Overclock 2600K or Upgrade?

[PCGUY2015]

Hello! I have an i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Build with everything at stock speeds.. my friend just upgraded to i7-6700K Skylake.. was wondering if I overclock my system will It match or at least have an significant boost or should I upgrade to Skylake.. Also I know a little about overclocking.. What I know is that multiplier is the cpu speed.. and that power should be set according to cpu speed..Can anybody please explain to be the main concept of overclocking.. for example what are the following?

CPU PLL overvoltage
enhanced halt c1e
c6/c6 statesupport
cpu eist function
bi-directional prochot

Here is the list of my PC components
CPU = Intel Core i7-2600K
MOBO = Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Rev 2.0
RAM = Corsair Vengeance 16GB(4X4GB) DDR3 (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
PSU = Rosewill ARC 750
SSD = Kington HyperX FURY SSD (SH103S3240G)
CPU Cooler = Corsair H60
GPU = EVGA GTX 960 2GB 02G-P4-2962-KR

I know it may be a long explanation to all of this, but if anybody isn't busy or has the time to explain to me this things I'll appreciate it greatly.. I've searched about how to do this but to be honest I don't understand what they mean they use the words from above or others that I have no idea what they mean.. thank a lot

 

[PCGUY2015]

Thank you everyone! I have successfully overclocked my system.. MOBO bios was very friendly.. I just raised the CPU multiplier to x45 and vcore to auto which I think is around 1.23 and 1.30 everything else left on auto.. I got an stable overclock.. been editing for more that 6 hours and no problems at all...
I used a video encoding software that uses all CPU power to test CPU performance.. here are the results before and after overclocking using all cores and threads.. please let me know if the temperatures are ok.. I have an Corsair H60

Faster is better
i7-2600K 3.8GHz (Stock) = 03m:23s - Max Temp = 68c
i7-2600K 4.5GHz (Overclock) = 02m:35s - Max Temp = 87c

 

[geofelt]

87c. is a bit hot.
I think you need to pay attention to that.

1. Is your H60 radiator oriented to draw in outside air which will help with cpu cooling but will not be so good for motherboard or gpu cooling.

2. A cooler needs a supply of cool intake air. How is your case cooling?
Try taking the case covers off and see how much of a difference that makes. If it is a bunch, you have a case cooling issue.

 

[Johan Kryger Haglert]

Keep your CPU some more.
Maybe Zen will interest you. Maybe 6 core Intel chips will do next year. The i7 2600K isn't awful yet.
I won't write anything about over-clocking but if you've got the room for all I care feel free to.

 

[PCGUY2015]

87c. is a bit hot.
I think you need to pay attention to that.

1. Is your H60 radiator oriented to draw in outside air which will help with cpu cooling but will not be so good for motherboard or gpu cooling.

2. A cooler needs a supply of cool intake air. How is your case cooling?
Try taking the case covers off and see how much of a difference that makes. If it is a bunch, you have a case cooling issue.

The fan on the cooler is in exaust position.. Meaning its taking the heat out of the case.. I have one front intake fan.. 2 side intake fans and 1 exaust fan which is the h60 fan.. They're all 120mm.. Maybe I should place the h60 fan in intake possition?

 

[PCGUY2015]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post it as a reference for anyone interested on benchmarks between the 2600k overclocked and the 6700k..I ran the same stress test I ran on my overclocked i7-2600K at 4.5GHz..on my friends i7-6700K at stock speeds here are the results..

Faster is better
i7-2600K 4.5GHz (Overclock) = 02m:35s - Max Temp = 87c
i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Stock) = 01m:47s - Max Temp = 54c

He has an Hyper EVO 212.. His 6700k is a little better but Im following all your advice.. I will keep my 2600k until something better comes up

 

[burtman88]

i have a i7 2600k overclocked at 4.5 ghz right now, i usually max out under full load at 36c. I've gotten it up to 4.8 ghz and sat at 43 c max. Also using Asus rog maximus and 580 gtx with 8 gb 2133 mhz ram. I am going with a new card first then mobo and cpu later. I am using a custom liquid cooling system i made 4 years back for it.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

87c. is a bit hot.
I think you need to pay attention to that.

1. Is your H60 radiator oriented to draw in outside air which will help with cpu cooling but will not be so good for motherboard or gpu cooling.

2. A cooler needs a supply of cool intake air. How is your case cooling?
Try taking the case covers off and see how much of a difference that makes. If it is a bunch, you have a case cooling issue.

The fan on the cooler is in exaust position.. Meaning its taking the heat out of the case.. I have one front intake fan.. 2 side intake fans and 1 exaust fan which is the h60 fan.. They're all 120mm.. Maybe I should place the h60 fan in intake possition?

Having it intake may help, fresh cool air from outside going over it. 87C is way too high, either drop your overclock and voltages or fix up your cooling or you soon wont have to even think about buying a new CPU..... you will certainly need one.

