Trying to OC my i5-2500K

[Stormblade]

Hey all,

Newbie OC'r here. I just put a new system together. Everything is looking good. I wanted to try and OC. I have the Hyper 212+ in there right now. My MB is the Asrock z68 Pro 3.

So I went into the bios and tried the Turbo 4.0 Ghz preset. It booted into Windows just fine but I saw no change in the CPU's speed. Still read that it was 3.3 Ghz. Did I fail to do something?

 

[bntran02]

No you did not. You can only overclock the Turbo boost of sandy bridge processors.

Here is how your system will overclock/underclock:
1) 1.6Ghz Idle
2) 3.3Ghz Light load
3) 4.0Ghz Heavy Loads

1 & 2 cannot be changed. You are only changing 3. IMO this is better because it will only raise your clock when you need to which conserves power.

We can get into how cores are disabled and how your system can also run at 3.7,3.8,3.9Ghz with your current settings but that is a different subject. You may be able to download some program that monitors your clock speed more dynamically if you want to see the clock speeds change

 

[Stormblade]

Ahh many thanks. That explains much. I'd run the windows assessment tool and didn't see a change. In the past when I OC'd my CPU I saw the change reflected there. But yes that's probably a better way to go. Dynamic.

 

[MTDEW]

Yeah, you're just not seeing the change cuz your cpu wont "clock-up" until its under load and needs to.
And as bntran02 stated, its probably better to just leave this way so youre not running the cpu at full bore and higher volts when not needed.

Grab these programs.
Prime 95
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
Core temp
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
CPUZ
http://www.cpuid.com/

Open core temp, and cpuz then start prime 95 (choose just stress testing) and do some small FFT testing.
You'll see your cpu "clock-up" and you'll be able to monitor its voltages, speed and temps.
I'll leave it to you to search for what good voltage and temps are at given speeds, since there are so many opinions on whats safe or not, you'll have to read and decide for yourself.

You can also try the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor Gadget For Windows 7, if you want something you can permanently keep on your desktop to monitor your cpu speed.
http://www.dkszone.net/download-intel-turbo-boost-monitor-gadget-for-windows-7

Not to mention, i have the ASRock extreme 4 z68 and it came with the ASRock Extreme Tuner utility, that is pretty useful.
Not sure if it comes on your disc though.

 

[john3850]

No you did not. You can only overclock the Turbo boost of sandy bridge processors.

Here is how your system will overclock/underclock:
1) 1.6Ghz Idle
2) 3.3Ghz Light load
3) 4.0Ghz Heavy Loads

1 & 2 cannot be changed. You are only changing 3. IMO this is better because it will only raise your clock when you need to which conserves power.

We can get into how cores are disabled and how your system can also run at 3.7,3.8,3.9Ghz with your current settings but that is a different subject. You may be able to download some program that monitors your clock speed more dynamically if you want to see the clock speeds change

Why cant 1) and 2) to be changed
Just disable C1 and speed steep I no longer get a 1.6Ghzat Idle
I get what ever my multiplier is set at 44x100 4400mhz no load.
My temperature at idle is now to 34c.
At 1600mhz my idle temp is 26c.
On my cheap asrock you move just one setting in bios Set Advanced Turbo 50 to enabled and cpu goes to 4800mhz. at 1.434v but you cant lower vcore so its a bad idea.
Its best to leave turbo 2 on for idle cooling.

 

[bntran02]

Why cant 1) and 2) to be changed
Just disable C1 and speed steep I no longer get a 1.6Ghzat Idle
I get what ever my multiplier is set at 44x100 4400mhz no load.
My temperature at idle is now to 34c.
At 1600mhz my idle temp is 26c.
On my cheap asrock you move just one setting in bios Set Advanced Turbo 50 to enabled and cpu goes to 4800mhz. at 1.434v but you cant lower vcore so its a bad idea.
Its best to leave turbo 2 on for idle cooling.

You are actually correct. 1 & 2 being changeable depends on your power savings options. That is something I forgot about

 

[Ratman6161]

Hey all,

Newbie OC'r here. I just put a new system together. Everything is looking good. I wanted to try and OC. I have the Hyper 212+ in there right now. My MB is the Asrock z68 Pro 3.

