Ok Team OC, lets make this thing fly

[Lawry]

G'day Team, Lawry here.

I am a recent convert to the PC master race and decided what better faction to join than the ROG.

Spec's are:

Motherboard - ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING
Processor - I5-8600K
Memory (part number) - F4-3000C16D-16GTZR (16Gb of GSkill Trident 3000)
Graphics Card #1 - STRIX-GTX1080-A8G-GAMING
Monitor - XG35VQ (ps, this monitor is an absolute eye-gasm. Love it!!)
Storage #1 - WD Blue SSD 256Gb
Storage #2 - ST2000DM006 (Barracuda 2TB)
CPU Cooler - MasterLiquid ML120L
Case - Fractal Meshify C (With 5 x ThermalTake Riing 120mm Fans, 2 drawing air in (one on the radiator) and 3 set to blow)
Power Supply - eVGA 220-G3-0750-X4 750W
Keyboard - ROG Strix Flare
Mouse - ROG Strix Evolve
OS - Windows 10

So I built up my first rig and immediacy wanted to OC it, as one who has never done so does... so I strapped on GPU Tweak II and clicked the overclocked option on the 1080, and then using the CPU multiplier in Intel Extreme Tuner slid the core multiplier up to a very mild 40 (4Ghz) with the Cache @ 38 (3.8Ghz) (NB - as there was a similar difference at stock so I figured leave the gap rather than matching the cache to the cpu?) and my system seems to work well (max temp on CPU benchmark on IET was 58 degrees C.

My questions to OC gods are as follows:

1 - Should I always leave these settings on or just dial it up to 11 for gaming (I will be using this PC as a daily driver as well for doc processing and web work with a bit of Photoshop thrown into the mix too)
2 - Have I done this right and if I haven't, what would you recommend
3 - Finally, how far can I push this thing before it turns into a flaming pile of RGB.....
4 - Is there anything else that I should add to this build??

I look forward to your replies team!

- Lawry

 

[bigtallanddopey]

There are a few overclocking guides on here and some will be specific for the 8600k. I suggest searching for them and having a read.

That chip should be able to reach 5Ghz so you still have a lot of overclocking headroom. All Will depend on the temps, how good your cooler is and how good the cpu itself is. To do this you will be much better off overclocking through the bios rather than through software.

 

[Woomack]

I don't think you make it run at 5GHz stable using this cooler. I would start at 4.5GHz manually and as low voltage as you can set. I guess it will be something about 1.15V. Then heat it up to the max with something like Prime95 small FFT. 20-30 mins should be enough to stabilize temps and see how much more you can push it. I guess that 1.20-1.25V will be max so should be fine for 4.7-4.8GHz. Keep max temps at 90°C or below. Can use something like hwinfo64 for monitoring.
Simply focus on CPU voltage, CPU frequency and popular stability test. Once you find max thermal capacity (so close or below that 90°C) then stick to that voltage and check how high CPU clock will go. You can test max voltage even at lower clock as max heat is almost only related to the voltage.
For stability use Prime95 and some other tests. Can run games or other mixed tests to check how it's acting. Sometimes everything is passing CPU stability test but is still crashing in games so it's always good to use a couple of programs for stability testing.

When you stabilize CPU clock then we can play a bit with memory but I'm not sure if it's not a waste of time as it won't help much while it may take a lot of time to find the best settings.

 

[Lawry]

Thanks for the feedback team! I will look into those guides a little more, and will have a look at how to do this via bios too.

- Lawry