Simple OC Question

[Chizzah69]

Hey, after a few weeks of taking my time overclocking I finaly have a stable 4.5GHz on my i5-3570K. I've done a 24 hour Prime95 and an Intel Burner Test thingy. My max temps are in the late 70s seldom crossing over to the early 80s while my vcore is at 1.3v (late 80s with IBT). These temps are 5-10 lower when I'm just gaming. So I'm from South Africa and it's winter so it gets really cold here while at the same time summer gets really hot.

My question is: How long will my CPU last with this current setup?

I'd like 2-3 years at maximum so if this setup is to heavy for my CPU I'll change it back to stock rather or at least a 4.0Ghz. Also I have a profile saved on my Asus Maximus V Gene. So I can easily switch between stock and overclock.

Thanks in advance

 

[larkspur]

Hmmmm, error on the title, because that is a very complicated OC question that no one can answer with certainty.

Simply put: More volts and more heat lower the potential lifespan of the chip. But how long the chip would last stock-clocked or will last overclocked is a large unknown. From what I heard awhile back, Intel sells overclocking warranties (its like insurance for your k-series Intel chip), if you are worried maybe get one of those if they still have them.

How hot do you mean by hot? What temp will the room be worst case?

The biggest thing to ask yourself is: Do you actually need your chip to be at 4.5ghz? Is there a noticeable difference for you or is it just in benchmarks?

If you still want to overclock, that's cool but since your IBT temps are in the upper 80s I would back off on your volts (and clock as necessary) until you get the IBT temp to peak around 80c. Games really shouldn't be pushing your chip past the low 70s.

 

[Chizzah69]

Lol my bad

I really don't know how hot the room gets exactly but I can tell you where I'm from it gets so hot you sleep during the day and move at night around 6-7 PM lol

So I guess I'll have to bring it down all the way. And you're right I don't see or feel a difference between stock, turbo or OC. Just thought since I got a "K" I might as well go big or go home.

Anyway thanks for the reply.

 

[Chizzah69]

Lol my bad

I really don't know how hot the room gets exactly but I can tell you where I'm from it gets so hot you sleep during the day and move at night around 6-7 PM lol

So I guess I'll have to bring it down all the way. And you're right I don't see or feel a difference between stock, turbo or OC. Just thought since I got a "K" I might as well go big or go home.

Anyway thanks for the reply.

 

[larkspur]

So I guess I'll have to bring it down all the way. And you're right I don't see or feel a difference between stock, turbo or OC. Just thought since I got a "K" I might as well go big or go home.

Well maybe not all the way

But if there is no performance difference then yeah, just go stock but write down your overclocking settings and results for use maybe sometime in the future when your chip at stock is performing relatively slow. For gaming, that'll probably be a long while.

If you do end up OCing, since I assume you have an upgraded CPU cooler you can usually get a decent OC by finding a nice sweet spot. Your CPU cooler is better than the stock Intel cooler so you should be able to find a nice OC where the temps are the same or just a little more than they would be at stock with the stock cooler. There is probably somewhere in the 4.2ish range where your chip will run stable with pretty low voltage and therefore lower temps - that's the sweet spot I'm talking about.

 

[Chizzah69]

I overclocked it manually 100mhz at a time with turbo boost disabled (hour prim95 each). Got to 4.2Ghz before I had to change my Vcore. Before the Vcore change my temps were all in the early 50s. So I think I'll bring it down to 4.2GHz and do the 24hour Prime95 and the Intel Burn Test. If its stable there I'll be happy (which it should be since I made it at 4.5Ghz lol).

Thanks for the advice.

 

[larkspur]

Got to 4.2Ghz before I had to change my Vcore.

Exactly. Sandy Bridge was pretty unique in that it's core temp didn't respond much to moderate over-voltage. An amazing overclocker, but sometimes with a rather steep over-voltage requirement. People got used to simply cranking voltage and then upping clocks. But Ivy reacts terribly to over-voltage, there are various graphs out there displaying the increased rate of heat as you get further from 1.25v. Hopefully you'll find stability and good temps at stock volts and 4.2ghz. Cheers!

 

[dragonsamus]

Do you plan on running this thing 24/7? If not, then don't worry because it'll last. If you are running it 24/7 then maybe thing about lowering the overclock. I've read somewhere that these CPUs are rated for around 3 years but that's with them running nonstop.

 

[Chizzah69]

My motherboard Asus Maximus V Gene has this thing where I can save a profile so I thought if I got a stable 4.5Ghz I can switch it between "Performance Mode" (the 4.5Ghz OC) when playing games and go back to stock or turbo when I'm not.

That was the plan but I think I'll rather play it safe. I just made an almost $2,000 (R17,000) computer (would have been less if I stayed in the US or UK though) so I'm pretty much tapped for a while.

We don't have the OC insurance in South Africa (we suck!!!) but I think a 4.2GHz is fine for now. At least I'll have ultra low temps