# Overclocking I7 for use in DAW



## URL (Aug 11, 2017)

Estimately, how much more in percentage do you win to overclock I7 6850 for example, 3.6 to 4.3 GHz ... 
Is not too familiar with overclocking, any thoughts- is it worth doing?


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## Andrew Aversa (Aug 11, 2017)

The amount of overclocking you can get away with depends on a variety of factors. There is definitely no universal answer; that's why processors have a set, stable frequency out of the box. Anything above cannot be guaranteed. Here are things to consider:

*1. Cooling*
Overclocking a processor means it will run hotter. Higher temperatures, especially over a long period, is bad for the health of the processor in the long term. Personally I would make sure you are not exceeding 75 degrees celsius "under load" (i.e. during CPU intensive activities). Technically you can get into the 90s with no issues, but I wouldn't risk it.

With more cooling and better air flow in your case, you can achieve lower temperatures - and thus more headroom for overclocking. Get a free application like RealTemp to see what your temperatures are like now during intense DAW playback. If you are already at 60+ degrees you won't have a ton of room to overclock.

How do you get better cooling? Get a better CPU cooler. Usually this means a bigger one with more fans. Having a bigger case with more/bigger fans helps as well. 

*2. Power Supply*
Overclocking draws more power from the power supply in your computer. If your power supply is older or not rated for higher wattage amounts, you could run into stability problems. Your exact power needs depend on what other components you have. Generally speaking, if you have at least 700W for your power supply, you should have no issues overclocking even with multiple hard drives, a high-end video card, multiple USB devices, etc.

*3. "Silicon Lottery"*
Computer components often have manufacturing problems within the factory tolerance. These problems may never cause an issue until you start overclocking. It's possible that someone with the exact same processor as you can hit 4.3ghz with no issues, while you cannot get it about 4.1ghz without crashes in Windows. It sort of boils down to dumb luck.

So what do you do? If you are serious about it, look up a guide for overclocking the i7-6850 specifically, and take it SLOWLY - do increments of 100mhz at a time. Load your DAW, check your temperatures, run an intense project, make sure everything is stable. Then go 100mhz more. The way you do this will vary based on your processor/motherboard but it's not _terribly_ complicated if you follow instructions carefully.

Generally speaking, i7s are quite overclockable. You *probably *would have no problems hitting 4.2 ghz, which in turn should have a measurable impact on the maximum amount of plugins / voices you can use.


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## Piano Pete (Aug 11, 2017)

Luckily in today's age there is a ton of information regarding the process available online, Zircon's post being an excellent example. There are even a ton of guides for cpu/motherboard specific scenarios as well. Depending how you want to approach it, you can either try to go hog-wild or you can do a conservative overclock. Aside from thermals, a big place where people tend to cause damage to their cpu is by upping the voltage too far. Typically there is a safe range to stay within regarding the amount of voltage a cpu can handle (this is where you really start to degrade the lifespan of a cpu and potentially cause damage by zapping it or burning it out). Unfortunately, I do not know this number off the top of my noggin for your CPU/MB. You can start with an average overclock without a voltage increase as a baseline. If you are super lucky, you can bump up the speed without any voltage changes at all! Just look up what people are capable of hitting without voltage increases and go from there. At this point, you can continue to increase the clock speed until it is no longer stable, which is when you have the choice between: A) decreasing the clock speed until the system is stable and runs (do adequate stress testing) or B) increasing the voltage until it becomes stable. Since I am a chicken lacking desire to replace parts on a regular basis, I tend to lean towards A with *slight *voltage increases to ensure stability. This is different per setup and chip, hence the lottery. 

Since I do not know what parts you have, I will throw this in as well: if thermals are an issue, get a beefier cooler and use a decent thermal paste! Artic Silver is a fan favorite, but there are so many decent choices that it is really up to you. When it comes to water vs air cooling, there are plenty of air coolers that are capable of sustaining respectable overclocks without the maintenance of a loop. Cooler master h12 is a general workhorse, but I prefer noctua's lineup. 

If you are concerned about damaging your cpu, I believe Intel has an overclock protection plan that you can purchase for your cpu now. If you are overclocking conservatively and do not spike the voltage up super high or mess with different ratios and values aside from the base clock speed, this should not be needed; however, it exists if you want it. 

Over the past couple years, overclocking has become simpler to get into. Heck, many motherboards have a switch that will do an overclock based on the components it recognizes. 

Hopefully this helps!


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## URL (Aug 11, 2017)

Thanks for your answers and information! Yes, at last I found one overclocking guide for my i7 6850 at youtube. I have MB Asus deluxe 2, Coolmaster cpu cooler, 850w power supply.
My Cpu have a boost to 3.8GHz. When I have T.boost on, sometime it goes to 4.0GHz for some strange reason and the machine is no longer stable. So I have a fix speed of 3.7GHz and that works with auto setting in bios for voltage etc.
Yes, heat increase when overclocking and I have a lot of dsp cards in my Pc, so I think go for 3.7GHz with my setup for now.


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## Piano Pete (Aug 11, 2017)

URL said:


> Thanks for your answers and information! Yes, at last I found one overclocking guide for my i7 6850 at youtube. I have MB Asus deluxe 2, Coolmaster cpu cooler, 850w power supply.
> My Cpu have a boost to 3.8GHz. When I have T.boost on, sometime it goes to 4.0GHz for some strange reason and the machine is no longer stable. So I have a fix speed of 3.7GHz and that works with auto setting in bios for voltage etc.
> Yes, heat increase when overclocking and I have a lot of dsp cards in my Pc, so I think go for 3.7GHz with my setup for now.


Hmm. I remember something about turbo boost and some form of Intel's powersaving features that could cause problems, the fact it would go from 0-100% randomly. I dont know if that could be causing some of your issues. Typically, I have had great success keeping everything at set values. I have not played with your cpu, so I am not familiar with how it behaves. Hopefully someone will be able to shed some further insight.


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## URL (Aug 11, 2017)

I find guide for automatic overclocking...Asus MB.


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