How high can I safely overclock a 3770K? Suggest cooler?

[college_student]

Hi all,

Had a quick question for you guys. How high can I safely overclock a i7-3770K on air? (E.g. 4.0 GHz, 4.2GHz, etc). And, on a related note, I assume you wouldn't want to overclock on the stock cooler. So what cooler would you suggest to do this? I'm currently leaning towards the Hyper 212, which is on sale for $20.

Thanks,
-DV

 

[Sleepingforest]

My 3570K at 4.2GHxz with stock voltage and a Hyper 212 Evo--you should be able to get at least that. Any higher will probably require bumping up the voltage, which is when things start to get a tiny bit risky. Try to stay below 1.3 Vcore (1.250 preferable) for longevity and heat reasons. Anywhere above that and you're starting to look at a suicide run for posterity's sake and temperatures that require a custom cooling loop/vaporphase cooling.