Tips & tricks to push it further

There are a few tricks to make your overclock go a little further. Head back into the BIOS, to AI Tweaker, then go to ‘External Digi+ Power Control’. You’ll find three settings we can adjust to improve overclocking performance for the latest ASUS motherboards. First, disable ‘VRM Spread Spectrum’. This stops the VRMs from attempting to reduce any electromagnetic interference by fluctuating the base clock of the processor. Nowadays, you shouldn’t have a problem disabling it, unless you work with highly sensitive audio equipment. Next up is ‘CPU Power Phase Control’ — change this from ‘Auto’ to ‘Extreme’. This ensures you use the full number of power phases on the board, meaning less stress on the MOSFETs, and more long-term stability. Down from that is ‘CPU Power Duty Control’ — change this from ‘T Probe’ to ‘Extreme’. This stops the mobo balancing the power load based on VRM temperature, and instead focuses on splitting the current evenly across all the MOSFETs.

This last setting is well worth it. Intel processors have a particular piece of software called SpeedStep. What this does is fluctuate the multiplier and voltage going into the processor, depending on the load on the CPU. Most overclocks fail not as the processor is at 100% load, but as the multiplier and voltage increase up to the settings you’ve put in place while under load. Disabling SpeedStep ensures the processor is constantly running at the frequency and voltage you set it. Don’t panic, though — this doesn’t mean you’ll be running at 80°C constantly, because the CPU still abides by the laws of load, meaning although temperatures may be fractionally higher, the core won’t get hot until under load as usual. Unfortunately, you will be drawing more juice from the wall, but that’s part and parcel of overclocking anyway.