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Help me OC my 2600K

11K views 105 replies 16 participants last post by  F1ynn 
#1 ·
So, first of all I want to say that I successfully overclocked my 2600K to 4.8GHZ running on an average of 1.415-1.42v just a couple days ago. Tested beautifully in Prime95 for 12 hours with no problems. I got curious, and wanted to see if I could get it up to 5GHz this morning without any luck so far, BSOD every time at around an hour in Prime95. The last voltage I tried was 1.465 volts with it BSODing in Prime95 after a little over an hour.

Is it even safe to continue this journey? (My OCD inside me is begging it is)
What's the maximum safe cpu voltage I should use with speed step enabled?

I plan to do an Offset overclock so it doesn't stay at that voltage 24/7 after I figured out what voltage it became stable at, i'm just afraid to go too high with it.

My specs:

i7 2600K
ASUS Maximus Extreme P67
H100 CPU cooler
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 16GB @ 1600MHz (1.65v) 7-9-8-24
Corsair AX1200 PSU
EVGA GTX 570
Corsair Obsidian 800D
 
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#3 ·
If you're not going to run it 24/7 i would do it (my opinion ofcourse)

I tried it with my Venomous-X cooler and it was fun to do. Tough i needed to put it on 1.52 vcore and it still failed within an hour of testing. 1.52 is alot tough and i wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
 
#4 ·
Do it.

I've been running 1.48v for quite some time without problems.

With the h100 however I was getting 85c-87c in Prime95 so I returned it and reinstalled my Trusty D-14 (80-82c), seems to handle high voltage better on my chip. Make sure to drop CPU PLL to about 1.7v (+/- 0.5v) as in SOME cases this makes for lower vcore required for stability and/or slightly cooler temps. My 2500k likes 1.6v CPU PLL and allows me to run vcore 1.476v as opposed to 1.488v.

With the H100 U can optimize it for better temps, have it suck air from outside the case and the fans in push mode (there was a review showing 3c difference in push vs pull). Don't worry about having too much positive pressure, just run that during the stress test as everyday temps will be rouughly 15c to 20c lower so u can switch back after. Just keep temps as low as possible during prime95 cause heat + high volts degrades your CPU much faster. I should know, my GF turned on my PC for 5 minutes without a heatsink (she didn't know) as I used to be 5Ghz stable with 1.45v for 8 months, and after the INCIDENT I need 1.48v. LOL Prime95 blend goes to 82c for me, everyday temps 65c during long gaming sessions.

I have an h100 I got the other day running off an external power supply back at home, trying to see if the pump noise goes away before I install it in any system. Gonna try the diode to reduce pump voltage tonight. I've tried 3x h100's so far and returned them all the next day for pump grinding noise, all bought months apart so it's definitely not the same batch.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sloppyjoe123 View Post

I would be surprised if the H100 was able to keep it at those voltages. What are ur temps?
My Ven-X managed to cool upto 1.5vcore (It was running hot but still manageable) so i don't see why his H100 wouldn't be able to.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sloppyjoe123 View Post

I would be surprised if the H100 was able to keep it at those voltages. What are ur temps?
My highest core hit a max of 78c.

Core0 average - 67/68c max - 70c
Core1 average - 72/73c max - 75c
Core2 average - 75/76 max - 78c
Core3 average - 72/73 max - 75c

Those were the temps right before my last attempt at 1.465v a little over an hour in Prime95 before the BSOD.
I plan to get a front bay fan mod today for a 120mm to mount on the front, so that will drop my temps at least a few degrees I hope.

EDIT: I will be gaming almost 100% of the time on this rig, is this going to shoot the voltage up to max anyways?

@Scorpion667, I have my H100 in push/pull on the top of my 800D exhausting air out because I wasn't sure if dumping all that hot air onto my GPU was safe having the rad intaking the air into the case. My rad on top is the only exhaust.
 
#7 ·
I see you are running 16gigs of ram, IF that is 4 sticks it might hold back your overclock. If you run out of options remove 2 sticks as it's a much lighter load on the internal memory controller which gets stressed in prime95 blend.