 

[devilac]

Bit-tech did a test of the question you want answer. a 2600K OC is only equal or slightly less when compare to the 6700K in stock clock. Once the 6700K is OC the 2600K is left in the dust.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2015/08/05/intel-skylake-review/7

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Bit-tech did a test of the question you want answer. a 2600K OC is only equal or slightly less when compare to the 6700K in stock clock. Once the 6700K is OC the 2600K is left in the dust.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2015/08/05/intel-skylake-review/7

but for gaming there isn't going to be any difference with the gtx960 gpu the OP has, its going to be gpu bottle-necked till you start going dual gpu's.

 

[the great randini]

you are still on tier 2, you should wait. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

we usually recommend that you only upgrade if you can move at least two tiers.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Hello! I have an i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Build with everything at stock speeds.. my friend just upgraded to i7-6700K Skylake.. was wondering if I overclock my system will It match or at least have an significant boost or should I upgrade to Skylake.. Also I know a little about overclocking.. What I know is that multiplier is the cpu speed.. and that power should be set according to cpu speed..Can anybody please explain to be the main concept of overclocking.. for example what are the following?

CPU PLL overvoltage
enhanced halt c1e
c6/c6 statesupport
cpu eist function
bi-directional prochot

Here is the list of my PC components
CPU = Intel Core i7-2600K
MOBO = Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Rev 2.0
RAM = Corsair Vengeance 16GB(4X4GB) DDR3 (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
PSU = Rosewill ARC 750
SSD = Kington HyperX FURY SSD (SH103S3240G)
CPU Cooler = Corsair H60
GPU = EVGA GTX 960 2GB 02G-P4-2962-KR

I know it may be a long explanation to all of this, but if anybody isn't busy or has the time to explain to me this things I'll appreciate it greatly.. I've searched about how to do this but to be honest I don't understand what they mean they use the words from above or others that I have no idea what they mean.. thank a lot

I'll put this plain and simple: unless you feel greatly constrained by your platforms I/Os, there is not and will not be a real reason to upgrade from a sandy i7 and up until intel(or amd) release 8-core/16-threads CPUs in this segment. That goes duble if you overclock. Basically, such an upgrade would mean paying top dollar for marginal gains. If 4c/8t CPU prices were in the i5 range, it would be another story.

Here's hoping AMD does a good job with Zen so Intel will stop selling us 4 core i7s.

 

[Peterwolf]

Hello! I have an i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Build with everything at stock speeds.. my friend just upgraded to i7-6700K Skylake.. was wondering if I overclock my system will It match or at least have an significant boost or should I upgrade to Skylake.. Also I know a little about overclocking.. What I know is that multiplier is the cpu speed.. and that power should be set according to cpu speed..Can anybody please explain to be the main concept of overclocking.. for example what are the following?

CPU PLL overvoltage
enhanced halt c1e
c6/c6 statesupport
cpu eist function
bi-directional prochot

Here is the list of my PC components
CPU = Intel Core i7-2600K
MOBO = Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Rev 2.0
RAM = Corsair Vengeance 16GB(4X4GB) DDR3 (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
PSU = Rosewill ARC 750
SSD = Kington HyperX FURY SSD (SH103S3240G)
CPU Cooler = Corsair H60
GPU = EVGA GTX 960 2GB 02G-P4-2962-KR

I know it may be a long explanation to all of this, but if anybody isn't busy or has the time to explain to me this things I'll appreciate it greatly.. I've searched about how to do this but to be honest I don't understand what they mean they use the words from above or others that I have no idea what they mean.. thank a lot

 

[Peterwolf]

Definitely. I have a Q9550 normal clock 2.83Ghz over clocked to 3.8Ghz using Antec Water Cooling and it has run that way for 3 years with no problems. Simply look around the net for your i7- 2600k and find out the best settings for air cooling & water cooling but remember each CPU is different so you may get a better overclock with yours or not quite reach what others have got.

 

[mcinjere]

Hello! I have an i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Build with everything at stock speeds.. my friend just upgraded to i7-6700K Skylake.. was wondering if I overclock my system will It match or at least have an significant boost or should I upgrade to Skylake.. Also I know a little about overclocking.. What I know is that multiplier is the cpu speed.. and that power should be set according to cpu speed..Can anybody please explain to be the main concept of overclocking.. for example what are the following?

