Safe voltage for i7-2600k?

M

meyerkev

Limp Gawd
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Jul 8, 2010
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So I'm OC'ing my 2600k, and I'm wondering how far I can tweak the voltage up before I start doing damage and hitting high temps.

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V pro.
CPU: i7-2600k
Cooler: Cooler Master hyper 212 in push-pull config.

Currently, I have it at 4.3 GHz at 1.290V (stable over 10 hours of Intel Burn Test, very high RAM, auto threads). Idle temps seem to be ~37C. Load temps w/o video card are ~65C, w/ video cards running Furmark are ~75C.

/Also, what are high temps for desktop processors? My MBP regularly breaks 100C, but I have a feeling that's a bad idea for a desktop processor.
 
Personally, I wouldn't go above 1.4v, but I've seen many people reach up to 1.4v with 5ghz overclocks on watercooling, and some even on air. It really depends though.

I'd say anything past 90c on a CPU is bad. Before that, it can be really up to preference I guess, I don't feel comfortable past 70c personally but I wouldn't be worried until 90c+
 
1.29 is fine for 24/7 use. And something in the 70s is probably the comfortable max temp.
 
I am currently at 4.8Ghz 1.39v, I think mine cannot reach 5Ghz at 1.40v, must go higher... sigh, anyways, 1.29v is very safe, don't worry. ASUS suggest in the BIOS that you shouldn't go pass 1.40v.
 
So ive actually been researching this same subject alot Temp wise anything up to 90c (core temp not tcase) is ok for stress testing but try to keep it under 85 for normal everyday use and as always the lower the better.

Voltage wise theres alot of debate the intel white sheet says 1.52 v is the max safe voltage but doesn't say if thats with or without vdroop (most likely with I.E no LLC), some custom pc manfacture said to keep it under 1.35 but they are probably being a little overcautious because they want to reduce RMA's

According to a post made by the asus rep here 1.42 with 75% LLC is perfectly safe as a 24/7 voltage assuming you are keeping temps in check and will give you the best ratio of temps to performance. this post was made in a huge and very informative thread by the same asus employee who said that asus has tested and binned thousands of SB cpu and that he believes 1.4 ish is saef and will give you as much oc head room as you can get with out having to go overboard. this same post also revealed that only about 10% of SB cpu's can do 4.8 stable and only about 2% can do 5.0 and even then the majority of the chips that can do 5.0 need 1.5+ volts to do it so long story short keep it around 1.4 tops and if you can do 4.8 you are actually pretty lucky and even if you can get 5.0 it probably not worth the extra voltage especially considering your only geting a 4% performance increase out of it.
 
kinjo said:
Voltage wise theres alot of debate the intel white sheet says 1.52 v is the max safe voltage but doesn't say if thats with or without vdroop (most likely with I.E no LLC), some custom pc manfacture said to keep it under 1.35 but they are probably being a little overcautious because they want to reduce RMA's
Click to expand...

Pretty sure that white paper only says that 1.52V is the highest voltage they have a value for in the table for CPU requested voltages. At least, if it's the same white paper.
 
Umm I have ran 1.56 and it was cool. I have water.

If you have to ask what the safe voltage is, all you are going to get around here is a bunch of people who:

1: Dont know crap and are just regurgitating what they heard but never tried.

or

2. People are wussies and are afraid to do anything because of reason 1.

Just sayin'

p.s. No one specific on this thread of course :p (Just a general expectation for the OP of these internet forums)

The white paper which I have posted many many moons ago ----- http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578688&highlight=Intel+Max+Voltage

Do state 1.52. So if there is some need to debate this I am wondering why and with what reason is for debate?
 
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tangoseal said:
Umm I have ran 1.56 and it was cool. I have water.

If you have to ask what the safe voltage is, all you are going to get around here is a bunch of people who:

1: Dont know crap and are just regurgitating what they heard but never tried.

or

2. People are wussies and are afraid to do anything because of reason 1.

Just sayin'

p.s. No one specific on this thread of course :p (Just a general expectation for the OP of these internet forums)

The white paper which I have posted many many moons ago ----- http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578688&highlight=Intel+Max+Voltage

Do state 1.52. So if there is some need to debate this I am wondering why and with what reason is for debate?
Click to expand...

Not good advice.^

Many moons ago? You've only been here 9 months.
 
Also Tangoseal you have to remember even intel doesn't really know the long term effect of higher voltages on these chips. You may be cool at 1.56 now but 6months from now you might start getting random BSOD's and other system instability. Now if you are the kind of person that upgrades frequently thats not a big deal but for all we know the OP intends to keep his 2600k for the next 5 years and needs it to last.

not saying your wrong just saying you may have a different definition of safe, to some people in this situation safe = won't fry my chip when I turn on my pc whereas to others safe = safe to run at 24/7 365 untill my chip is so outdated that they have smartphones that are faster.
 
kinjo said:
Also Tangoseal you have to remember even intel doesn't really know the long term effect of higher voltages on these chips. You may be cool at 1.56 now but 6months from now you might start getting random BSOD's and other system instability. Now if you are the kind of person that upgrades frequently thats not a big deal but for all we know the OP intends to keep his 2600k for the next 5 years and needs it to last.

not saying your wrong just saying you may have a different definition of safe, to some people in this situation safe = won't fry my chip when I turn on my pc whereas to others safe = safe to run at 24/7 365 untill my chip is so outdated that they have smartphones that are faster.
Click to expand...

The plan at the moment is to ride this until my father's aging P4 desktop breaks, sell it (and everything else other than the Hard Drives and video cards) for cheap to my father to largely pay for my Ivy Bridge/Haswell/comparable AMD upgrade, and then have him use it until it explodes in his face. For obvious reasons, I'd prefer that time to be as long as possible.
 
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