Do I have the best overclocking i5 2500k in history?

ibewok

n00b
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
43
Hey guys,

I just got my new system up and running and the Artic silver thermal paste starting to settle in, ohh yeah! Time to overclock!!

Just only changing voltage to 1.3v fixed and LLC spread 4, I am hitting 4.7ghz at mid 60 degrees. Am I doing something wrong, could CPUz / Coretemps / bios all be lying about volts? Is LLC too high? I'm scared and I want 5ghz badly, but I don't want to proceed unless I actually do have a super binned chip that can take a beating.

here my setup:
i5 2500k
Asrock Z77 Extreme4
Megahalem rev B push&pull (antec tri-cool set to medium)
Fractal R4 (3x140mm intake & 2x140mm exhaust)
other crap
ATI 4870
128 Crucial M4 SSD
kingston DDR3 1600 @1.65 (meh?)

Full disclosure, C1-C4 is still on and I intend to keep them for idle time, but priming for 20min and TEMPS are not passing 64c and CPUZ & CORETEMPS reporting still a stable 1.3vcore even with LLC on.
 
1.3v for 4.7ghz is nice OC. Looks good so far.
 
Does anyone know about LLC, what would be safe and where I can see the vdroop/spikes/increases? A few people have said LLC is dangerous because of spiking, and I never heard about that until recently.

If all is good, I'm going to try 4.8ghz - 4.9ghz with all the same setting and again run prime for 30min to do quick test stability.

Oh, I also backed down my ram to 1333 @1.5v, hopefully the Kingston hyperX are flexible and will undervolt/underclock nicely
 
I have the same board you do, paired with a de-lidded 3770K @ 4.8Ghz..I run my cpu @ 1.272V with LLC set to 1(Highest) without any "spiking" being shown in CPU-Z under the voltage section..

If you are only running Prime95 for 20 minutes at a time, then you are't anywhere near being able to say it is stable. I can run my 3770K @ 1.251V, and it will crunch through Prime95 (with AVX enabled) for 11 hours before 1 core fails, while the rest continue on. I had to go up to 1.272V to get all cores stable for a 24 hour run.
 
You should be more concerned about temps than voltage. You have a good chip if your frequency wall on air/water is 5.2 ghz. 5.0 ghz and below is fairly average.
 
Cityinstaller,

I'm with you dude, I don't want to go over 1.3v and get the most speed I can out of it as long as temps stay cool. I'm not really proclaiming stability yet, the 30min tests are preliminary examples to give my self the idea of range. However, for my purposes 24hr Prime tests are not my thing, it's more hardcore than is necessary for me. I might be doing some encoding that last 2hrs max, but other than that there no practical reason to test my PC for 24hours in my situation.

It is great to know some people have reached the holy 5ghz on the i5 close to stock voltages. I'm going to prime tonight starting at 4.5ghz @1.3v tonight for a couple hours and see how it goes. This is very impressive. No doubt I will have to keep an eye on temps with just "air power"

Wish me luck!
 
yea i would definitely be concerned with temperature at that rate. IMO there is such a thing as too much overclocking.
 
So I tested prime last night (2 hours of toture blend) for the first time at 4.5ghz @1.3 volts and nothing blew up!!! I also did some handbrake encoding for a couple hours before the prime and it was pings the whole time and worked fine. Tonight I will do a couple hours of Prime at 4.7ghz @1.3v to test stability. I have seen many threads of people using more than 1.4v to get 4.5ghz and I'm just happy to be in the upper thresholds of that.
 
My aim is to keep the temps under 75 degrees right for 24/7 use? I've heard lots of different opinions on max temps, but I haven't heard too many people keeping their chips toasting at 85c for 24/7 use. Anyone have a good read on the consensus for acceptable temperatures?
 
yea i would definitely be concerned with temperature at that rate. IMO there is such a thing as too much overclocking.

Bah, this isn't oftOCP, that is down the street:rolleyes:..

My aim is to keep the temps under 75 degrees right for 24/7 use? I've heard lots of different opinions on max temps, but I haven't heard too many people keeping their chips toasting at 85c for 24/7 use. Anyone have a good read on the consensus for acceptable temperatures?

75C on air is fine man. The cpu is designed to spend it's entire lifespan @ a temperature of up to 100C (i think TjMax for your chip is 103C) without an issue. Now, does that mean I would run the chip anywhere near that? Of course not...

Personally I feel anywhere below 80C for a 24/7 overclock is just fine, that is ~20-22% below your TjMax. IB cpus run much hotter then SB, even with my 3770K delidded and using a full custom water loop, with my GPU/CPU both running 100% for a 24hr run, I saw Core 4 (the hottest right next to the onboard gpu) get up to 83C for a split second..

To get your maximum possible temperatures, I recommend you do the following:

1. Go to start, run, and type "msconfig" without the quotes
2. Select the "Diagnostic Startup" option, and reboot after clicking ok.
3. Open RealTemp, and have it log your temperatures for later.
4. Open P95, set it to "Custom" using all your ram (ie, 4GB, 8GB etc), leave Max FFT size alone, and set it to run each test for 10 minutes.

I would personally run this for as long as possible, but if you don't wanna do a full 24hr, just set it to run before you go to bed, and it will run until you manually stop it. If you can go at least 8 hours, you *Should* be ok, but keep in mind what I mentioned before.

