2500k ocing, when should I turn back?

[TheOriginalGunn]

So I've only pushed up to 4ghz so far. It ran well all day yesterday, stress tested it for about 2 hours and then gamed on it all night. Today it failed to post. No biggie, increased voltage, running stable with the same temps as before.

Right now It seems stable at these settings..
1.1 core voltage
160w turbo boost power limit
170w burst limit
125 A core current limit
40x multiplier

Idles at ~31c
Load at ~60c

I've been using the intel extreme tuning utility to both change settings and monitor the cpu. The core voltage runs around 1.15, but will occasionally spike up to ~1.32.

Here are my questions.

Is the voltage spike normal/safe? Is that a result of me not setting the voltage to static? (that option isn't in the tuning utility, I can change it in bios but haven't yet.) If I do change the voltage option to static, will that eliminate the chip's power saving features?

At what temperature should I consider stopping, if I do not want to reduce the lifespan of the chip? I've read that 60c is a good number, and staying under that should give the chip full lifespan, is that the case? Are these temps fairly standard for my settings, or does it seem as though my cooling may be inadequate? (ambient room temp is ~21c)

Is that failure to post this morning after a day of seeming stable a normal thing to experience with a new chip?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

 

[Frizzo]

you can set the voltage manually and then tweak any loadline calibration settings that you need from there. you more than likely will never need close to 1.3v so, you want to turn that automatic feature off. i dont know what motherboard you're using and what settings it offers, but you would be better off just setting the vcore to like 1.25 and leaving it there. if your motherboard lets you adjust the max voltage for turbo then just set it to 1.25 and work it down from there.

 

[aqe040466]

So I've only pushed up to 4ghz so far. It ran well all day yesterday, stress tested it for about 2 hours and then gamed on it all night. Today it failed to post. No biggie, increased voltage, running stable with the same temps as before.

Right now It seems stable at these settings..
1.1 core voltage
160w turbo boost power limit
170w burst limit
125 A core current limit
40x multiplier

Idles at ~31c
Load at ~60c

I've been using the intel extreme tuning utility to both change settings and monitor the cpu. The core voltage runs around 1.15, but will occasionally spike up to ~1.32.

Here are my questions.

Is the voltage spike normal/safe? Is that a result of me not setting the voltage to static? (that option isn't in the tuning utility, I can change it in bios but haven't yet.) If I do change the voltage option to static, will that eliminate the chip's power saving features?

At what temperature should I consider stopping, if I do not want to reduce the lifespan of the chip? I've read that 60c is a good number, and staying under that should give the chip full lifespan, is that the case? Are these temps fairly standard for my settings, or does it seem as though my cooling may be inadequate? (ambient room temp is ~21c)

Is that failure to post this morning after a day of seeming stable a normal thing to experience with a new chip?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

You are in good hands actually. Those temps are excellent. Are you using an aftermarket CPU cooler? If not, you should buy one because it is a good investment to prolong the life span of the CPU. Mine is also i5 2500K overclocked at 4.7 GHZ with vCore of 1.35V. I read some articles about i5 2500K owner's that they had overclocked their CPU's up to 5.3 GHZ with a Vcore of 1.520V

 

[TheOriginalGunn]

Best answer selected by TheOriginalGunn.

 

[TheOriginalGunn]

You are in good hands actually. Those temps are excellent. Are you using an aftermarket CPU cooler? If not, you should buy one because it is a good investment to prolong the life span of the CPU. Mine is also i5 2500K overclocked at 4.7 GHZ with vCore of 1.35V. I read some articles about i5 2500K owner's that they had overclocked their CPU's up to 5.3 GHZ with a Vcore of 1.520V

Yes, I'm using the Hyper 212+. For me it gives the best bang for the buck of any hsf setup I've tried. Have used it on several AMD builds.

As for the voltages, I've had time to watch it some more, and it only ever peaks over ~1.2 during stress testing. While gaming etc. it never goes near that, so I plan to just leave the auto voltage on unless I decide to OC farther.