intel extreme tuning utility auto overclock

With Sandy Bridge Intel is again offering multiplier unlocked K-Series CPUs, the i5 2500K and i7 2600K. At a small additional cost over the non-K CPU it’s an attractive alternative.

Intel has traditionally sold us CPUs with unlocked multipliers under the Extreme line, but at the usual asking price of $1000 they were not something many people could afford.īack in May, Intel launched the new “K” series of CPUs, specifically for enthusiasts who didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg but also wanted to overclock their processor and not be bound by a motherboard that can’t reach a high BCLK. BCLK raised from 100 to 102-103 can create massive instability and corrupted Windows installations. With Sandy Bridge, Intel has moved the clock reference generator from the motherboard into the CPU, so overclocking BCLK more than a few MHz quickly over speeds parts that don’t do well with that sorta thing. However, that is now a thing of the past.

How high did we get our CPUs? We’ll get to that in a moment, because first we need to describe what has changed when overclocking Sandy Bridge.įor a long time we have been able to change the FSB or BCLK on Intel CPU’s in order to get a higher clock speed. We’ve included the results of our highest stable overclock in our entire review to give you an idea of where it stacks up. Normally we save the overclocking towards the end of the review but we’re doing something a little different this time around.

Intel extreme tuning utility auto overclock