Want to get into overclocking, don't know where to start.

[Jemjem787]

Hey guys, i want to overclock my computer, but i would have no idea where to start. I got a better CPU Cooler than the default one (I think) Its this exact one

Hyper 212 Plus - Cooler Master

The rest of the specs are down below, i would just search this up on youtube, but some people are known to make videos just to screw you up and ruin your stuff.

Could somebody point me in the right direction?

 

[TwoCables]

Before we start, I have two questions:

1. When you applied thermal paste to the 212, did you first fill in the gaps between the exposed heatpipes?
2. What make and model is your power supply?

 

[kbrady1979]

Filling in the gaps with thermal paste will be way too much and could make things worse.

 

[Jemjem787]

Before we start, I have two questions:

1. When you applied thermal paste to the 212, did you first fill in the gaps between the exposed heatpipes?
2. What make and model is your power supply?

1. I am confused, when i applied the thermal paste, i put it in a blob in the center then i pushed the CPU and the Cooler together to fill in the rest.
2. Extreme 2 725W - Cooler Master

 

[Wishmaster]

Should be fine.

Before you do anything, I would suggest starting up Windows and run Prime 95 for a while at stock settings.

Make sure temps look good, and that it can handle running Prime a hour or so at stock settings.

This way you'll know that there are no heat issues before you start trying to OC.

When you do go to OCing, Id stick with something like 70-72C MAX temp under Prime after running overnight. See what kind of speeds you can get in that heat range.
Reason is,Prime stresses more than you ever will in a real world situation. So you'll end up with a nice OC that's running cool.
In the event the chip would ever get pushed to its absolute MAX, you are still safe.

 

[TwoCables]

Filling in the gaps with thermal paste will be way too much and could make things worse.

No, that's how it is supposed to be done with HDT heatsinks:

80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test | Thermal Interface Material,Thermal Paste,Heatsink Compound,80-Way Thermal Interface Material Best Thermal Paste Heatsink Compound Cooling Performance Comparison Benchmark Tests

I'm not going only by this. I'm just showing this because it's the easiest way to prove it. Absolutely everyone who does not fill in these gaps has much higher temps.

If you don't believe me, then ask about this over on Overclock.net.

Before we start, I have two questions:

1. When you applied thermal paste to the 212, did you first fill in the gaps between the exposed heatpipes?
2. What make and model is your power supply?

1. I am confused, when i applied the thermal paste, i put it in a blob in the center then i pushed the CPU and the Cooler together to fill in the rest.
2. Extreme 2 725W - Cooler Master

1. It has to be done like this: 80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test | Thermal Interface Material,Thermal Paste,Heatsink Compound,80-Way Thermal Interface Material Best Thermal Paste Heatsink Compound Cooling Performance Comparison Benchmark Tests (they recommend lapping it, but that is purely optional)
2. I'm not so sure I'd overclock with this PSU powering your system.

If you don't re-apply the thermal paste as shown, then you will always have temperatures that are way too high.

 

[Layback Bear]

Has anybody tried lapping that cpu cooler?

 

[kbrady1979]

Nice article........I wouldn't go by it, but nice article all the same. All of the thermal compounds spread in their own way, some are thick and don't spread very well, and some are thinner and spread really well. You can't just assume it all works the same so you can use as much as the author did and everything will be fine....it doesn't work that way. Also, I've never felt the need to completely cover all of the CPU with thermal paste like the author does.........I've installed a lot of processors, with a bunch of different coolers and never once have I put on so much where it totally covered the CPU. The two dot method seems to cover more than enough of the CPU, I believe.

 

[TwoCables]

Has anybody tried lapping that cpu cooler?

Yes, many have. Although, it's not necessary.

Nice article........I wouldn't go by it, but nice article all the same. All of the thermal compounds spread in their own way, some are thick and don't spread very well, and some are thinner and spread really well. You can't just assume it all works the same so you can use as much as the author did and everything will be fine....it doesn't work that way. Also, I've never felt the need to completely cover all of the CPU with thermal paste like the author does.........I've installed a lot of processors, with a bunch of different coolers and never once have I put on so much where it totally covered the CPU. The two dot method seems to cover more than enough of the CPU, I believe.

Have you ever used an HDT cooler?

If so, then did you ever overclock with it?

If you don't know what an HDT cooler is, then it's a cooler that has the Heatpipe Direct Touch design on the base. Most of them, except for the 212 EVO, require that you put thermal paste in between the exposed heatpipes first before applying the thermal paste as you normally do. If you don't do this, then it will be impossible to get the advertised cooling performance. In some case, it can even perform just as poorly as stock cooling.

I'm serious: ask about it on Overclock.net. You will see that I'm right about this, especially if you want to overclock. If you leave your CPU at stock, then not putting paste in between those exposed heatpipes first is generally ok even though you'll never see the temps get as low as they otherwise would.

Believe it or not, I do know what I'm talking about here. That's why I'm posting. If you want to maintain that I'm wrong and you're right, then prove it. However, I have the entire community of experts to back me up over on Overclock.net, so this is not just something I'm making up to be cool or something. I'm posting what has been proven and what has been learned. You must fill in those gaps first.

I really wish you'd stop trying to contradict me so often.

 

[kbrady1979]

I'm saying it's too much thermal paste. Just look at how much is on there! I don't have to ask "experts" to see that. The OP can choose any way he wants, he's got opinions from both sides.....FIN

As to actually overclocking: I have a couple of really good guides on overclocking Ivy Bridge platforms.......something good for first time overclockers. It really gives you the nuts and bolts you need to successfully overclock. Should be required reading imo. If the OP wants to PM me, I'll be happy to assist him further.

