Help Overclocking I5-6600K

[Truncale20]

Trying to overclock the I5-6600K. I took a picture so everything would be easier to see. I just wanted to make sure everything looks good and there's a lower chance of anything messing up.

 

Tested this setup with Cinebench and a couple of game benchmarks and everything seemed stable and it all ran well.

 

[AdamBGames]

2 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

Trying to overclock the I5-6600K. I took a picture so everything would be easier to see. I just wanted to make sure everything looks good and there's a lower chance of anything messing up.

best thing is to go 100mhz at a time and then test each overclock. this will ensure the you get the best results

[Truncale20]

2 minutes ago, AdamBGames said:

best thing is to go 100mhz at a time and then test each overclock. this will ensure the you get the best results

What is the best way to test that it's a stable overclock? My main thing I don't know a whole lot about is the voltage.

[Tech Wizard]

5 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

What is the best way to test that it's a stable overclock? My main thing I don't know a whole lot about is the voltage.

Don't go above 1.4V for Skylake, but I really recommend max voltage of 1.350 for 24/7 usage, unless you want to fry your chip

Also, you can determine if your overclock is stable by Stress Testing with different softwares. I recommend Aida64, Prime95 and Intel Burn Test

[Truncale20]

1 minute ago, Tech Wizard said:

Don't go above 1.4V for Skylake, but I really recommend max voltage of 1.350 for 24/7 usage.

SO you think I should just pull back the memory a little bit and go under under 1.35 or pull the cpu clock back.

[Tech Wizard]

2 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

SO you think I should just pull back the memory a little bit and go under under 1.35 or pull the cpu clock back.

I was referring to the CPU voltage. Let RAM be as it is. I'm assuming that you haven't overclocked your RAM, just that you bought RAM with 3000MHz. Just leave the RAM alone

[Truncale20]

1 minute ago, Tech Wizard said:

I was referring to the CPU voltage. Let RAM be as it is. I'm assuming that you haven't overclocked your RAM, just that you bought RAM with 3000MHz. Just leave the RAM alone

So the ram is overclocked to 3000 MHz. The max ram for the cpu from the intel site is 2133. 

[Tech Wizard]

2 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

So the ram is overclocked to 3000 MHz. The max ram for the cpu from the intel site is 2133. 

No, that's just the default speeds for your CPU, not max speed your CPU can run. It's the motherboard that determines maximum RAM speeds, not CPU. Take my CPU for example, Intel's site says my 4960X max default speed is 1866MHz, but I have 2400MHz RAM, and that is not overclocked (bought 2400mhz sticks, since my motherboard supports it).

[typographie]

11 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

What is the best way to test that it's a stable overclock? My main thing I don't know a whole lot about is the voltage.

Use a stability testing program such as AIDA64 or Prime95, and let it run for awhile. This does two things: if your overclock is unstable, putting it under a really heavy workload will probably crash your system sooner than you would if you just tried to use it normally. It also gives you an idea of what your worst-case scenario load temperatures will be.

 

Your voltage is safe, I think, but 1.36 V is kind of high for what I'd expect for a 6600K at 4.5 GHz. Every CPU is a bit different and it may just be that yours actually needs that much for stability, but through some trial and error testing you might be able to shave that down a bit and remain stable. This is just an example, but my 6600K is stable at 4.5 GHz at 1.325 V.

 

6 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

SO you think I should just pull back the memory a little bit and go under under 1.35 or pull the cpu clock back.

Your memory has its own voltage in the BIOS, usually called "DRAM Voltage" and you may see it if you scroll down a bit more in the BIOS. CPU Core Voltage is for your CPU alone.

 

Intel's "default" for your CPU is DDR4-2133, but it can run much faster than that on most boards. If the memory you bought was advertised as DDR4-3000, you'll probably get the proper settings just by enabling XMP. I wouldn't worry about manually overclocking memory until after you've got your CPU where you want it.

