I7 4770K *Air cooled* planned build stable overclock?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630
Hey, pretty new here so I'll plan everything out into sections;
I'm planning on having a new PC build so I'm buying a part every month, and with the release of Haswell caught my eye with the 4600 IG... My main issue is with the overclock that will be available from air cooling, and no I will not be interested in water cooling solutions. I was hoping for a simple overclock through TPU switch or through Asus software one way or the other, but now I'm worried the temps will be too high.

Here is a list of my planned PC build:

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I VN7000 Snow edition (Already bought)
I7 4770k
Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME
Corsair Professional Series AX 860W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply
Thermaltake Frio OCK CLP0575 CPU Cooler
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit
Asus GeForce GTX 780 PCI-Express 3072MB
Corsair Force GS 180GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
Asus BC-12B1ST BluRay-Rom / DVD-RW Drive OEM

It would be so great if someone could do an air cooling test to see if this will be possible and I'll be happy to answer any questions :)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


I've seen that with the 4770k but on water, you see my concerns :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
Ordered an i7 4770k and an ASUS Maximus VI Hero. Going to pair it with my old Tuniq Tower Extreme and see what can be done on air.

I went with 2x8 GB kit, less power consumption. You could order a quad channel kit, same difference and they would all be matched, it would just run in dual channel mode.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


Updated the post, thanks dude. And would be great to hear some results from you, are you gonna use automatic TPU or manual? I'm a novice at OC so I wanna play it safe xD
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
I plan on a manual clock. I don't trust the voltage control on a lot of those auto over clocking systems.

Basically going to set the max temperature by voltage, shooting for 75C max. Once the voltage is set, ramp up the clock until it becomes unstable. A lot of options on this board, so it will probably take a few days to get the final config.

Parts arrive tomorrow, so I will be sure to get you the initial results late Friday. (I've also seen the majority of new builds go with closed loop liquid, so not a lot to compare to) I may end up with this as well, I got a used Asus DCUII GTX580 to match my current one, going to get toasty in there with 750watts of video card.

Replacing my i7 950 ~3.85Ghz (161x24) @ 1.175 volts 12GB Corsair Dominator 1600 (Couldn't get the ram to run at higher speeds even with loosened timings, but the chip was stable as low as 1.05 volts at this speed.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


When you say "unstable" does that basically mean BSOD's etc? xD And yes please do run tests and let me (us) know your findings, gets annoying how everyone uses water cooling and leaves it at that. I may do auto, and see if I can tweak it depending on what it spits out at me, what's a safe operating temp for this gen too?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
~90C is considered safe but undesirable. Most chips will shut themselves down (or self throttle these days) at 90-100C.
Safe temperature is also relative. The higher the temperature (and voltage) the quicker the chip will degrade. Now I upgrade every 3 years or so, so it isn't that critical to play it safe. If the machine is under constant load it isn't wise to let it run at high temps or high voltages.

Now from everything I've read so far, Haswell chips run about 10C hotter then Ivy chips on average. So 4.5Ghz is probably unrealistic unless it turns out to be an excellent chip. But that is why I am re-using my Tuniq Tower Extreme, it was designed for 200W, and it does a great job with keeping my 130W i7 at about 65 under full load.

I think 4.2 or 4.3 Ghz is probably within reason, and that would be close to the same performance as an i7-3770k at 4.6 or 4.7.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


Will be great to hear your results dude :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
Seems like I got an average chip.

4.3Ghz (100x43) 1.2volts prime95 didn't break 60C though so that is rather pleasing, side panels off though. Need to see how it fairs in gaming.

Couldn't get it to boot on anything with a higher multiplier, even with voltage increases. Just kept crashing during Windows boot up.

Well, so far I've got it stable at 4.3 Ghz, but I am having issues navigating this BIOS. I still can't figure out why it is idling at 3.5Ghz, it's neat, but I would rather run it at the appropriate clock all the time while I see what it can do. Can turn the power saving stuff on later.

i7-4770k - Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme (70CFM fan by Xigmatek, stock one burned out about 6months back)
ASUS Maximus VI Hero
2x8GB G.Skill Sniper 1866
ASUS DCUII GTX580 SLI
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
Update:

1.2volts wasn't enough for AIDA stability, upped it to 1.25 and that seemed to solve it. Still can't break the 4.3Ghz wall, I may be ram limited again, but performance and temperature wise it is quite good.

Now just need to figure out how to get air into that first video card...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


How comes the volts weren't enough? and that's still a relatively decent OC, you using the Intel Heatsink? EPU settings might be on?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
As you increase voltage the temperature under load (and at idle) goes up. I've seen a few charts of voltages required to reach 4.4 and 4.5 Ghz with Haswell, but my cooling is not adequate to make the attempt. It would probably be something like 1.35 volts, which is pushing un-safe territory. This is when it would be wise to switch to water-cooling.

4.3Ghz @ 1.25 volts, under full load it was reaching just shy of 80C, which is above where I would like to keep it. So 1.25 will be adequate for gaming, rendering, encoding, etc as the CPU should never be that stressed.

Now there is one remaining thing to try. I can clock the RAM to something reasonable like 1600Mhz and see if that will push it higher, but I will probably leave it as is for now.

Parts in the machine are in the posts above and it is not a stock Intel heatsink (can never get those things to seat properly anyway). I am using the Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme, an older heatsink that was designed with a 200W thermal ceiling for 1st gen i7s at 130W (which when overvoltaged could actually reach 200W). In reality this 84W chip would melt before reaching anywhere near that TDP. It does seem more then adequate for 4.3Ghz, which is as fast as the chip seems to want to go anyway.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


Well, you sir have my chip :p i'll be happy with what you've got tbh haha
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
H

Harry Turner

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
80
0
10,630


I thought I'd update you and everyone on here, I bought most of my parts and have it running as I'm typing this :) ! I managed to OC to 4.4 at 1.25 and my temps went around 75 MAX (But did have one crash playing a game for unknown reasons so I decided to drop it slightly to 4.2 at 1.22V and that seems to come during gaming at a max of 65-70 degrees :) HOWEVER. To anyone reading this DO NOT buy a Phanteks twin radiator cooler with the Maximus VI EXTREME MOBO. the metal hooks seem to cover the first PCIe x16 slot. Otherwise all is good, I may try to match you at 4.3 or maybe 4.4 again but we shall see :p + I am using the HD4600 IG, May be cooler when I disable that later on when I get my 780 :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Eximo

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
May 27, 2010
25,966
4,251
139,340
I also have a few updates. Vin to the chip and LLC are your friends for stability with this rig. Even the first LLC level seems to prevent crashes.

4.2Ghz @ 1.2v , Vin auto, no LLC, stable 95% of the time, 75C peak tuniq tower 120 extreme
4.2Ghz @ 1.238v , Vin 1.6 volts, no LLC. Stable peaks 79C peak, h80i stock
4.3Ghz @ 1.25v , Vin 1.7 volts, LLC first level. Stable, 80C peaks h80i doubled pump speed, single fan 80%
4.5Ghz @ 1.35v , Vin 1.8 volts, LLC first level. Stable, but runs at 100C under full load. h80i max fan and pump

Ended up using a h80i as my final solution CPU cooler for the moment. When the 800 series Nvidia cards come out I'll make room for a real water loop instead of my stop-gap solution I used to get dual GTX580s from killing each other. Though surprisingly workable, even overclocked them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom