[SOLVED] First time overclocking(i53570k) need help

[Alexsamui]

Hi guys. I would like to ask you guys for a guidance to oc my CPU. I have zero knowledge on this matter.

My specs:
CPU: i53570k
MV: Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Frostbourne
GPU: Asus 1070 Dual
Ram: 16gb DDR3 1600(using XMP profile to reach 2400)
PSU: Seasonic 620w 80+Bronze

How do I configure bios to get to about 4.2 or 4.4ghz?

 

[veryjar]

I'm running mine at 4.2Ghz at LLC 2, 1.245V, any value beyond 4.2Ghz makes the system unstable no matter what LLC and voltage I set it to, I try to make sure the temps stay under 90 on stress tests. I've seen people OC their 3570k to 4.5+ on sub 1.25V. Like they say it's a silicon lottery and I've been pretty 'unlucky' with mine. Downclock your RAM to stock values to make sure it won't be causing any instability as you test your CPU OC. Try All core, multiplier 42 and BCLK 100 (never change BCLK as it may short your system) LLC 3, Fixed voltage: 1.27V, Speed Spectrum off. In windows load CPUID HWMonitor to check the temperatures as you perform Intel Burn test, try to stay under 90C. If it's stable and under 90C try lowering the voltage by 0.005V at a time and keep repeating until you find stable OC with lowest possible Vcore, if it's under 1.230V then you could throw in 1.3V at 4.3Ghz assuming you have adequate cooling and at 1.27V you weren't close to 90 at stress tests for 4.2. In general, it's pretty safe to put 1.35V on ivy bridge chips but you must have decent cooling to be able to pull that off. It will depend on your chip tho as you made be able to get 4.6Ghz at 1.29V, but you gotta test it yourself.

 

[Alexsamui]

I'm running mine at 4.2Ghz at LLC 2, 1.245V, any value beyond 4.2Ghz makes the system unstable no matter what LLC and voltage I set it to, I try to make sure the temps stay under 90 on stress tests. I've seen people OC their 3570k to 4.5+ on sub 1.25V. Like they say it's a silicon lottery and I've been pretty 'unlucky' with mine. Downclock your RAM to stock values to make sure it won't be causing any instability as you test your CPU OC. Try All core, multiplier 42 and BCLK 100 (never change BCLK as it may short your system) LLC 3, Fixed voltage: 1.27V, Speed Spectrum off. In windows load CPUID HWMonitor to check the temperatures as you perform Intel Burn test, try to stay under 90C. If it's stable and under 90C try lowering the voltage by 0.005V at a time and keep repeating until you find stable OC with lowest possible Vcore, if it's under 1.230V then you could throw in 1.3V at 4.3Ghz assuming you have adequate cooling and at 1.27V you weren't close to 90 at stress tests for 4.2. In general, it's pretty safe to put 1.35V on ivy bridge chips but you must have decent cooling to be able to pull that off. It will depend on your chip tho as you made be able to get 4.6Ghz at 1.29V, but you gotta test it yourself.

Thank you very much. That is very helpful for a firstimer like me. Is there a way to OC it the “offset” way? I’ve read from someone that it’s a way to help save electricity as it reduces the CPU speed when not in heavy use, (just like the stock version im using right now I guess which goes up and down)but the “manual v-core mode” (the fixed mode you suggested I presume)stays at the max amount that you put in all the time.

 

[veryjar]

Thank you very much. That is very helpful for a firstimer like me. Is there a way to OC it the “offset” way? I’ve read from someone that it’s a way to help save electricity as it reduces the CPU speed when not in heavy use, (just like the stock version im using right now I guess which goes up and down)but the “manual v-core mode” (the fixed mode you suggested I presume)stays at the max amount that you put in all the time.

Keep SpeedStep ON and don't alter the C states; this will undervolt the core for energy saving if cores run on low load % and will auto-increase it if needed. That's how I have it and it works for me.

