Safe Overclock on my old Haswell i5?

mastodon · December 1, 2020

Hello, long time consumer of LTT content but first time poster. I have a PC that I built about 7 years ago that I have messed with overclocking over the years. I am not an expert by any means so back when I first built it I tried the Asus AI auto-overclock software and it created an unstable overclock. I tried doing it manually a couple times over the years and always got poor results. I'm pretty sure I have a below average CPU so for the past several years I have just been using it at a moderate 4.1Ghz overclock with I think auto voltage.

Anyway recently I got back into overclocking to see what I could actually get out of it. I have a decent Corsair 240mm AIO (which is basically ancient at this point, at least 4 years old but still works). I applied fresh thermal paste and did a quick and dirty clean of dust from the radiator. I'm not sure of the exact model of AIO I have but its in the attached pic. I believe it still functions fine as my idle temps are ~25C.

So at 4.2Ghz I have to give it 1.28 volts to be stable. Temps are good here and do not exceed 85C

At 4.3Ghz I have to give it 1.333 volts to be stable. Here's my actual question... doing prime95 small FFTs (the max stress) I get to 90C after a few minutes. Intel burn peaks at low 80C. I understand that these are basically the max stress scenarios for my CPU and won't happen for any extended amount of time under normal usage. But do I have a safe overclock here? I am scared to do a 24hour prime95 test lol.

I hate how much voltage I have to give it just to get 4.3Ghz but it is what it is. Also, I imagine that I will be building a new computer in the next year or so, so if I end up frying my CPU (which seems doubtful) it won't be the end of the world. But what do you guys think? Is this a safe OC? Is it worth upping the volts that much just to eek out another 100Mhz? Is there anything else I can tweak that will increase stability and allow me to reduce the voltage a bit?