FEATURED Beginners: How to set your 25/6/700K to 4.5Ghz

bobad said:

That Hyper212+ should handle 4.5ghz at 1.32v easily if installed right. Mine rarely exceeds 55. There's something bad wrong, not just thermal paste. I doubt mine would hit 80 with no paste at all. It's probably not making complete contact with the CPU. The screws should be progressively tightened cross-corner and in sequence. Maybe it's been dropped and a heat pipe is sticking up from the others, or something else major. Pull it off, clean good with alcohol, and check it on a piece of flat glass, using thin paper or plastic film to check for gaps.

There are many YouTube videos on tightening the Hyper212+ and keeping it level, you may want to check those out.

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Firehawk01 said:

I think you're right about not making good contact. When I had it apart last night, I laid a razor blade across the heatsink to check the flatness and found the outer edges (the nickel plated part) to be higher than the copper heat pipes in the center. I could see light under the razor blade. Is that normal???

Looking closer at it, the edge of the heatsink is touching the cpu retainer bracket. I tried sticking a razor blade between them and couldn't. Is it suppose to do that?

View attachment 104990

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E-Ninja said:

great tutorial!

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BrokenIce said:

Hello!

I just wanted to say this is a great guide. I am really thankful that you made it. =)

I have a quick question.

I am currently using a 2600k on an Asus z68-v-pro/gen3 with a Hyper 212+ @4.5ghz. I am just over an hour into the stress test and my highest temp is currently at 81. From what I can tell, from other people posting here, that this is pretty high. I put the vcore at 1.35v and it hasn't gone past 1.33v. Should I lower my voltage to 1.32v?

Also, is it suppose to get this high with my heatsink? Maybe I didn't fasten it correctly? I know that if I put some effort into turning the heatsink it will move slightly.

Update: Just hit the two hour mark and the highest it has hit since the 81temp is 79. So it was about 1.5hours since the 81 degree mark. It is currently at 75.

Update2: Hit 2.5 hour mark. Went up to 80degrees. Fan going at 1800rpm atm x.x

Update3: Hit 2.75 hour mark. Dropped back down to 76/77.

Update4: Decided to go to bed last night after fiddling with the vcore a bit. I have it down to 1.32v. I used the burn test and my highest temperature was 80c. Is everything ok here? Thing to note is I wasn't able to do the Prime95 3hour test. Did it for an hour and temps seemed way better than when I had it at 1.35v

Also, it seems that at idle my core#1-3 temps are between 35c-40c and my core#0 will go from 44c and bump up quickly to 52 and then drop back down to 44. Is this ok? Is this just because my cpu cooler is spinning at around 800rpm at the moment and it doesn't sense that it needs to increase for cooling?

Again, thanks for all help given. =) I am really a big noob when it comes down to these kind of things. I wish I understood what exactly all these things in the biOS actually mean.

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Mago said:

have a quick question....while benching on heaven during the most stress fully portions i hear a continuous beep (sounds like from the back of the mobo) but the speaker is not plugged in, then i t goes away then it will come back during another stressfull portion of the test.....

Anyone have any idea what that could be ...GPU is OC to 900/1800/2100 and temps got to 86C, cpu temps never got above 52C ..... all temps look good considering...

any help figuring it out would be appreciated....

I checked the load of my system using a configuror on the net and it indicated that 90 % would be 850 watt were used, i have a 1000 watt PSU Bronze CM silent pro......100% load suggest that watts would be 943.....could it be that my system may be in need of a slightly higer PSU......Additonal info was benching 5.202 Ghz CPU and GPU OC above.......

Is the beeping a system warning that there is little headroom on power left at the time of the beep???????

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Theocnoob said:

He has a 2600K you have a 2500K. 2MB of extra L3 cache makes for a lot more heat.

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Lucky23 said:

Questions:

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EarthDog said:

Its not so much the extra L3, its the HT that will raise temps almost 10C vs without/2500k.

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Mago said:

Thanks for your thoughts OCNOOB, i just want to clarify that the sound is more less a beep that is a constant tone with no pitch changes......
i assume that the weeeEEE , you indicated is more of a winding up with the pitch changing......
not sure if this helps.....

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Lucky23 said:

Hey guys, got a new setup and i got a question.

So if you want to run your cpu w/ all the power saving features off i would disable
Speedstep and C1e.

In my bios i also have

C3 state support
C6 state support
&
Package C state support.

So would i disable all of these?

Also what is Spread spectrum. Mine is currently on auto but is this something i would have to mess with?

thanks

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fmkenner said:

I'm new too but been advised by ASUS reps to disable Spread spectrum for stable overclocks. We do have different boards so not sure that matters.