I couldn't get 5Ghz stable with 4 sticks even with 1.15v on the IMC
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpion667 View Post

I see you are running 16gigs of ram, IF that is 4 sticks it might hold back your overclock. If you run out of options remove 2 sticks as it's a much lighter load on the internal memory controller which gets stressed in prime95 blend.
I couldn't get 5Ghz stable with 4 sticks even with 1.15v on the IMC
Yes it is 4 sticks, I was told it would help with FRAPS recording at 1080P to have 16GB of RAM. (New to PC building and overclocking as you can tell.)
Also, I have my H100 exhausting air out of my case instead of intake because I was afraid that would just dump hot air all over my GTX570. Would it be safe to reverse the config and have my GPU safe? The only exhaust that would be on my rig is the 120mm in the back of the case... not sure if this is a safe idea as all the others would be intake.
 
#9 ·
Oh, Fraps doesn't need a lot of ram I record 1080 @ 90FPS smoothly and i only have 4 gigs of ram you just need a secondary HDD. It will record choppy if you are trying to record on the same HDD that your os is on. For SSD however you can record Fraps on the same OS drive no problem. I suspect it's the 4 sticks that is holding you back, if you run out of options take out sticks 1 and 3, to retain dual channel.

As far as the h100 placement I meant to run that config temporarily IF you need en extra cooling boost during prime95 to keep temps under 85c. You could switch back after. It's not optimal for 24/7 as you will have warm air blowing in however because it's pushing fresh air from outside the case into the rad, CPU temps will imrpove for the duration of the stress test.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpion667 View Post

Oh, Fraps doesn't need a lot of ram I record 1080 @ 90FPS smoothly and i only have 4 gigs of ram you just need a secondary HDD. It will record choppy if you are trying to record on the same HDD that your os is on. For SSD however you can record Fraps on the same OS drive no problem. I suspect it's the 4 sticks that is holding you back, if you run out of options take out sticks 1 and 3, to retain dual channel.
As far as the h100 placement I meant to run that config temporarily IF you need en extra cooling boost during prime95 to keep temps under 85c. You could switch back after. It's not optimal for 24/7 as you will have warm air blowing in however because it's pushing fresh air from outside the case into the rad, CPU temps will imrpove for the duration of the stress test.
Oh, lovely... so the extra set of RAM was pretty much a waste of 70 bucks then I guess. Oh well, live and you learn.
As for the H100, I kinda figured that. My temps weren't terrible in prime95 ( highest core hit 78c after a little over an hour at 1.465v) but i'm adding a fan mod for a 120mm to mount in my front 3 drive bay slots to drop temps more.

Do you by any chance do gaming? I'd like to know if gaming pretty much all the time on my rig would make the voltage shoot to max even with an offset overclock? I know it pretty much depends on the game, but would I be seeing max voltages on a game say like Crysis 2?

EDIT: All I will be doing on my rig is gaming and recording, so if I see max voltages gaming all the time its pretty much a make or break for the 5GHz. I already tried 1.465 with BSOD, and voltage that high gaming all the time probably isn't good. Gunna have to shoot for a higher voltage than that to keep it stable.
 
#11 ·
Yeah I game in my spare time.
You can find out how high your voltage jumps in game using a program called HWmonitor. It will display the Min Max and Current voltage your CPU is/was at. Start that program before your game, play a few rounds than alt tab and check it
wink.gif


I don't believe you will see max voltage in Crysis 2. I take it you are using LLC (Load Line Calibration), correct? My CPU temps in that game are about 67c with 1.48v under my air cooler which has similar performance with yours.

Given I wouldn't recommend running CPU Voltage past 1.45v, you won't see much performance increase going from 4.8 to 5ghz.
 
#12 ·
Yes, my LLC is set to Ultra (75%). Would you think removing a set of RAM from my mobo lower the voltage needed to run the 5ghz stable? I mean, it ran strong in Prime95 for an hour at 1.465, then out of nowhere a BSOD. Is there any way to lower the voltage for stability? I know it wasnt the temps that made it BSOD, they never even hit 80c.
 
#14 ·
your temps at max are a little uncomfortable but its nothing to stress to much over. If mine hit 81c i start over.
I have an H100 with 4 ultra kaze fans, the temps at max reach 68c

i got mine stable at 1.44v
it could be that your ram isnt getting enough power.. but running prime95 that long then a crash sounds like it could be a power instability from your PSU
what is your PSU?
 