So I went into the bios and tried the Turbo 4.0 Ghz preset. It booted into Windows just fine but I saw no change in the CPU's speed. Still read that it was 3.3 Ghz. Did I fail to do something?

I have the identical motherboard and CPU cooler that you have, the difference bing that I have the 2600K rather than the 2500K.

Personal opinion: You are going about it the right way. I cringe at the idea of disabling the C1 and speed step etc. I'm using the preset on my Asrock board for 4.4 Ghz at the moment. But why in the world would I want the system to be above the normal 1.6 Ghz idle? The whole point is to give you the speed when you are actually using it but reduced power and heat when you don't need it.

 

[john3850]

On my a 1356 with water the Speed step only lowered the temps by 2-3c.
To get a good oc on 1356 you had to disabled all the energy saving stuff.
I have been using water and no EIST {speed step} for last 10yrs.
With the sb and turbo 2 it sure is nice to see temps below 30c at idle.
When I play a game I want no delay from EIST so I hardly use it.

 

[Stormblade]

Hmm Good info. Thanks all. Yeah I think I'll leave it this way. I think it's a good way to go although now I may wanna run some tests to make sure that when it actually does try to hit 4 ghz my machine doesn't die but at least I know what's going on.

 

[Rvenger]

You can only overclock the Turbo boost of sandy bridge processors.

You can overclock by adjusting the multiplier or turbo depending on what power saving features you want to use. It is not just restricted to turbo boost.

 

[Stormblade]

Ok not sure if this was because of the OC or not but here's what happened. While playing a game my display driver stopped responding. So first thing I did was upgrade the drivers then tried again. It actually seemed to make it worse as the driver stopped repeatedly and finally my computer crashed.

Now heres where I got scared. I got no post info. It would just sit there with a blank screen. Couldn't get to bios. Nothing. So I powered it off and let it sit for a while hoping. I tried it periodically and eventually I got post and booted into Windows. So I decided to run the tests I should have run earlier.

I ran Prime95 first and had Coretemp up and my computer crashed within a couple of minutes. The temps never got above 60c I think. So I'm thinking maybe I got bad memory or my CPU is going bad or something so I did a couple of things.

I turned off the Turbo 4.0 ghz mode.
I moved the memory to different slots and made sure they were seated.
I also pushed down on the graphics card to make sure it was in there good.

I booted up fine and re-ran Prime95 and it ran fine until I stopped it about 10 minutes later. Then I ran memtest for just a bit to see if anything was found quick. Nope. So I decided to try playing again and was able to play fine without any issues.

Then just before I went to bed I ran memtest and let it run overnight. No errors. And so far so good. I have no idea what could have been the problem. I guess the next test would be to OC it again and let Prime95 run longer but that not get any post info really worried me.

Any ideas?

 

[bntran02]

I have found that the presets tend to over-volt your CPU. When you try to OC again try going to 4Ghz manually without raising voltages. A 2500k should be able to hit 4.3Ghz typically without voltage increases. I ran mine at 4.5Ghz without upping the voltage. It ran fine in everything except synthetic tests so I lowered it to 4.4Ghz

Hope that helps

 

[Stormblade]

I have found that the presets tend to over-volt your CPU. When you try to OC again try going to 4Ghz manually without raising voltages. A 2500k should be able to hit 4.3Ghz typically without voltage increases. I ran mine at 4.5Ghz without upping the voltage. It ran fine in everything except synthetic tests so I lowered it to 4.4Ghz

Hope that helps

Thanks. I'll try that when I'm feeling braver. lol

 

[MTDEW]

If you're using the onboard video (IGP) at all, i'd at least disable it while testing so you know for sure it and/or the Lucid Virtu aren't causing you any issues.

You will have to hook your monitor up to the GTX 580 instead of the onboard if you're currently running in I-mode.

If you're already running in D-mode with the monitor hooked up to the gtx 580, then all you need to do is disable the IGP in the bios to test.

I-mode = Monitor hooked to onboard gpu
D-mode = Monitor hooked to discrete card (GTX 580)

EDIT: I guess i should clarify IGP = Integrated Graphics Processor
I stated onboard video just to simplify it, but that does imply its on the motherboard which it is not.

With Sandy Bridge, the IGP is actually on the cpu, but you still disable/enable it in the motherboard bios.