Just finished putting together an i5-11600k + MSI Z590 Gaming Edge Wifi board + Noctua NH-D15S cooler. Thought my experience might help someone else starting with this chip.
Started with a MSI Z590-A Pro, but it was defective, as was one of the G.Skill memory sticks. MSI directed me to their website with approved or recommended memory sticks, so I bought some memory from crucial and another PSU, just in case. When the Z590-A still didn't work, then I knew the motherboard was defective.
This is my overkill office pc. My goal with the overclock is to have it be stable, and quiet, with CPU core temperature well below the threshold. That means I needed the case fan usually below 50%. After trial and error, this is what worked best for me.
I found overclocking by core in the BIOS to be the easiest route, although Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility was helpful. Currently, I have Core0 running at 50x (5 GHz), Core1 running at 49x (4.9 GHz), Core2 running at 48x (4.8 GHz), Core3 running at 47x (4.7 GHz) and Core4 and Core 5 running at 46x (4.6 GHz). I set the core voltage at 1.4. (Since I also have a good PSU -- more than I need -- I also set some other settings regarding the power limits to be much higher). My recommendation would be to just increase Core0 and Core1 by 1 step until they are stable and then adjust the remaining cores. Again, once the last three cores go about 4.6 GHz, the temperature seems to rise quickly.
For the memory, although I have memory rated at higher that 3200 MHz, I just opted to leave it at Gear 1 at 3200 MHz. Had too many instability issues when I was troubleshooting the first defective motherboard.
I was able to get all of the cores running at higher all-core speed, but then the temperature rose quickly (not to a dangerous temperature), causing the CPU fan to run. Didn't want the noise. Similarly, I can get Core0 and Core1 to both operate at 5 GHz and Core 0 to be at 5.1 GHz. But again, this causes the temperature to spike and causes the CPU fan to run. Yes, I know that I could get the temperatures lower with a water cooler. I'd prefer air and am going for a quiet air build.
In the end, it's perfect for what I need it for. Chrome and Microsoft Office and all my other productivity apps are very snappy and responsive (I picked the i5-11600K over an AMD chip in part for the single-thread performance advantage). The Gen4 M.2 NVME is fantastic.
After all this, my recommendation would be to not go my route -- just buy a pre-built PC with i7-11700 and upgrade the CPU's cooler. This is because, from reading way too many reviews for many different Z590 motherboards, there appears to be a high defective rate (my guess would be about 1/4 to 1/3). Buying a pre-built PC means you avoid the three to four days of trying to troubleshoot your components to determine whether the components are defective or the motherboard. If you still do your own custom build, buy the motherboard from a bricks and mortar retailer so you can return it if you are one of the unlucky ones.
Started with a MSI Z590-A Pro, but it was defective, as was one of the G.Skill memory sticks. MSI directed me to their website with approved or recommended memory sticks, so I bought some memory from crucial and another PSU, just in case. When the Z590-A still didn't work, then I knew the motherboard was defective.
This is my overkill office pc. My goal with the overclock is to have it be stable, and quiet, with CPU core temperature well below the threshold. That means I needed the case fan usually below 50%. After trial and error, this is what worked best for me.
I found overclocking by core in the BIOS to be the easiest route, although Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility was helpful. Currently, I have Core0 running at 50x (5 GHz), Core1 running at 49x (4.9 GHz), Core2 running at 48x (4.8 GHz), Core3 running at 47x (4.7 GHz) and Core4 and Core 5 running at 46x (4.6 GHz). I set the core voltage at 1.4. (Since I also have a good PSU -- more than I need -- I also set some other settings regarding the power limits to be much higher). My recommendation would be to just increase Core0 and Core1 by 1 step until they are stable and then adjust the remaining cores. Again, once the last three cores go about 4.6 GHz, the temperature seems to rise quickly.
For the memory, although I have memory rated at higher that 3200 MHz, I just opted to leave it at Gear 1 at 3200 MHz. Had too many instability issues when I was troubleshooting the first defective motherboard.
I was able to get all of the cores running at higher all-core speed, but then the temperature rose quickly (not to a dangerous temperature), causing the CPU fan to run. Didn't want the noise. Similarly, I can get Core0 and Core1 to both operate at 5 GHz and Core 0 to be at 5.1 GHz. But again, this causes the temperature to spike and causes the CPU fan to run. Yes, I know that I could get the temperatures lower with a water cooler. I'd prefer air and am going for a quiet air build.
In the end, it's perfect for what I need it for. Chrome and Microsoft Office and all my other productivity apps are very snappy and responsive (I picked the i5-11600K over an AMD chip in part for the single-thread performance advantage). The Gen4 M.2 NVME is fantastic.
After all this, my recommendation would be to not go my route -- just buy a pre-built PC with i7-11700 and upgrade the CPU's cooler. This is because, from reading way too many reviews for many different Z590 motherboards, there appears to be a high defective rate (my guess would be about 1/4 to 1/3). Buying a pre-built PC means you avoid the three to four days of trying to troubleshoot your components to determine whether the components are defective or the motherboard. If you still do your own custom build, buy the motherboard from a bricks and mortar retailer so you can return it if you are one of the unlucky ones.
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