 

[veryjar]

Or if you want to do the offset way, keep all the settings at stock in BIOS, run test Intel Burn test to see the max Vcore in HWMonitor (the very top right value), based on that try to meet the aforementioned values by adding to the offset counter, for example, if stock max Vcore is let's say 1.220V, try adding +0.05V to the offset to give you total max 1.27V for 4.2Ghz OC and keep decreasing to find the sable lowest voltage setting, that is if 1.27V for 4.2Ghz is stable for your chip, there are 'bad' chips that won't go over 4.0Ghz. You could start slow from let's say 4.0Ghz and work your way up, you might have a 'good' chip and be able to eventually to hit a stable 4.5Ghz+ no problem.

Just keep adding 0.03V per every extra multiplier value and try reducing voltage to find the lowest stable voltage for the best temps. If you hit a blue screen at the startup add extra 0.03V as that would mean the OC is unstable and CPU is undervolted. If you have good cooling you can work up to 1.35V, but I wouldn't recommend going much over that and always look to keep the temps comfortably under 90C on stress tests, because if you don't, then the chip's lifespan will shorten.

 

[Zerk2012]

All of that is not going to matter much on that motherboard unless they have had a BIOS update in the last few years that would be probably a no since the board is so old.

Have the same exact motherboard and a i5 2500K overclocked to 5.0 thought I had a golden chip since it was at 1.26 volts just to find out the motherboard was not controlling the overclock with my BIOS settings. Checked the back of the board with a volt meter it was actually putting 1.4 volts ( might not be exact been so long ago)to the CPU. This was pointed out to me by a lot of people is the reason I checked it and yes it was true.

The back of the board at the CPU area is actually discolored by the heat!

It is now my son's PC and still overclocked to 5.0 and yes the voltage is still the same but still running. He is getting my 4790K as soon as the new Intel processors are released.

 

[Alexsamui]

Or if you want to do the offset way, keep all the settings at stock in BIOS, run test Intel Burn test to see the max Vcore in HWMonitor (the very top right value), based on that try to meet the aforementioned values by adding to the offset counter, for example, if stock max Vcore is let's say 1.220V, try adding +0.05V to the offset to give you total max 1.27V for 4.2Ghz OC and keep decreasing to find the sable lowest voltage setting, that is if 1.27V for 4.2Ghz is stable for your chip, there are 'bad' chips that won't go over 4.0Ghz. You could start slow from let's say 4.0Ghz and work your way up, you might have a 'good' chip and be able to eventually to hit a stable 4.5Ghz+ no problem.

Just keep adding 0.03V per every extra multiplier value and try reducing voltage to find the lowest stable voltage for the best temps. If you hit a blue screen at the startup add extra 0.03V as that would mean the OC is unstable and CPU is undervolted. If you have good cooling you can work up to 1.35V, but I wouldn't recommend going much over that and always look to keep the temps comfortably under 90C on stress tests, because if you don't, then the chip's lifespan will shorten.

Today I checked my voltage at the stock settings. I used the Intel Burn In for a few minutes(standard option) and it says 1.025v.(not 100% sure cos I didn’t note it down and I’m currently out from home due to urgent business but it’s definitely 1.02X)

By the way, I tried your first method that you gave me yesterday(the fixed voltage way) and my temp raised up to 90+ in a few seconds after I pressed start on Intel Burn In test(standard option). So I could not risk waiting to see it any longer and stopped it and reload bios defaults. Any idea what was going wrong? Too high voltage? Cos at the stock it’s 1.025v at max as I checked today like mentioned above. Might that be the cause, that my CPU consumes a lot less voltage than the whole method you suggested(to start at 1.27v)? If so, how should we start with the starting settings and voltage? I’ll go try the offset method as soon as I arrive home tomorrow and with the proper starting voltage after your analysis of this post.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

 

[Alexsamui]

All of that is not going to matter much on that motherboard unless they have had a BIOS update in the last few years that would be probably a no since the board is so old.

