Need Help OC'ing 2500K (Sandy Bridge) on Asus P8P67 LE motherboard

[icemule1]

I'm having some issues trying to get the i5-2500K CPU to overclock successfully with my Asus P8P67 LE motherboard.

First problem: There is NO setting in the BIOS to adjust the CPU voltage (vcore); the only way to manually adjust this is using Asus' tuning software called AI Suite II. When I adjust the setting to a certain voltage (in my case I set it to 1.22v with a 46x multiplier) and then I put a load on it, the voltage showing in both AI Suite II and CPU-Z was 1.38v. Why is it reading at a higher voltage than what I set it to? Is it dangerous to have that voltage gap (1.22v vs 1.38v)? I know you're not supposed to give these Sandy Bridge processors too much voltage so I didn't plan on going higher than the current setting. I'd be relatively happy with my 4.6Ghz OC if I knew it was safe.

Second problem: While stress testing with Prime95, the multiplier seems to go back and forth between 46x and 33x, almost like it's being throttled for some reason. CoreTemp reports my cores are getting as hot as 65-70C which I wouldn't think would trigger throttling and my huge Corsair A70 cooler is still cool to the touch. How can I keep the multiplier/frequency steady? It would be frustrating to be playing a game and have the frame rate keep speeding up and slowing down.

Any advice would be appreciated, because I don't want to have to return my board if I can make this work. Asus marketed that all of their P67 line boards could be used for overclocking so I'm getting frustrated on why this doesn't seem to be going well. Granted, this is my first time overclocking but I've read several guides on how it's done to educate myself.

I can provide screenshots and/or more information if that would help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mnewsham]

most people can get 4.4Ghz with a 1.35v (or so), your voltage is way too low, if you are trying to get it to run your motherboard might automatically give it more voltage just to keep it running.

 

[icemule1]

most people can get 4.4Ghz with a 1.35v (or so), your voltage is way too low, if you are trying to get it to run your motherboard might automatically give it more voltage just to keep it running.

I'm keeping the voltage set low because like I said, it's in the 1.35v range when I put a load on it. If I were to raise the voltage setting to, say, 1.3v, it would probably be more like 1.45v when I put a load on it which would be too high. My question is if it's normal to see the voltage differ like that, and I'm also having a problem with throttling. See my original post.

 

[d33pblue]

I have this board and the best I can tell you would be to leave everything stock in the BIOS (it's worthless for OCing anyway) and tune using the AI Suite II. I have noticed a gap in the specified Suite voltage and the actual voltage as well.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it unless you're over about 1.35V or so. Intel recommend a maximum of 1.38V for this processor and I would heed that recommendation.

Bottom line is that because of the crippled BIOS and the voltage issue, you are limited in your OC tweaking with this board. That's just a fact of life. You could wait on a BIOS fix from Asus to correct this, but I'm somehow doubting it will happen.

Regardless, I plan on leaving mine at 4.5Ghz with a voltage of low 1.3 range. Not exactly a world record overclock, but plenty of speed just the same. I personally haven't noticed any throttling.