Where to now with my overclock

blackadderV · 27 Feb 2012 at 19:28

This is my new build I put together last week. Parts with an * I kept from my old build.

CPU: i5 2500k
Cooler: Coolermaster hyper evo 212
MB: Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance blue LP
GPU: GTX260 *
SSD: Corsair force 3 128
HDD: Seagate Barracude 500GB*
PSU: Corsair VX550W *
Case: Thermaltake Soprano *

I have never overclocked before but read a few guides and watched a few videos on youtube before I started.

I started overclocking this weekend and it hasn't gone that great so far. I had a nightmare moment when I accidentally turned off the fans and ran an IBT at "very high". The temps went white at 81 degrees within seconds and then it crashed but I sorted the fans out after that. Hopefully no damage was done.

After a while I was looking for 4.5GHZ at these settings:

vcore manual: 1.340
rest: auto
LLC: High
VRM freq: auto
Duty control: Extreme
Phase control: Extreme
CPU current cap: 100%
3 power saving settings and Asus EPU turned off
Turbo: on (because I want speedstep when finished)
Speedstep: off but will turn it on when OC is done.

When I did prime95 I was getting temperatures reaching 80 degrees after 20 minutes so I stopped the test. This happened again when I turned it down a little.

I flirted with voltages of 1.305-1.330 @4.5ghz and I got a fatal error in prime95 and also 2 blue screens, 1 which was a "clock interupt not received at secondary processor" I hope that is just because of the low voltage and not that I have hurt my processor?

Being pegged back I am trying out a 4ghz overclock with the same settings as above but a vcore of 1.250. After about 50 minutes on prime95 and with all tests passed so far my temperatures seem stuck around 58-61 degrees which is not so bad.

Assuming I pass this test (how long should I give it?) what should I aim for ghz/temp/voltage wise? Was I right to stop the 4.5ghz prime95 test at 80 degrees or was that normal?

I am not desperate for 4.5ghz as this is a gaming rig only but it would be nice to get higher than 4ghz as so many people say that 4.5 is easy with an i5 and a hyper 212. I do suspect that my air flow isn't the best though which probably costs me a few degrees.

All help appreciated.

slade · 28 Feb 2012 at 12:06

Hey BlackadderV, welcome to the forms.

I've just moved to intel from amd, like last weekend. I also have an i5 2500K @ 4.7, now with 1.36v + ASRock Ext4 Gen3. I'm not an expert on overclocking and I struggled over the weekend to get mine stable...

I didnt use prime, just IBT... but personally I find the best stability tests are games. Sure, I might do 10/20 runs IBT but then play games (BF3

) on-line. If I can play a couple of hours without a bsod I leave things alone. My temps running IBT hit about 70-78 but in games 60-70. I also have a fan throwing air through my open case as room temp hits 25+ easy! My ram is set XMP profile to 1.5v 1600Mhz which im told should help.

Most of the guys here with the 2500k can get 4.6. I guess its just a matter of perseverance. Hopefully this bump might bring in someone more knowledgeable to help you... good luck!

ps. Have a skip though the 'Z68 Extreme4 Gen3' forum in the 'Motherboard' section! Different mobo but same idea.

Thermaltake · 28 Feb 2012 at 13:04

hi, again i am no expert myself but i found the following guide very helpful in getting to 4.7 with a temp of 68 with most stuff on Auto. I throttled back to 4.5 to keep temp under 60 at max load while i make adjustments to cooling to ensure i have a good safety margin on max temps and to see what i can actually get out of the chip. I will probably settle at 4.7 though with temps under 60 if i can get it to help prolong the life of the CPU and its performance.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110

I followed the section on manual overclocking at 4.7 or below with all the other settings as explained.

Rusty0611 · 28 Feb 2012 at 13:47

Those temperatures do seem a little high for the voltage. I have a similar vcore as what you have and the same multiplier setting and I only get to 70c if the radiator is turned on in the room. I don't have an advanced cooling setup by any means either.

Did you seat the CPU yourself, i.e. applying the thermal paste? How hot is your room?

Do you have cold air coming in from the front and hot air coming out the back or something similar? If your cables are messy it can impede the cooling ability of the CPU heatsink and fan. Not by a HUGE amount but it is definitely noticeable.

Some things there to think about.

blackadderV · 28 Feb 2012 at 18:00

Thanks for the replies, it is good to know you have all managed to succeed in your overclock.

I did seat the cpu and heatsink myself. I used way too much thermal paste at first but scrapped most of it off and what remained was as close to the "pea size" recommendation as I could get. It is seated very firmly as well.

My case has a fan blowing air in (I keep the case door shut which doesn't help but that is how I want it) and also any air coming in that way probably gets blocked in by my massive gpu (only 2-3mm from the start of the HDD bay) and the thick wires in between the hard drives. I have a 1 fan push 212 pushing the air towards a 120mm fan expelling the hot air and there is another 120mm fan blowing out hot air directly above the top of the heatsink.

