I've overclocked and...It was too easy?

[conure]

Hey all,

Bit of a weird question here.

I have a core i5 760 and a gigabyte H55M S2 motherboard, which I think is rated for ram at 1333mhz, but overclocks to 1600 with an auto overclock profile, and I also have 1600mhz corsair ram. I am using a Corsair H60 watercooler too.

Anyway, basically I followed a friends advice who has done a fair bit of overclocking in the past, changed a few minor settings, added 0.100 voltage, multiplier at 21 and it just instantly went to 4ghz. Further, I ran Prime95 for about 26 hours small FFts, then large FFts for a further 14 and had no issues...

I can't shake the paranoid feeling maybe I'm missing something...Is OCing really this easy nowadays? Or is 4ghz not a huge OC on my 760?

Please don't take this as a "I'm great I OCd to 4ghz and it wasn't hard" just more...I thought 4ghz would require endless testing and tweaking but it was just....easy. Max temp on load is 64oC.

thanks

 

[rolli59]

It is CPU based/lucky and you got a good overclock at nice temps!

 

[conure]

It is CPU based/lucky and you got a good overclock at nice temps!

Thanks for the reply - seems I was lucky! I use quite complex flight simulation software which massively benefits from CPU clock speed and was thinking of trying to push the CPU harder, though I understand that 4ghz is already 1200mhz faster than it is meant to run. Do I run the risk of breaking it at a higher setting even if I maintain sub 70 temps in prime? For example, if I went for 4.2...I don't want to kill my CPU as I'll be stuck with it for at least another 9 months or so!

Also, just out of interest...How much do you think I will be reducing my motherboard/ram/cpu life span at this clock? If for example I decided to keep my current system for another 18 months/2 years, it'd probably still be fine wouldn't it?

Thanks

 

[rolli59]

With cool temps it will last, as long as you do not over volt to much. You can try reducing your volts and see if it runs stable! You should increase in smallest steps available when overclocking!

 

[conure]

At 4ghz my voltage in windows sits at 1.32 which I think is fine! I've read anything below 1.45 is no problem, would you say that's fine?

 

[rolli59]

Rated for it is 0.65 - 1.4 volts so you are fine. http://ark.intel.com/products/48496/Intel-Core-i5-760-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_80-GHz)

 

[conure]

Thank you very much for your help, Enjoy your weekend

 

[jsc]

Rated for it is 0.65 - 1.4 volts so you are fine. http://ark.intel.com/products/48496/Intel-Core-i5-760-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_80-GHz)

That is the VID which will vary from chip to chip. Intel's max recommended voltage is 1.52 volts. But I think that with a 32 nm quad core, you will reach thermal limits before you reach voltage limits.