NOTE: maximum core temp, 80ºC under full load. Maximum Vcore 1.375V at full load

dazz,That was a great basic overclocking guide. Thanks!Just one question. I've read all sorts of conflicting info about max temps and Vcore for SB. What is the source of your info?Dave

dazz,That was a great basic overclocking guide. Thanks!Just one question. I've read all sorts of conflicting info about max temps and Vcore for SB. What is the source of your info?Dave

I7 2600K. Tcase = 72.6ºCThe temp reading in CoreTemp is from the cores which are supposed to be some 10ºC higher than Tcase

I7 2600K. Tcase = 72.6ºCThe temp reading in CoreTemp is from the cores which are supposed to be some 10ºC higher than Tcase

Interesting thread. I am currently running @ 4.5, real Temp reading 42c and CPUIZ has Vcore @ 1.044. Going to step up to 4.8 soon, but like to o/c in steps over time. Running very stable. I believe o/c'ing is only as good as your mainboard. Also my temps are quite low, and living in a cool climate may help. The CoolerMaster tower is also a benifit, and I am using stock CPU fan.

Interesting thread. I am currently running @ 4.5, real Temp reading 42c and CPUIZ has Vcore @ 1.044. Going to step up to 4.8 soon, but like to o/c in steps over time. Running very stable. I believe o/c'ing is only as good as your mainboard. Also my temps are quite low, and living in a cool climate may help. The CoolerMaster tower is also a benifit, and I am using stock CPU fan.

You should reset your BIOS settings back to stock RIGHT NOW and do some reading before OCing again Julian.Those temps and Vcore are with power savings on and with the CPU idling. No way you can get to 4.5GHz with that Vcore and temps on the stock cooler. You are playing with fire

You should reset your BIOS settings back to stock RIGHT NOW and do some reading before OCing again Julian.Those temps and Vcore are with power savings on and with the CPU idling. No way you can get to 4.5GHz with that Vcore and temps on the stock cooler. You are playing with fire

Oh hell, ok Dazz checking now.

You should reset your BIOS settings back to stock RIGHT NOW and do some reading before OCing again Julian.Those temps and Vcore are with power savings on and with the CPU idling. No way you can get to 4.5GHz with that Vcore and temps on the stock cooler. You are playing with fire

Really appreciate the heads up Dazz, am now back at default. I assume you mean by power savings, you are reffering to CPU thermal monitor ? Foud that set on Auto. Cie state was auto and Bi prochet AutoEdit: Temps now 36c VCore in CPUiz still says 1.044v In the Bios 1.27v

Really appreciate the heads up Dazz, am now back at default. I assume you mean by power savings, you are reffering to CPU thermal monitor ? Foud that set on Auto. Cie state was auto and Bi prochet AutoEdit: Temps now 36c VCore in CPUiz still says 1.044v In the Bios 1.27v

I edited my OC "guide" aboveHow did you overclock? if you use the auto overclock feature in your board chances are your Vcore will be way too high. If on top of that you have the stock HSF, that's a recipee for disaster man.By power saving modes I mean SpeedStep (or EIST) and C1E. EIST lowers your CPU multi to 16 (so your clock speed will be 1.6GHz) and C1E your Vcore to about 1V, when the CPU is idle. If you just open coretemp and cpu-z while the CPU is doing nothing, you will be monitoring a downclocked, undervolted idle CPU.You can try a mild OC with the stock cooler, 4GHz should be doable I guess. Start with Step 1 testing your system on stock clocks and see what your temps are like, and you'll get an idea of how much temperature headroom you have there

I edited my OC "guide" aboveHow did you overclock? if you use the auto overclock feature in your board chances are your Vcore will be way too high. If on top of that you have the stock HSF, that's a recipee for disaster man.By power saving modes I mean SpeedStep (or EIST) and C1E. EIST lowers your CPU multi to 16 (so your clock speed will be 1.6GHz) and C1E your Vcore to about 1V, when the CPU is idle. If you just open coretemp and cpu-z while the CPU is doing nothing, you will be monitoring a downclocked, undervolted idle CPU.You can try a mild OC with the stock cooler, 4GHz should be doable I guess. Start with Step 1 testing your system on stock clocks and see what your temps are like, and you'll get an idea of how much temperature headroom you have there

Thanks mate, will follow your guide. Thanks for saving me from making an expensive mistake. As this Z68 board is so new, could not get much info about it. :( At the end of the day I should have. I did not do an auto overclock, was manual, this biggest omission I see was the power savings and running stock cooling. Albeit, a dangerous ommision.