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Theocnoob said:

Disclaimer: Overvolting/overclocking can/may reduce the life expectancy of a part. Overclocking your CPU technically voids your Intel CPU warranty. Use a quality aftermarket CPU cooler (mentioned in guide).

This guide is a simple guide meant to just get you there. Many things, like the fact that, for instance, ASUS says you can do this OC with all power saving features left on, will be omitted. This is a KISS guide folks. These settings do work. My goal was to keep the orange 'guide' section as short as possible and the steps as clear as possible for new people. I don't want to overcomplicate the thought process and confuse new people. Please understand it is a keep it simple guide.

It is in 3 steps, what you need, below, the settings you will need, in orange, and then how to test for stability and continue tweaking if desired in part 3. Please read the whole thing as it is not too long. This was done on purpose. If you have questions, ask in General Hardware "Trying to overclock 2X00K" for a faster response, or the Intel CPU section under the same title.

1:Before we begin:
You have:
*a 2500K, 2600K, 2700K CPU

*A Z68 or P67 chipset motherboard.

*You know your ram timings (look at the box, the ram, or the ad for where you bought them. (Example, 9 9 9 28 1600Mhz 1.5V or 7 7 7 24 1.65V))

*You have an aftermarket cooler. The coolermaster 212+ is sufficient for this overclock across all three K sku 1155 CPUs . The 600 and 700, with more cache, require a higher tier cooler at the voltages needed when going to a higher overclock. If you have a 2500K you will be able to reach for the sky with the 212+. For 2600K or 2700K I recommend something like Thermalright's Archon if you wish to aim for the sky.

*You will need to download stressing and monitoring software mentioned in this article. It is all free and a link to said software is provided to make things easier.


*Please read the entire post to make sure you didn't miss anything

2: 4.5Ghz Guide bios settings:

*Note mobo manufacturers make their bios different, you may have to look around for all of the following settings

*Note about some boards. As you can see in this thread http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=692224 certain boards require that you make changes to the 'max power duration limit' and/or disable max power duration limit to prevent throttling


0 Restart/start your computer, Enter the bios, usually by repeatedly pressing Delete.

1 Set overclock tuner, sometimes called differently, to manual.

2 Set max turbo ratio to 45. Enter your ram section. Enter the timings (your ram timings for the ram you bought. ie, 7 7 7 24 or 9 9 9 28 etc) . Leave the rest of the 'sub timings' on 'auto' Leave the RAM speed at AUTO unless it is miss reading (ie you have 1600 reading as 1333). In that case enter the correct number (ie 1600)

3 Go to the voltage section. Set CPU and RAM to manual. Leave the rest of the voltages AUTO. The RAM should be set to the 'sticker voltage', ie, 1.5v. The CPU, set to 1.35V

4 Find Load Line Calibration, or LLC. Set it to 50%. If it is in levels, 5/10 or 3/5.

5 Go to CPU features turn off C5 C1 and EIST / Speedstep . Some CPUs/boards will still hold this OC with speedstep left on. I suggest you turn it off for now. Also turn off any power saving features. You may also disable virtualization if you will never use it. Note that, SOME CPUS may require CPU PLL overvoltage to be turned on to hit 4.5Ghz. It is unlikely.

Please note:
*Less than 5% of CPUs according to a published test by Asus will need more than 1.35V or refuse 4.5Ghz altogether. 80% need LESS than 1.35.


6 (optional) Go to onboard devices and shut off anything you arent using (USB3/Firewire controllers, extra LAN controllers, Extra SATA controllers)

THAT'S IT!
Save changes. Exit, restart and enter windows and now run stability tests to make sure it went ok.

Note: (If your PC will not boot now, remove the motherboard battery for a minute to clear CMOS and restore stock settings. Or press the clear CMOS button if your motherboard has one. On some boards the MemOK button doubles as this check your manual.
If it will boot but not enter windows, restore optimal defaults in bios, make a post in Intel CPU to ask what
is wrong. This happens. 5% of CPUs will not take 4.5Ghz according to ASUS' in house testing. All is not lost and yours may take 4.4)

3:Test for Stability:

First we want to run P95 BLEND.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205 <Download the 64 bit version of Prime 95. If you have a 32 bit Win 7 then install the 32 bit version. Run 'blend mode'. Feel free to do other meanial tasks while it runs. A solid overclock ought to allow this. Listen to music or read and write in forums. Do not play games, render video, fold, or anything intensive though.
Prime 95 should be run for about 3 hours. 6 would be ideal though. I feel 12 is unnecessary. At this point, you're pretty well guaranteed a stable system.

