i5 7600k bad overclocker or I am bad?

[LauMan64]

Hey peeps. I am new to overclocking and I don't know how to read my current situation.

I just put the new rig together and thought I'll do the OC thing this time seeing as everyone man and their dog are getting 5GHz out of Kaby Lake.

So here is the process I went through:
1: Use AIsuite to auto overclock. Gave me 4.6GHz @ ~1.3V. Stable.
2: X.M.P and manually set it to 4.7GHz @ 1.30V. Stable.
3: 4.8GHz @ 1.35V. Stable
4: Here is the fun part. 4.9GHz @1.39V - 1.43V. Fails. Can't get it stable.

Quick Edit - Temperature at idle is around mid 30's and during the testing, the hottest it got was 80 - 82C. I don't think it's anything to be worried about but I thought I'll add it in anyway.

I searched around and noticed people saying 1.3V is getting them to 5GHz.
Am I just bad at this and doing something wrong? Is there something else in the settings I need to change or is my CPU just not lucky?

Any advice would be amazing. Thanks peeps!

Rig info that are helpful:
i5 7600k
Asus Z270i ITX mobo
Corsair 16gb LPX RAM (2400 C14)
Noctua NH-D15S

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

It very well could be that you just lost the silicon lottery. It's either that or the mobo, but that appears to be a pretty solid board for overclocking (for ITX, anyway).

 

[amund_nor]

Have you tried configuring the LLC settings? If you haven't, the CPU will lose its volt juice during stress loads, thus an overclock will fail.
If you haven't, go back to BIOS and search around for Load Line Calibration (LLC), and set it to a step normally between 2-6 I think. (Normal to Extreme or something). This will force a volt to be stable around what you have actually set it to. The bad thing is that the effect is different on every CPU/mobo, so I cannot tell you exactly which step you want to set it to.
To test, try first to set it to extreme, for instance. Launch windows, open CPU-Z and open Prime95 (or anything heavy), and watch closely on the current volt going to the cpu, 'cause that will be dynamic given the load. You goal is to have volt stay as close to what yoy actually set it to. Say 1.35V.
With step around 5-6/Extreme, you will normally see the volt going a bit above, maybe 1.37, while with a small step/Normal, the volt will often be a bit lower, maybe 1.32. Test around until you find a step which gives you 1.35V, maybe for you it's 4(Ultra).

Btw, if you later also change the volt to maybe 1.4V, you most likely must also change the LLC again.