Help getting the i7 3770K up to 5ghz.

If you get your 3770k to 5GHz stable, I will be very surprised. Most people settle on 4.5-4.6Ghz, and this is on high end air/water... because cooling really makes almost no difference with these processors after a certain point (outside of LN2, etc).

My 3770k was 12hr prime stable at 4.6GHz for 3 months, I ran it again today and it was crashing instantly and had temps that were ~10C hotter with the same ambient temps. I ended up having to go down to 4.5GHz, and i'm getting the same temps. I feel like the thermal paste under my CPU is breaking down or something. At 4.5GHz I require 1.22v now, and it still peaks up to 92C at times (99% of the time it's ~78C).

Only way you'd have a chance at 5GHz is removing the IHS and reapplying the thermal paste under it, which is dangerous and voids warranty. Also a good chance at damaging the processor. Keep in mind, unless your running Small FFT or letting blend run for over 15 minutes, you won't hit 8k FFT and you won't be seeing maximum temps until you do. I've seen very few people get even 4.7GHz stable on a 3770k with acceptable temps (under 90C).
Edited by Murlocke - 8/21/12 at 8:33am

If you look around you'll see that no matter what cooling you hook up to them, it really doesn't make a difference. You need something that actually cools the processor down and doesn't remove heat (like LN2). You will hit a time when the processor won't get colder no matter what you do on your setup. My Noctua D14 gets the exact same temps as my $400 triple fan radiator watercooling setup, many have reported the same results.

Are you running Prime95 27.7 Build 2 and allowing it to hit 8k FFTs? 15 minutes of blend is when it starts this... or you can do a custom test. These will be your hottest temps by a good 10-15C, so it's always good to check these before you start a blend run. If you are getting 75C in the first 15 minutes, you will likely see 90C+ later on. However, anything up to 90C is generally considered safe on these because game load will be much colder. You are probably at your limit though. It is normal to see a +/- 10C core difference on Ivys even on a good mount. This is because of the TIM under the IHS most likely.

You are already nearing the highest voltage I would go on a 22nm processor even if your temps are safe. If you want to live on the edge, 1.4v is the highest I would go and that's only because I feel you'll probably upgrade in the next 1-2 years. However as I said, I feel your using the wrong software to check temps/stability test, or something. The chances of you have a 3770k at 1.4v and still having temps like those goes against pretty much every review/owner post on this forum. So be careful, I assume something is up.

I bet that chip needs more voltage than safe to stabilize it at the speeds you want, there's usually a huge brick wall on them. If I was you i'd settle on 4.7GHz if you can get that stable. That is more than most get on them.
Edited by Murlocke - 8/22/12 at 9:55am

My 2 cents
I am on 4.6 Ghz. The max temp, core #1 is around 75 ~ 80. I use H-100 for cooling.Don't want to push beyond 80 deg.The Vcore is around 1.2 V
Instead I chose to run memory at 2000, Gskill 1866 sniper. Working on tighter timings
I believe it is somewhat pointless to run higher for normal gaming and everyday use given the constraint this processor has (22nm, smaller die,more heat)
Don't know if Windows 8 will help push to 4.7 or 4.8 Ghz. without significant increase in temps
Edited by Babdi - 8/23/12 at 4:42am

Well if you want to get 5ghz stable i wold sugest getting Asus Maximus v Extreme,
on that mainboard you can use multiplyer x47-47-48-49 on stock volt. iv been playing whit watercooling and mange to get 5ghz stable on 1.520v been doing benchmark and prime stable. when i first got to 5ghz my ram woldent follow i only got bsod after 15min prime. but then just give the cpu a +0.5v and it went stable i use the settup from day to day gaming. and no problems or damge to the cpu.
i hope some of this helps

here is the cpu-z lnik http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2544199