Problem overclocking the i7-3770K

Nivagely

Nivagely

Posts: 28   +1
Hey all, I decided I wanted to overclock my i7 to about 4.7Ghz as I've seen that it can usually deal fairly well with that Overclock, I have gone through some tutorials, even looked up a guide by Asus telling me what I need to do as well, however I'm not having the best of luck,

First I'll tell you cooling feature, I have a H100i Watercooling unit on the processor, it runs a 100% load at about 70 degrees Celsius with the odd spike and such, for the Air flow management, I have a Storm Stryker FT Case, with the two fans on the drive bays and a third fan on the back of the case, (two 120mm on drive bays, 140mm on back) the Radiator with the two fans are on the celling of the case, The total air flow is good and the temperature inside the case is about 26-27 degrees celcius.

The Motherboard is an Asus Sabertooth Z77. The UEFI Bios is good and is very informative with the overclocking possibility, however it doesn't work for me that well at all.

I had to switch out my 750 PSU and put in a Non Modular Corsair 650 TX untill a new one is shipped out. (Don't know if that be the cause, For some reason I think it is.)

My problem is that no matter how I fiddle and test out the the Frequency and the the voltage, I cannot get anything stable over 4.2 Ghz it seems, I did manage to get 4.7. however it is not stable at all and so is true with anything higher than 4.2 Ghz, and adjusting the voltage core above 1.350 seems to cut out the PC,

I managed to get to 4.2 with Vcore at 1.275, The DDRM Frequency is at 1664Mhz, (Two Corsair vengence 8Gb 1600 Mhz ram)

At the moment I am completely stumped, I don't want to go do more testing as I literally spent about 4 hours trying to sort this out and I am fearing for the CPU Health,

From looking at most Guides, Especially the Asus Guide using the same Processor and a Maximus 5, and they all seem to be in accepting in that an frequencies of 4.7 and a Vcore of about 1.275-1.350, (1.275 Seems to be the most common).

I was hoping someone could help me out, as I've lost count how many times I've seen that dreadful blue screen.

PS, I will put up some Screenshots if need be, but currently cannot as I am out.
 
Well you have to realise each chip will OC to a different level at a different voltage, so maybe you just haven't got a very good one...

Do you actually use any programs which make use of a 4.2+ Ghz OC? If not I would just leave it at 4.2Ghz @1.275V, Ivy Bridge chips get really hot once you start increasing the voltages so the extra heat/noise may not be worth it.
 
True, I do understand there are variances with each different chip of the same model, But the thing is it could turbo boost itself automatically to 3.8 anyways, and since the K variant were manufactured to allow overclocking I can't understand why it would only gain 400 Mhz, Perhaps I haven't found that sweet spot :(

Well, I do play a lot of RTS Games, ones such as Supreme Commander can get VERY hungry when Its an hour in and 8 players simutaneously order different commands to hundreds of unit types, People have even stated in order to cope with it you will need to overclock,

Kaspersky loves to be hungry when its updating ( I have no idea... )

As for the cooling aspect of it, It's very stable when I configure it for maximum Output. Plus opening my bedroom window is basically like summoning a blizzard into the room.
 
Right, Update, I have managed to OC it, however it doesn't seem right, using prime95 as a stress and core temp and cpu z as info, I can OC to 4.4 on a 1.2 VCORE, However, Coretemp is telling me the CPU is hitting a 96 degrees celcious at max, That seems Rather high for 4.4, Im also getting the odd voltage increase and decrease on the 12V and 5V.

Can a Cpu even go below 1 degrees? The Ai suite II Is telling me all this >.>
 
Check out TS game benchmarks. OCing the 3770K to 4.5 GHz helps in some games like BF3, which takes advantage of quad cores.
 