CPU PLL overvoltage
enhanced halt c1e
c6/c6 statesupport
cpu eist function
bi-directional prochot

Here is the list of my PC components
CPU = Intel Core i7-2600K
MOBO = Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Rev 2.0
RAM = Corsair Vengeance 16GB(4X4GB) DDR3 (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
PSU = Rosewill ARC 750
SSD = Kington HyperX FURY SSD (SH103S3240G)
CPU Cooler = Corsair H60
GPU = EVGA GTX 960 2GB 02G-P4-2962-KR

I know it may be a long explanation to all of this, but if anybody isn't busy or has the time to explain to me this things I'll appreciate it greatly.. I've searched about how to do this but to be honest I don't understand what they mean they use the words from above or others that I have no idea what they mean.. thank a lot

not worth the cost imo. I have a 2011 2600k build.
recently bought a new 6700k build. cost me 1500 bucks.
my 2600k runs all the games the same.
spend the money on a corsair AIO cooler h100 or something.
spend the rest on a gtx 980ti
or wait for gtx 1080.
maybe upgrade ram if you got any left over.
OC your 2600k as high as the multi goes before it wont boot.
then pull it back 1 and see how it goes

 

[JamesSneed]

Nvidia is expected to announce the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 on Friday. Should be able to pick one up in June. That is the direction I would go to get the most gaming performance out of your current build.

 

[mcinjere]

Thank you everyone! I have successfully overclocked my system.. MOBO bios was very friendly.. I just raised the CPU multiplier to x45 and vcore to auto which I think is around 1.23 and 1.30 everything else left on auto.. I got an stable overclock.. been editing for more that 6 hours and no problems at all...
I used a video encoding software that uses all CPU power to test CPU performance.. here are the results before and after overclocking using all cores and threads.. please let me know if the temperatures are ok.. I have an Corsair H60

Faster is better
i7-2600K 3.8GHz (Stock) = 03m:23s - Max Temp = 68c
i7-2600K 4.5GHz (Overclock) = 02m:35s - Max Temp = 87c

87 is too hot. i think you could reseat the cooler and get better temps. i use to have an h60/2600k and i wasn't even going into 70's at 4.5

each cpu is different....but congrats on being brave enough to OC and try some new things

 

[ledhead11]

I used to have a similar setup as yours(Z68-but MSI instead, same memory back then) and 2600k. It's very easy to get it up to 4.20ghz w/o doing much(simply increasing the clock ratio). That tends to be a very safe speed as well temperature wise(just keep an eye on it and if it is looking hot or unstable try 4.00).

As others have stated the real thing you would want to upgrade at this point would be the GPU. Wait a month or so, PASCAL will be out and the landscape is going to change dramatically giving more economical options. The only real drawback you have with the 2600k is that it's limited to PCIe 2.0 even though your GPU and I think your MOBO support 3.0. Here's what that translates to:

PCIe 2.0 x 16 = PCIe 3.0 x 8

For a single GPU that won't affect much. I started w/ a pair of PNY 560ti's in SLI on mine, then a EVGA SC780, and then finally a pair of G1 970's before upgrading. Although many say that gaming may not use all the PCI lanes/bandwidth I saw about a 10-15% increase in FPS just by going to an X79 & 4930k(at the time running stock 3.4ghz).

I still have fond memories of my 2600k, it was a fun little hotrod. I think if you put a 980ti or something similar you'll be amazed at how much more life you'll get out of it.

I've also seen a common percentage for gaming on numerous I7's and I agree with others on this one as well. Once you reach a speed above 3.8/4 GHZ you'll rarely see CPU usage go above 75% and then only briefly while gaming. Video and Photo editing can tap out just about any CPU especially as only a handful of programs correctly access NVIDIA's CUDA cores.

If that MOBO supports it, add a couple more ssd's in raid for your game/media files and you'll also see more improved load/convert times.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Hi,
I'm on a Intel Core i5 2500K that I'm overclocking to 4.8 Ghz which has worked flawlessly for 5 years plus now.
I did upgrade to a ASUS GTX 970 when they came out which was a noticeable increase for the games I play including
Everquest 2, Diablo 3 and Rift. I also use a terabyte Samsung Pro 840 and use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for sound. The motherboard
is a ASUS P8P67 with 8 Gb RAM. This rig has worked incredibly well for a long time now. I replaced the original case and power supply for
aesthetic reasons a couple of years ago. I think I got lucky on the binning of the 2500K to be able to maintain 4.8 Ghz but I have also been
wondering if upgrading to a Skylake 6700K would make any speed difference and it seems most here don't think so. I would dearly love
a 980 Ti but other than that I don't have any reasons to upgrade. I was tempted by Win 10 for awhile and put it on my gaming laptop and have been disappointed by it every since. I'll stick with the Win 7 I have on the desktop. Newer is not always better imo.

I don't get you ppl. What exactly is dissapointing about windows 10?
And how in random's name would a new os not be better than a 7 year old one?
Would you put Android 2.x on a galaxy s7?

 

[nikoli707]

87c is far too warm. 80c is your max. at 4.5ghz the h60 should be providing much better temps. either the h60 is not making correct contact with the cpu/not installed incorrectly.... or you are running a much higher vcore than you think you are.

take a look at CompuTronix page about temperature and overclocking stability.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

you need to download the correct programs like prime 95 version 26.6 and some voltage/temp monitoring programs that can give you a much better idea of the actual vcore that your chip is seeing underload and also the extra voltage it sees from vdroop. otherwise 1.35v vcore is your max safe 24/7/365 overclock and whatever frequency it nets you is fine.