Maximum Safe i5-6600K overclock that will last 3yrs+

4,5 ghz is a nice stable oc.

People always want to cheat on this and then wonder why their system continually crashed or components die. Overclocking is never a sure thing. You increase it by a very small amount and then stress test it. If it's stable, you can increases by another very small amount and then stress test it again. Continue in this fashion until your system is no longer stable and then back down to the last stable state and test once more. There is no promise that you will get a stable overclock.

-Wolf sends

^with respect to the rant, we've also seen a large number of 'my AIO isn't working' and the pump is dead, with no notice, leaving the cpu sitting at 90+C, and the pump isn't replaceable. If the fan on an air HS dies, you replace the fan, and you have a great big lump of copper soaking up heat, meaning it takes a long time to get to 90+C if it ever does get that far.

Sort of offtopic but if this is a gaming machine you have not yet bought why the heck are you buying a GTX 960, a previous-gen mid-range GPU, with an expensive CPU, water cooler that is unnecessary and loud, and motherboard???

No there is no guarantee you can overclock at all. Intel only guarantees their chips for what they come at with stock settings.

Not all chips will do 4.7.
Be satisfied with what you can get..
For certain you will do considerably better than the stock 3.5.

When you up the max multiplier and leave voltages on auto, the motherboard will automatically raise the vcore.
CPU-Z will confirm your vcore and current multiplier if you want to monitor.
One can set various voltages and perhaps get a higher result if you know what you are doing.
Look for a skylake overclocking thread.

Well at least you have a sense of humor. I like that.

Exactly.
Use small increments.

As I suggested before, use OCCT. Prime95 and IBT are simpler, but they do not stress what you will actually be running.

The only settings I personally applied to run at a very safe 4.6 GHz by setting VCore to 1.355 V in the BIOS are:

----For the CPU:
[1]-CPU VCore at 1.355 V,
[2]-CPU Core Ratio at 46,
[3]-Uncore Ratio at 45,
[4]-FCLK at 1 GHz,
[5]-Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) on "Profile 1",
[6]-PCH at Auto,
[7]-CPU VCore Loadline Calibration (LLC) on High, and
[8]-Internal Graphics Disabled (using graphics cards instead).
and
-----For the memory:
[9]- System Memory Multiplier (32),
[10]-CAS Latency (15),
[11]-tRCD (17),
[12]-tRP (17),
[13]-tRAS (28),
[14]-DRAM Voltage (CH A/B) 1.35 V (from 1.30 V stable to ensure increased stability), and
[15]-Memory Enhancement Settings to "Relax OC"
[16]-Command Rate (tCMD) 1.

---------> All the other settings are left on their default value (see below).

Below are all the settings as listed in the BIOS:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced Frequency Settings
Performance Upgrade Auto
CPU Base Clock Auto
Graphics Slice Ratio Auto
Graphics Unslice Ratio Auto
CPU Upgrade Auto
CPU Clock Ratio 46 <----------------- [2]
FCLK Frequency For Early Power 1 GHz <----------------- [4]
Advanced CPU Settings
- Repeat
- Repeat
Uncore Ratio 45 <----------------- [3]
CPU Flex Override Disabled
Intel Turbo Boost Technology Auto
Turbo Ratio (1-4 Core) Auto
Package Power Limit
-- to --
Number Of Cores Enabled All Auto
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)
-- to --
C8 State Support All Enabled
Package C-State Limit
-- to --
CPU EIST Function All Auto
Residency State Reg. (RSR)
-- to --
Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch All Enabled
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) Profile 1 <----------------- [5]
System Memory Multiplier 32.00 <----------------- [9]
Advanced Memory Settings
- Repeat
- Repeat
Memory Boot Mode Auto
Memory Enhancement Settings Relax OC <----------------- [15]
Memory Timing Mode Manual
Memory Multiplier Tweaker Auto
Channel Interleaving Enabled
Rank Interleaving Enabled
IMC Timing Settings All Unchanged
Channel A Memory Sub Timings
- Repeat
- Repeat
CAS Latency 15 <----------------- [10]
tRCD 17 <----------------- [11]
tRP 17 <----------------- [12]
tRAS 28 <----------------- [13]
Channel A Advanced Timing Control
Unchanged Except
Command Rate (tCMD) 1 <----------------- [16]
Channel B Memory Sub Timings
- Repeat
- Repeat
All Unchanged
Advanced Voltage Settings
Advanced Power Settings
CPU VCore Loadline Calib. High <----------------- [7]
VAXG Loadline Calibration Auto
CPU Core Voltage Control
CPU VCore 1.355V <----------------- [1]
CPU Graphics Voltage (VAXG) Auto
CPU VCCIO Auto
CPU System Agent Voltage Auto
CPU Core PLL Overvoltage Auto
Chipset Voltage Control
PCH Core Auto <----------------- [6]
DRAM Voltage Control
DRAM Voltage (CH A/B) 1.300 V <----------------- [14]
DRAM Training Voltage (A/B) Auto
DDRVPP Voltage (CH A/B) Auto
DRAM Termination (CH A/B) Auto
Internal VR Control All Unchanged
BIOS Features All Unchanged
Peripherals All Unchanged
Chipset Unchanged Except
Internal Graphics Disabled <----------------- [8]
Power Management All Unchanged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury (C14 - 2133 MHz) 16GB (4 x 4GB)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 X (single fan)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 Black Mid Tower w/Side Panel Window (rather large so as to fit two graphic cards in SLI).
Graphics: 2 x MSI GTX 970 in SLI mode both overclocked at 1501 MHz and with DDR5 Memory at 4001 MHz (each).
The rig is totally stable on all tests available on Prime95 (v 28.9 build 2) - Cinebench R15 gives a score of 766-767 constantly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that I didn't disable Turbo Boost because when I tried this, it didn't give me as good a performance (speed, power, temp.)
Both VCCIO and the System Agent Voltage (VCCSA) seem to be set at 1.25 V automatically by the MoBo rules.
Here is a picture of the inside of my rig: http://imageshack.com/a/img923/3196/PjaqTS.png