Before proceeding further, I would reset everything by using the clear CMOS jumper, some people even re-flash the BIOS to start a new OC session, however, it's not necessary, unless you have version 1805, then I would definitely flash to version 1908 (BIOS version 1805 caused problems with overclocking for some users, including me). After setting your clock speed, RAM speed & timings, voltages, peripherals, etc., go into BIOS advanced interface, AI Tweaker tab, Digi+ Power Control, and set CPU Load Line Calibration to extreme, CPU Power Phase Control to extreme, CPU Power Duty Control to extreme, CPU Current Capability to 130%, CPU Power Thermal Control to high or extreme, CPU Power Response Control to ultra high. Start at 4.2 and get it stable, then go up a step to 4.3, bumping up the vcore as you go to remain stable. You should be able to get 4.5 stable at around 1.230 - 1.250 vcore, but try slightly lower volts to reduce temps while testing for stability at each change. Temps when running IBT or Prime95 will be high, 70-85c, but normal programs and games will stay under 60c, even under maximum CPU load. I just went through the same process with my Asus P8Z77-V & 3570K, it wouldn't clock over 4.3 stable, until I tweaked the Digi+ settings. I'm using the H100, so your temps should be similar if not better. Ignore the occasional temp/voltage warnings from AI Suite, they are false readings, perhaps caused by using other sensor monitoring programs (RealTemp, HWiNFO64, SpeedFan, etc.). I uninstalled all the Asus AI Suite programs, too buggy to be relied upon, 3rd party applications work better (HWiNFO64 works great for me monitoring temps and volts). Don't get discouraged, OCing takes a lot of time and patience to get it right, but the satisfaction of blowing away much more expensive hardware cannot be denied. I'm now at 4.6 GHz, 1.27 vcore, max temp running IBT is 85c.
 
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Your 95 degrees might be normal for your cooler. The Corsair H100 is not a "real" enthusiast water cooling setup. From what I've heard, people get similar temperatures with that junk as a good air cooler. Its kind of a joke to call that water cooling. The point of the H100 is to tell people "technically, there is liquid in this" not to get significantly better temps than air. Basically, you're out $100 for a cooler with the performance of a good $40 air cooler.

If you want to hit 4.7 Ghz, I assure you most of us running that clock use a custom water cooling loop and not that closed loop budget cooler. Most enthusiasts wouldn't even call it water cooling until you have a reservoir, pump, and radiator. I use a Raystorm block, XSPC bay reservoir/pump combo, and the XSPC uber thick triple 120 rad. Using Prime95 at 100% load with the I7 3770k at 4.7 Ghz, it doesn't hit 60 C. At idle, its only 1-2 C above room temperature. If you want to safely hit 4.7 Ghz with good temps, I'd recommend $500+ on a custom water loop. Otherwise, stick to the 4.2 to 4.4 Ghz range depending on your setup. Its unlikely you'll notice the 6% difference of 4.7.
 
Well I based my purchase of reviews and recommendations, and in all fairness, it holds up well actually, I've managed to hit a 4.5 with 85 max now, and compared to an Air cooler (Which I had before) means no need to constantly clean and chuck with the dust, (I work in a very small room, It's hard to not get dust :p )

So in that aspect, I'm quite comfortable with the H100i :),

Thing with that though is the money, I am just building the PC bit by bit, It'll never be a 'finished' product.
Well since my problem is done with I suppose this thread will be locked? :)
 
JC713 said:
You are reaching 85C with a H100i? That doesnt seem right.
Click to expand...

