i5 7600k Overclocking... with a noob!

Hi guys! I've overclocked my CPUs before, but never messed with voltage in the past. When Kaby came out, and I heard people were hitting the magical 5GHz number, I decided I wanted that.

So, one custom watercooling loop and a delid/relid with CoolLabs Liquid Ultra later, I'm following the instructions on this thread:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1621347/kaby-lake-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

Last night's looped test of X264 passed with the following settings:

Core ratio: 50
Vcore: 1.35 fixed
Max core/package temp: 70c

I feel like that's good, but I don't have the experience to know for sure. This was my first test, so my next step is to begin dropping the voltage and see how low I can go; I'll update the thread with those results through the week.

How's my starting point though? Does that temperature look good for that voltage?

Seems a little high considering a custom loop and delid, but still way below any cause for concern. I think you're good to go.

silent-circuit said:

Seems a little high considering a custom loop and delid, but still way below any cause for concern. I think you're good to go.

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Yeah, I felt the same way, but... I don't know what's "normal." I gamed with this setting for a while last night (gaming being this machine's primary purpose) and never saw it over 45 or so, so I'm not too worried about 70 being the max over an 8-hour stress test. Still tho... ah well. Maybe I can bring it down a few degrees with a lower voltage. 1.35v was only my first stab at it, after all.

I would tend to agree that it does seem just a tad high, but like silent-circut said, really far from causing any real concern. What size rad id you opt to go with?

Congrats on 5GHz btw!

For reference, my 4960k @ 4.6GHz w/ a H115i tops out at 65* during stress testing, no delid, in my Cosmos SE case (a bit cramped in there). 45 is great for gaming sessions though, that's pretty much in line with mine.

AlphaQup said:

I would tend to agree that it does seem just a tad high, but like silent-circut said, really far from causing any real concern. What size rad id you opt to go with?

Congrats on 5GHz btw!

For reference, my 4960k @ 4.6GHz w/ a H115i tops out at 65* during stress testing, no delid, in my Cosmos SE case (a bit cramped in there). 45 is great for gaming sessions though, that's pretty much in line with mine.

Click to expand...

My case has a total of 3 140mm rad (2x1 and 1x1), but after I've been running it for quite some time, the air out of the rads is still quite cool. I think I've got enough capacity there.

Of curiosity, what voltage is that 4960k running at? I've applied my cache overclock and XMP settings, and am incrementally dropping my Vcore to find the minimum stable voltage. The current test it's running is 1.32v, but I won't know if it's passed for another few hours.

I'm so happy about 5GHz. There's magic in that number for some reason. I'm beginning to wonder, given that I've already successfully come down .02v, if I didn't have a bit more headroom for another multiplier step, but I'll be happy running 5GHz cooler than 5.1 or 5.2.

Just a suggestion from my side – use adaptive voltage (look it up). I previously (3770k) used offset voltage (harder to achieve stability) and now with kaby lake you can just set adaptive voltage (1.35V as an example) and that is going to be your voltage at clock speed above stock while still using "default" chip voltage table for the rest of frequencies (0-4.5 Ghz). By the way mine 7600k at 5 Ghz goes up to 80 C (with avx2 instructions, without those only up to ~74 with X264 loop @1.32V) with excellet mount and 3x 360mm, 2x140mm and 1x200 rads (1-2 C water delta, ~23 C ambient).

Pabaisa said:

Just a suggestion from my side – use adaptive voltage (look it up). I previously (3770k) used offset voltage (harder to achieve stability) and now with kaby lake you can just set adaptive voltage (1.35V as an example) and that is going to be your voltage at clock speed above stock while still using "default" chip voltage table for the rest of frequencies (0-4.5 Ghz). By the way mine 7600k at 5 Ghz goes up to 80 C (with avx2 instructions, without those only up to ~74 with X264 loop @1.32V) with excellet mount and 3x 360mm, 2x140mm and 1x200 rads (1-2 C water delta, ~23 C ambient).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, but my Z170 mobo only seems to have Auto, Fixed, and Offset voltage available to me.

1.32v is the lowest I was able to get my voltage without stability issues too, and my package max over a 4 hour test of x264 was 66c. Not tooo bad... I'd like cooler for all the work I put into my custom loop, but I am sitting on a pretty awesome 5GHz. =D

VanGoghComplex said:

My case has a total of 3 140mm rad (2x1 and 1x1), but after I've been running it for quite some time, the air out of the rads is still quite cool. I think I've got enough capacity there.

Of curiosity, what voltage is that 4960k running at? I've applied my cache overclock and XMP settings, and am incrementally dropping my Vcore to find the minimum stable voltage. The current test it's running is 1.32v, but I won't know if it's passed for another few hours.

I'm so happy about 5GHz. There's magic in that number for some reason. I'm beginning to wonder, given that I've already successfully come down .02v, if I didn't have a bit more headroom for another multiplier step, but I'll be happy running 5GHz cooler than 5.1 or 5.2.

Click to expand...

I'd agree, plenty of capacity there.

Checked it last night and it looks like my volts are sitting at 1.25. Looks like I might have a bit more headroom then I originally thought, as long as temps stay in check I might try to bump it up a little bit more and see what she can get up to