Can't get past 4.1ghz @ 1.25v with i5 4670k

cheekibreeki

Honorable
Aug 11, 2013
51
0
10,630
Hey people,

I'm really new to overclocking. I know the basics of stability, core voltage, base clock and multipliers, but I've run into a massive wall overclocking my 4670k. I'm using a hyper 212 plus, and I can't get my system to run stable past 4.1ghz. I had to turn up the voltage to 1.275 just to get that stable, which are voltages that many people (even with bad chips as are many haswells) use running their systems at 4.4ghz.. At first I thought I had applied the thermal paste really terrible, so I completely re-applied it (spreading it with an old creditcard until it was an even, thin layer. The thermal paste itself is 98% silver compound btw, I just bought the most expensive one they had.

I have now overclocked my system to 4.0 ghz with OCgenie (I have an msi g45 z87 board) and my idle temps are around 25°C. However, when I fire up prime95 my temperature skyrockets to around 68°C with peaks of up to 75°, and a core voltage of 1.333v!!

I've attached a picture of both my temps and the thermal paste.

img]https://imageshack.com/i/nl5gucj[/img]
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Is it just my bad overclocking, the thermal paste, or have I received the worst haswell chip ever?

Kind regards,
Cheeki.
 

zAustin

Honorable
Oct 18, 2013
169
0
10,760
Those temps are not out of the ordinary, I have an i5-3570k with the Cooler Master T4 (smaller version of the previously known 212) overclocked to 4.6GHz and on Battlefield 4 at about 90%+ CPU utilization 4.6GHz frequency, it gets in the mid 60's. As big of a pain in the ass as installing the T4 was, it should have spread my thermal paste more than enough to get enough contact. Obviously, the cooler the better, computers love it, but those temperatures are completely fine and relatively normal. Typically your computer will only hit those temps and that frequency only when you game or video render which is not 24/7, so it's not like it's putting a big load on your computer all of the time. Another good idea to help the temps a little bit if you have not done so already, is to lower the voltage in your BIOS as low as you can get it while remaining 100% stable, and customizing your CPU fan speed % according to CPU temperature. At idle, mine spins at 1,300RPM so it will keep cool and quiet at the same time, and kicks up to 1,800-2,000 at 65C+ so my headphones drown out the sound of the fan when playing a game.