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I don't want to invest a lot of time into this. Life is busy and good. But I do want to get what I paid for out of my hardware. I've never overclocked before, so be nice to me.

I installed some new RAM today, rated at 1600 MHz. But Speccy told me it was only running at 666 MHz. I found something in the BIOS that bumped it up to what I thought said 1600 MHz, and now Speccy says it is running at 800 MHz. Is there a 2x multiplier going on here?

My PC is my audio workstation and my gaming machine (1080p on high, not ultra, likely at 40 FPS using an AMD 5870). Intel 3570k, ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Evo 212. I have zero interest in bragging rights, or I would have overclocked long ago. But if a mild overclock can let me run a few more virtual instruments simultaneously in Pro Tools, hooray.

In general, what is considered a safe overclock for the 3570k? 4.2 GHz? 4.3? 4.4?

It looks like my mobo had some snazzy settings for auto-balancing everything if I set the desired outcome. I set it to 4.2 GHz, and I'm idling at 28-30 C. Should I use the auto-OCing? Or do things manually? (Again, I don't want to read a book on the subject. I'm glad this is fun for some of you, but it isn't for me at this point. )

Also, Speccy says each core is running in what appears to be a range of 4199-4201 MHz, with a multiplier of 42x, which looks good. But then it drops to 1600 MHz at a multiplier of 16x. It does this every couple of seconds. Why?

Thanks so much for all of you kind, generous people willing to answer. TR has the best community.

Milo Burke wrote:

I don't want to invest a lot of time into this. Life is busy and good. But I do want to get what I paid for out of my hardware. I've never overclocked before, so be nice to me.

I installed some new RAM today, rated at 1600 MHz. But Speccy told me it was only running at 666 MHz. I found something in the BIOS that bumped it up to what I thought said 1600 MHz, and now Speccy says it is running at 800 MHz. Is there a 2x multiplier going on here?

My PC is my audio workstation and my gaming machine (1080p on high, not ultra, likely at 40 FPS using an AMD 5870). Intel 3570k, ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Evo 212. I have zero interest in bragging rights, or I would have overclocked long ago. But if a mild overclock can let me run a few more virtual instruments simultaneously in Pro Tools, hooray.

In general, what is considered a safe overclock for the 3570k? 4.2 GHz? 4.3? 4.4?

It looks like my mobo had some snazzy settings for auto-balancing everything if I set the desired outcome. I set it to 4.2 GHz, and I'm idling at 28-30 C. Should I use the auto-OCing? Or do things manually? (Again, I don't want to read a book on the subject. I'm glad this is fun for some of you, but it isn't for me at this point. )

Also, Speccy says each core is running in what appears to be a range of 4199-4201 MHz, with a multiplier of 42x, which looks good. But then it drops to 1600 MHz at a multiplier of 16x. It does this every couple of seconds. Why?

Thanks so much for all of you kind, generous people willing to answer. TR has the best community.

"Is there a 2x multiplier going on here?"
yes

"In general, what is considered a safe overclock for the 3570k? 4.2 GHz? 4.3? 4.4?"
all cpu's are different - as in one 3570 might be able to do 5.0ghz and another only 4.6 so you will have to test it for yourself
safe overclocking depends on the components used, a good cooler and a good motherboard with nice heatsinks on the VRM's (yours seem sufficient) are a good start
for an overclocking newbie i would keep it at standard voltage and bump up the multiplier until you get errors on programs like linx or occt
personally when i test my overclocks i test it as hard as possible - like for instance i will run linx 8gb for 3 hours and then run linx on 2 threads and run 3dmark AND unigine valley at the same time in a window for another 3hours
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/LinX-benchmark.shtml
http://www.ocbase.com/

"Should I use the auto-OCing? Or do things manually?"
imo you should do it manually - sometimes the auto overclock puts the voltage up WAY higher than you need for the speed it sets it at
for example my motherboard puts the voltage up to 1.4v for a 4.5ghz clock which is WAY higher than it needs (it can do [email protected])

"Also, Speccy says each core is running in what appears to be a range of 4199-4201 MHz, with a multiplier of 42x, which looks good. But then it drops to 1600 MHz at a multiplier of 16x. It does this every couple of seconds. Why?"
power saving - it will clock back up when it needs it

Milo Burke wrote:

I don't want to invest a lot of time into this. Life is busy and good. But I do want to get what I paid for out of my hardware. I've never overclocked before, so be nice to me.

