Opinions on overclocking the I5-2500k

[A Webber]

Hi all , looking for opinions on mainly voltages for the I5-2500k , i have had my build for about 6 years now & up until recently have ran the standard Asus 4.20 GHz OC profile as really i haven't wanted to mess with my own custom overclocks but after 2 or 3 months of research i decided to give it a go , with mixed results , i recently achieved stable overclocks at 4.9 & 5.0 Ghz on my Titan Fenrir air cooler , things were a bit hot indeed (idle at around 50C & loaded at a whopping 85-96C !!) , so i decided to invest in the corsair h115 AIO this improved things excellently temps were down to around 40C idle & around 70C loaded , but something was still bothering me .........that voltage to get that 4.9 -5.0 GHz , i could only achieve it with a voltage of no less than 1.500 anything below that & it wouldn't get through an hour of prime 95 on large FFts , apparently intel states the max voltage at 1.52 , but this surely cant be the "safe" 24/7 operating voltage ? , so after a lot of research it appears that most will not go over 1.40V , so i have decided to go with a 4.70Ghz OC & i have managed to get the voltage down to 1.37V , temps are drastically lower my ambient temp is 21C tonight & the temps at idle are down to 35C & after a 2 hour run of prime 95 max load temps on large ffts is now only 63C , i would like to get the voltage a little lower but im at the limit now , things seem stable here at 1.37V , ill know more after at leased a 12 hour session of prime 95 , my main worry is the "degradation" factor at given voltages , i certainly feel a little more comfortable at 1.37V than 1.50V that's for sure , my good old I5-2500k is old now & i certainly don't want to push it to hard on the voltage & degrade its lifespan any more than necessary , i mainly use this rig for gaming & streaming , no video editing or any other processor intensive stuff , but some games i have do benefit from a bump in processor speed , i game at 1080P & i only aim for 60fps no higher , but in some games that extra processor bump of only 5 -15 fps can be the difference between locked 60FPS

Just looking for others opinions on this , Appreciate all advice & opinions

I5-2500K @ 4.70Ghz
Corsair H115i Aio CPU cooler
GTx-980 (OC core 1507 Mem 3578)
16GB 1666MHz Ram
Samsung 850 Evo 250G SSD
Seagate barracuda 4Tb 2700 rpm games drive
Corsair AX 1200 PSU
Coolermaster HAF-X case

 

[PieEater]

Not sure what you want an opinion on. You seem to have found an overclock that you are comfortable with at a voltage that is sufficiently under the safe maximum to not cause your CPU any damage.

When I bought my 2700k from OCUK the advice was not to exceed 1.425v which is what I need for my overclock of 4.7GHz, I have run it at this speed and voltage with decent cooling since I've had it and it's never skipped a beat and I don't expect that it will.

 

[A Webber]

Not sure what you want an opinion on. You seem to have found an overclock that you are comfortable with at a voltage that is sufficiently under the safe maximum to not cause your CPU any damage.

When I bought my 2700k from OCUK the advice was not to exceed 1.425v which is what I need for my overclock of 4.7GHz, I have run it at this speed and voltage with decent cooling since I've had it and it's never skipped a beat and I don't expect that it will.

Thanks for the reply , unfortunately it was not fully stable at 1.37V , for 3 hours it was but when i came down in the morning i has the usual BSOD caused by low voltage , im currently benching again with it at 1.39V , if i can get 12- 24 hours of prime 95 continuous ill be staying at 4.70GHz , , my main concern was voltage & degredation , there are so many opinions on where that "safe" voltage is , needless to say anything over 4.7GHz & my Chip wants serious voltages over 1.45V & after a lot of poking around the net 1.40V seems to be about the limit of where degradation might start

 

[Xein]

I think anything under 1.4V is a good overclock. I'm trying to push for 5Ghz atm (same CPU) at just under 1.4V and its stable but sometimes BSODs when running prime95. But if you can get a good 4.7Ghz clock I'd stick with that.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

i'm using stock volts. 1.3V or thereabouts. i'm on 4.4 GHZ.

i don't see the point of overclocking it any further tbh as that is a 0.7GHZ on stock volts. yes i could go higher but then i need to fiddle with voltages and I don't think i need any more CPU power tbh. the difference between 4.4Ghz and 4.7Ghz would be minimal I imagine.