Overclocking a Raspberry Pi

In this instructables I will show you how to overclock a Raspberry Pi. You don't need a heat sink or a fan, because the temperautre won't go over the 50-60 C (120-140 F). Please vote for me in the Raspberry Pi contest. Good luck with overclocking! (!) I am not responsible for anything that happens because of this tutorial (!) Overclocking a Raspberry Pi

Step 1: Installing Raspbian

If you have already installed Raspbian you can skip this step.For installing Raspbian you will need a 4gb SD card, a Raspbian raw image and Win32DiskImager (Windows) or dd command (Linux) or Rpi-SD card builder (Mac Os X).Imaging the SD card

Windows
1. Download and install Win32DiskImager
2. Insert your SD card and open Win32DiskImager
3. Unzip the 201X-XX-XX-wheezy-raspbian.zip file (X is the date of your download)
4. Select the .IMG and select the correct device (!)
5. Now the SD card has the Raspbian Image
Linux
1. Start the terminal
2. Go to your downloaded .ZIP file
3. Use $ unzip ~/201X-XX-XX-wheezy-raspbian.zip (X is the date of your download)
4. Run $ df -h to see what devices are currently mounted
5. Insert your SD card
6. Run $ df -h again, the new device is your SD card
7. Unmount your SD card with $ umount /dev/xxxx (xxxx is your device)
8. Now write the image to your SD card with $ dd bs=4M if=~/201X-XX-XX-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/xxx (xxx is your device)
9. The SD card has now the Raspbian Image
Mac OS X
1. Download and install RPi-sd card builder
2. Unzip 201X-XX-XX-wheezy-raspbian.zip file
3. Run the app and select the .IMG file
4. It will ask you if the SD card is connected, insert your SD card and press continue
5. Select your SD card
6. It will ask you to enter your administrator password, enter it
7. Look if your SD card is unmounted and press continue
8. After a while it says complete
9. Your SD card has now the Raspbian Image

Installing Raspbian on your Raspberry

1. Insert your SD card into your Raspberry Pi and connect your screen
2. Plugin your power, your Raspberry will turn on and boot Raspbian for the first time

3. You will get some options, you can skip them but I recommend that you select 1. Expand filesystem otherwise you will run out of memory and 3. Enable Boot to Desktop, I prefer the command line for overclocking.

Overclocking a Raspberry Pi

4. Select finish, you will now be in the command line
5. Raspbian is now installed

Step 2: Installing Java, HWBOT Prime and OpenArena

Before we start overclocking we install two benchmark programs and java. Installing Java

1. If you have already JDK7 installed remove it with $ sudo apt-get remove openjdk-7-jre 2. Use $ wget http://www.java.net/download/jdk8/archive/b117/binaries/jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz to download JDK8 (this one is only for ARM chips) 3. Now use the followning commands for installing: $ sudo tar zxvf jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz –C /opt then $ sudo update-alternatives –install “/usr/bin/java” “java” “/opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java” 1 at last use $ java -version

Installing HWBOT Prime

1. To install HWBOT Prime you only need to download the .JAR with $ wget http://downloads.hwbot.org/hwbotprime.jar 2. Use $ java -jar hwbotprime.jar to run the benchmarks on the default specs.

 Installing OpenArena

1. Run the following commands to install OpenArena: $ sudo apt-get install openarena then use $ wget http://www.berryterminal.com/dl/ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb and at last use $ sudo dpkg -i ./ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb 2. Now use $ sudo apt-get clean to remove the leftovers

 Before we start overclocking we install two benchmark programs and java.Installing Java

1. If you have already JDK7 installed remove it with $ sudo apt-get remove openjdk-7-jre 2. Use $ wget http://www.java.net/download/jdk8/archive/b117/binaries/jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz to download JDK8 (this one is only for ARM chips) 3. Now use the followning commands for installing: $ sudo tar zxvf jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz –C /opt then $ sudo update-alternatives –install “/usr/bin/java” “java” “/opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java” 1 at last use $ java -version

Installing HWBOT Prime

1. To install HWBOT Prime you only need to download the .JAR with $ wget http://downloads.hwbot.org/hwbotprime.jar 2. Use $ java -jar hwbotprime.jar to run the benchmarks on the default specs.

Installing OpenArena

1. Run the following commands to install OpenArena: $ sudo apt-get install openarena then use $ wget http://www.berryterminal.com/dl/ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb and at last use $ sudo dpkg -i ./ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb 2. Now use $ sudo apt-get clean to remove the leftovers

Step 3: Overclocking

To overclock the Raspberry Pi you only need to change the config.txt. You can do this with your pc (the file is on the SD card) or with the command line Editing the Config.txt with the command line

1. Go to the config.txt with this command: $ sudo nano /boot/config.txt 2. You will see a lot of options but you can skip the most of them, here is a list with the important options and there explannation: frequency overclocking arm_freq – ARM frequency, default = 700MHz gpu_freq – GPU frequency, default = 250MHz dram_freq – SDRAM frequency, default = 500MHz core_freq – GPU core frequency, has an impact on ARM performance since it drives L2 cache h264_freq – frequency of the hardware video block isp_freq – frequency of the image sensor pipeline block v3d_freq – frequency of the 3D block Voltage overclocking (!) The voltages can't be chosen individually, they will al be set to the lowest voltage (!) (!) The minium is -16 the maxium 8, every step is 0.025 volt. The default is 0, with 1.2 volt (!) over_voltage – ARM and GPU core voltage adjustment, default over_voltage_sdram – sets all other SDRAM voltages together over_voltage_sdram_c – SDRAM controller voltage adjustment over_voltage_sdram_i – SDRAM I/O voltage adjustment over_voltage_sdram_p – SDRAM phy voltage adjustment 3. You can use your mouse and keyboard to change the values 4. Exit with Esc and reboot your Raspberry Pi

Editing the Config.txt with your pc

1. Turn off your Raspberry Pi (unplug the power) and take your SD card 2. Insert your SD card into your computer and go to the folder Boot 3. Open the config.txt with your preferred text editor 4. You will see a lot of options but you can skip the most of them, here is a list with the important options and there explannation:
frequency overclocking arm_freq – ARM frequency, default = 700MHz gpu_freq – GPU frequency, default = 250MHz dram_freq – SDRAM frequency, default = 500MHz core_freq – GPU core frequency, has an impact on ARM performance since it drives L2 cache h264_freq – frequency of the hardware video block isp_freq – frequency of the image sensor pipeline block v3d_freq – frequency of the 3D block Voltage overclocking (!) The voltages can't be chosen individually, they will al be set to the lowest voltage (!) (!) The minium is -16 the maxium 8, every step is 0.025 volt. The default is 0, with 1.2 volt (!) over_voltage – ARM and GPU core voltage adjustment, default over_voltage_sdram – sets all other SDRAM voltages together over_voltage_sdram_c – SDRAM controller voltage adjustment over_voltage_sdram_i – SDRAM I/O voltage adjustment over_voltage_sdram_p – SDRAM phy voltage adjustment 5. Now edit the values and reinsert your SD card to your Raspberry Pi

For more detail: Overclocking a Raspberry Pi


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer with a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan University. I have written for various industries, mainly home automation and engineering. My writing style is clear and simple, and I am skilled in using infographics and diagrams. I am a great researcher and am able to present information in a well-organized and logical manner.

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