ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 & Intel i5-2500K overclock?

[Aberration]

Guys, new to the Intel side of things.

With the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 and the Intel i5-2500K CPU, is 4.6GhZ a respectable overclock @ 1.35V?

I'd push it higher, but it's hitting 84C using the Intel BurnTest v2.54. From what I read, I'm nearing the high end of tolerance on the chip, and the last thing I want to do is fry it.

 

[GoD_tattoo]

4.6 is always respectable. Years ago 4.6 was WOW! Usually only done with extreme cooling.

Have you tried lowering the voltage and seeing if it still is stable? If not, try it. If you have then there you are. 4.6 is nothing to sneeze at!

 

[Aberration]

Upon further review, 4.6 isn't stable. Once it shuts off the screens after 15 minutes, it won't turn them back on without a hard reset.

So, back to 4.5 and be happy. And yes, I remember when 4.6 was thought to be impossible. If I had water cooling on the CPU, I could probably toss the voltage at it to be stable, but I'm afraid I'd burn it up.

 

[Nebulous]

Your chip will not run 100% loaded 24/7, unless you're folding or something, and then temps will not reach that high. The 2500K takes voltage quite nicely from what I've read/seen. I would not go pass 1.4v tho on air.

The 212 Evo is a very good cooler.

 

[Aberration]

Your chip will not run 100% loaded 24/7, unless you're folding or something, and then temps will not reach that high. The 2500K takes voltage quite nicely from what I've read/seen. I would not go pass 1.4v tho on air.

The 212 Evo is a very good cooler.

Well, I'm using the program "Core Temp" with the Windows Gadget so I can monitor the temps/CPU usage on a second monitor. Unlike my AMD system, which was rock steady on voltage, I'm seeing the voltage on this MB all over the place. Not sure why, or how to get it stable.

I have it set at 1.350V, with the overclock addon voltage at +0.040V, which is the lowest the motherboard will allow.

I really wish I could get it set to a rock solid voltage, as I hate variables. With the voltage being variable, I don't know whether it's a lack of voltage that's causing it to be unstable or what.

Typically, I don't try and script kiddie, but this time I was able to find a tutorial on this site: http://www.overclock.net/t/1198504/...ridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition#post_16165764

It's nice that they show what each option is and why to or not to change it, but there are some things (I don't recall what specifically) that differ in that tutorial from the i5 overclocking sticky in this forum.

I condensed that all down to a text file and printed it out so I could go over it step by step to get a baseline, then started tweaking from there.

 

[redduc900]

Try changing CPU Load-Line Calibration to Level 3 w/ your current offset voltage.

 

[Aberration]

Try changing CPU Load-Line Calibration to Level 3 w/ your current offset voltage.

Had it at 3, went back to 2, but this was at the 4.6 O/C that didn't hold. I'll try 3 again and see if it stabilizes.

 

[Aberration]

Well, not doing any stress tests, but I'm seeing it just sitting here idling at anywhere from 1.30 to 1.38 on level 3.

 

[Aberration]

Ok, I've gone through all 5 of the LLC levels, and NONE of them will stabilize the voltage.

 

[dtrunk]

have you updated the bios? the bios that ships with the extreme4 is quite old. I'd assume you'd want LLC at level 2 or 3, i personally use 2. With the new boards I think variable voltage is quite normal. I found my OC at 4.4ghz worked best with turbo voltage of .04v (smallest) and set offset voltage to +.08 (or whatever the lowest was for that option). i would try adjusting these to see if that helps. do you have overvolt for PPL on auto/disable/enable?

you CAN force whatever volts you want, but you need to turn off all the power saving features. I believe those settings are found in the northbridge/CPU settings on the advanced tab. i had to turn off all the c-state features to force an exact voltage.

 

[Aberration]

have you updated the bios? the bios that ships with the extreme4 is quite old. I'd assume you'd want LLC at level 2 or 3, i personally use 2. With the new boards I think variable voltage is quite normal. I found my OC at 4.4ghz worked best with turbo voltage of .04v (smallest) and set offset voltage to +.08 (or whatever the lowest was for that option). i would try adjusting these to see if that helps. do you have overvolt for PPL on auto/disable/enable?

you CAN force whatever volts you want, but you need to turn off all the power saving features. I believe those settings are found in the northbridge/CPU settings on the advanced tab. i had to turn off all the c-state features to force an exact voltage.

Yeah, the BIOS was the first thing I did, which was awesome, considered I could do it from within the BIOS without having to have any operating system installed.

I'll try turning off the C states and going back to setting LLC 2.

 

[Aberration]

Woot! You're the man. Turning off all 3 of the C-states did it. Just need to figure out why the BIOS is set at 1.35V and the Core temp program shows the 1.3811.

Now, would I be best to decrease the CPU voltage, and turn up the Turbo boost voltage to get it to 1.35V when the load increases?

Appears at idle that I have one hot core... Temps read 42,43,45,39.

 

[dtrunk]

I've noticed a difference between all voltage monitoring software, so it's hard to say. you have fixed voltage set for the cpu? do you also have the turbo voltage enabled and set? I assume since the cstates are off, you're not using turbo to OC the chip, just a straight 45x/46x multiplier and fixed voltage?

PS: yes, cores temps will differ. only 6 degree between cores isn't bad. I get 10-15c temp difference between cores on my 3570k, but at load only 2c difference.

 

[Aberration]

I've noticed a difference between all voltage monitoring software, so it's hard to say. you have fixed voltage set for the cpu? do you also have the turbo voltage enabled and set? I assume since the cstates are off, you're not using turbo to OC the chip, just a straight 45x/46x multiplier and fixed voltage?

PS: yes, cores temps will differ. only 6 degree between cores isn't bad. I get 10-15c temp difference between cores on my 3570k, but at load only 2c difference.

I can't turn off the turbo voltage, so I have it at the bare minimum, which is 0.04V.

Yes, it's a straight overclock and straight voltage. All Cstates are off.