Report back here with your maximum temperature in the log, and how long you ran it for successfully.
 
ok, an update after running prime for an hour @4.7ghz and 1.3volts. My nice and cool temps got mid-70's on one core and high 60's on another which I think sounds kinda strange but I've seen that on older Quads before. The positive is that the chip isn't lacking voltage so there may be an opportunity to lower volts a little to save a little on the temp side.

So I'm going to try CityINstallers suggestion and run it for 2 hours and see how high temps go. But, overall I'm felling like I should either be lowering volts (to lower temps) or invest in a couple better fans for my case or Megahalems. Right now I'm using 2xAntec tri-cool set to medium push-pull.

Any future suggestions for sub 25db 120mm fans that rock?

Attached is some screenies
https://picasaweb.google.com/113010...&authkey=Gv1sRgCLGyjczX987CHQ&feat=directlink

<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="cen
 
Gentle Typhoons. Cougar fans also seem to be highly rated from a noise/performance perspective, as well as Corsair fans.
 
What memory do you have and what speed is it running at?


Got a 2500k today and it looks like it is Golden as well.

Memory at 2133mhz CL9. 2500k at [email protected]

http://valid.canardpc.com/2605939


Golden2500k.jpg
 
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I'm using 2x4gb kingston hyperx 1600cl9 1.65v memory. However, I'm running them underclocked 1333@ 1.5v because 1.65v is the max and 1333 doesn't seem to affect performance that much.

Nice OC, i think we have i5 twins seperated at birth. What would benefit in real world from faster ram speeds? Maybe adobe apps or cad software?

Btw-those temps are awesome for ibt, so far I'm impressed with everyone elses cooling
 
I'm using 2x4gb kingston hyperx 1600cl9 1.65v memory. However, I'm running them underclocked 1333@ 1.5v because 1.65v is the max and 1333 doesn't seem to affect performance that much.

Nice OC, i think we have i5 twins seperated at birth. What would benefit in real world from faster ram speeds? Maybe adobe apps or cad software?

Btw-those temps are awesome for ibt, so far I'm impressed with everyone elses cooling



Thanks. I have worked hard on getting my water cooling loop in order. Faster RAM will provide total system bandwidth for whatever task it has to do.
 
Just an update for this dead/dying thread, I upped my overclock to 4.8Ghz using the same voltage. Then I replaced my push/pull Antec Tricool 120mm fans (set to medium) with a single NOCTUA NF-P12 on full 1300rpm. The Temperature dropped to a max of about 77 degrees as opposed to my 82 degrees!! Very happy right now, however it's still winter here so we will see how it handles summer. I also replaced my ATI 4870 (very hot) with a brand new ATI 7850 which is helping lower my case temps slightly, about 2 degrees.

Here's a screenie showing prime running for nearly 2 hours.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...2/4.8ghz%20sandy%20bridge%20with%20noctua.jpg
 
Just an update for this dead/dying thread, I upped my overclock to 4.8Ghz using the same voltage. Then I replaced my push/pull Antec Tricool 120mm fans (set to medium) with a single NOCTUA NF-P12 on full 1300rpm. The Temperature dropped to a max of about 77 degrees as opposed to my 82 degrees!! Very happy right now, however it's still winter here so we will see how it handles summer. I also replaced my ATI 4870 (very hot) with a brand new ATI 7850 which is helping lower my case temps slightly, about 2 degrees.

Here's a screenie showing prime running for nearly 2 hours.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...2/4.8ghz%20sandy%20bridge%20with%20noctua.jpg


Nice clocks and great card. Good job.
 
Thanks for all the encouraging words everyone! I did some more tinkering after feeling all warm and fuzzy from upgrading some cooling on my heatsink, and I went out all the way... the "HARD" way!! I upped my OC to 5.0Ghz (almost put a GT 5.0 sticker on my case) and finally starting hitting some blue screens at 1.32v, I was able to boot at this voltage but almost immediate BSOD. I then tried 1.35v and was able to boot no problem, but after opening yahoo on firefox, I got the blue demon again (BSOD). And with with The Eagles playing "Take it to the limit" in the background and a 140mm fan blowing up my nose, I upped the voltage to 1.4v (1.39v reported) and watched the magic. The computer was finally happy and getting pretty hot as well. I ran prime for 25min to test for stability and saw one core shoot up to 93c, and pulled back the reins. It was glorious, but I packed up my epeen, tucked in my shirt and settled at 4.8Ghz @ 1.32v When they invent cheap freon cooling I might try for 5.5Ghz, but for now I can't justify the extra $100 bucks for an H100 that might get me an extra 0.2Ghz.



I will post some pics tonight; make the fine members of HardForums proud!!
 



Looks like you have a very high quality 2500k but you shouldn't run it that fast with those high temps.

I would look into cooling upgrades if you want to run it that fast.

What TIM do you use?


You can us fujifilm contact pressure paper to see if you have a good contact on your mount. If you don't have a good mount you can correct the top of your IHS or your block by lapping it to get nice flaht total even contact.

Also alot of people have had good results with CL Liquid PRo or CL Liquid Ultra.
 
I'm using artic silver TIM, I think it's artic silver 7. When I run it at 1.32v and 4.8Ghz it tops out at 77c and I don't really like to run an OC that would put me much past 80c. I thought about lapping before, but since I've never done it, I'm a little reluctant. I wouldn't be scared to lap the megahalems at all, but taking sandpaper to a cpu sounds out right terrifying!!

I know my old Q6600 was concaved after replacing the heatsink several times on it, I outter TIM on the cpu was always dry and crusty.
 
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