[Truncale20]

2 minutes ago, typographie said:

Use a stability testing program such as AIDA64 or Prime95, and let it run for awhile. This does two things: if your overclock is unstable, putting it under a really heavy workload will probably crash your system sooner than you would if you just tried to use it normally. It also gives you an idea of what your worst-case scenario load temperatures will be.

 

Your voltage is safe, I think, but 1.36 V is kind of high for what I'd expect for a 6600K at 4.5 GHz. Every CPU is a bit different and it may just be that yours actually needs that much for stability, but through some trial and error testing you might be able to shave that down a bit and remain stable.

 

Your memory has its own voltage in the BIOS, usually called "DRAM Voltage" and you may see it if you scroll down a bit more in the BIOS. CPU Core Voltage is for your CPU alone.

 

Intel's "default" for your CPU is DDR4-2133, but it can run much faster than that on most boards. If the memory you bought was advertised as DDR4-3000, you'll probably get the proper settings just by enabling XMP. I wouldn't worry about manually overclocking memory until after you've got your CPU where you want it.

 

4 minutes ago, typographie said:

Your voltage is safe, I think, but 1.36 V is kind of high for what I'd expect for a 6600K at 4.5 GHz. Every CPU is a bit different and it may just be that yours actually needs that much for stability, but through some trial and error testing you might be able to shave that down a bit and remain stable.

 

So I just changed the multiplier to 44 so CPU speed is now 4.4 GHZ and the VCore is now 1.224. Don't understand why there is such a big gap.

[Tech Wizard]

4 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

 

So I just changed the multiplier to 44 so CPU speed is now 4.4 GHZ and the VCore is now 1.224. Don't understand why there is such a big gap.

100 % normal, happens with everyone. The last multiplier right before the sharp rise in required voltage is the sweet spot for that chip.  That's not to say that it won't work fine at the multiplier just after it, but you'll be pushing a lot more power through that chip for little gained in return.

 

Every chip has a sweet spot where it runs the best and yours happens to be at 4.4GHz.

Edit: See my voltage jumps from 4,3 to 4,4 on my last CPU 

 

[Truncale20]

2 minutes ago, Tech Wizard said:

100 % normal, happens with everyone. The last multiplier right before the sharp rise in required voltage is the sweet spot for that chip.  That's not to say that it won't work fine at the multiplier just after it, but you'll be pushing a lot more power through that chip for little gained in return.

 

Every chip has a sweet spot where it runs the best and yours happens to be at 4.4GHz.

Edit: See my voltage jumps from 4,3 to 4,4

 

Okay that makes sense to me. Like I said earlier, i'm new to all of this. But it seems pretty apparent that I should stay at 4.4GHz

[Tech Wizard]

2 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

Okay that makes sense to me. Like I said earlier, i'm new to all of this. But it seems pretty apparent that I should stay at 4.4GHz

I agree. 4,4GHz with 1.225V seems like a very nice overclock. What is your cooler? Have you tried torturing your PC with 30min+ stress tests to check for instability? Have you checked max temps under stress tests?

[Truncale20]

1 minute ago, Tech Wizard said:

I agree. 4,4GHz with 1.225V seems like a very nice overclock. What is your cooler? Have you tried torturing your PC with 30min+ stress tests to check for instability? Have you checked max temps under stress tests?

I haven't done much testing so far, just was wanting to get a base understanding of everything. And the cooler is the H105.

[typographie]

1 minute ago, Truncale20 said:

So I just changed the multiplier to 44 so CPU speed is now 4.4 GHZ and the VCore is now 1.224. Don't understand why there is such a big gap.

Oh I see, you have CPU Core Voltage set to "Auto." You can probably set that to Manual and key in a value. The Auto setting often overcompensates, and you may not strictly need 1.36 V for 4.5 GHz to be stable (or 1.224 V at 4.4 GHz, for that matter). You can leave it on 4.4 GHz if you'd rather, but you can also fine-tune the voltage by setting it slightly lower and re-testing until you find instability.

