I7-2600k on Gigabyte z68x-ud7-b3 board

[CYT]

Recently, I just build my own rig using i7-2600k cpu, Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 motherboard, 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz CL9 memory 9-9-9-24, gigabyte GTX 590 graphic card and two vertex 3 240gb solid state drives. I'm a newbie on overclocking issue, but managed to overclock it to 5.0ghz following some online guide but it is not stable at all after running intel burn-in test and prime95. To get stable speed, I have to somewhat lower it down to 4.4ghz. Although it passes the prime95 test for 8 hours of run, it fails the intel burn-in test (v2.5.1) at 'very high' stress setting mode. It passes the 'standard' and 'high' stress setting though. My current stable speed for workstation and gaming use is about 4.3ghz maximum. I read somewhere online that there many who can get the i7-2600k cpu to run stable at 4.8ghz using similar system and same cpu stressing softwares. For mine, it can't get past 4.4 ghz. Is 4.3ghz is the limit stable speed for my cpu ? Any expert overclockers here care to give me some advice on how to tweak the system to get higher stable speed. I have disabled turbo boost and LLC and set everything else to 'AUTO' mode.

 

[apache_lives]

what voltage are you running for the cpu?

if it doesnt want to sit at 5ghz then lower the overclock - dont expect it to just work at the speed you want it doesnt work that way

also dont max out all the v's just to get a few extra mhz at the risk of destroying your chip its not worth it

 

[CYT]

The cpu voltage at 4.3ghz-4.4ghz is about 1.36v. For 5ghz, I set LLC to level 7 and voltage to 1.41v, turbo boost is disabled, while the rest of the system settings remain at default or 'AUTO'. I can boot into windows smoothly without error, but the moment I run prime95, two workers thread stopped due to 'Hardware failure'. I have read somewhere that not every cpu is made the same whereby some may go stable at slightly higher speed, but not others. Right now, I have lowered it to 4.3ghz as it passes both the prime95 test and intel burn-in test. At 4.4ghz, it fails to pass the 'very high' stress setting mode of the intel burn-in test but passes the lower stress setting modes.

 

[denny1980]

I have the exact same setup as you, to get 5.0 stable you have to have a really good watercooling kit. I use the cool-it eliete which is a peltier unit. Turn your Vcore to 1.51,1.22qpi,1.60 ram volts and you should be fine. When i get home ill take some screenshots of my setup exatly for you to make it easier.

 

[CYT]

I have the exact same setup as you, to get 5.0 stable you have to have a really good watercooling kit. I use the cool-it eliete which is a peltier unit. Turn your Vcore to 1.51,1.22qpi,1.60 ram volts and you should be fine. When i get home ill take some screenshots of my setup exatly for you to make it easier.

Thanks a lot. That will be useful for newbie like me.

 

[benikens]

I'm running similar rig and when i overclocked i hit a similar issue at 4.5ghz, had to go to 4.4ghz to get stable which I'd like to push further if i could find out how.

 

[denny1980]

I just updated my bios and a couple things changed,if that doesnt work use auto on your qpi,and 1.52volts on your vcore and mine runs 30c idle and 65-70c with 100% load on prime 95.There is actually a few more settings you need i cant remember exactly though so hopefully when i get home ill have time to turn my computer on so i can write them down for you.

 

[jsc]

I saw a thread on another forum about watercooling the Intel K's that said that only about 10% of the 2500K's will run at 5.0 GHz with stability under load.

 

[CYT]

I just updated my bios and a couple things changed,if that doesnt work use auto on your qpi,and 1.52volts on your vcore and mine runs 30c idle and 65-70c with 100% load on prime 95.There is actually a few more settings you need i cant remember exactly though so hopefully when i get home ill have time to turn my computer on so i can write them down for you.

Look forward to your reply soon. Thanks a lot.

 

[denny1980]

Look forward to your reply soon. Thanks a lot.

i'll get the information for you tonight when i get home for sure. message me if you have any other questions about overclocking video cards or anything at all =P i've gone through dozens of sets of proc,mem,and boards overclocking and burning up testing lol. So don't worry i'll test everything on my machine before i tell you what to set it at. I had a 965 extreme proc 1366 socket overclocked to 4.2 for over 2 years with 0 issues untill a couple weeks ago when i was messing around with my harddrive power connector while my computer was on ( btw very bad idea lesson learned) Dont ever mess with anything with your computer on and your power cord plugged in lol. I knew better than that but i was messing with my new vertex 3 sd drives untill i got a short and fried them all plus my board and proc. That's how i got this setup now I know you didnt want to hear that story but i thought it was funny. Ill get back to you tonight

 

[CYT]

i'll get the information for you tonight when i get home for sure. message me if you have any other questions about overclocking video cards or anything at all =P i've gone through dozens of sets of proc,mem,and boards overclocking and burning up testing lol. So don't worry i'll test everything on my machine before i tell you what to set it at. I had a 965 extreme proc 1366 socket overclocked to 4.2 for over 2 years with 0 issues untill a couple weeks ago when i was messing around with my harddrive power connector while my computer was on ( btw very bad idea lesson learned) Dont ever mess with anything with your computer on and your power cord plugged in lol. I knew better than that but i was messing with my new vertex 3 sd drives untill i got a short and fried them all plus my board and proc. That's how i got this setup now I know you didnt want to hear that story but i thought it was funny. Ill get back to you tonight

ok thank you. waiting eagerly for your reply tonight.

