What is the highest safe voltage for the i5 2500k?

intel says 1.5v I think. My mobo defaults to 1.5 max current as well.

What are your temps?

One of the testers on Tom's ( Crashman ) started seeing problems running at over 1.4v. Personally I am at 1.35v with temps in the 60s with Prime 95. I could squeeze a few more hundred megahertz out of this chip I'm sure but 4.5 is plenty fast for me.

My temps on prime 95 are low 50s atm. I know you CAN turn the voltage up to 1.5V but I heard if you go this high it can fry your chip. Do you guys know if this is true?

1.5v is the top voltage not the voltage you should even consider for everyday use and the cooling you're using may or may not allow even touching that high of a voltage.

You have headway if you want to go higher, if from both your posts your P95 is low 50s at 4.5ghz @ 1.28vcore.

I would suggest using your increases as a guide staying within the thermal throttling window, and go as high as you want staying below 1.45v to stay on the safe side.

But for 24/7 running stay below 1.4v, with your voltage reported at 4.5ghz you should easily be able to run 4.7 well within safe ranges with no problem.

Even though I can run 5.0ghz stable, (CPU-Z Validation Below), I have no intentions of running that voltage 24/7!

I run 4.5ghz 24/7, as it accomplishes everything I do so well, running any higher just is not necessary.

But FYI I've clocked in stable at, 46x, 47x, 48x, 49x, and 50x.

Just as a counterpoint, I've been running at 1.504v for a 24/7 overclock since I put my machine together during the last week of January. I made sure to keep my temps below 75ºC when I had "big air" cooling, and a recent water cooling kit purchase keeps the peak Prime95 temps no higher than 61ºC.

I run Einstein@Home so even when I'm not actively using my computer, it keeps all four CPU cores loaded as well as using CUDA to keep my GTX 570 loaded too. I tend to reboot once a week or so, unless there's a specific need to do so sooner. I don't power down unless there's a storm or something, so the machine's been running pretty much constantly since January.

I wouldn't suggest this to everyone, and I've probably been lucky ... but it is possible to run long-term at 1.5v CPU voltage.

For most users who don't need to go extreme like I do, I recommend keeping the CPU voltage at or below 1.4v for an everyday overclock. The peak Prime95 core temps should be kept below 75ºC.

I asked this question in another thread...

When you set your voltage to 1.504v, and then load up your CPUs, how do you keep the voltage from increasing to higher levels? When I set my CPU voltage to 1.4v for a 4.8GHz OC, and then run something that loads up the cores, my Vcore will spike to 1.56v. It goes back down when the run is complete.

When it does that, it means that you're not setting the voltage high enough. The board will give it extra "emergency" voltage in that case. That's what I found on my board at least. If I increased the voltage in the BIOS, the load voltage actually decreased. When I set it at 1.4v in the BIOS, the load voltage would be 1.6v because the board was feeding it too much emergency voltage. Thankfully I noticed right away. When I set it at 1.45v, the load voltage was 1.55v. At 1.500v in the BIOS (and +0.004 Additional Turbo Voltage), it doesn't increase beyond 1.504v at load. Unfortunately, I don't know if all boards do this, or just my ASRock P67 Pro3 board.

Your response depends on what is more important...

If the max voltage is more important, then you will need to decrease your CPU speed until it draws no more than 1.4v at load.

If the CPU speed is more important, then you will need to increase the CPU voltage until the BIOS voltage and load voltage match.

Your volts are perfect!...No need to go any higher on overclocking...4.5ghz is overkill! lol

Personally I wouldn't go higher than 1.4v for 24/7 use but that's a matter of taste. My i7 2600K is plenty fast for me at 4.5 ghz 1.29 vcore