Overclocking my 2550K (may have questions)

[Torey]

So I've had my 2550K overclocked at 4.5 for a long time and sometimes I get the old watchdog timeout error so I will put it to 4.2 when I'm not in the mood for the occasional blue screen of death.

 

Well I'd like to get it stable at 4.5 and call it good, or at least as high as I can with it being as stable as it can be.

 

So these are the settings at which I normally use.

 

4.5 @ 1.35 volts max temps 65-72 (on a 90-95 degree day) = eh mostly stable with anything, sometimes it will randomly crash in a game.

4.2 @ 1.3 volts max temps 55-60 = rock solid, never hiccups.

 

So I've noticed that when I set the voltage to lets say 1.3 it shows up as 1.280 on CPU-Z. I'm aware of the drooping process and the v-droop setting on most newer boards. 

 

The one thing that I'm confused about is how it works exactly. I read on an overclock 3D post that on some motherboards there is a couple settings off, low, medium, high. With their board high was the best, the voltage dropped the least with this setting.

 

However on my motherboard (MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming) the stages are different. There's auto, 5, 10, 15, 20 25, all the way up to 100%. Or something similar to this, possibly different increments. 

 

My first questions is. Should I just set this to 100% and call it good? On auto it seems to drop a decent amount.

 

Also I'm going to do some more research on spread spectrum, as of now I have it off. If I recall correctly it helped me stabilize my overclock a while back, but since then I've forgotten why exactly I turned it off. But if anyone can shed some light on that also, it would be much appreciated.

 

-thanks

[Miguel Sensacion]

what are your temps? 

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

Maybe try to get something in between like 4.4GHz.

[Sauron]

Bare in mind that auto will try to keep the system as stable as possible. So it's possible that your cpu at 4.2 doesn't actually need 1.3v all the time, but 4.5 may need more than 1.35 (which it would be better to avoid).  Give 100% a try, but it's unlikely to improve stability a lot. I'd try compromising to 4.4 at 1.35v, or even 4.45.

[Torey]

what are your temps? 

Edited with temps, my bad. 

[Torey]

Bare in mind that auto will try to keep the system as stable as possible. So it's possible that your cpu at 4.2 doesn't actually need 1.3v all the time, but 4.5 may need more than 1.35 (which it would be better to avoid).  Give 100% a try, but it's unlikely to improve stability a lot. I'd try compromising to 4.4 at 1.35v, or even 4.45.

I guess I never really thought of that. I just figured it would give it what it was told to whenever being stressed. I don't know how to do 4.45 on this motherboard. I just pick a whole number for the multiplier. 

[Miguel Sensacion]

Edited with temps, my bad. 

 

Another crazy question, Are you Watercooling?

[Sauron]

I guess I never really thought of that. I just figured it would give it what it was told to whenever being stressed. I don't know how to do 4.45 on this motherboard. I just pick a whole number for the multiplier. 

 

On most motherboard you can use decimals for the multiplier

[Torey]

Another crazy question, Are you Watercooling?

 

Hey there sassy, if the temps were the problem I probably would've said something before being reminded. Thanks for your help anyway.

On most motherboard you can use decimals for the multiplier

I've seen some like that, apparently the one I'm using you cant. 

 

Although I've set it back to 4.5 @ 1.35 and did a few different tests and while doing any of them the vcore never seems to go past 1.328, but the second I set it lower than 1.35 at 4.5 it crashes.

 

Also set the vdroop to 100% not sure it's making a difference or not. Set digital compensation to high, and OCP expander to advanced. And overspeed protection to off. 

 

It seems stable enough at the moment. We'll see after a week or so in games that tend to be the culprit more than stress tests.

 

Thanks for the help.

[Sauron]

Although I've set it back to 4.5 @ 1.35 and did a few different tests and while doing any of them the vcore never seems to go past 1.328, but the second I set it lower than 1.35 at 4.5 it crashes.

 

Also set the vdroop to 100% not sure it's making a difference or not. Set digital compensation to high, and OCP expander to advanced. And overspeed protection to off. 

 

It seems stable enough at the moment. We'll see after a week or so in games that tend to be the culprit more than stress tests.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

If it bsods again it probably just means that's the chip's limit.

[Torey]

If it bsods again it probably just means that's the chip's limit.

Yeah, if I get another one after this I'll probably just set it to 4.4 and call it a day. I'm selling my core components of my current build to a friend for 50% of used value pretty soon and just wanted to see what I could get as a max stable overclock. That way I could help him get it back to that when he gets the parts.

[Jumper118]

So I've had my 2550K overclocked at 4.5 for a long time and sometimes I get the old watchdog timeout error so I will put it to 4.2 when I'm not in the mood for the occasional blue screen of death.

 

Well I'd like to get it stable at 4.5 and call it good, or at least as high as I can with it being as stable as it can be.

 

So these are the settings at which I normally use.

 

4.5 @ 1.35 volts max temps 65-72 (on a 90-95 degree day) = eh mostly stable with anything, sometimes it will randomly crash in a game.

4.2 @ 1.3 volts max temps 55-60 = rock solid, never hiccups.

 

So I've noticed that when I set the voltage to lets say 1.3 it shows up as 1.280 on CPU-Z. I'm aware of the drooping process and the v-droop setting on most newer boards. 

 

The one thing that I'm confused about is how it works exactly. I read on an overclock 3D post that on some motherboards there is a couple settings off, low, medium, high. With their board high was the best, the voltage dropped the least with this setting.

 

However on my motherboard (MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming) the stages are different. There's auto, 5, 10, 15, 20 25, all the way up to 100%. Or something similar to this, possibly different increments. 

 

My first questions is. Should I just set this to 100% and call it good? On auto it seems to drop a decent amount.

 

Also I'm going to do some more research on spread spectrum, as of now I have it off. If I recall correctly it helped me stabilize my overclock a while back, but since then I've forgotten why exactly I turned it off. But if anyone can shed some light on that also, it would be much appreciated.

 

-thanks

you should be able to go upto 1.4v perfectly safely on that chip. it should do at lest 4.6ghz on that voltage. your temps are still great and they are safe up to 80c.