I5 2500k 4.5 OC with Gigabyte Z68x-ud3h-b3

[singh31]

Hello,

I'm trying to OC my i5 2500k to 4.5ghz and keep it stable on the Gigabyte Z68x-UD3H-B3 motherboard while keeping the power saving options on the CPU active. I know most OCing guides tell you to disable the power saving tools like Turboboost and Speedstep, but I was wondering if there was a way to OC this CPU while keeping these features.

I was able to achieve a stable 4.5 OC on the i5 2500k while having the power saving tools off, but was unable to do so with them on. Would it be a matter of setting the DVcore to a higher offset, or would I have to give up Speedstep and what not to keep the OC?

I'll link my build below and any help with the matter is greatly appreciated!

- Gigabyte Z68x-UD3H-B3
- Intel i5-2500k
- G.Skill Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600Mhz C9 1.5V 8GB(4x2)
- Corsair A70 Air Cooler
- Cooler Master Silent Pro 850w PSU.

 

[singh31]

Can anyone provide me with some advice on what to do? I'm still at a total loss of where to go from here.

 

[mf2385]

I have the exact same motherboard and processor and running at 4.6Ghz overclock now at 1.37v level 5 LLC. Perfectly stable and running idle at under 30c. I was trying to get stable at 4.7-4.8Ghz but I think I am going to get awfully close to 1.5v if I were to do that. I don't want to fry my chip you know.

Anyone know what I can do?

 

[st4rkill3r]

Can I ask u why the hell would u want something over 4.3-4.5?!? if you're a synthetic test freak it's okay, but if you're thinking that u will get "better" performance in games for ex, you're awfully wrong, the only thing you'll be getting is a fried cpu or mobo. I find it more than enough at 4.5, and btw if you're not so familiar with O.Cing, and from what I see you're NOT, I suggest to stick to 4.5 or 4.6 in your case. Cheers!

 

[mf2385]

Yeah I am sticking to 4.5Ghz and you're exactly right I am a newer enthusiast

 

[singh31]

I'm hoping to stick around 4.5 for everyday use, but while I can get a stable 4.5 clock, I still can't get Speedstep to work :S

 

[silverclaw]

Hey Singh31

I have the same motherboard and I tried overclocking to 4.5 with an online guide. Did everything right but apparently the settings weren't right.

I then tried using Easy Tune 6

The quickboost simply doesn't work, I'll click the setting, get the usual "overclocking will blah blah press continue to restart ect..."

I click continue and I bloody get "GUI MFC application has stopped working"

zzzz

Long story short, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to link or post the settings you're using?

Regards,

Mike - AKA Silver

 

[st4rkill3r]

Hey silverclaw, even if u "copy paste" his settings, it's not sure that you'll be fine, because there are different CPU lots(same CPU model, I5 in our case but different production dates), there are lucky ppl that got better CPUs, more stable, and there are ppl that were not so lucky and got CPUs that won't work stable at lower vcore, etc... it's all a matter of luck if u ask me.

 

[silverclaw]

fair enough St4rkill3r

Cheers.

 

[EMINENT]

I'm having the same issue. I've tried just using the multiplier, tried multiplier and upping vcore from 1.28-1.38 and can't run prime 95 overnight on blend without it bsod'ing or restarting.

Right now i've got llc level at 5 on 1.38 vcore trying to get stable on 4.5. Everything else on defaults except power savings are enabled. Going to sleep on blend test...

 

[silverclaw]

When it does BSOD look at the error code, 9 times out of 10 it'll just be voltage related, but these are some of the meanings:

BSOD Codes for SandyBridge
0x124 = add/remove vcore or QPI/VTT voltage (usually Vcore, once it was QPI/VTT)
0x101 = add more vcore
0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency add DDR3 voltage or add QPI/VTT
0x1E = add more vcore
0x3B = add more vcore
0xD1 = add QPI/VTT voltage
“0x9C = QPI/VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances”
0X109 = add DDR3 voltage
0x0A = add QPI/VTT voltage

 

[EMINENT]

When it does BSOD look at the error code, 9 times out of 10 it'll just be voltage related, but these are some of the meanings:

