[ChaoticLord]

I'm a complete scrub to overclocking. And I got a few questions.

Is there a guide for overclocking on a gigabyte board similar to mine using the same bios?

Does overclocking mean the CPU always runs at max clock rate whether its required or not? Or does it only use the overclock if its needed? For example, my CPU won't be idling at 4.5 ghz if I overclock it to that, right?

What should I realistically aim for with a cooler master hyper 212+ cooler? I was hoping to get at least 4.5ghz, will that be doable?

What is the minimum temp considered dangerous for an i5 2500k? I definitely don't want to burn up my CPU.

Edit:

CPU: i5 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68x UD4 B3
Ram: G skill 1600mhz, 8 MBs
PSU: Corsair 650w.
GPU: MSI 670

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

I'm a complete scrub to overclocking. And I got a few questions.

Is there a guide for overclocking on a gigabyte board similar to mine using the same bios?

I don't know, but I trust that someone else does.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

Does overclocking mean the CPU always runs at max clock rate whether its required or not? Or does it only use the overclock if its needed? For example, my CPU won't be idling at 4.5 ghz if I overclock it to that, right?

Only if you have C1E and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology disabled. With them enabled, the CPU is allowed to downclock even with the High Performance Windows power profile in use.

However, if the CPU is completely idling (that is, not even having CPU-Z open or any other kind of monitoring software), then most of the cores will be in the C6 "Deep Sleep" state which means those cores in C6 won't be using any power at all. They'll be fast asleep. So, it almost doesn't matter if the CPU downclocks if you have C6 enabled. I think that this goes for C3 too, except the CPU is still using power in the C3 state.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

What should I realistically aim for with a cooler master hyper 212+ cooler? I was hoping to get at least 4.5ghz, will that be doable?

Absolutely, fortunately! hehe

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

What is the minimum temp considered dangerous for an I5 2500k? I definitely don't want to burn up my CPU.

I will say 98°C because that's the Tj. Max. This means the CPU will throttle itself down in order to prevent the temperature from going any higher than this. If that fails for some reason (unlikely), then the CPU turns itself off at 140°C.

So as long as you keep your voltages away from like 1.4V, then you should have absolutely no risk of getting the CPU that hot (or even coming relatively close to it).

However, did you fill in the exposed gaps between the heatpipes with thermal paste before you did the normal thermal paste application?

 

[ChaoticLord]

I tried finding a thread, I see one for Asrock and Asus boards, but no gigabyte. I'm guessing few people use gigabyte?

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

I tried finding a thread, I see one for Asrock and Asus boards, but no gigabyte. I'm guessing few people use gigabyte?

Oh, don't worry: Gigabyte's good motherboards (like yours) are among the best!

 

[ChaoticLord]

I've been looking for a guide to OC an 15 2500k on a Gigabyte board. The other bios setups for other boards are different from mine, which leads to nothing but confusion when following a guide.

Is all I really need to do is increase the multiplier until I cant boot up, then increase the voltage a little? I'm scared of having to mess with ram timings. I've seen SCs of people running the 2500k at 4.5ghz, and it looks like they left the FSB alone at 100mhz and bumped the multiplier to x45?

Does that mean I can just bump it to x45, and keep increasing the voltage up until I can boot into windows then run prime 95?

Can someone tell me if I'm on the right track here, or are there other settings in the Bios I need to tweak? This is sorta why I need a gigabyte guide, so I know which settings I need to change, and where they are located.

 

[TwoCables]

Then maybe a guide isn't the answer. Perhaps this thread can be your guide.

 

[corxbeans]

Chaotic I have the gigabyte p67x and I over clocked mine at 4.2ghz at like around 1.27 and it is steady all.u need to do is put ur multiplier up to w.e. u desire 4.2-4.7 I recommend and then put the voltage up and run prime95 n see if u crash I ran 4.2 at 1.26 crashed so I uped the voltage .1 and its good just gotta take it slow n easy

 

[ChaoticLord]

1.26 is stock voltage according to what my bios says.

Do I need to enable turbo? I couldn't even find the part that says anything about enabling/disabling turbo, and I looked around for like 15 minutes in the bios menu.

I know where voltage and multiplier is at. What is a common voltage range for 4.5ghz? I'd rather just brute force this instead of taking a week doing it .01 at a time. I don't even care if I'm using a few notches too much on voltage as long as its stable.

My rig gets crap FPS on Crysis 3 on high, and I think its because my CPU is the bottleneck, so that is why I'm trying to OC it.

Here is the CPU I'm using, I don't know if its a crappy manufacturing run or not? Maybe someone can tell me if this is a good/bad/average run on I5 2500ks?

 

[Forceman]

1.35V is probably a good starting point for 4.5 on a 2500K.

 

[ChaoticLord]

Ok I'm gonna try this tomorrow.