It's just my luck I think, Only remedy I can think of is getting better Thermal paste then the one supplied with the Cooler (Paste had a 20 day delivery, so opted out for now)

I couldn't think of anyother way to get the temp down then spraying some liquid nitrogen in the case,

Only thing I am thinking of doing now is flashing the bios to the latest version, and to re apply the the Watercooler, seeing I wasn't actually the one who fitted the watercooling on. In a bit of good news I'm having a blast that AI Suite seems to think I have my CPU at -123C, and how my Fans are spinning at 123,456 RPM :)
 
hood6558 said:
Before proceeding further, I would reset everything by using the clear CMOS jumper, some people even re-flash the BIOS to start a new OC session, however, it's not necessary, unless you have version 1805, then I would definitely flash to version 1908 (BIOS version 1805 caused problems with overclocking for some users, including me). After setting your clock speed, RAM speed & timings, voltages, peripherals, etc., go into BIOS advanced interface, AI Tweaker tab, Digi+ Power Control, and set CPU Load Line Calibration to extreme, CPU Power Phase Control to extreme, CPU Power Duty Control to extreme, CPU Current Capability to 130%, CPU Power Thermal Control to high or extreme, CPU Power Response Control to ultra high. Start at 4.2 and get it stable, then go up a step to 4.3, bumping up the vcore as you go to remain stable. You should be able to get 4.5 stable at around 1.230 - 1.250 vcore, but try slightly lower volts to reduce temps while testing for stability at each change. Temps when running IBT or Prime95 will be high, 70-85c, but normal programs and games will stay under 60c, even under maximum CPU load. I just went through the same process with my Asus P8Z77-V & 3570K, it wouldn't clock over 4.3 stable, until I tweaked the Digi+ settings. I'm using the H100, so your temps should be similar if not better. Ignore the occasional temp/voltage warnings from AI Suite, they are false readings, perhaps caused by using other sensor monitoring programs (RealTemp, HWiNFO64, SpeedFan, etc.). I uninstalled all the Asus AI Suite programs, too buggy to be relied upon, 3rd party applications work better (HWiNFO64 works great for me monitoring temps and volts). Don't get discouraged, OCing takes a lot of time and patience to get it right, but the satisfaction of blowing away much more expensive hardware cannot be denied. I'm now at 4.6 GHz, 1.27 vcore, max temp running IBT is 85c.
Click to expand...

And thanks by the way! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, Great help! Will be doing the flash soon when I get time to do it! Followed everything else and now I'm at 4.5 for the moment!
 
I would return the H100 to Corsair. It may be flawed. My friend has a Noctua NH-D14 and his i7 3770K @ 4.5 GHz runs at a cool 35C under load. You should be getting something around 30-40C with the H100i. Make sure you try at least 2-3 temperature monitoring programs to rule out any software errors. Also, make sure the voltage is not too high. I would just send it back to Corsair. It has a 5 year warranty anyways.

Check out this video:
.

The default thermal paste should be fine, either your sensors are flawed or the H100 is screwed up. If you need good thermal paste, Arctic Silver 5 is great.
 
JC713 said:
I would return the H100 to Corsair. It may be flawed. My friend has a Noctua NH-D14 and his i7 3770K @ 4.5 GHz runs at a cool 35C under load. You should be getting something around 30-40C with the H100i. Make sure you try at least 2-3 temperature monitoring programs to rule out any software errors. Also, make sure the voltage is not too high. I would just send it back to Corsair. It has a 5 year warranty anyways.

Check out this video:
.

The default thermal paste should be fine, either your sensors are flawed or the H100 is screwed up. If you need good thermal paste, Arctic Silver 5 is great.
Click to expand...
I'm using AS5 on my H100/3570K@4.5 GHz/1.25v and my temps can hit 82c running IBT, 72c running Prime95, and ~50-60c running most other benchmarks. Playing Dirt Showdown it's only 45-50c. Temp readings are from the Intel digital sensors in the CPU, using HWiNFO64 and checked with Realtemp and AIDA64 for accuracy. It sounds like your friend is reading Nuvoton sensors in the motherboard; mine shows 58c when the digital sensors are at 80c. I guess a lot depends on the motherboard and getting a decent chip. Mine won't run stable (testing with IBT & Prime95) at lower vcore, others may have more luck, but 35c under load @4.5 GHZ? Where do you live, Siberia?
 
