Upgraded, Overclock Confusion

I upgraded my m11x r2's motherboard from one with the i3 330um on it to one with the i7 680um. I've been trying to get the most performance out of it, but I may have hit a dead end so I have a few questions.

For the cpu, my i3 I could get the bclk to 191 stable. My new one doesn't want to go above 154 stable. I've noticed the base clocks are about the same when it starts to get unstable, does that have to do with anything? (191x9=1719 156x11=1716) I can get it to higher up to 166 if I disable turbo, but the moment I turn it on I get a BSOD. I have put the intel graphics to max battery and I have changed the ram SPD. Neither of those have done anything. Do you think it might be because I'm using the 65W power adapter that came with my laptop instead of a 90W like the new motherboard wants? Could it be temperature? (I heard someone got higher by reapplying the thermal paste) Or is my chip maybe just unlucky?

For the gpu I have looked on all the guides on here and looked at others settings and scores for references. The main guide I used was one on a different forum that someone linked to here. (Turtle's One-Stop Nvidia Overclocking FAQ/Guide) He made it sound like the memory clock wasn't very important, so with my gpu I can get it to go to 600 1500 790 on evga precision, and on 3dmark that gets me around 8300. So far the best I get is around 8500 using 575 1410 875. Is that the way it should be? It seems weird to me.

 

All processors are different so you wont get the same overclock even on two of the same processor. The level of overclock is all in the luck of the draw. I have no idea about the gpu though.
I also have a question for you. I have been thinking about upgrading to the i7-680um and was wondering if you had to re-install windows after the mobo switch or if it would run without formatting the hard drive?

 

I know that processors overclock different, but everyone says its usually the ram that limits it. I was just wondering if it seems like its the cpu itself that is holding back the overclock before I try doing other things to see if it raises it. (like reapplying the thermal paste and buying a 90W adapter) I would really like to get to 166 if I could.

As for switching out the motherboards, no you don't have to reinstall windows. I think it just asked me to restart the computer right after I booted it the first time and it was good to go.

 

Thanks for the answer but as far as i know the thermal paste and the power adapter should not affect the amount of overclock. You could try using only one stick of RAM or using some different RAM to see if one or both of your current RAM are limiting the overclock.

 

When i had my i7 R2, the max stable overclock i had with turbo was 155. I have seen people with 160+ but tbh it depends on the chip you get, some just don't OC too well.

 

I did try each ram stick individually, but the result was the same at 154 (I didn't really test stability much so it could've been lowered) So upgrading to 8gb of ram would most likely not change anything either and just be a waste of money?

 

Well getting 8GB of RAM will do just that - Give you 8GB of RAM. If you have a use for it then get it, otherwise don't. If you're thinking it's going to increase overclockability, it won't.

Also, the speed isn't dictated by the RAM AFAIK, because with turbo on it increases the BCLK which affects both the CPU & the RAM.

 

you need better quality ram

 

Depends, only if he's still using the stock 800MHz RAM and it's struggling to get any higher. 1066MHz and above should be perfectly fine.

 

I decided to try the thermal compound anyway. Somebody in a thread on here said their i7 went from 154 to 166 stable after they changed theirs. I didn't get any higher on mine, but it did have some effect. Before this it didn't like anything above 154. Now it will go higher (up to 160) and it will run throttlestop's benchmarking thing. It does get errors and eventually blue screen, but it is a a little better then the instant BSOD that used to happen I guess.

 

thermal paste wont do anything unless there's a heat issue...

your problem lies with the ram.. 99.9% sure. your ram speed also increases when you up the blck. and you said both motherboards your getting almost the same frequency? yeah, ram.