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100% safe overclock?

Last response: in Overclocking
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http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172755
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180490
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173537

I'm planning on building a system with the above CPU, motherboard, and RAM.

The clock speed of 2.66Ghz on that processor looks dissapointing.

The system is intended to eventually include an ATI HD5970 graphics card, with a second Nvidia graphics card for dedicated PhysX support. (Probably my old 8800GTX if oven baking fixes it. Or an 8800GTS or similar)

I worry that the standard clock speed of the processor ( Core i5 quad 750) will bottleneck the system and prevent me getting the most out of the HD5970.

Am I right to think this?

If so, what would be a sensible limit to overclock that processor to?

I believe I heard that it's relatively easy to overclock it to about 3.5Ghz without even increasing the voltage.

Would that be a good place to stop? Basically, this is a new processor. I do not want to risk damaging it. I also plan on using it for the forseeable future. Let's say at least 3 years. So I don't want to be decreasing its lifespan to shorter than that.

I'm not sure how much overclocking a processor without changing the Vcore DOES decrease the lifespan.

So I could really do with some advice about that.

I don't want to overclock to the limit, I just want to avoid bottlenecking and get some extra value out of the processor.

Also, should the processor suddenly develop a fault, does having overclocked void the warranty? Could they even tell that I had overclocked it if it burned out?

Is it less safe to increase the Vcore? I'd prefer to completely avoid causing any potential danger, if possible. Though I imagine if that was entirely possible, there would be no reason for the processor being 2.66Ghz in the first place.

Also, do I need to be aware of anything regarding the RAM? I'm not sure how CPUs, motherboards, and RAM compatibility works. I believe it should work fine.
I heard a horror story about someone running 1600Mhz Ram and it overheating their motherboard. Surely that can't really be a likely situation? It's rated for much higher ram speeds!

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Overclocking Expert

The I5 at its 2.66 is plenty fast to not bottleneck your GPU but if you do want to overclock it, It will overclock to 3.8ghz with a slight bump in vcore but well within its spec you will not degrade its lifespan by much if any with a moderate overclock. Core speed is not as much as a factor in a systems performance like it used to be so the 2,66 clock for clock is faster then lets say a core2 quad by atleast 40%. When overclocking you will always have to up the vcore a little to maintain stability but its usually well within intels specs which you can find on there website.

Thanks for that.

I'm currently thinking that I might hold off on overclocking until the warranty runs out. Then I'll go up to a safe value. No doubt I'll need it more by then anyway.

Haha, I also just found some information showing that the Corei5 750 is actually superior to a Core i7 920 in some games. That's nuts.
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I'm sure you know, but I figured I would mention it. The two things that will degrade your processor are heat and voltage. Keeping it cool with a good aftermarket heatsink and keeping it under Intel's max recommended voltage will keep it running WELL beyond your warranty period and then some.

Hm. The annoying thing is that I have no idea what heatsink and fan the processor comes with when purchased. All it says is "intel reference heatsink and fan".

I do have a heatsink and fan already from my Core 2 Duo rig. Is there anything DIY I could do to use both together? Probably not the heatsinks, but maybe I could link up the two fans together? Would that improve cooling or just bugger up the air flow?
Overclocking Expert

saaiello said:
Just go spend $35 on a Cooler master hyper 212+ not worth messing with the cooling on your build for $35 you can save yourself a problem later on.


^+1, the stock Intel coolers are usually ONLY good for stock speed and sometimes even then it's pushing it.

Well, I just downloaded the temperature information, but I can't make head or tail of it.

Rather than simply telling me a maximum temperature for a Core i5 750, there instead seems to be a graph of temperature vs Watts. I have no idea what it means.
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