That is very interesting. 72C seems high for a watercooler, but it is a stress benchmark after all. Keep in mind though, the H100i has static pressure fans mounted on them vs the older, more generic fans on the H100. It makes a bit of a difference. Not severely though.
 
names said:
The point of the H100 is to tell people "technically, there is liquid in this" not to get significantly better temps than air. Basically, you're out $100 for a cooler with the performance of a good $40 air cooler.
Click to expand...

Not completely accurate. As you can see here, there is no $40 cooler on the market that can keep up with closed loop cooling, and I do agree they aren't true liquid cooling solutions. A closed loop of course will not keep up with a genuine liquid cooled system.

But you would need to spend $80+ on the top air fans to match the closed loop cooling performance. And those air fans are so heavy and massive that they take up all your room and are borderline dangerous to a motherboard with how much they weigh.

Just saying, there are some setups where closed loop is a good, smart choice. I currently have one of the best $40 fans on the market, the evo 212, and 4.4Ghz is really, really pushing it hard.
 
DonNagual said:
Not completely accurate. As you can see here, there is no $40 cooler on the market that can keep up with closed loop cooling, and I do agree they aren't true liquid cooling solutions. A closed loop of course will not keep up with a genuine liquid cooled system.

But you would need to spend $80+ on the top air fans to match the closed loop cooling performance. And those air fans are so heavy and massive that they take up all your room and are borderline dangerous to a motherboard with how much they weigh.

Just saying, there are some setups where closed loop is a good, smart choice. I currently have the $40 cooling fan you refer to (the evo 212) and 4.4Ghz is really, really pushing it hard.
Click to expand...
The Noctua NH-D14 is massive as Don said. You have to make sure it clears your RAM and fits in your case. Plus it is $80. I think the Hyper 212 Evo is aimed at people who want to push out a little more juice out of a CPU without breaking the bank (4.2GHz maybe).
 
Quote, "Just saying, there are some setups where closed loop is a good, smart choice. I currently have one of the best $40 fans on the market, the evo 212, and 4.4Ghz is really, really pushing it hard."
Well said - I ditched my Evo when I decided to go for 4.5 GHz, bought an H100 (the "I" model wasn't made yet). The AIO liquid coolers don't start to distinguish themselves until a high load/high overclock scenario shows their strong point. I also dislike large air coolers because you bump into it every time you change wiring or DIMMs, possibly cracking the motherboard or shifting the thermal paste. I'm surprised that you don't have at least an H80i to keep temps down on your 4.4 OC, or to go a little higher, and clean up that socket area as well. But maybe money is tight right now, or you're the kind of enthusiast who loves to get maximum performance from budget parts - that, I understand and embrace myself - but I'm also a fanatic about keeping temps low. Eventually I'll build a custom loop, but I'm still glad I "got my feet wet" with the H100.
 
JC713 said:
That is very interesting. 72C seems high for a watercooler, but it is a stress benchmark after all. Keep in mind though, the H100i has static pressure fans mounted on them vs the older, more generic fans on the H100. It makes a bit of a difference. Not severely though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the H100i is current king of the 240 AIO heap, and I'm tempted to get one for the 4 or 5c temp difference, and for the control software, but I see that many are having problems with their H100i, so even at $110 I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I might try the Swiftech H220 if they weren't out of stock everywhere...
 
hood6558 said:
Yeah, the H100i is current king of the 240 AIO heap, and I'm tempted to get one for the 4 or 5c temp difference, and for the control software, but I see that many are having problems with their H100i, so even at $110 I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I might try the Swiftech H220 if they weren't out of stock everywhere...
Click to expand...

They are in stock at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108183. It has been a while since release.
 
Well, In all honesty, I'm not having the best experience with the H100i, however, the fortnightly clean is a lot damned easier. As for opened loop systems, I live in a 5 by 5 bedroom, No space!
 
Try here Link

FrozenCPU is where I get most of my liquid cooling stuff and they normally keep a good stock of everything.

Its in stock and comes in two colors there!

Hope it helps!
 
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