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Overclocking 2500k... Temps?

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10 Jul 2010
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Just upgraded my old i3 2100 to a i5 2500k (good old Members Market!), and thought I would have a go at overclocking it.

Currently have it at 4.4Ghz using 1.28v in the bios, which seems to equate to 1.32v using AIDA (CPU-Z reports 1.054v and crashes Windows 8 so can't use it). Idle temps are roughly around 31 - 34 Celsius, Temps with 20 runs of Intel burn test on high made all cores peak at 73 - 75 Celsius, while gaming on Crysis 2 just now peaked at 61 - 63 Celsius.

Currently using a Thermaltake Frio, with some Xigmatek fans from an old case I had, and the fans are running on a 4 way fan controller taken from a broken Corsair 600T on lowest setting (not sure if this is bad or not?).

Anyway are my temps acceptable? I think with better fans they would be lower, is there any good heatsink fans that will beat/match the original Thermaltake Frio fans without sounding like a jet engine?! Also my case has minimal air intake from the front so this may also affect my temps negatively, but not much I can do about that. Unless the all in one water coolers would be a better option in this situation?
 
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You're not going to get massively more from the chip, maybe 4.6Ghz or thereabouts, your temperatures are acceptable as is, no need to spend more money imo :) Can't you put the fans on the motherboard so its controlled by temperature? So at idle they will be quiet and under load ramp up. There really aren't any fans that will drop your temps significantly lower whilst being quiet. I've got loads of Noctuas and Thermalright fans etc.. cost a bit and do a good job but none amazed me really. The biggest factor in cooling is the heatsink and case airflow.
 
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As far as I understand the only way the motherboard controls the fans by temperature is through the 4 pin CPU fan connector, you also need a PWM fan I believe too? I just have a couple of cheap looking 3 pin Xigmateks in push/pull on my Frio though and no splitter cable so only way to change their speed is to use a controller like I'm doing.

Gonna see if I can get 4.5/4.6 today on same voltage or with a small bump.

Also tried running IBT with fans on full, and max temps on the hottest core was 64 Celsius, but the system is annoyingly loud. Need to find some kind of medium really. :)

Also I think this is in the wrong section, if a mod sees this can they move it to overclocking & cooling please! Thanks. :D

EDIT: Bumped the multiplier up another notch to 4.5Ghz, and was fine in Intel Burn Test, same temps as 4.4Ghz with same voltage. I think I will leave it as is for now, and see how it is in games. Also just realised the annoying fan noise in my case is my graphics card, for some reason it's idling higher than it was before I redid all my fans/installed new CPU and whacking the fan up to compensate. Strange.... Doh!

EDIT 2: Re-did the paste on my GPU to bring temps down, and realised after the only reason it was idling high was because I had my TV plugged into the HDMI as well as my DVI from the monitor... All temps are fine now, still would like to find some more affective fans really though.
 
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