So I can leave all other settings on the board at default, and all I need to do is modify multiplier + voltage to do this? I'll check back later.

 

[TwoCables]

Usually! Give it a shot and then we'll go from there. However, when we say about 1.35V, what we mean is this: keep adjusting your voltage in the BIOS so that CPU-Z shows about 1.35V under load (like while running Prime95).

 

[ChaoticLord]

All efforts to OC this CPU have failed, won't even boot up to windows.

I tried both x44 and x45 on a number of voltages.

I went from 1.35 - 1.385 going up .005 per and it won't even boot up to windows.

Will it fail to boot if I'm giving it too much voltage?

Do I need to enable turbo? I don't think turbo is enabled, nor do I know how to enable it on a gigabyte board.

When I change the voltage the Vcore still says 1.26 to the number to the left, and then the new number to the right. Am I doing something wrong here?

Also in Bios it says 1.26 is the voltage, but when I run Prime 95, it never goes above 1.2v. I'm confused here.

If I can't do at least 4.5 ghz, then I'm gonna buy a new CPU, and call this one a lemon. Figures if anyone gets one its gonna be me.

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

All efforts to OC this CPU have failed, won't even boot up to windows.

I tried both x44 and x45 on a number of voltages.

I went from 1.35 - 1.385 going up .005 per and it won't even boot up to windows.

Do I need to enable turbo? I don't think turbo is enabled, nor do I know how to enable it on a gigabyte board.

When I change the voltage the Vcore still says 1.26 to the number to the left, and then the new number to the right. Am I doing something wrong here?

That's not the voltage to look at though. What I recommend is, lower the overclock until it boots and then increase the voltage until CPU-Z shows at least 1.35V while running Prime95 for several seconds. Then when you get that, start bringing the multiplier back up. This way you know what the voltage really is regardless of what the voltage setting is in the BIOS.

 

[AlphaC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forceman

1.35V is probably a good starting point for 4.5 on a 2500K.

I thought 1.3V is the norm for 4.5GHz on i5-2500k? I read somewhere > 50% of them will be able to do it at 1.3V ... I'll try to find out where

also isn't 72°C & 1.4V the limit for no CPU degradation?

 

[ChaoticLord]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables

That's not the voltage to look at though. What I recommend is, lower the overclock until it boots and then increase the voltage until CPU-Z shows at least 1.35V while running Prime95 for several seconds. Then when you get that, start bringing the multiplier back up. This way you know what the voltage really is regardless of what the voltage setting is in the BIOS.

Is it safe for me to raise the voltage without raising the multiplier? Like suppose I set it to 1.35v and leave the multiplier at x33 just to see what the voltage says in prime 95?

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlphaC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forceman

1.35V is probably a good starting point for 4.5 on a 2500K.

I thought 1.3V is the norm for 4.5GHz on i5-2500k? I read somewhere > 50% of them will be able to do it at 1.3V ... I'll try to find out where

I don't know, but the majority 4.5 GHz overclocks on the 2500K I've seen around here needed approximately 1.35V, give or take a little.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlphaC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forceman

1.35V is probably a good starting point for 4.5 on a 2500K.

also isn't 72°C & 1.4V the limit for no CPU degradation?

~1.4V is, but definitely not 72. Who told you that 72 is the limit?

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaoticLord

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables

That's not the voltage to look at though. What I recommend is, lower the overclock until it boots and then increase the voltage until CPU-Z shows at least 1.35V while running Prime95 for several seconds. Then when you get that, start bringing the multiplier back up. This way you know what the voltage really is regardless of what the voltage setting is in the BIOS.

Is it safe for me to raise the voltage without raising the multiplier? Like suppose I set it to 1.35v and leave the multiplier at x33 just to see what the voltage says in prime 95?

Yep, it's very safe. Sometimes this is the best way to go about it and other times it doesn't need to be done this way. It's all discovered by trial and error, which is exactly what you did (which is the best way to do this).

 

[Forceman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlphaC

I thought 1.3V is the norm for 4.5GHz on i5-2500k? I read somewhere > 50% of them will be able to do it at 1.3V ... I'll try to find out where

That sounds more like the 3570K.

OP, If you are putting 1.26V in the BIOS and getting 1.2V under load, you might need to change your LLC setting (Gigabyte might call it multi-step load line) from Auto to something like High.

 

[pc-illiterate]

in my opinion, the best gigabyte overclocking guide.
http://www.overclock.net/t/910467/the-ultimate-sandy-bridge-oc-guide-p67a-ud7-performance-review
your board should have most if not all bios settings. this is a really good starting point i feel.

 

[ChaoticLord]

I'll try this again after I eat dinner.

I finally found where turbo is, and the setting is on "auto", although I'm certain it never triggers on auto, because it never goes above 3300mhz usage in prime 95, or any game for that matter. Its hidden deep in the settings. Should I "enable" turbo, or leave it on auto?