Use the following monitoring software to keep an eye on your CPU temperatures while you run your stress test (blend)
Coretemp
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
&
CPUID HWMon
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

HWMon will monitor your CPU voltage. Make sure your voltage is holding around 1.35 or you may need to reset load line calibration to a higher or lower number depending on your brand and board.

Post about your results with screenshots so we can tell you everything is ok.


To be extra certain of stability
Run Intel Burn Test http://downloads.guru3d.com/IntelBurnTest-v2.3-download-2047.html DL link is at bottom. Not side.
5 passes. Just set to maximum, let it run and do its thing, and if it finishes 5 passes, your OC is in all likelihood a very stable one.

Know what your temperatures are and what's safe.
A cold cpu is a happy one. Monitor your CPU temperatures. We always take the hottest 'core' as your max core temp. Never the lowest.
in my opinion, as well as that of the HWmon software, and Intel specs, these are the ranges for sandybridge.
Green is perfectly safe. Yellow is a little warm but ok. Red is too hot. purple is dangerous. The cpu will throttle and prevent itself from dying from overheating, but you still must keep a good temperature.

0-70
70-80
80-90
90-100

If your CPU ever gets into the 80s, IMO, it's getting too warm. It is ok to allow 80-82 for the 15 minutes IBT takes to run. As a general temperature for any period of time, however, it is overly high. The idea is to have a Sandybridge system which rarely if ever exceeds 70 in normal use. It shouldn't exceed 80 in normal use. If you EVER hit 90, stop whatever you're doing and let the cpu cool to idle IMMEDIATELY. You should not allow the CPU to exceed 85 IMO.

I always try to stay under 70 max (use, ie gaming, etc) temp when overclocked. Please note that your actual use temps (ie, playing a game) will be about 5 degrees less than prime95 and 10-15 degrees less than Intel Burn Test. For example, I get about 55-65 gaming, 70-75 in prime, and 80 in IBT. Leave CPUID HWMon open while you game for an hour. Then go see what your max temps were. Good way to find out. Tells you your max GPU temps too.


Here's what I got after playing Rise of Flight for about 1/2 hour. See my max CPU core temperature was 55C.
As you can see, even though my system hits 80 in Intel Burn Test, an average stress game doesn't even hit 60. Some more intensive games give me
a load of 65 but I never hit 70 gaming.

Now you're good to go. Congratulations Go compute!

In closing:
You should now have a stable 4500Mhz cpu. If you want to tweak more and you wish to stay at 4.5Ghz, you can likely run 4.5ghz at less than 1.35v. Keep lowering the voltage (1.345, 1.34, 1.33) untill it will not blend. Then bump it back up 1. While binning I met a 2600K that would take 4500Mhz at a mere 1.3V. Others have reported success at even below 1.3v! This is rare. This is called a 'good bin chip' as they are not all identical in their ability to take overclocks.
This maintains the lowest possible CPU temp for this specific speed. A CPU that takes 4.5 at a very low voltage is a good candidate to aim for a higher OC as it will not need a 'dangerous' voltage level to hold it. See below.

Ever want to go faster
If you ever want to go faster, make a post and ask us in the Intel CPU section. This was a 4.5 thread and I wanted it short and simple for beginners.
Many of us run 4.9 or 5.2 but that requires much more work. And degrades the CPU faster as well. You will have a shorter
lifespan at the voltage you'd likely need to do 5Ghz vs the very long one at lower voltage for 4.5Ghz. It is heat and voltage, not speed, which 'age' a CPU. That's why we advise a good cooler and aiming for the lowest temps and voltage your CPU/heatsink will give you.
~OCnoob

For those with a few minutes, have a read through the whole thread if you like. Some people have had defective motherboards and interesting ideas and there are tips and warnings to be found among them. It is an open convo and a such interesting things, which may apply to you without you even having to go ask a question, may be here.

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Theocnoob said:

Learns quickly this one does. Yes..

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AJZ said:

Just testing this oc monitor software. Running prime 95 64 bit when screen was taken. Havent oc'd anything my asus board is clocking i2500 t0 3.7. Are these temps normal/ok for a antec h20 620 cpu cooler?



Will start my actual manual oc soon.

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fmkenner said:

Thats funny, I like that. I'm still learning. I think I'm done messing with my BIOS as I have the OC profiles I was after. Unless of course I find a better way. Thanks again.
Hay why isnt this a sticky yet?

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