Overclocking My CPU?

[Khajiit Dealer]

I have an Antec Kuhler H20 620 liquid cooler for my i7-3770k. This is my first time trying to OC it. I have a few questions for you helpful people:

-What temperature should I aim for? (Currently goes to 55C under load)

-What program should I use?

-Should I change the voltage?

-Will this decrease its life?

I'm also wondering how far you guys think I could push it while remaining stable.

[AverageHardware]

Temperature: I'd say stay below 70. 65 is fine.

Use the BIOS.

You may need to add more voltage depending on what clock you want to go for.

It could decrease it depending on how far you push it.

 

I'd recommend searching around for what others have achieved clock/voltage wise, and base your OC on that. There are a lot of great places to find good OC settings. It's all going to depend on your setup however. 

 

Just my opinions. Get others' feedback as well.

[Enderman]

1) less than 85C

 

2) for stress testing? intel XTU

 

3) if you want it to be stable and get a higher overclock then yes

 

4) yes but nothing significant, like maybe instead of 20 years it will last 10

still, you will probably upgrade it long before that

[NinjaJc01]

You have to use the BIOS to OC, not a program. It wil reduce the lifespan a little and you might want to change the voltage, depending on stabililty.

[TheRandomness]

Overclocking is mainly done in the BIOS, although there are some programs that can give you a stable overclock but they sometimes down go far enough or they go too far. Your temperatures are fine but try stay below 80~ C. Yes you should change the voltage and I can't say to what but for Haswell it's 1.35v max, once you have a stable overclock reduce the voltage until it's stable with the smallest amount going through. It shouldn't reduce the lifespan too much so long as you don't push the voltage too far. Remember to test the overclock with a stress test each time for at least 10 minutes.

[Patrick Bateman]

snip

-Aim for under 80c under load

-Use bios to overclock, and a stress test to make sure oc is stable (i do occt and linX)

-Increasing core voltage can help with stability so yes, dont go above 1.3v vcore

-It will but your chip will still last long

[Oshino Shinobu]

1) Below 80C under full load is fine.

2) You don't use a program as such. You overclock in the BIOS, then stress test with programs like AIDA64

3) If the OC is unstable, adjusting the voltage slightly can help stabilise it. Only adjust the voltage in very small increments though. If you're not confident with it, just don't touch it.

4) Technically, yes. The CPU will produce more heat, consume more power and run faster than it's specified to, so the life span will decrease. Can't really say how much though, it depends on the chip and OC.

 

How far you can go depends on the individual chip. Some will not overclock at all, while some will go well over 1GHz above stock speeds. 

[TXshooter]

Is the Intel i5 4690k an unlocked(able to overclock) CPU?

[incarnate]

Is the Intel i5 4690k an unlocked(able to overclock) CPU?

The k at the end of Intel cpus means unlocked multiplier and voltages.