#15 ·
I apologize for all these questions, you've been a big help so far and I appreciate it.
Just one last question, do you know of any possible voltages or settings I could lower to see a stable 2600K at a lower cpu voltage @ the 5ghz I want? Yeah, I know i'm really pushing for this stable 5ghz thing but my OCD is screaming for me to make this work haha. Seeing as im going to be gaming pretty much all of the time, the voltages will be high as is, i'd like to have any little shortcut or trick or anything of that nature to have the lowest possible stable voltage for the cpu. If not, i'll try removing a set of ram but that's honestly the last thing I want to do cause I pretty much already wasted 70 bucks on it, might as well be in my rig looking pretty.

EDIT: @ F1ynn yes I have a push/pull config for my H100 on the top for my 800D, exhausting the air out of my case.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moridin View Post

I apologize for all these questions, you've been a big help so far and I appreciate it.
Just one last question, do you know of any possible voltages or settings I could lower to see a stable 2600K at a lower cpu voltage @ the 5ghz I want? Yeah, I know i'm really pushing for this stable 5ghz thing but my OCD is screaming for me to make this work haha. Seeing as im going to be gaming pretty much all of the time, the voltages will be high as is, i'd like to have any little shortcut or trick or anything of that nature to have the lowest possible stable voltage for the cpu. If not, i'll try removing a set of ram but that's honestly the last thing I want to do cause I pretty much already wasted 70 bucks on it, might as well be in my rig looking pretty.
EDIT: @ F1ynn yes I have a push/pull config for my H100 on the top for my 800D, exhausting the air out of my case.
What are the BSOD's you get when it fails right now?
Could be you need to change the PLL Voltage and VCCIO. Also are you using Offset voltage or Manual voltage?
 
#17 ·
Hmm there's not really any shortcuts just small things that may or may not help.

You could try lowering CPU PLL to 1.7v and/or raiding VCCIO to 1.1v or 1.13v. Your memory controller is working hard to work with 4 sticks of RAM, VCCIO may help it a little bit.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuuut View Post

What are the BSOD's you get when it fails right now?
Could be you need to change the PLL Voltage and VCCIO. Also are you using Offset voltage or Manual voltage?
I'm using manual voltage for now. I was just trying to see what voltage the 5GHz became stable before changing to offset so I knew how much to add or subtract from it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpion667 View Post

Hmm there's not really any shortcuts just small things that may or may not help.
You could try lowering CPU PLL to 1.7v and/or raiding VCCIO to 1.1v or 1.13v. Your memory controller is working hard to work with 4 sticks of RAM, VCCIO may help it a little bit.
My VCCSA, VCCIO, CPU PLL, PCH, PCH PLL, and NF200 are all set at auto. My CPU PLL is at 1.806v apparently, and the VCCIO switches back and forth from 1.118 to 1.111 to 1.105.

VCCSA @ .939/.946v (switches between two)
PCH @ 1.058v/1.065v (switches between two)
PCH PLL @ 1.058/1.065v (switches between two)
NF200 @ .007v
 
#19 ·
Set VCCIo to 1.15v
CPU Pll to 1.7v

Rerun the stress test

If it fails try more voltage to the CPU while keeping temps below 85c.

If not, keep it at 4.9Ghz, and call it a day. You will never notice the difference between 5 and 4.9ghz in everyday usage. Never.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpion667 View Post

Set VCCIo to 1.15v
CPU Pll to 1.7v
Rerun the stress test
If it fails try more voltage to the CPU while keeping temps below 85c.
Is it safe to keep testing voltages and getting BSOD's and trying other voltages to test stability? It's happened to me like 5 times today, so i'm just wondering. Also, I thought anything over 80c was frowned upon in Prime? It's actually 85c?
Thanks again though man. Really appreciate all your help.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moridin View Post

EDIT: I will be gaming almost 100% of the time on this rig, is this going to shoot the voltage up to max anyways?
It will climb to max volts during 1-thread load if you have c3 and c6 states disabled only. If c3 and c6 is enabled, just run 1 thread of prime95 to see what volts you'll get in cpu-z. However, more than likely it'll crash when you try to do this. I don't see you getting that overclock stable using offset without disabling c3 and c6 because 1-thread loads will be unstable (you'll crash while gaming even though you're 12 hour prime stable)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moridin View Post

