Overclocking help/issues on an i5 2500k

[ruhtraeel]

Hey,
I was messing with OC setting with my i5 2500k. I remember like a year ago, I couldn't find the setting for the CPU base clock, so I turned up the CPU multiplier to something silly like 126 or 136 or something. Needless to say, my computer instantly restarted. Hopefully I didn't damage anything

I recently noticed that my 2500k was running with a ratio of 21 for some reason, so I decided to bump it up to 40. I've done 40 before, and it seemed stable. There were a couple of differences this time, however. Firstly, it seemed to run at 3.7ghz instead of 4.0. This is strange because the last time I bumped it up to 40, it ran at around 4.0ghz (Multiplier was at the default 100). Also, after a bit, I BSOD'd with memory management.

Did I damage my CPU somehow before, which lead to this? Or is it just a matter of inconsistent results, and I would need to bump up the multiplier a bit instead of going just pure CPU ratio?

I would be happy with a 4.0 ghz speed without any voltage changes.

Thanks

 

[Yuriman]

I recommend you google a guide to overclocking with Sandy Bridge. You shouldn't ever be touching the base clock if you have an unlocked multiplier. Your chip isn't damaged (at least not from anything you did), it's likely just a configuration error.

 

[ruhtraeel]

I recommend you google a guide to overclocking with Sandy Bridge. You shouldn't ever be touching the base clock if you have an unlocked multiplier. Your chip isn't damaged (at least not from anything you did), it's likely just a configuration error.

I just read from the bit-tech guide that the multiplier (base clock) shouldn't ever go over 110mhz (even though I tried putting it to like 136 last time). If this is the case, why do I BSOD even if all I touch is the ratio, which I put at 40? Or is there other stuff I need to change? The bit-tech guide seemed to say that the other stuff (like voltage) would need to be changed if going higher than 4ghz

 

[Jacky60]

If you have a decent cpu cooler you should easily hit 4.4-4.5 and that would make a big impact on your gaming. Read an overclocking guide it's easy and there's very little to worry about.

 

[ruhtraeel]

Alright, so I got my question answered about damage to the chip (this makes me rest easier that I didn't mess up my CPU, thanks)

My question now is, aside from changing the CPU ratio to 4.0ghz, would there be anything I need to check for or do to prevent BSOD's? Still confused as to why that happened.

 

[tweakboy]

You raise your voltage a bit each time you get bsod. gl

 

[Yuriman]

Alright, so I got my question answered about damage to the chip (this makes me rest easier that I didn't mess up my CPU, thanks)

My question now is, aside from changing the CPU ratio to 4.0ghz, would there be anything I need to check for or do to prevent BSOD's? Still confused as to why that happened.

Base clock should be 100Mhz. If you're shooting for 4Ghz, you set a 40x multiplier, 40x100 = 4000. You may benefit from disabling all of your C-states except C1E, and changing your voltage from auto to offset (+.005v offset).

 

[ruhtraeel]

Base clock should be 100Mhz. If you're shooting for 4Ghz, you set a 40x multiplier, 40x100 = 4000. You may benefit from disabling all of your C-states except C1E, and changing your voltage from auto to offset (+.005v offset).

Would I really need to touch voltage? I heard most 2500k's can reach 4.2 without touching it.

 

[Yuriman]

Would I really need to touch voltage? I heard most 2500k's can reach 4.2 without touching it.

I'm not certain what "auto" does, but I've found that it generally is a lot higher than changing to offset mode and setting it to +0 (or +.005 if you don't have +0).

Another option is overclocking from within windows. There are some bios settings which you need to change beforehand which I've detailed here.

 

[FalseChristian]

I've got my i5 2500K at 4.5Ghz (45x100). I did try 45x103 (4.635GHz) but it used to much extra voltage for such a minor gain. On my Z68 platform I set 'Turbo' to 'On' and didn't
touch the core multiplier. I set 'By all cores' to 45. Been running stable for a few years now
using 1.34v at 100% load.