What would you do? 2500k overclocking

matt100

matt100

matt100

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I've got a gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P and i5 2500k under custom water.

I've had it up to 4.5ghz setting the vcore to 1.35 in the BIOS but that felt very high so I started seeing how far I could get it with a lower voltage.

I've got it running now at 4ghz with 1.25v and its burntest stable.

Just tried 4.2ghz and it BSOD'ed so I guess I'd need to up the voltage but I'm wondering whether for a bit of gaming and then general usage there's any point? Wouldn't I be better off running it at 4ghz with the lower voltage seeing as I can run it with the fans off and idling at 35c?
 
You can push the vcore up to 1.42 if you want (or even further):

***OVERCLOCKING GUIDELINES***

- Do not exceed 1.425v core voltage, doing so could limit lifespan of the CPU

You are on custom water so heat wont be an issue, it's up to you really though, i have 4.7Ghz @ 1.45 on mine
 
I'd say OC the hell out of it, since your on custom water your heat should be fine. You can't get cooler than a few degrees above ambient anyway so you may aswell OC to make a little past that threshold otherwise your custom water is a little wasted imo. I'd personally go for at least 1.42v since that is 'SAFE'. If you fancy going higher, i doubt that you'd really see any adverse effects of the higher voltage but it can certainly happen so obviously its up to you, if you like to play it safe then keep under 1.42v.
 
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Also remember other settings come into play when overclocking not just the vcore, but these options change board to board.

I'd be quite annoyed if you couldn't get to 4.6ghz under 1.4v with a 2500k, especially under custom water.
 
Similar situation here. I'm now at 4.4GHz for my current 24/7 clock, which runs at 1.27v under load, which idle-to-load spikes up to 1.304v.

If I want 4.5GHz, I need 1.32v, with idle-to-load spikes of up to 1.352v.

4.6GHz doesn't need much more than that, but for me it's just too big a voltage increase for too small a benefit. I'm almost certain I'd not be able to notice the difference between 4.6 and 4.4 in any game or app I use, but my PC would be consuming a fair bit more power, generating more heat, and (even if only slightly) running more risk of degrading the chip earlier.

Maybe I'm over-cautious, though? Perhaps I'd feel differently if I'd invested in a water cooling set-up.

Also thinking there's always scope to push to 4.6 or 4.7 with the extra volts should I ever decide my current set-up isn't quite fast enough...
 
I have the watercooling primarily for noise, its only 2 PA120.1 rads with the 2500k and a GTX480 in there so it's probably worse than a top end air cooler in that respect.

I might see how low I can get the vcore on 4.5ghz :)
 
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