i3 2100 un-overclockable?

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PRogers86

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
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I keep reading that the i3's locked multiplier means it can't be oc'ed. Can't you just increase the FSB? I plan on getting an i3 soon, and being able to oc isn't a huge deal to me, but it just doesn't make sense to me that you can't just increase the FSB. I pushed my e6400 from 2.13ghz to 3.2ghz by just increasing the FSB from 266 to around 412.
 
Can't you just increase the FSB?
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You can increase the FSB from 100MHz to about 105MHz more than that usually causes instability. The reason is this clock is tied into the PCI bus most other busses and there is no way to cut back multipliers on these to keep them within spec.
 
No, on SB/IB the FSB has a max of about 103-105mhz before the system becomes unstable. You won't be able to get much extra out of it.
 
PRogers86 said:
I keep reading that the i3's locked multiplier means it can't be oc'ed. Can't you just increase the FSB? I plan on getting an i3 soon, and being able to oc isn't a huge deal to me, but it just doesn't make sense to me that you can't just increase the FSB. I pushed my e6400 from 2.13ghz to 3.2ghz by just increasing the FSB from 266 to around 412.
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Sadly those days are gone. On the Intel side if you want to overclock you need a multiplier unlocked -K part. Unfortunately they are limited to the quad-cores, the budget dual-core crowd is sol.
 
While it is possible to tune the performance on the Intel® Core™ i3-2100 by BCLK; it will quickly become clear that you not going to get the performance that you would on some older processors like Intel Core 2 Duo e6400. If you really want to get the best performance you are going to need to get one of the unlocked "K" processors like the Intel Core i5-2500K or the Intel Core i7-3770K.
 
So if I'm understanding this correctly, upping the FSB on socket 1155 causes the PCI clock to also increase, and it is impossible to increase the FSB independent of the PCI clock? Isn't it up to motherboard manufacturers to allow users to lock the PCI speed while increasing the FSB independently? Or is it built into the cpu somehow?
 
The two clocks are tied together with the new CPUs. The only real way to overclock newer Intel chips is to buy processors with the K designation, as SithSolo1 said. They have unlocked multipliers. Increasing the FSB is in the past now, it's not worth it.
 
PRogers86 said:
So if I'm understanding this correctly, upping the FSB on socket 1155 causes the PCI clock to also increase, and it is impossible to increase the FSB independent of the PCI clock? Isn't it up to motherboard manufacturers to allow users to lock the PCI speed while increasing the FSB independently? Or is it built into the cpu somehow?
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There is no more FSB.
 
Would be nice to see an unlocked variant of the i3 series.

Oh well, for the price, they certainly compete pretty well.
 
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