You seem to think I have it out for you, well, I don't. We have two different opinions and want the OP to be informed. You seem to overlook the times I have agreed with you completely in other threads. This isn't a personal attack........grow up.

If the OP wants help overclocking, he can shoot me a PM and I will send him the guides I have. When it comes to how much thermal paste to put on, he can use whichever method suits him.

 

[Jemjem787]

Should be fine.

Before you do anything, I would suggest starting up Windows and run Prime 95 for a while at stock settings.

Make sure temps look good, and that it can handle running Prime a hour or so at stock settings.

This way you'll know that there are no heat issues before you start trying to OC.

When you do go to OCing, Id stick with something like 70-72C MAX temp under Prime after running overnight. See what kind of speeds you can get in that heat range.
Reason is,Prime stresses more than you ever will in a real world situation. So you'll end up with a nice OC that's running cool.
In the event the chip would ever get pushed to its absolute MAX, you are still safe.

I downloaded prime 95, but what do i do with it??

 

[Layback Bear]

Folks lets not get into a pissing contest.
I have never used that much compound. I use Arctic Silver 5. Yes I do lap my cpu and cpu coolers.

Overclocker.net and Overclockers.com are very good sites for information. Thats all the publicity they will get from me.

 

[TwoCables]

I'm saying it's too much thermal paste. Just look at how much is on there! I don't have to ask "experts" to see that. The OP can choose any way he wants, he's got opinions from both sides.....FIN

No, that is not too much. That's the way it's supposed to be for HDT coolers like this one. Look, I've been on Overclock.net for over 4 years, over 12 hours per day. I think I know what I'm talking about here.

As to actually overclocking: I have a couple of really good guides on overclocking Ivy Bridge platforms.......something good for first time overclockers. It really gives you the nuts and bolts you need to successfully overclock. Should be required reading imo. If the OP wants to PM me, I'll be happy to assist him further.

His core temps will be much higher than expected. So, we'll come back to this later.

Should be fine.

Before you do anything, I would suggest starting up Windows and run Prime 95 for a while at stock settings.

Make sure temps look good, and that it can handle running Prime a hour or so at stock settings.

This way you'll know that there are no heat issues before you start trying to OC.

When you do go to OCing, Id stick with something like 70-72C MAX temp under Prime after running overnight. See what kind of speeds you can get in that heat range.
Reason is,Prime stresses more than you ever will in a real world situation. So you'll end up with a nice OC that's running cool.
In the event the chip would ever get pushed to its absolute MAX, you are still safe.

I downloaded prime 95, but what do i do with it??

You will also need Real Temp and CPU-Z:

Real Temp - CPU temperature monitoring

Direct download page: Download Real Temp 3.70 | techPowerUp

CPU-Z - CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Direct download: CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Open Prime95 and tell it that "you're just stress testing". Then click OK when you see a dialog box come up that has 4 testing options. The "Blend" test will be selected and that's the test that you want to run.

For now, run Prime95's "Blend" test for 10 minutes. Then report back what your temps were in Real Temp and also report what your core voltage was in CPU-Z. It's important for me to know what your temps and core voltage were during the 10-minute run.

 

[Jemjem787]

Open Prime95 and tell it that "you're just stress testing". Then click OK when you see a dialog box come up that has 4 testing options. The "Blend" test will be selected and that's the test that you want to run.

For now, run Prime95's "Blend" test for 10 minutes. Then report back what your temps were in Real Temp and also report what your core voltage was in CPU-Z. It's important for me to know what your temps and core voltage were during the 10-minute run.

Done, here are the results, hopefully these are the right things.

 

[TwoCables]

I was afraid of this. Your temps should be much lower than that. I think you'll need to reapply the thermal paste like this:

Fill in the gaps as shown here:

After that, apply the paste like this:

Then it will spread like this:

With HDT heatsinks like yours, this is the way it has to be done. If you don't do this, then your temps will always be higher than they should be.

 

[Jemjem787]

Any things i should use to spread it out?

 

[kbrady1979]

If you want to fill in the gaps, I would use the credit card method to fill in the gaps, so there won't be as much excess. If you haven't lapped your cooler, then the method above won't give you the same result. Also, if you aren't familiar with lapping something, I would advise that you DO NOT try it. When you overclocked your rig, did you use the OC Tuner feature in the BIOS?

 

[TwoCables]

I'm not recommending that he lap it. Again, it's optional, and I would skip it.

 

[kbrady1979]

I should correct myself....I said credit card, but you shouldn't actually use a credit card. Any smooth, laminated card that is flexible will work fine. You don't want to glob the thermal paste on it as most brands spread much better than you would think. Also, using too much is not only wasteful, but won't give you the thin coating you need. If you should ever want to remove the cooler later on, an excess amount can set up and make it an absolute pain to remove. I don't have a clue what thermal paste you used, and all I can do is generalize.

The reason I asked if you used the OC Tuner feature is it looks like it has raised the multiplier, and the BCLK, giving you a frequency of 4223MHz. The OC Tuner Feature also doesn't fine tune your CPU Voltage either. We also don't know what quality CPU you ended up with.......if you didn't know already, not all CPU's are equal in terms of temperature, ability to OC, and voltage required. If you used the OC Tuner feature, I would recommend loading default settings, clearing the CMOS, and starting fresh. We can walk you through all of this if that is what you want.......it's not a problem

 

[kbrady1979]

I would take a look at this guide......it gives you a rough outline of what can be changed, what can't and more importantly, why. Ivy Bridge Overclocking Guide