2600k here, OC'd to 4.3 for about 2 years, but also can get up to 5ghz with everything stable EXCEPT P3D, which seems to freeze on doing from fullscreen to windowed if I'm OC'd that high. Plus it probably kills the life of the CPU a bit.

 

I use a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 and a Coolmaster HAF case. Honestly the best cooling around.

 

The overclocking was done with ASUSs system on the P8P67_DELUXE, which is basically automatic.

I was running my i5 2500k @ 4.3Ghz quite happily for nearly three years......until last Friday night. I suffered a motherboard and GPU failure, and decided to take the opportunity to purchase a completely new PC. However, I would have been quite happy to carry on using the Sandy Bridge system for another two years if that had not happened.

Another 2500k OC to 4.5  basic coolmaster. Could easy go higher but just to hot n humid here in Thailand

And another one: 2500k at 4.5 for more than two years. I also have a very basic motherboard (Gygabyte PA67 D3 B3) Cooled with Hyper 212 EVO. My first self-built rig. Only bummer is the combination of the Gygabyte MB and the Hyper cooler only allows for 2 ram modules. Still, right now I see no reason to change to something more "modern"

With certain programs taking advantage of, or soon to take advantage of SLI and DX11, I see the Sandy Bridge remaining relavent for quite a while now.   There are some LGA1155 mobos that only allow a 16x/8x/ SLI configuration, but then there are some that have the Nividia NF200 chip that will allow 16x/16x/, so I think if you've got one of those, then you're definitely doing pretty good for a bit longer.

haha .... you should ask me who is using motherboard older than sandybridge ..... I am....

 

 

1.14 volts to run your 4790 at 4.5 GHZ? Must be a lot different than the Sandy Bridge, because I doubt that a Sandy Bridge will even run stock speeds on that kind of voltage. My Sandy requires 1.47 to run at 4.8.

 

That not what I have found. To get my 4790K stable 4.7 I have to use 1.309 VCC. but, chips vary.

I'm still running my i7-2700K after close to 3 years.  Recently had to reduce to 4.8 GHz from 5.0 GHz due to occasional instability (was stable at 5.0 GHz until about 3 months ago).  I'm using an old AS Rock Fatality Performance P67 MB, which was inexpensive, but very stable and very easy to overclock.  In it's time, it was a solid MB for sandy bridge, at only$99 US. They have a turbo mode for 4.8 GHz in the BIOS that runs the i7-2700K very stable.  I let the MB manage core voltage automatically, which has worked extremely well (even better than manually setting the voltage), even when clocked to 5.0 GHz.

 

I'll be looking at either a Haswell-E or Devils Canyon upgrade later in the year once the GTX 800 series cards have been released.  Probably stick with an AS Rock MB, or ASUS.  I will likely move to P3D at the same time, so I may set up two video cards in SLI, if fully supported by P3D.

 

Gerald

2500K still running like new at 5.0 on the original ASUS P8P67 Deluxe .....yeah, the SATA 3 ports are gone and have been for awhile, but I've made do without them.

 

I actually bought a Haswell kit several months ago ...it's still in the box.

1.14 volts to run your 4790 at 4.5 GHZ?  Must be a lot different than the Sandy Bridge, because I doubt that a Sandy Bridge will even run stock speeds on that kind of voltage.  My Sandy requires 1.47 to run at 4.8.  That's definitely not a 24/7 type of voltage, but I'm not worried one bit.  If the processor degrades in a year or two, which I doubt, given my usage patterns, then I'll just replace the chip, or I'll take that as a signal to go to Haswell or beyond.  No point in babying it.  Like a racehorse, when it can't run competitively anymore, you can always put it out to pasture, where it can live a long life as a non-overclocked and very useful office machine to surf the internet and do mundane computing tasks like Photoshop and Word.

I think I won the silicon lottery as they call it with my chip but devils canyon seems to need a lot of voltage to get past 4.6ghz

still using an i7 2600 cpu with my nvidia gtx 550, 8 gig of ram, so far so good !

Still running my 2700k at 4.9 Ghz 1.43v for at least the last 18 months. Asus Z77 motherboard.

1.43 oh my lol!

Is that bad? Guess it cant be if its still running. Not 1.43 continuous - 1.43 offset.

Is that bad? Guess it cant be if its still running. Not 1.43 continuous - 1.43 offset.

1.4V will degrade the chip over time if its not continuous you should be ok but thats still alot I'd lower you OC to 4.7-4.8 and see if you can get your Vcore into the 1.3s to extend you CPU life 100-200mhz doesn't make a whole lot of difference in FPS.