Overclocking i5 2500k - need some help please

[ekans]

Hello,

First I'd like to say I am new to overclocking and today was my first attempt at it. I am trying to overclock my i5 2500k, my mobo is Gigabyte Z68AP-D3. I am very sorry that I have to post here and ask these questions, but I spent whole today googling to find the information need and some things are still unclear to me.

So if I understand correctly, the goal is to find the highest clock you can get while having the lowest voltage, right? Or simply finding the lowest stable voltage for the overclock you picked.

I found several guides that were written for my CPU and mobo, but I have two issues. First, the temperatures I get seem too high (I use Core Temp and RealTemp for this). After a few minutes Small FFT test in Prime95, the temperatures get to 80°C! That is with overclock 4.5 GHz and 1.3V vcore. I used this guide:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18338090

I have all these settings except the Advanced Voltage Settings, when I used those written there, I couldn't change voltage and it was at 1.34V and I want to try go lower. Also I don't have CPU SMART FAN CONTROL disabled, because I don't think I need the fan going full speed all the time, or do I? I don't really play any games except WoW, but that is very demanding for CPU.

I am using Noctua NH-D14 as the cooler for CPU. I also have Enermax ETS-T40 TB available. Do you think I could achieve lower temperatures with the Enermax?

Thanks for reading this and if anyone is willing to help, I'd be very grateful.

Denisa

 

[nikoli707]

the noctua is a very premium air cooler and your temps should not be that high. how did you apply the thermal compound?

do not copy bios settings that work for others as every chip is different. overclocking is a process and its going to take at least a day to find your "stock" max overclock. after that you can start playing around with the vcore and other settings to get a little bit higher one step at a time.

 

[ekans]

I bought this CPU+mobo+cooler as a bundle and the cooler was never taken off since it was bought, today I took it off and cleaned the layer of thermal paste that seemed way too thick. I applied new paste by squirting a little in the middle, a little less than a pea size.

Now I am running Prime95 for 20 minutes and the core temps are around 68°C, but seems like they aren't going higer anymore. I left vcore on auto, turned turbo off and changed the multiplier to 40x. I think the temperatures are still a bit too high for 4 GHz and 1.25V vcore (at least that's what CPU-Z shows me, it goes between 1.23 - 1.25).

I don't understand why the temperatures get so high, my goal was 4.5 GHz but now it seems I will have this 4 GHz setup if it's stable after a few hours in P95.

 

[nikoli707]

your temps are going to tapper down the next few days as the thermal coumpound cures. running something like prime for some long hours to get the heat up can help the curing process.

my hyper 212 keeps my temps well in check for 4.4ghz. i manually run 1.320v in the bios and my actual prime/ibt load voltage is 1.284v but usually holds 1.296v, its goes up as high as 1.328. for 4.5ghz i need to hold a minimum of about 1.328v and for 4.6ghz it needs 1.356v minimum load voltage. but my problem is at idle for 4.6ghz i get up to 1.396v which is getting close to 1.40v and i would prefer to have a much better cooler if im getting voltage spikes that high, not to mention i hit about 83-84c under full load after 30 minutes or so, so i need better cooling. ive done a suicide gaming benchmark run at 4.8ghz before and i just plugged in a 1.42v vcore and was just running 3dmark pcmark unigine etc. and my temps never went above 75c, but i have no clue if it was prime stable and it was only for the lenth of the benchmarks then back down to my 1.30v-ish 4.4ghz everyday overclock.

with your noctua should be able to get under 80c load with 4.6ghz and 1.35v. let that paste cure and give it a shot after a day or two, you will be able to notice your temps tapper down.

 

[Calculatron]

The Enermax is a good cooler, roughly on par with the Hyper 212 EVO, but the Noctua NH-D14 is amongst the top-tier of cooling solutions. So definitely go with the Noctua.