MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) manual OC Ability Reference, Demo system configuration

OC Ability Reference

Now, taking the P67A-GD65 (B3) mainboard with the Intel’s latest Core i7 2600K CPU as an example, we will set Core Speed and Memory Frequency as overclocking items to introduce some points and notices to users for refer- ence.

	Demo system configuration
Motherboard	P67A-GD65 (B3)
BIOS	V1.0H
CPU	Core i7 2600K D1
Memory	Corsair CMGTX3 DDR3-2400
Graphics Card	MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX470
HDD	Intel SSDSA2MH080G2GC
PSU	XIGMATEK NRP-HC1001 1000W
OS	Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate RTM 7600

Note: Although the BIOS is the V1.0H Beta edition, but the function will be added into the official edition.

Max CPU Core Speed

Learned from the LGA1156 platform experience, the Core i7 CPU’s Core Speed can be overclocked to 4GHz approximately in air cooling condition. But by the promotion of the 32nm manufacture process, even the Core i7 2600K CPU has four built-in cores, it can reach 5GHz merely in air cooling condition; thus, attracting many overclockers.The key of the Core i7 2600K CPU is CPU Ratio.

Because it is the CPU Ratio unlocked K version, you can direct tune the CPU Ratio to raise the Core Speed despite the Base Clock and Dram Frequency. CPU Voltage and CPU IO Voltage are two major factors for voltage adjust- ment; certainly do not set them to excessively high values to avoid burning down the CPU or the motherboard.

Reference setting ~ 5000MHz

• CPU Voltage:1.375V	•	Base Clock:100MHz
• CPU IO:Auto	•	CPU Ratio:50×

Max Memory Frequency

Due to the limited BCLK OC range of the Sandy Bridge processors and the re- strictions on memory ratio; e.g. the maximum ratio for 2600K is only 8 times. Therefore, the maximum range for memory OC will be around DDR3-2133; except with the support of Base Clock OC.

Thanks to the quality of DDR3 modules nowadays, as long as users buy bet- ter DDR3 modules, it will not be difficult to boost the memory frequency to DDR3-2133. Resembling the LGA1156 platform, the DRAM Voltage is the main item for adjusting CPU IO voltage. After changing the Base Frequency, it may be necessary to adjust the CPU Vcore and CPU IO Voltage.

Reference setting ~ DDR3-2133

• CPU IO Voltage:Auto • RAM Voltage:1.652V • RAM Ratio:8×

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