How do I overclock my i7?

If I don't know I should probably not do it, right? :O)

I have an Intel i7-2600 running at 3.8Ghz on a new intel mobo, but I understood it can go to 4.6ghz. Anyone care to share? 

Ludwig

I notice you show your CPU specs as being a 2600 rather than a 2600k which you'd need if you were going to overclock.

It would then depend on the motherboard/chipset whether you even can.

H67 no.
P67 yes.
X68 yes.

There are other considerations to take into account like whether you have adequate cooling, type of memory and so forth.

In short unless all the component parts have been put together for the express purpose of running faster then I wouldn't advise a DIY attempt.

All things being equal and properly specced a 2600k chip will happily run at 4.6 GHz and even higher.

Yeah. Overclocking is something to do a LOT of reading up on before you do anything.

Tom's Hardware is a good forum, lots of questions and answers already there, from the general to the highly gear specific.

When I recently built my new desktop, I bought the board, CPU & Ram all pre-configured & overclocked by the supplier.

It's the only way to fly.

Overclocking your PC is like souping up your stock automobile. If you are a professional racer, you can't run without it. If you are a street racer, consider the hours in the shop part of the  fun of a risky hobby. If you just want to get to work on time every day...
 
I wonder how many overclockers have done the math (cost in time of study and tweaking and upgraded parts) to get a reasonably fast processor up to the speed of a faster processor. I expect that most would find it cheaper to buy the faster computer in the first place. Almost all would do better by waiting 6-12 months to buy the faster processor after the even faster processor is released.
 
Some of the professionally assembled DAWs are routinely overclocked by design from the ground up, by people who can write off their time costs over dozens or hundreds of machines. They can offer their own warranty in the rare event that something fries, and sell the machine at a more attractive price/performance point because it is overclocked. Unless you are a computer hobbyist at heart, you might do better paying them.

LJB


If I don't know I should probably not do it, right? :O)

I have an Intel i7-2600 running at 3.8Ghz on a new intel mobo, but I understood it can go to 4.6ghz. Anyone care to share? 

Ludwig

one (obvious) question:
why do you need to OC it?
 

@g_randybrown

This is perplexing.

I can't find any of the documents relating to the build, nor any of the manuals.

It's possible I threw them all away with what I thought was an empty box.

If I can locate them I'll let you know where I bought it, but it was definitely a UK based company.