I installed some new RAM today, rated at 1600 MHz. But Speccy told me it was only running at 666 MHz. I found something in the BIOS that bumped it up to what I thought said 1600 MHz, and now Speccy says it is running at 800 MHz. Is there a 2x multiplier going on here?

My PC is my audio workstation and my gaming machine (1080p on high, not ultra, likely at 40 FPS using an AMD 5870). Intel 3570k, ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Evo 212. I have zero interest in bragging rights, or I would have overclocked long ago. But if a mild overclock can let me run a few more virtual instruments simultaneously in Pro Tools, hooray.

In general, what is considered a safe overclock for the 3570k? 4.2 GHz? 4.3? 4.4?

It looks like my mobo had some snazzy settings for auto-balancing everything if I set the desired outcome. I set it to 4.2 GHz, and I'm idling at 28-30 C. Should I use the auto-OCing? Or do things manually? (Again, I don't want to read a book on the subject. I'm glad this is fun for some of you, but it isn't for me at this point. )

Also, Speccy says each core is running in what appears to be a range of 4199-4201 MHz, with a multiplier of 42x, which looks good. But then it drops to 1600 MHz at a multiplier of 16x. It does this every couple of seconds. Why?

Thanks so much for all of you kind, generous people willing to answer. TR has the best community.

Use CPUZ to check your speeds. If it says 666 you are running it at 1333Mhz, if 800 then 1600Mhz. Memory speed isn't that important though.

A safe OC for your CPU depends on the CPU itself. All are different. Mine is really crappy, I can only get it to 4.4 with high voltage (1.37v). I recommend you to do a manual overclock if you have the time.

A decent guide:
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=45604

Good luck with your overclock

So I can disregard the 800 MHz memory, and also the 1600 MHz CPU. This is good to know.

I'm watching the CPU clock speed in Task Manager, and it appears to range from 4.2 GHz all the way down to 2.75 GHz depending on what is needed. Which is nice. But so far I've had the auto-OC option on. If I turn that off, in order to not have the mobo abuse the voltage, will it peg my CPU at 4.2 GHz even when I am only idling?

Milo Burke wrote:

So I can disregard the 800 MHz memory, and also the 1600 MHz CPU. This is good to know.

I'm watching the CPU clock speed in Task Manager, and it appears to range from 4.2 GHz all the way down to 2.75 GHz depending on what is needed. Which is nice. But so far I've had the auto-OC option on. If I turn that off, in order to not have the mobo abuse the voltage, will it peg my CPU at 4.2 GHz even when I am only idling?

"But so far I've had the auto-OC option on. If I turn that off, in order to not have the mobo abuse the voltage, will it peg my CPU at 4.2 GHz even when I am only idling?"

if you turn off auto oc you will lose the oc but the speed will still go up and down depending on its needs
its the "speedstep" switch in the bios that is making the speed go up and down so as long as you have that on it will adjust the clock speed according to your needs no matter how you oc it
if you manually oc it and keep speedstep on it will still adjust the speeds to your needs

what you should do is have a look at what voltage it is using at the clock speed you have which is 4.2 going by your last post (make sure you load the cpu before checking because the voltage can go up and down depending on clock speed also) and then go into the options in your bios and use that as a starting point
set the multiplier to 42
keep the bus speed at 100 which is standard (i do not recommend changing bus speeds with the newer intel cpu's - it can damage motherboard components)
and set the voltage to what the auto oc was

then after that slowly lower the voltage and test it each time you lower it - you MUST stress it to properly make sure its stable because there are lots of times it will boot and even run programs but not be properly stable under stress (using programs i previously mentioned will work well)

or you can do the opposite - keep the voltage the same as the auto oc and raise the multiplier and stress test it

i always have a piece of paper and write down the settings as i change them
like this
4375mhz 1.26vfail stress test 1.27vfail stress test 1.275vpass stress test 1.29vfinal (add .015)

when i find a voltage which it passes at i add a little more just to be sure - so in the previous case it passed a stress test at 1.275 so i would set my final voltage to 1.29 (.015 more) just to make sure its rock solid stable at those speeds

but again i cant stress how important it is to stress test your overclock to make sure its stable, programs like intel burntest/linx/occt are good to use to stress test and imo you should even run one of these at the same time (but on 1/2 the cores) as a another program like 3dmark or unigine valley just to make sure its rock solid stable

sometimes i even run 3dmark and unigine valley and linx and occt and handbrake all at once for hours (but each one on their own core) when i stress test just to make sure its rock solid stable
also reading the overclocking guide that was posted up a few posts might help you understand things better than my explanation

