First, what's a good software to monitor the temperature on an AMD Fx-8320?
Second, Does anyone know of a good guide or video on how to overclock an 8320?
Side not: Is it bad to tilt your computer a little while it is running?
- Monitoring software - hwmonitor for example there are others.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckeAmnDeTk - seems ok enough. Remember that its never a case of just plugging in someone else's max settings. Depends on the silicon lottery of the cpu and the quality of your motherboard etc. Pay attention to your temps very closely at each increment of overclocking. Find the maximum oc you can get stable, then scale it back a notch.
- Only bad if you let go and your mechanical hdd's get damaged. So tilt away.
How similar will overclocking an 8320 be to overclocking an 8350?
Very similar. an 8320 is a chip that didnt make the cut to be an 8350 for whatever reason. The main thing you have to take away from the overclocking experience from any guide is the process itself. Its not a 5 minute thing if you want to do it right. It can take a good day to find the optimal settings for your configuration of hardware. For example you cpu may reach 5ghz with very little voltage bump, but fail to post once the ram is set faster than 1600 (even if you have say a 2133 kit). You may have to scale back the oc to get the ram at the desired speed. Or you may have a chip that wont overclock so well meaning you need ridiculous amounts of voltage to push it hard, resulting in high temps etc.
Go up in small increments - say 100 or 50mhz intervals, thoroughly test with something like OCCT for stability, increase speed and add voltage if needed, keep testing & monitoring temps at each phase. Once you are happy with what the oc is, load temps are etc. You're good to go.
I use multiple programs to monitor,I rely on core temp and hwmonitor though. Core temp is always standard. It's damn easy to OC. Look at Jayztwocents 8350 OC guide.I overclocked my 8320 on a 990XA-UD3 rev 4 motherboard,go to bios,disable turbo,and add 500mhz on stock voltage,set llc to w/e you want,I'd say high/very high is ok and just tweak the power usage features. Then once you are at 4.0 ghz stock voltage stress test it using aida 64. Mine sits at 4.4 ghz on stock voltage,yes stock voltage,I think it can handle 4.5 ghz as well,didn't try it though. So 4400 mhz at 1.320v. Did a 6 hour run didn't break a sweat. Now like I said if the chip is stable let's say for ~30min at 4 ghz stop the test,restart the pc go back to bios and add 100 more mhz,then redo the 20-30min stress test,do this until it fails,a fair 8320 chip should fail stock voltage at a little bit over 4.0 4.1 ghz. When it fails go back to bios and add 0.0125 on the vcore and redo the rest,if it fails add 0.0125 over the previous one,resulting in a 0.025 vcore bump,be VERY careful with the vcore,you don't want to mess up,that's the only thing that can kill the cpu. and make sure the chip doesn't go over 65 degrees while stress testing. Oh and 1 more thing,just a personal preference,I would never go over 1.45v,some people run 1.5v,I wouldn't run mine on that voltage,never ever.
Here is an excellent guide that I used to overclock my FX 6300 : http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard
Combine it with Jayz2cents' video that deejeta shared above. And you have all you need to know to overclock your CPU. Although instead of Prime 95, I recommend Intel Burn Test (Yes it works for AMD despite it's name) or aida 64 to stress test your GPU. Prime 95 at times ramps up your voltages to dangerously high levels. One time for me, I was stress testing and the voltages just rocketed to almost 2V!!!
Also make sure you have great cooling. I have a Noctua NH D14, but before I upgraded, I got away with using a cooler master Hyper 212 evo.
Also depends on your motherboard. For 8 core AMD CPUs, you should have something with at least a 6+2 powerphase design. Preferably from Asus because they are more reliable on the AMD Side.
How much did the NH D14 help, I have a similar build as you with a hyper212, was it worth it?
Well I got a good deal from craigslist. In the box, sealed for $60, local guy too so I said why not. My high with the Hyper 212 on BF4 stock clock was around 60. I got the noctua, overclocked my CPU with custom voltages and my high is about 53 celcius. And There's definitely a sound difference.