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Sandy bridge overclocking

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Haswellbeast

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Feb 5, 2025
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I am about to get into the world of Sandy bridge and overclocking, my problem is that everyone has a different idea on safe voltage. In my mind at first, I thought, "oh, it is a 32nm part from about 2011, it should be like AMD FX and take voltage until power/temps are an issue..." --apparently not from what I have read so far online. I plan to run it with a good AIO, so temps probably will not be my issue. I am going to run it with an asus P8z77-v-lx (with some aftermarket VRM heatsinks). So, what are safe voltages that I can set on this platform for my overclocks, and/or, what is the best tool to monitor core voltage, and what of those voltages is safe?

Finally, if there are any other voltages that I should keep in mind to achieve higher clocks, or any other tuning that you recommend, let me know!
 
I ran my 2500k up to 1.45v at one point to hit 5Ghz when it was my primary system. That same motherboard (Asus P8Z68-V), now with a 2700k, can do 5.2Ghz at only 1.4v. So there is some luck involved. Using higher levels of LLC can sometimes allow for a lower core voltage.

2500k vs 2600k, both are quad-core CPUs, but the 2600k also has hyperthreading. Back in 2011 hyper-threading really didn't matter, so the 2500k was the easy recommendation. Fast-forward to today and those extra threads actually do come in handy now and increase multi-threaded performance quite a bit. I guess it just depends on what you are going to use it for. If you're putting Windows 7 on there and playing 10+ year old games then it probably won't matter. If you're putting Windows 11 on there and trying to use it as a modern computer, then it would absolutely help.
 
GotNoRice said:
I ran my 2500k up to 1.45v at one point to hit 5Ghz when it was my primary system. That same motherboard (Asus P8Z68-V), now with a 2700k, can do 5.2Ghz at only 1.4v. So there is some luck involved. Using higher levels of LLC can sometimes allow for a lower core voltage.

2500k vs 2600k, both are quad-core CPUs, but the 2600k also has hyperthreading. Back in 2011 hyper-threading really didn't matter, so the 2500k was the easy recommendation. Fast-forward to today and those extra threads actually do come in handy now and increase multi-threaded performance quite a bit. I guess it just depends on what you are going to use it for. If you're putting Windows 7 on there and playing 10+ year old games then it probably won't matter. If you're putting Windows 11 on there and trying to use it as a modern computer, then it would absolutely help.
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Well, I was more saying the difference in like voltages, because that's what I thought he implied.

I appreciate your point on personal experience. I am just plain worried about degradation, even with good temps. I understand how high temps and volts = degradation, but not vice versa, at least, with reasonable voltages (like not 1.8v lol)

And, are the 2700ks really that much better binned than the 2600k??
 
It will tell you when it is too much, keep going till you cant keep it cool. I doubt you will be able to cool much over 1.45v for all loads.
 
Haswellbeast said:
And, are the 2700ks really that much better binned than the 2600k??
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Probably not. Then again I was surprised that I was able to hit 5.2Ghz so easily. I found the 2700k on eBay for about $25 and that was low enough for me to justify upgrading the 2500k in my retro rig, since it's still fast enough that it also gets used as a spare rig for modern stuff on occasion.

When my 2500k was no longer my main computer, I dialed the clocks down to 4.8Ghz to keep temperatures down and that was stable at 1.375v. I ran it at that for most of the rest of the time the 2500k was in there. Even 1.4-1.45v probably won't give you degradation especially if it's not a 24/7 computer.
 
Haswellbeast said:
It's so weird, that 22nm.. my 4770k is average with 1.31ish to hit 4.6

It took 1.45 and 50c load temps to hit 4.8
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Its just the way it goes. I have had good and bad Intel silicon, just like AMD. My silicon probably came from close to the edge of the wafer.. the worstestest.
 
freeagentt said:
Its just the way it goes. I have had good and bad Intel silicon, just like AMD. My silicon probably came from close to the edge of the wafer.. the worstestest.
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For 22, that's actually typical though, it's just weird how processes work, 32nm had lots of headroom, but 22 just doesn't like going past like 4.2-4.4ghz (depending on luck)
 
Haswellbeast said:
For 22, that's actually typical though, it's just weird how processes work, 32nm had lots of headroom, but 22 just doesn't like going past like 4.2-4.4ghz (depending on luck)
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32nm was awesome. But so is 4nm..

22nm was good for me, it just didn't clock any different than 32nm other than needing less voltage for X clock. 22nm only gave me 100MHz peak over 32nm lol.
 
I had an Intel 2600K with a GTX580 all the way to a GTX1080 Ti. I only changed the voltage to 1.45V and got 5GHZ. No other setting changes.
 
I noticed in like 2016 when MS and Intel were rolling out mitigations, I lost about 100MHz off the top of my max OC, and lost pretty close to 10GFlops, maybe a bit more.. or less haha. Later I observed a microcode change that increased vcore all around the clock range. Not sure how it is to run now, its been about 5 years since the last time I gave it power.
 
What's the condition of the 2500K and 2600K? Were they heavily used? Were they overclocked already before? Or maybe lightly used with no overclock? I just want to say that cpus degrade over time. My 2700K which was originally overclocked to ~ 4.9 GHz degraded and I could only run it at stock in its last days. I retired it few months ago. It maintained the original overclock maybe for good 10 years. So if the sandy bridge cpus you are getting now were already overclocked for a very long time, you may not be able to achieve a good overclock with them.
 
sram said:
What's the condition of the 2500K and 2600K? Were they heavily used? Were they overclocked already before? Or maybe lightly used with no overclock? I just want to say that cpus degrade over time. My 2700K which was originally overclocked to ~ 4.9 GHz degraded and I could only run it at stock in its last days. I retired it few months ago. It maintained the original overclock maybe for good 10 years. So if the sandy bridge cpus you are getting now were already overclocked for a very long time, you may not be able to achieve a good overclock with them.
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I asked for both, and, for the 2500k, the guy said he didn't really get into it, and the eBay 2600k guy just said "no" when I asked. I think the odds are in my favor for the 2500k, but the 2600k I think is a toss up
 
I had a pretty good 2500K back in the day, it would hit 5.4 at similar voltages but I dont think it was fully IBT stable, just game stable.

IIRC 1.45v was pretty much the max youd need/want to run as a daily.
 

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Smoblikat said:
I had a pretty good 2500K back in the day, it would hit 5.4 at similar voltages but I dont think it was fully IBT stable, just game stable.

IIRC 1.45v was pretty much the max youd need/want to run as a daily.
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I'm planning on just 1.35, I don't want to destroy this old chip, so I'm hoping for prime/occt avx stable at 4.8ghz if I'm lucky.

Also, I want to try and use offset voltages so that, again, it clocks down and reduces the voltage and helps the chip last longer.
 
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