lol phillipew you make it sound so hard with all those settings.
I got 4.6ghz, auto voltage,auto everything except FCLK IS 1GHZ, Uncore 4.5ghz, xmp profile turned on so my ram runs at 3000mhz.
Temps 75'sh on intel burn test, 50-60's in game.
and with auto voltage it turns down the voltage. using CPUID it shows my voltage at 1.2'sh at idle, 1.3'sh volts using intel burn test, biggest spike i have seen is 1.355v

@phillipew and others;
I note that your vcore is 1.356 at idle and at load.
If you implement speedstep and use adaptive voltage, your multiplier will lower to perhaps 8 and your vcore will be about 0.8 when idle. A good thing to do, I think.

I have speedstep enabled, i tried adaptive voltage but my bios would say overclock failed, so went back to auto voltage.

Well it's just a dump of my BIOS. If you look closely, you will notice that most of the settings are either "Unchanged", "Auto", "Enabled / Disabled" (as per default). Even the Auto Voltage is left on "Auto" as per default.

The only settings "I" applied are for the CPU VCore at 1.355 V, CPU Core Ratio at 46, Uncore Ratio at 45, FCLK at 1 GHz, XMP on Profile 1, PCH (1.00 V) which can also stay on default (0.97 V), LLC on High, and Internal Graphics Disabled (using graphics cards).

This is about the same as you before you mention any parameters for the memory running at a cool 3200 MHz [System Memory Multiplier (32), CAS Latency (15), tRCD (17), tRP (17), tRAS (28)] --> all starting with a C14 HyperX Fury 2133.

My temps are low at around 67C max on IBT (Intel Burn Test), 52C in-game, 56C absolute max on Prime95 (constant) with a cheap single fan air cooler.

The voltage is very similar to yours (have you tested on Prime95 for at least 10 hours for absolute stability?) and is dependent on the quality of the silicon (there are much better results than yours out there). ;-)...

The extra info gives some context to beginners who may be wondering what an overclocked BIOS may look like and you are right, it's really not all that much or that complicated. I am sorry if it looks that way...

Yes, speedstep is "ON" and controlled from Windows through the "Balanced" setting of the Power Plan. So at idle the frequency of the CPU (you are ritght) does fall to 8 (800 MHz) but the voltage (CPU VCore) has been manually set (forced) at 1.355 in the BIOS and with the "CPU Load Line Calibration" (LLC) parameter being on "High", it is meant to hardly fluctuate (just between 1.344 and 1.356).

That's the whole point of LLC. If I leave LLC on "Auto", my voltage will go as low as 1.284 under load, and as high as 1.344 at idle (lots of fluctuation). Remember that the voltage (V - volt) is automatically reduced under load to limit the power consumption (W - watt) as the current (A - amp.) is also higher under load and P (W) = U (V) x I (A). As the voltage is reduced under load, which is exactly at the time the CPU needs it most (being under OC load), the voltage reduction causes crashes or at least errors in Prime95 calculations with "workers" (processor cores) stopping (red). Keeping a mostly constant voltage is best for stability, particularly for an aggressive overclocking.

So this "automatic lowering of the voltage under load" is good for power savings (a few dollars per year... enough for an ice cream) but not for overclock stability. LLC's role is to reduce this voltage fluctuation. The higher the LLC, the more it will reduce fluctuation under any circumstances. Asus boards have several LLC levels (1 to 7 I think) and other boards also have "Very High" and "Extreme". Mine only has "Auto", "Standard" (= low), and "High" (a budget SLI MoBo). As an overclocker, never forget that LLC is your friend ;-).

Of course there are much better results then mine, never said mine was awesome or anything.
I don't run stress tests for hours on end, I run ibt for one hour and that's good enough for me as I have never crashed doing the things I use my computer for(99% gaming)
Honestly that huge list looks simple to the average overclocker but I think the newbs are gonna take a look at that list and get scared lol. Skylakes are the easiest cpu I have ever overclocked, don't need a fancy motherboard or anything just grab a z170 board and go to town lol.