In the last 24 hours I have been getting lower clocks at lower temperatures and I just passed a 10 run IBT on high settings at 4.4 ghz with 1.290vcore. The max temperature was 77 degrees with the average high at 75 degrees. I am going to put it on 5 hours of prime95 now and see how it holds/temps. I am expecting lower temps though as apparently IBT is harsher on the cpu.

It seems weird that I can pass an IBT at 4.4ghz at 1.290 yet I am required to jump over 1.330v to pass it on 4.5ghz. I read many times that each chip is different so maybe mine is trying to tell me something. I am not sure whether the extra 100mhz is worth the extra heat and voltage, I will see how the prime95 test goes.

Thermaltake: Do you have the energy saving settings on (C1E, etc) as all the guides I read for that board suggest to have it off. Does having them on lower the voltage when speedstep kicks it down to 1600ghz? It does seem a waste to be so high on such low speeds.

Update: It passed 4.4@ 1.290 on IBT but failed within a minute on prime95. I have now upped the voltage to 1.3v and have so far gone 45 minutes without any errors. Temperatures are moving around the late 60's early 70's.

Thermaltake · 29 Feb 2012 at 08:52

blackadderV said:
Thermaltake: Do you have the energy saving settings on (C1E, etc) as all the guides I read for that board suggest to have it off. Does having them on lower the voltage when speedstep kicks it down to 1600ghz? It does seem a waste to be so high on such low speeds.

Update: It passed 4.4@ 1.290 on IBT but failed within a minute on prime95. I have now upped the voltage to 1.3v and have so far gone 45 minutes without any errors. Temperatures are moving around the late 60's early 70's.

Blackadder

I have all the C1E etc on enabled which is ok upto 4.7 after 4.7 i think it can help stability by disabling according to the linked guide. Yes it does kick it back down to 1600ghz ish, I used all the settings in the pics in the guide and followed the section on 4.7 or below. I have also read the same that disabling it provides stability but i have had problems getting it stable by manual voltage control and disabling C1E until i found this guide which has been very good for me so far.
Prime is the real test of whether its stable ive passed IBT before only to fail on prime after 20 minutes or so, if you get it stable on prime for a couple of hours its then bomb proof or has been for me.

blackadderV · 29 Feb 2012 at 23:04

I have put all the C state option back on now, as well as your advice I have read that if you have an ssd then having them off seriously hampers performance so I turned them off.

My current setting at 4.3ghz with 1.3v (really 1.28-1.288 with vdroop) has passed 10 runs of IBT at very high and 4 hours of prime95 on blend. Would you call that stable? My highest temps on prime were in the low 70s.

Thermaltake · 1 Mar 2012 at 16:04

Some people say to run prime overnight to be sure but ive not encounted any problems running for a couple of hours. I guess you have settled at 4.3 because of your temps? have you got the voltage on auto or set at 1.3?

They do seem a little high for what people have said your cooler will cope with and i also seem to have high temps on mine at 4.7 in the high 60s which for a water cooler i expected/hoped for lower. That said i have ordered some new thermal paste as the stuff i used on my new setup was about 4 years old so it may be having an effect because i get about 4 degree difference between hotest and coolest cores. If that doesnt work for me then i guess i have one of those chips that doesnt overlock too well without it getting hot.

blackadderV · 1 Mar 2012 at 17:31

Thermaltake said:
Some people say to run prime overnight to be sure but ive not encounted any problems running for a couple of hours. I guess you have settled at 4.3 because of your temps? have you got the voltage on auto or set at 1.3?

They do seem a little high for what people have said your cooler will cope with and i also seem to have high temps on mine at 4.7 in the high 60s which for a water cooler i expected/hoped for lower. That said i have ordered some new thermal paste as the stuff i used on my new setup was about 4 years old so it may be having an effect because i get about 4 degree difference between hotest and coolest cores. If that doesnt work for me then i guess i have one of those chips that doesnt overlock too well without it getting hot.

Yes it is the temperatures and I am bearing in mind that in summer the room will be even hotter. While [email protected] hit 73/74 at tops it spent most of it's time at 70-71 for cores 1 and 2 and 66/67 for cores 1 and 3 at the height of each pass.

I have the voltage manually set at 1.3 because when it is on auto the voltages go up to about 1.330 on load and as I only use my PC for gaming with everything else being done on my laptop I think that will probably save me money/heat as it is rarely idle when it is on.

I have read a lot of people to say to run it for 12 hours but I have done so much overclocking and testing this week I think I will trust this until I have reason to think I may need a closer look. It may not be the most thorough but both tests I did must be a fair indication.

Temps are high but I think that may just be my case/room. My Q6600 at stock 2.4ghz was always in the 60's using stock cooling when playing games so it isn't too much of a shock to see an i5 2500k @ 4.3 hitting 70 on the harshest stress tests with a 212. Like you I was expecting lower but I think this is what I have to accept.