 

We brought up Prime95 earlier, and I've heard there is an issue with Prime95 and CPUs set to "Auto," where the CPU can be over-volted to dangerous levels. I would recommend either setting a Manual voltage (which forces the CPU to use a constant voltage), or just avoid Prime95 and use the other applications we mentioned.

[Tech Wizard]

 

2 minutes ago, Truncale20 said:

I haven't done much testing so far, just was wanting to get a base understanding of everything. And the cooler is the H105.

 

As mentioned above, your voltage was set to auto most likely during your 4,5GHz, which overvolted it probably. You can set it to 4,5GHz, set voltage to manual, and try for example 1.300V and test stability. If it blue screens, up the voltage by +0,10 everytime untill it becomes stable. Your cooler is capable of handling 1.300V easily. I really recommend to use IntelBurnTest  

[ARikozuM]

44 minutes ago, AdamBGames said:

best thing is to go 100mhz at a time and then test each overclock. this will ensure the you get the best results

Don't quote the original post if you're the one of the first to post. It doesn't look good for mobile users and just clutters the first page of the thread.

[Truncale20]

13 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Don't quote the original post if you're the one of the first to post. It doesn't look good for mobile users and just clutters the first page of the thread.

Yeah didn't mean to my bad.

 

[Truncale20]

33 minutes ago, Tech Wizard said:

 

 

As mentioned above, your voltage was set to auto most likely during your 4,5GHz, which overvolted it probably. You can set it to 4,5GHz, set voltage to manual, and try for example 1.300V and test stability. If it blue screens, up the voltage by +0,10 everytime untill it becomes stable. Your cooler is capable of handling 1.300V easily. I really recommend to use IntelBurnTest  

For the Intel Burn Test, is there anything specific I need to do. Or if it goes through the test then i'm okay?

[Tech Wizard]

1 minute ago, Truncale20 said:

For the Intel Burn Test, is there anything specific I need to do. Or if it goes through the test then i'm okay?

Use these exact settings (default). It will run 10 times, and if it passes all 10 tests, your overclock is stable. You can also get a message saying "IntelBurnTest is not stable something blah blah blah, check temps". That means it requries more voltage for your set overclock, increase in small measurements, +0,10V and try again.

 

[Truncale20]

2 minutes ago, Tech Wizard said:

Use these exact settings (default). It will run 10 times, and if it passes all 10 tests, your overclock is stable. You can also get a message saying "IntelBurnTest is not stable something blah blah blah, check temps". That means it requries more voltage for your set overclock, increase in small measurements, +0,10V and try again.

 

Okay awesome thank you. Currently running it at 4.5GHz with 1.30V.

[Tech Wizard]

Just now, Truncale20 said:

Okay awesome thank you. Currently running it at 4.5GHz with 1.30V.

See if you pass IntelBurnTest with that 4,5 @ 1.30V

[Truncale20]

1 minute ago, Tech Wizard said:

See if you pass IntelBurnTest with that 4,5 @ 1.30V

It passed.

[Tech Wizard]

1 minute ago, Truncale20 said:

It passed.

That's good news. IntelBurnTest is not the heaviest of Stress Tests out there. I use it only for minimum, to check if system is stable after recent overclock. If I pass in IntelBurnTest, I run Aida64 for 1hour to detemine 100 % if the overclock is stable.

[Tech Wizard]

1 minute ago, Tech Wizard said:

That's good news. IntelBurnTest is not the heaviest of Stress Tests out there. I use it only for minimum, to check if system is stable after recent overclock. If I pass in IntelBurnTest, I run Aida64 for 1hour to detemine 100 % if the overclock is stable.

You could even try to set Voltage lower than 1.30, for example 1.275 and run IntelBurnTest and see if u get a pass. The lower the voltage, the less heat on ur CPU, resulting in longer life