Thanks mate, will follow your guide. Thanks for saving me from making an expensive mistake. As this Z68 board is so new, could not get much info about it. :( At the end of the day I should have. I did not do an auto overclock, was manual, this biggest omission I see was the power savings and running stock cooling. Albeit, a dangerous ommision.

No problem Julian :smile:So you only upped the multi to 45 and rebooted? problem with that is that the motherboard will probably overvolt if you leave your Vcore in AUTO. It's a common mistake to think you can just raise your multi and everything else will remain the same. Mobos are not good at auto-tuning Vcore. Keep in mind that each CPU is different, so the board tends to overvolt so that any CPU you plug in is stable, but then of course you get bad temps and dangerous Vcore well beyond spec.Get a decent HSF and you won't regret it. For $30 - $50 you can get one that will hit max OC easy. With SB you hit the max Vcore before temps become an issue with a decent coolerIt's ok leaving the power savings on. Some say that it's better to leave them off for better performance in FSX. Test both and decide yourself, to each his own. My point was that you can't take the Vcore and temps of an idle CPU with power savings enabled as a reference to validate your OC, because as soon as you load your chip things are going to be a lot different. In the guide I advised to turn them off simply because it makes things a lot easier. When you boot into Windows and want to check your Vcore, having C1E disabled means that you can get a good idea of what Vcore is being applied, but if you have C1E enabled, it will be artificially low, and you don't want to start stress testing and find that you have 1.6V going through your poor 32nm chip :(

No problem Julian :smile:So you only upped the multi to 45 and rebooted? problem with that is that the motherboard will probably overvolt if you leave your Vcore in AUTO. It's a common mistake to think you can just raise your multi and everything else will remain the same. Mobos are not good at auto-tuning Vcore. Keep in mind that each CPU is different, so the board tends to overvolt so that any CPU you plug in is stable, but then of course you get bad temps and dangerous Vcore well beyond spec.Get a decent HSF and you won't regret it. For $30 - $50 you can get one that will hit max OC easy. With SB you hit the max Vcore before temps become an issue with a decent coolerIt's ok leaving the power savings on. Some say that it's better to leave them off for better performance in FSX. Test both and decide yourself, to each his own. My point was that you can't take the Vcore and temps of an idle CPU with power savings enabled as a reference to validate your OC, because as soon as you load your chip things are going to be a lot different. In the guide I advised to turn them off simply because it makes things a lot easier. When you boot into Windows and want to check your Vcore, having C1E disabled means that you can get a good idea of what Vcore is being applied, but if you have C1E enabled, it will be artificially low, and you don't want to start stress testing and find that you have 1.6V going through your poor 32nm chip :(

Yep, you got it. Manually changed the multi, vcore auto. Thanks once again. Off to the computer shop I go.

Is it a good thing to have a constant Vcore?Kaman BA

My system is stable, at 4.8ghz with 1'3v and runs fsx during a long time very nicely plus when going under 1,3v the pc doesnt boot up (blue screen). So i guess as far as i can maintain such a low voltage, i'm doin fine right?Kaman BA

Simming FSX for 1 min or 10 hours is not 100% CPU load or a proper method of benchmarking or testing stability. As others say if you can run Prime95 for any amount of time then you KNOW your stable not just guessing because it ran FSX for 'x' amount of time.I can take my CPU (980x) to 4.6GHz and run FSX "stable" but @ 4.6GHz with full load in Prime95 (not FSX load) it BSOD in under 10 mins. At 4.4GHz it can run Prime95 for hours stable. Just saying last i checked games where not stability software.-Raven Harris