Ivy Bridge i5 3570k. OC Questions. What is safe? (Noob sorry)

[whimsical123]

Hello,
I'm hoping someone might be able to offer some pretty standard advice with regard to my overclock. I've only been looking at it a few hours so please assume I'm clueless Sorry but we all start somewhere

I'm not after anything like 4.8 Ghz, I'm really just after the highest safe overclock I can without affecting the life span of the CPU. The problem is I'm not sure what "safe" is... and I'm not sure I'm blessed with a particularly good chip looking at some of the setting around here!

Temp: Am I being too conservative by giving myself a max target of 65c? at what point would I start to degrade the CPU assuming excess heat does that?
Vcore: What is the 'sweetspot' for this chip? From what I understand once you get to a certain point temps start to hike with reduced return on Ghz. Ive been thinking 1.200V as an upper limit? Again, is this too conservative?

I'm currently only at 4.2Ghz (100/42), Temp under load is at 60ish, Vcore is set to 1.115 but hovers around 1.175. I realise that the auto tune feature on the board will give me more than that (103/42, I think) but it seemed to want quite a bit of voltage (just under 1.3v)... but there is a part of me that just does'nt trust it.

Just as an additional question, I read somewhere that you should always try to keep the Bclk at 100. Is this correct?... and should I set my ram to XMP mode?

Sorry more questions than I thought. Most thankful for any advice.

My Rig:
CPU: I5 3570K
Cooler: Akasa AK-960V2
MB: Asus P8Z77-M PRO
RAM: 8GB 2x4GB Corsair Vengence LP 1600 XMP
PSU: Seasonix X-660
SSD 128GB Crucial M4
HD: 1 TB Seagate
Case: TJ08B-E Temjin

 

[ShintaiDK]

65C? The CPU will be fine at 95C too. The TJmax is 105C and where it will throttle. Basicly anything below Tjmax is safe. And on stock cooler a 100% load usually ends around 80C.

 

[whimsical123]

Ah right! so anything around 80c is OK then. It would'nt stop working for some reason a year down the line or anything? Sorry I must sound incredibly dumb!... By extention, voltage is irrelevant as long as temps are OK?

 

[whimsical123]

It's not going to get 'tired' or anything?

 

[ShintaiDK]

It's not going to get 'tired' or anything?

No. In short voltage is what kills.

 

[cmdrdredd]

LOL nah...you can run 85c 24/7 for a long time. Years...You're replace it before it breaks down.

The voltage is what causes the issues. Voltages is what gives Ivy it's higher temps. 1.3v really starts racking up the temps. Having said that, if you can keep temps in check with some voltage then I wouldn't be too worried. I wouldn't go overboard though. You shouldn't need anything higher than 1.3v for a decent clock speed.

Here's what I'd do. Keep base clock at 100. Set multiplier to 45 and voltage around 1.20v as a start. Test like that, if it works under load drop the voltage down a little bit and try again. If it doesn't work then up the voltage a tick and try again. Eventually you'll find the happy spot. You could also try something more adventurous like 4.7Ghz (47x multi) and try finding the voltage you need for that one. It is likely that you'll see higher temps and need a lot more voltage though. Generally speaking, Ivy is good up until about 4.5Ghz. Some chips don't go more without a lot of voltage, more than I'd want to give on air.

 

[Don Karnage]

Ah right! so anything around 80c is OK then. It would'nt stop working for some reason a year down the line or anything? Sorry I must sound incredibly dumb!... By extention, voltage is irrelevant as long as temps are OK?

IBT/Linx/Prime temps of 95C are fine as you'll barely break 65C while gaming

 

[whimsical123]

Great!!! Sincere thanks for the advice everyone, will have a play!

Thanks again.

 

[Trizzay]

I'm in a similar boat so rather than starting a new thread I figured I would post my results here.

I just put together my new 3570K build on a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H. I've never done any overclocking either, so this is all new to me. At 3.8 Ghz on the stock cooler my high temp hit a max of 82C on full load from Prime95. Does that sound about right? Ideally I'd like to get to 4.0 and leave it there, but I'm a little hesitant to do it considering I'm already hitting above 80C at 3.8.

 

[Don Karnage]

I'm in a similar boat so rather than starting a new thread I figured I would post my results here.

I just put together my new 3570K build on a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H. I've never done any overclocking either, so this is all new to me. At 3.8 Ghz on the stock cooler my high temp hit a max of 82C on full load from Prime95. Does that sound about right? Ideally I'd like to get to 4.0 and leave it there, but I'm a little hesitant to do it considering I'm already hitting above 80C at 3.8.

Why are you overclocking on a stock cooler?

 

[Trizzay]

Why are you overclocking on a stock cooler?

Because it's better than no cooler

I guess my thinking was that the stock cooler would be able to handle a modest overclock and that purchasing one wouldn't be necessary....is that not the case?

 

[Rvenger]

whimsical - what are you using to stress test? Did you try IBT 2.53?

The akasa-ak-960v2 is about as equivalent as a stock cooler. You are getting better temps than a Sandybridge with that cooler so something is wrong I believe. I break over 70c at 4.2ghz with a Havik 140 at 1.16v.

 

[pittguy578]

Actually I am overclocking on a stock cooler..still haven't found time to install the Hyper Evo...I am getting 80C at 3.8 as well and that is stable..ran prime 95 for 3 hours. I do have a large case with many extra fans inside for air movement.

 

[whimsical123]

whimsical - what are you using to stress test? Did you try IBT 2.53?

The akasa-ak-960v2 is about as equivalent as a stock cooler. You are getting better temps than a Sandybridge with that cooler so something is wrong I believe. I break over 70c at 4.2ghz with a Havik 140 at 1.16v.

Hello Rvenger - I'm using prime95, will try out your suggestion

Bit worried!
I was'nt sure that a larger cooler would fit in the case I opted for.
Are you suggesting that I should expect more temp at this clock? If this temp is less than expected would you suggest that there is something wrong somewhere. I am relying on the asus AI suit for the temp reads.

That said I have set the cooling utility (Fan Xpert+) very agressivley as I was'nt initially sure what was safe (i.e. fans are set 100% at 65C). The case cooling seems quite good (180 intake fan at front, high spead 120 fan to rear) in that there appears to be good airflow across the CPU cooler (removed HD tray).

Is it worth using another utility to check on the temps? What would you suggest was the best way to check that the temp readings are accurate.

 

[whimsical123]

Hello Rvenger - I'm using prime95, will try out your suggestion

Bit worried!
I was'nt sure that a larger cooler would fit in the case I opted for.
Are you suggesting that I should expect more temp at this clock? If this temp is less than expected would you suggest that there is something wrong somewhere. I am relying on the asus AI suit for the temp reads.

That said I have set the cooling utility (Fan Xpert+) very agressivley as I was'nt initially sure what was safe (i.e. fans are set 100% at 65C). The case cooling seems quite good (180 intake fan at front, high spead 120 fan to rear) in that there appears to be good airflow across the CPU cooler (removed HD tray).

Is it worth using another utility to check on the temps? What would you suggest was the best way to check that the temp readings are accurate.

It's not exactly quite though!!!

 

[JAG87]

Don't worry about temperatures until you hit 90C. Remember that temperatures you see while you run Prime/Linx/IBT are no where near the ordinary temperatures you will have running everyday applications.

As far as voltage, my recommendation is, stay as close as possible to stock voltage (use the smallest offset possible). It is not worth raising the voltage for the last 2-3-400 Mhz. You're going to use a lot more power, produce significantly more heat, and reduce the the life of your CPU, all for negligible performance difference.