I really appreciate the responses.

I skimmed the guide. Some parts were quite informative, some were over my head.

I feel like speedstepping is a good thing for me, since I do idle a lot and I don't know if I need my CPU at its best for gaming.

I'm not really interested in pushing the max of my particular 3570k, partially because I can't currently afford to replace it if I make a mistake, and partially because I'm trying to keep this simple. What if I leave the voltage at stock then set the multiplier to x43 or x44? Is that still considered modest? Or is that a bit too aggressive without fine-tuning?

It's difficult to really bust the heck of the CPU by mistake, only if you start to play with voltages its necessary to know what your doing.

You could try to leave it all default and only increase the multiplier, start at 41, 42 etc.. Load prime95 blend test and leave it at least for 30 minutes. If it passes try another multiplier. Until prime95 crashes, gives errors, pc reboots etc...

To be absolutely sure people recommend at least 8h of blend test. I normally fire up Handbrake and encode some bluray movies, if the movie is perfect then the cpu should be stable. Folding Home is a good benchmark too.

Always check temps of course. Real temp, Core temp, Openhardwaremonitor...

Milo Burke wrote:

I really appreciate the responses.

I skimmed the guide. Some parts were quite informative, some were over my head.

I feel like speedstepping is a good thing for me, since I do idle a lot and I don't know if I need my CPU at its best for gaming.

I'm not really interested in pushing the max of my particular 3570k, partially because I can't currently afford to replace it if I make a mistake, and partially because I'm trying to keep this simple. What if I leave the voltage at stock then set the multiplier to x43 or x44? Is that still considered modest? Or is that a bit too aggressive without fine-tuning?

"I feel like speedstepping is a good thing for me, since I do idle a lot and I don't know if I need my CPU at its best for gaming."
there really isnt any need to ever turn it off - i never do, you dont get any advantage from turning it off in games

"I'm not really interested in pushing the max of my particular 3570k, partially because I can't currently afford to replace it if I make a mistake"
its VERY hard to damage a modern cpu unless you go to really massive extremes in clock speed and voltages for extremely long amounts of time, i have been overclocking for years (since replacing the 10mhz crystal on my 286 with a 12mhz one) and the only cpu that i have ever damaged was my old cyrix/ibm cpu and thats because i used a peltier on it without properly sealing it
to put things into perspective my last 3 cpu overclocks were/are
5.0ghz i7 3930k 1.53v
5.0ghz i7 3820 1.55v
4.2ghz qx9650 1.67v
and none of them had any problems with it
motherboards on the other hand are a different thing - they can be damaged at the higher end overclocks because of insufficient cooling on the vrms and the area surrounding the cpu area, your motherboard seems find for a mild overclock btw

i think you should be fine for around a 4.5 oc if you can reach there - you might have to fine tune the various voltages to get it perfectly stable at those speeds so you might not be able to get there
also as i said write down the results of your oc like i showed in my post above - include voltages and temps and when you notice a big spike to get any higher speeds you know you are approaching its limits

"What if I leave the voltage at stock then set the multiplier to x43 or x44? Is that still considered modest? Or is that a bit too aggressive without fine-tuning?"
modest is in the eye of the beholder
I would consider it a modest overclock, you still might require some fine tuning if it isnt completely stable at those speeds though - remember all cpu's are different so while one cpu might require fine tuning the various voltages to get it to be stable at those speeds another might be able to do 4.6 without changing a thing

and stress test stress test stress test.!!
theres nothing worse than thinking your oc is stable but then it crashes at a time you dont want it to - if you stress test A LOT then you reduce the risk of this happening