BSOD Codes for SandyBridge
0x124 = add/remove vcore or QPI/VTT voltage (usually Vcore, once it was QPI/VTT)
0x101 = add more vcore
0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency add DDR3 voltage or add QPI/VTT
0x1E = add more vcore
0x3B = add more vcore
0xD1 = add QPI/VTT voltage
“0x9C = QPI/VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances”
0X109 = add DDR3 voltage
0x0A = add QPI/VTT voltage

This is what i'm getting:

BCCode: 3b
BCP1: 00000000C0000005
BCP2: FFFFF88007D9B32D
BCP3: FFFFF88009D8AF50
BCP4: 0000000000000000

 

[nighthawk4]

you need to note the error code you get when you see the actual BSOD. do you have the automatic restart when you get a BSOD disabled?

 

[singh31]

Hey Singh31

I have the same motherboard and I tried overclocking to 4.5 with an online guide. Did everything right but apparently the settings weren't right.

I then tried using Easy Tune 6

The quickboost simply doesn't work, I'll click the setting, get the usual "overclocking will blah blah press continue to restart ect..."

I click continue and I bloody get "GUI MFC application has stopped working"

zzzz

Long story short, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to link or post the settings you're using?

Regards,

Mike - AKA Silver

I honestly followed the Tom's Hardware's guide for OCing the i5, and it worked out well, except I still can't figure out how to keep power-saving settings.

I do know of a youtube which does deal with gigabyte boards with the i5 and OCing it to 4.5, but I haven't tried to see if its effective.

 

[EMINENT]

A lot of guides recommend power saving off. I read someone who is stable with it on using a 1.38vcore and I tried it and failed.

I like the idea of the cpu being low at idle and ramping up when needed. But, the guide here asks a valid question: Do you I really want my proc all wobbly if it's a desktop? How much power am I really saving by not always being at 4.5ghz?

Should I even care? I live in my friend's house and pay a fixed price for rent and he pays the electric bill. I doubt I use enough to matter. Maybe I should disable them.

 

[singh31]

Well my concern is the long-term viability of running 4.5 all the time, I really doubt that would be good for the CPU as well as my electric bill lol.

I'm gonna give it one more shot this weekend, but any other ideas on the situation would be helpful.

 

[stglebidiah]

I'm running my 2500k on a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 mobo, which as far as I know if fairly similar to yours, at 4.4GHz. All I did was bump all the turbo multipliers to 44 and boosted the TDP to 200ish (can't remember the exact value). All power-saving features are on. Temps are under 30 idle, haven't done a full 8-hour Prime 95 run, just ever-increasing IBT's which all passed and maxed temp out around 65 (cooler is the NH-D14 though). Speedstep works fine, CPU runs at 1.6GHz on idle, all cores hit 4.4GHz according to CPU-Z CPUID under load, HW Monitor reports VCore maxing out a 1.34V. Only thing the system won't do it come back from manually putting it to sleep but I read somewhere that's fairly common on this kind of setup (?) and besides I always just turn the thing off when I'm done with it anyways so I'm not terribly concerned. No BSOD's yet.

If I'm killing my computer I don't know about it - perhaps someone else here can offer some insight. But all the research I did into OC'ing these chips points to no further changes needed for OC's under 4.5GHz. If you want to go over that, or want to absolutely minimize your VCore all the time, then there's more you can do, and that's where you get into manually setting VCore, using LLC, disabling power-saving and sleep-states, setting your VOffset/VDroop if your mobo can, and blah blah blah. 'Course there's the luck of the draw as well - it may be your chip just won't hit 4.5 without these methods, but I think about 50% of them can at least.

 

[singh31]

Hmm that's good to know for me, as there's no big difference between 4.4 and 4.5, so I will probably give your settings a shot when I get some free time.

As for setting the turbo, did you just set it to manual and change each turbo core individually?

 

[stglebidiah]

I'm at work right now so I can't check my settings but I'll take some screenshots when I get home. But yeah, for the turbo I just manually set each multiplier manually to 44 regardless of number of cores being used. Boosted the power so it would have enough to run all four cores at that speed and that was it.

Are you using an XMP profile on your RAM? If so, you might get better results turning that off and manually setting the timings to the rated values.

 

[singh31]

I set the timings of the RAM individually, rather than using XMP.

Also, what are the current power settings that you're using to bump it up to 4.4? I know I can't use that exact amount, but it'd be a nice baseline.