Have the same exact motherboard and a i5 2500K overclocked to 5.0 thought I had a golden chip since it was at 1.26 volts just to find out the motherboard was not controlling the overclock with my BIOS settings. Checked the back of the board with a volt meter it was actually putting 1.4 volts ( might not be exact been so long ago)to the CPU. This was pointed out to me by a lot of people is the reason I checked it and yes it was true.

The back of the board at the CPU area is actually discolored by the heat!

It is now my son's PC and still overclocked to 5.0 and yes the voltage is still the same but still running. He is getting my 4790K as soon as the new Intel processors are released.

You mean the sensor on the board is broken and could be happening to other people as well? And what is not going to matter much though?

 

[veryjar]

Today I checked my voltage at the stock settings. I used the Intel Burn In for a few minutes(standard option) and it says 1.025v.(not 100% sure cos I didn’t note it down and I’m currently out from home due to urgent business but it’s definitely 1.02X)

By the way, I tried your first method that you gave me yesterday(the fixed voltage way) and my temp raised up to 90+ in a few seconds after I pressed start on Intel Burn In test(standard option). So I could not risk waiting to see it any longer and stopped it and reload bios defaults. Any idea what was going wrong? Too high voltage? Cos at the stock it’s 1.025v at max as I checked today like mentioned above. Might that be the cause, that my CPU consumes a lot less voltage than the whole method you suggested(to start at 1.27v)? If so, how should we start with the starting settings and voltage? I’ll go try the offset method as soon as I arrive home tomorrow and with the proper starting voltage after your analysis of this post.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

What cooling do you have on your CPU? 1.27V shouldn't be causing 90C thermals on a good setup. What does it idle at? For me, it idles at 30-30C and I have Corsair H60 AIO. Have you re-applied thermal paste recently? As they tend to dry out and lose their thermal conductivity which could be causing your bottleneck. You should aim to replace it every 3-4 years or on more extreme OCs, ideally, every 1 or so year to ensure the best possible temps. Also, disable PLL overvoltage as you don't need it at your clock speed.

Higher the Voltage the hotter your cores will get. Try 1.240V and see if it boots your PC and if it's stable.
For me to run similarly @4.2Ghz with offset I have to set the value at around - 0.09V - because remember offset is the auto value +- the value you give it.

If 1.24V will indeed be stable @4.2Ghz then you could try reducing the Vcore even further, thus reducing the thermals, if not, you will have to upgrade your cooling.

 

[Zerk2012]

You mean the sensor on the board is broken and could be happening to other people as well? And what is not going to matter much though?

It was on all the Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 boards nothing broke except the actual power delivery was doing what it wonted instead of going by BIOS settings. I did not believe it myself until I hooked a volt meter to the back of the board where it actual feeds the CPU voltage to the CPU.

Everything shows the voltage you have it set to until you actually check the voltage going to the CPU.

It's been so long this is all I could find on it but my board was much worse.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1360404-asrock-z77-series-vcore-reading.html

You can still overclock it and don't stress about the rest although the back of my board is discolored a bit from the heat it's still running fine.

These were my settings. i5 2500K @4.8 when these were took.

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/Untitled_zpszszwirma.png.html?sort=3&o=0

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/Untitled_zpstywabrhr.png.html?sort=3&o=1

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/022_zpsoaysgr3x.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

 

[Alexsamui]

It was on all the Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 boards nothing broke except the actual power delivery was doing what it wonted instead of going by BIOS settings. I did not believe it myself until I hooked a volt meter to the back of the board where it actual feeds the CPU voltage to the CPU.

Everything shows the voltage you have it set to until you actually check the voltage going to the CPU.

It's been so long this is all I could find on it but my board was much worse.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1360404-asrock-z77-series-vcore-reading.html

You can still overclock it and don't stress about the rest although the back of my board is discolored a bit from the heat it's still running fine.

These were my settings. i5 2500K @4.8 when these were took.

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/Untitled_zpszszwirma.png.html?sort=3&o=0

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/Untitled_zpstywabrhr.png.html?sort=3&o=1

https://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Zerk2012/media/022_zpsoaysgr3x.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

So it means it could draw more electricity than what is set in the bios, and even a discoloration? This is a nightmare.