Intel i7-4770K first time overclocking

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Dec 19, 2013
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Hello guys,
I want to overclock my Intel Core i7-4770K CPU. My motherboard is an ASUS ROG Maximus VI Hero, with Z87 chipset.
The CPU is liquid cooled by a Corsair H100i and Gelid GC Extreme thermal paste.

This is the first time that I overclock a CPU, so I really don't know where to start.
I would to keep the overclock for daily use, no benchmark.

How should I proceed? What do you suggest to me?
And, which software to test the CPU stability?

Thank you very much!
 
Solution
First thing to do is go into the bios and turn your multiplier form Auto to manual and set all the cpu multipliers to 45 and the cpu core voltage to manual mode. Make the voltage 1.25. Run HWMontir to watch your temps and Run 10 passes of Intel Burn Test. If your stable and your temps are in the low 80's or less, go back to bios and raise the multipliers and repeat the test, if you crash but the temps are fine add voltage in increments of 0.005v until you dont crash running intel burn test (dont surpass 1.45v). Once you found you maximum voltage and multiplier you are stable at, run 25 passes of Intel Burn at 'very high' settign to be sure. Also you can download AIDA64 and run the stress test on that overnight to make sure all is...

AndrewBlake

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Oct 8, 2013
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I believe, although I am not an expert, that you could boost that core up to 4.2 GHz in the BIOS without changing the voltage. You should check its stability with some temperature monitoring software such as SpeedFan and run a stress test with something such as Prime95.

If you get a BSOD, try decreasing the clock speed if you don't want to mess with the voltage, or increase the voltage if you are fine with doing so. You could continue increasing the voltage and clock speed slowly to achieve higher speeds but remember to keep running stress tests to make sure your computer is stable.
 

wicked_sticky

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Nov 1, 2015
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First thing to do is go into the bios and turn your multiplier form Auto to manual and set all the cpu multipliers to 45 and the cpu core voltage to manual mode. Make the voltage 1.25. Run HWMontir to watch your temps and Run 10 passes of Intel Burn Test. If your stable and your temps are in the low 80's or less, go back to bios and raise the multipliers and repeat the test, if you crash but the temps are fine add voltage in increments of 0.005v until you dont crash running intel burn test (dont surpass 1.45v). Once you found you maximum voltage and multiplier you are stable at, run 25 passes of Intel Burn at 'very high' settign to be sure. Also you can download AIDA64 and run the stress test on that overnight to make sure all is stable.


Use Intel Burn test and/or AIDA64 for stress test. Not Prime95. And always make sure you are in manual voltage mode not adaptive when stress testing.
When your doen, you have to change the voltage in the BIOS back to adaptive and use the same voltage you had when you were in manual mode (adaptive adjusts the voltage as needed so you preserve the life of the chip but stress testing and only stress testing makes adaptive mode forces extra voltage into your chip)

There any number of posts about Prime95 incompatibility with Haswell chips on this site alone. Prime95 is screwy with some voltage settings, your temps will be higher and even if you get prime95 to pass stability doesnt actually mean its stable. PRIME95 is excellent for other cpus just not the 4770k.
 
Solution

Aaron9546

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Jul 18, 2015
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Exact same as me haha I've got mine on x45 multiplier ( 4.5GHz ) and auto voltage ( max it goes on auto is 1.250v but all motherboards are different ) just gaming and browsing your never going to get bsod but safer to bring it down to around x42 I've had mine at x47 never bsod'd but the auto voltage was too high for me at 1.350

Edit: With Prime95 on x47 ( 4.7GHz ) The temps were massively too high shooting up to 80 and fast bsod but gaming I did a 18 hour on Fallout 4 on 4.7GHz not a single bsod temps on 68c max it's on 4.5 to be safe now and max temps are 61c around that

*personal experience all cpu's are different*
 

wicked_sticky

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Nov 1, 2015
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Prime95 doesnt work with 4770k... unless your using version 26.6 or earlier. Your stability or temps wont reflect your bios settings. Use IBT or AIDA64.

My 4770k with a 4.1 multiplier using a dinky hyper 212 cooler hit 95C with prime, 77 with Intel Burn Test (which is supposed to stress a cpu much more that prime does), That when I started looking around the forumsand Intels site and learned not to use Prime95 on a haswell chip. I can do 45GHZ stable on IBT 50 passes and 12 hours of AIDA64 never had a BSOD in 2 years. Using Prime to test stability will only hold you back.
 

Aaron9546

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Jul 18, 2015
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You could deffo have a 4770k on 4.8-5GHz with a decent chip and experience 1 or 2 bsod's in a year haha