Windows 7: What happens if you set your FSB (bclk) too high

once i get an i3 3240 i will try to get a minor over clock by raising the FSB, if I reach instability , i.e. pc wont start, is the damage permanent or will my pc work again after clearing the CMOS or something similar

Hi Pedroc,

Ok for starters to answer your question, normally if an overclock fails, the PC wont boot past the post screens. It will either say "Overclock failed press so and so to enter setup" or it will just reboot and you will need to enter the bios and try again.

On to more important things, if you are going to overclock read up on it big time before you even start, download core temp, and prime 95 for testing stability.

But really I need to ask why are you planning on overclocking a cpu before you even bought it? If its not powerful enough maybe you should save some more and get an i5 instead? Why are you so set on that particular CPU?

Good luck anyway and be careful.

Providing that you don't try to overclock too much, your system should be fine. Like you say, you will probably need to reset the CMOS to its default values if it doesn't boot.

You have to watch the Ram as well when you up the FSB. I know I pointed out to you that OCing that CPU wasn't going to be advisable, but since you are planning to anyway, be aware that the FSB does not just affect the CPU. A Guy

yes it affects the pci, ram and cpu just for the record what else does it affect?

For stability I would rather use IBT (Intel Burn Test) its much quicker then prime95 and it notice problems way sooner. 12 hours of stability testing with prime95 is just a big no no when it an be done better with IBT in 20-30 min if you run the highest setting.

There is no 1 stabiliy test that is the end all. You can run IBT on max for as many passes as you want to, and fail Prime95 in the first 5 minutes. You can do the reverse also. I have run Prime for 12 hours and failed IBT. I always use 2 or 3 stability tests. They all use different formulas and test in different ways. I like to use Prime95, Intel Burn Test and AIDA64. If you pass all 3, it is pretty much assured you have a stable overclock.

IBT for me is the quickest and fastest because of the linpack thingie it uses, and considering its what intel use when they test their cpu's its good enough for me, because prime95 have passed for me and then I still got BSOD later on during games, never happend for me when running IBT, if that one passes I know my computer is stable. But I guess its more what works with you type of thing, but so far I have tried IBT,Prime95,OCCT