 

[denny1980]

ok thank you. waiting eagerly for your reply tonight.

Sorry i didnt post lastnight i fell asleep early. When i get home from work ill start my computer up right away and get the information for you. I'll be home at 6pm eastern and have it posted by 620pm. Be ready =)

 

[denny1980]

HPET 64 BIT (UNLESS YOUR RUNNING 32)
BLCK 1002
RATIO 50X
REALTIME RATIO IN OS ENABLED
TURBO BOOST DISABLED
C1E DISABLED
C3/C6 DISABLED
CPU THERMAL MONITOR DISABLED
EIST FUNCTION DISABLED
MEMORY EXTREME
VCORE +.210V
DRAM 1.600V

Let me know if that works out for you,ive been stable for a week on it now. Just make sure you have a really good water cooling kit.

 

[CYT]

Thanks. I will try wether this setting works for me. Going to use prime95 and Linx stress software to check it stability.

 

[denny1980]

Let me know

 

[soudi]

i dont know but i think you should disable the hyper-threading as disabling it could raise your headroom a bit, my red-line was 4.5ghz with HT on, i turned it off and now im on 4.8ghz,and still pushing forward

 

[denny1980]

i dont know but i think you should disable the hyper-threading as disabling it could raise your headroom a bit, my red-line was 4.5ghz with HT on, i turned it off and now im on 4.8ghz,and still pushing forward

I'm at 5.0ghz 100% stable with hyperthreading on =)

 

[CYT]

I'm at 5.0ghz 100% stable with hyperthreading on =)

The 5.0ghz setting, though works, is way too hot for my system. I shall stay at 4.5ghz for workstation use. Even at 4.5ghz, it hits a max. temp of 74degres celsius on load using LINX stress software. I want to keep it below 75degrees. I'm currently using CORSAIR H50 liquid cooling system. Which type or model of liquid cooling system you are currenly using to stay so cool at 5.0ghz?

 

[denny1980]

The 5.0ghz setting, though works, is way too hot for my system. I shall stay at 4.5ghz for workstation use. Even at 4.5ghz, it hits a max. temp of 74degres celsius on load using LINX stress software. I want to keep it below 75degrees. I'm currently using CORSAIR H50 liquid cooling system. Which type or model of liquid cooling system you are currenly using to stay so cool at 5.0ghz?

cool-it eliete its a peliter type unit, im at 30c idle and 70c max under prime 95. I think the unit was around 400-500 dollars for it.

 

[CYT]

cool-it eliete its a peliter type unit, im at 30c idle and 70c max under prime 95. I think the unit was around 400-500 dollars for it.

How long do you run prime95 and by the way, do you use Intel BurnTest software to check your system's stability and if so, how long do you use it at maximum setting? Maybe I will upgrade my cooling system to CORSAIR H100.

 

[denny1980]

How long do you run prime95 and by the way, do you use Intel BurnTest software to check your system's stability and if so, how long do you use it at maximum setting? Maybe I will upgrade my cooling system to CORSAIR H100.

i only use prime 95, i ran it through 4 tests with no errors. i was wrong btw it actually got to 76c on step 2 but after that it was hovering around 72 73. I'll try intel burntest and see what it does. If your going to upgrade your cooling system and what the best get either coolit elite or coolit boreas.My next upgrade is going to be the boreas system for sure. When i get hom later tonight ill try a few more tests. I ran all of the futuremark benchmarks a few times and it never locked up or went over 65c. I also played bf2 for a few hours and it never went over 65c. I'll get back to you tonight for sure

 

[denny1980]

Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
8.393 106.5088 3.414876e-002
8.379 106.6821 3.414876e-002
8.026 111.3693 3.414876e-002
8.269 108.1009 3.414876e-002
8.397 106.4480 3.414876e-002


That was just standard, is that good?

 

[CYT]

Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
8.393 106.5088 3.414876e-002
8.379 106.6821 3.414876e-002
8.026 111.3693 3.414876e-002
8.269 108.1009 3.414876e-002
8.397 106.4480 3.414876e-002


That was just standard, is that good?

So you are using 'standard' stress setting of 1024MB (1gb) with 5 runs.
How much memory is installed in your system? For me, it is 16gb. I stressed my system using full available amount of memory, about 14+GB, and run it for nearly 4 & 1/2 hours using LINX(which is same as Intel Burntest) to check its stability and temperature. My 5 days testing experience tells me that when you run the LINX/Intel Burn test above 4096MB ram, the test may fail at some point even for a low 5 runs/passes if the system is not stable. But for memory setting below 4096MB, the test will almost always pass. This is similar to what I have heard from other people complaining that the Intel BurnTest can easily fail at high memory setting esp. above 4 gb.

I would really like to know if you could stress your system at maximum memory setting (preferably > 4gb if you have more than 4gb) running at least 20 passes to see the temperature still maintains below 75degrees and is stable. The higher the amount of memory used, the more stressfull the entire system experiences.

For me at 4.4ghz, Prime95 runs without any error for 8 hours using the 'blend test' mode. But for the 'large fft test' mode, one of the tread worker fails after 6 hours of run. So that prompted me to use the intel burntest and indeed it failed at 4gb ram setting after just 5 minutes, and I have to bump up the core voltage and DRam voltage a bit to get it stable. However, to get stable at 4.5ghz using maximum 14+gb available ram, my vcore has to be 1.37v and Dram at 1.56v with LLC set to level 6.