Well, I've just finished my current development project and finally have a little time to mess around with overclocking my older system. I've never overclocked a system and there's a bit of a learning curve. So as I was reading about overclocking, I came across a little utility named "Easy Tune" which was actually supplied with my older H55M-S2V Gigabyte motherboard.I went ahead and installed the "Easy Tune v6" software and discovered that there's a tab in the dialog named "Tuner" which has three command buttons on it. The three command buttons provide a graduated overclock with button one being the lowest and button three having the greatest overclock settings of the three. The dialog is obviously made so that you can simply click one of the buttons to raise or lower the overclock level and there's even a button which apparently sets the system back to the factory default settings.So to make a short story short, I gave it a whirl and selected button three which overclocked my motherboard to around 4.1Ghz. I then ran FS9 and for the first time since I've been simming, California Central Coast KSBA ran at around 35 FPS in the heaviest areas. I also had Active Sky running, along with, GE Pro, and UT USA installed and enabled. It was quite a nice and sunny day back home in SoCal. Keep in mind that the frame rates were achived in combination with an antialiasing setting of "8xSQ [Combined: 2x2 SS + 2x MS]" and "2x Supersampling" set for my Gigabyte GTX-560TI-OC. Now for the question...Is using Easy Tune a fair representation of a normal system overclock or is it better to do it manually? Please advise and thanks!Mark

Don't use these windows based OC tools. Always OC via BIOS. There would be tonnes of nice tutorials on this for the H55.

This system was supposed to be a throw away. I think I built the thing for around 900.00 dollars as I needed another computer to develop an app immediately. Consequently, anything that this box can do before I hand it over to the wife is a bonus.So I'm practicing overclocking before doing it for real on my almost completed, Win7-64 system. Maybe I should modify my question a bit and ask it in two parts...I think you've answered part two already :)Part UnIs using Easy Tune a fair representation of a normal system overclock?Part DuIs it better to do it manually?One more question, if you can point me to an overclock guide for the motherboard and CPU in my current, (but soon to be replaced), signature I would be grateful!

+1. You can't monitor voltages etc through just the windows based. And you need to stress check too.

Wow, Andrew and NGX agreeing on something is worth not getting the answer to part one of my question!!!! I think that someone should highlight this post for the sake of posterity!Mark

For monitoring Voltages & temps use CoreTemp & HWMonitor. BIOS is your playground.

Thanks...This is really my day 1 for overclocking. So far I've picked up CPU-Z, GPU-Z, HWMonitor, Prime95, Real Temp, OCCT, and the soon to be infamous...Easy Tune v6. I've been reading as fast as I can...I do appreciate the help from everyone though!Mark

Prime95 / OCCT / LiNX are excellent for testing your system. Avoid OC'ing with a software it's useless.

Thanks...yep...Andrew mentioned that as well. He's been spot on so far and I have no reason to doubt the advice. I just think it's kind of cool to find a user interface which can get me close. Something that I can use as a beginning reference point so that when I read, I already have that basis point. I'm starting to get the impression that as I close in on the proper manual settings, they will also be close the the settings provided by the automated user interface. But I also get the impression that close can be a mile away as we're talking about minor voltage and timing variations when it comes to overclocking a sensitive piece of electronic equipment. I suppose the worst thing that could happen is that in my endeavour to push a CPU to the extreme, I might inadvertently be provided with the ability to roast a duck...Mark

Don't touch the voltages right now, increase the FSB and the multiplier.

+1. Just see how far you can get it stable with stock voltages. Then up the clocks a bit more, adding a little voltage. Be careful not to exceed limits. Then when you get a clock you're happy with, say 4GHz and it's stable on the voltages you have, start reducing the voltages slowly so you get the minimum stable voltage. Viola.

I don't know how good is your CPU cooler so watch.

I would also be disabling turbo boost, I am not sure if those i5s have it but if it is on it, disable.