipulating your bios. The only way I could get rid of the problems was flashing to an older bios then re-flashing back to the current ones. Since then I have never installed it and dont intend to anymore either.

I dont know if that was what was happening exactly but like I said the only way I got the problems to go away was to flash back then reflash. BTW I had to do it a couple of times because it didnt dawn on me what was happening. Every time after the re-flashing it would be fine, until I went experimenting again.

 

[Killam0n]

BIOS

Its a more semi perminate effective overclock, It will not revert or break just because windows crashes.

 

[tehPwnzah]

^ ..........

 

[Dopamin3]

Oh I just realized you are referring to the automated overclocking utilities. They are bad for a few reasons. Every piece of hardware is different. There is no way for the automated stuff to effectively set frequencies, voltages, or any other settings. In almost all cases, they're going to set the voltage higher than you need it to be. This will cause higher temperatures, more power draw, and a very slight decrease in CPU life span. Most of the time they aren't going to set your RAM frequency/timings properly either. Also there is no guarantee that those settings are going to be stable, you should stress test it regardless.

The time thing is a good reason to use it, but spend an extra 10 minutes manually configuring your settings in the bios. If you are inexperienced or have questions about the settings or anything else, that's why you're on OCN

 

[nicros]

Honestly, I'm not sure I get the whole software thing- does the software have to be running in windows for the OC to work? That would be lame.

And I also don't get the speedstep thing- which I thought I did. I disabled it in BIOS to see if CPU-Z would show the 4.7 OC at idle- it doesn't. CPU-Z shows 1.6 or something until a load hits then its up to 4.7.

Which is another perplexing thing- I decompressed a 5G file with winrar, and CPU-Z still only shows 1.6. I thought there was a fair amount of work being done there but I guess not? If I was at 4.7 even at idle, would that decompress have been faster?