Yes it is 4 sticks, I was told it would help with FRAPS recording at 1080P to have 16GB of RAM
You just need a modern hard drive. The one in my sig records @ 1080p 60FPS with plenty of headroom. I partitioned the hard drive into 2 sections and record to the first partition to ensure the outside of the hard drive is always getting used for fraps and to also ensure that fragmentation never causes stuttering because I keep that partition empty.
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moridin View Post

Is it safe to keep testing voltages and getting BSOD's and trying other voltages to test stability? It's happened to me like 5 times today, so i'm just wondering. Also, I thought anything over 80c was frowned upon in Prime? It's actually 85c?
Thanks again though man. Really appreciate all your help.
You're Windows install can become corrupted after too many BSOD's i believe. I don't know how much that takes and i don't believe it will happen after just a few times. When i was overclocking i estimate i had somewhere around 20 BSOD's.

Anyways i would try and use manual voltage instead of offset it will be easier to get stable and i believe hambone (good overclocker here on OCN had a thread about it that it works better for OC'ing)

Also what BSOD code do you get when it fails? Its possible to get a indication of whats wrong with your OC for instance if you get a 101 its probably vcore but if you get a 124 it could either be VCCIO and/or PLL or in some cases a vcore issue.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuuut View Post

You're Windows install can become corrupted after too many BSOD's i believe. I don't know how much that takes and i don't believe it will happen after just a few times. When i was overclocking i estimate i had somewhere around 20 BSOD's.
Anyways i would try and use manual voltage instead of offset it will be easier to get stable and i believe hambone (good overclocker here on OCN had a thread about it that it works better for OC'ing)
Also what BSOD code do you get when it fails? Its possible to get a indication of whats wrong with your OC for instance if you get a 101 its probably vcore but if you get a 124 it could either be VCCIO and/or PLL or in some cases a vcore issue.
Doesn't manual voltage lessen the life of the cpu though at such a high voltage?

I'm not entirely sure what code I get, each time it happened I just panicked and ran for my reset button haha. I just hope to god it doesn't happen again when I lower my CPU PLL to 1.7v and set my VCCIO to 1.15v. If all else fails, I guess i'll try and remove a set of RAM from my mobo and see if it helps at all.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuuut View Post

You're Windows install can become corrupted after too many BSOD's i believe. I don't know how much that takes and i don't believe it will happen after just a few times. When i was overclocking i estimate i had somewhere around 20 BSOD's.
Anyways i would try and use manual voltage instead of offset it will be easier to get stable and i believe hambone (good overclocker here on OCN had a thread about it that it works better for OC'ing)
Also what BSOD code do you get when it fails? Its possible to get a indication of whats wrong with your OC for instance if you get a 101 its probably vcore but if you get a 124 it could either be VCCIO and/or PLL or in some cases a vcore issue.
code 124 could also occur during the idle bug, in which case C3 and C6 states need to be disabled to prevent reocurrance

I have heard of windows getting corrupted due to BSOD, I have never experienced it myself however and I have been overclocking since 2006.

Just got to overclock smart, if you try an overclock at a certain voltage and it BSOD's soon as it hits the desktop, you should raise voltage by a lot more than you would if it BSOD after 4-5 hours of prime95 blend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by XeroxMachine View Post

Running 4 sticks makes a DRASTIC increase in the difficulty of overclocking. Before i had 4 sticks i could do 5ghz @ 1.32v 24/7, now with 4 sticks it takes me 1.37v for 5ghz stable. Max safe is 1.55v.
1.you have an amazing chip! If you ever wanna get rid of it gimme a shout
wink.gif

2. Couldn't agree more 4 sticks make it much harder to OC as per my experience with every CHIP since first generation dual cores. But Sandy Bridge has been the most difficult to work with when running 4 sticks, I spent a long time tweaking to try and get it stable, it just wouldn't budge. And mind you I was only running ram at 1600Mhz, I can only imagine how much harder it would have been at 2133
 
#26 ·
I should have mentioned i'm running the first test in Prime95, not the blend one. Should I have been running this one instead of just the cpu stress one? Didn't think the ram would play such a huge part in this, but I guess I should go ahead and remove a set from my mobo and run a blend test?

EDIT: my CPU C3 and C6 reports are disabled as well.
 
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