2500k overclocking tips

[NickR]

Read through a bit,still want to ask. I will be getting an i5-2500k and ASUS P8Z68V-Pro/Gen3 for Christmas from my awesome family this year. Replacing my current Phenom II X4 965BE. (Also considering upgrading from my X-25V to an M4 64GB but that's another story).

Anyway, I have a couple questions. First of all, my cooling will be a lapped Corsair H50 watercooling kit, with two of the Corsair 120mm PWM fans. They max at 1,600RPM, probably about 55cfm from my completely unscientific hand-in-front-of-it test. Push-pull exhaust config. I'm concerned about what kind of clocks I might be able to get with this cooling kit, if it would be sufficient for 4.5-4.8Ghz operation? I keep seeing that it is, and it isn't, so just wanted to clarify.

Also, offset voltage versus fixed. I've heard that you want to use offset. On the P8Z68 what is the default voltage, and what is the benefits one way or the other?

What is a safe long-term voltage, I will likely have this chip for a few years, and I don't want to kill it with too-high voltage. I've heard that 1.35 and 1.4 are the common maximum recommended temps.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kenmitch]

Temp wise depending on what your chip needs for vcore to get to 4.5-4.8Ghz the Corsair might not be able to keep up on heavy sustained loads. Won't know till you try it and see. You may get lucky and get a cool running chip.

SB's don't need the hard locked fixed vcore overclocking of the past. Offset voltage works good you just gotta play around with it to get the hang of it. Default voltage of P8Z68? Default voltage is controlled by the CPU. Offset vcore allows the chip to throttle both speed and voltage at idle. Why idle at 1.35v when you can at 1.00v.

Long term voltage? Not like these chips have been out long enough to know what trully is safe. But something in the 1.35-1.38v should be more than safe.

 

[fastamdman]

Personally I would stay under 1.4 vcore for 24/7 use if you are going to keep the chip long term. However, most users don't use the pc 24/7 *except for folders <3* and with that being said you CAN get away with running more however it's generally not needed. Decent chips can hit anywhere from 4.5 - 5ghz with 1.4vcore and lower. Find your chips sweet spot and use the vcore it wants. For example if 4.6 takes 1.35 but 4.7 takes 1.41, use 4.6 .

As far as temps go you will be just fine with the H50. SB chips run very cool until you start pushing real voltages through them, aka 1.5 - 1.65 volts