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My CPU runs fine at stock speeds with the stock cooler, but if I let my Asus MB try to use "Turbo Setting", all Hell breaks loose. In a perfect world I'd setup a custom rig water cool my CPU and GPU, and get it up to 4.0GHz safely but that's a bit beyond my skills.

I've been looking at an Antec Kuhler H2O 650, a NZXT Kraken 60, a Corsair Hydro, or maybe even a Noctua. Anybody have good, bad, indifferent experiences? I've read reviews, but some seemed pretty biased/


Oh, also, I know I'll need that 2 chemical TIM remover, but what would be a great TIM to replace it with? Artic Silver?

Thanks in advance!

-4 GHz? You can probably do that with aforementioned stock cooler. With a closed loop water cooler, you can aim for 4.3-4.7. Maybe? I'll be honest, I don't know how well the i7 overclocks, but Sandy Bridge was the one that overclocked like no tomorrow.
-Big massive cooler roundup here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7738/clos ... id-coolers
-Most/all of these coolers come with their own TIM/thermal paste pre-applied, and generally the ones they use are quite good

For reference I use a i5-2500K @ 4.4, with a Hyper 212 EVO (air cooler).

TwistedKestrel wrote:

-4 GHz? You can probably do that with aforementioned stock cooler. With a closed loop water cooler, you can aim for 4.3-4.7. Maybe? I'll be honest, I don't know how well the i7 overclocks, but Sandy Bridge was the one that overclocked like no tomorrow.
-Big massive cooler roundup here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7738/clos ... id-coolers
-Most/all of these coolers come with their own TIM/thermal paste pre-applied, and generally the ones they use are quite good

For reference I use a i5-2500K @ 4.4, with a Hyper 212 EVO (air cooler).

The stock cooler is pretty anemic. I keep it clean religiously, and the the one time I tried letting my Asus overclock it to 4GHz on a lark, the CPU heat sensor jumped to around 80C worryingly fast. I was thinking about getting a decent closed loop/radiator system to help keep in toasty 50C range. even while pushing it hard.

For a little background, I've got 4 system fans (3 120mm fans (front, back, blowhole), and a giant side fan on the side, and I've got baffles to direct air to/from the GPU and HDDs. I *should* be able to overclock as is, but either I'm doing something seriously wrong, or that dinky stock heatsink/fan has gotta go.


I was looking into a Noctua N4 (?), but I'm worried it's wright/clearance issues, plus the Kuhler is like $20 cheaper...

I don't really have any experience with automatic overclocking myself, but what I've always heard is that it almost always applies a lot more voltage than is needed, and that makes the processor run a lot hotter at any given clock speed.

Have you tried just setting the clocks to 4GHz manually without increasing the voltage?

Your problem is letting the board auto-overclock determine the settings. Not that the stock cooler will definitely suffice, but auto-overclock settings always put the voltage higher than it needs to be thus increasing temperatures more than they need to be. A good, not necessarily expensive air cooler like a Coolermaster Hyper 212 (which used to be available very cheap with MIRs all the time) will certainly help a lot, but if you want to overclock right, you need to learn about the various settings and do some trial and error testing.

Melvar wrote:

I don't really have any experience with automatic overclocking myself, but what I've always heard is that it almost always applies a lot more voltage than is needed, and that makes the processor run a lot hotter at any given clock speed.

Have you tried just setting the clocks to 4GHz manually without increasing the voltage?

MadManOriginal wrote:

Your problem is letting the board auto-overclock determine the settings. Not that the stock cooler will definitely suffice, but auto-overclock settings always put the voltage higher than it needs to be thus increasing temperatures more than they need to be. A good, not necessarily expensive air cooler like a Coolermaster Hyper 212 (which used to be available very cheap with MIRs all the time) will certainly help a lot, but if you want to overclock right, you need to learn about the various settings and do some trial and error testing.

No, I haven't tried manually, had a bad experience with a 468 DX4 100 back in the day, so I really haven't kept up with overclocking. I used the little Asus app, since I thought that if things went tits up immediately, Asus would be on the hool, since I followed their directions.

I'll dig up a pic of the cooler I'm using now, find the MB model number, and link to what I'm after in a bit.



EDIT:

Here's a stock cooler similar to mine:




I've got a Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3, and was thinking about installing this instead.

The point of the K series is that you can adjust the clock multiplier without messing with voltages, so I'd definitely start there.

I'm guessing your stock cooler is similar to what I got with my 2500k. It'd be fine for 200-300 MHz but for a stronger OC look at the CM 212 EVO, it's got a very good reputation for air cooling and you should be able to hit 4GHz without issue. Sandy Bridge is famously OC friendly.

Overclocking the K series Sandy Bridge is a breeze. Either download the OC utility from the Mobo manufacturers site and do it in windows or go into the bios and manually alter the clock ratio to what you want. Save and exit and away you go. I have an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 and they provide an O'clocking utility called AXTU and it works great. I currently have my i5 2500K clocked at 4.3 ghtz on the stock cooler and my idle temps are about 35c and under load 70c. I have speedstep enabled and numerous fans and good airflow in the PC.

Obviously an after market fan will potentially keep those temps down but I've had this CPU since they came out (previously had an Asrock P67 Pro3 Mobo) and it's always been at 4.3 ghtz on the stock cooler. Happy bunny.

Hesogood,
Does your case have a 140 mm fan mount close to the CPU socket? If you do not the Cooler Master Nepton 140XL is about the best AIO cooler that does not use a 240 or 280mm radiator. The great thing about the cooler is that you can use a 120mm fan to mount it if you do not have a 140mm fan mount close to the CPU socket since the 140mm radiator has 120mm fan mounts on both sides. I have read many reviews on the Nepton 140xl and it performs right up with the bigger 240mm radiator coolers like the H100 etc. If you don't have a 140 mm fan mount I am sure using a 140mm push fan along with a 120mm pull/mount fan will work fine. It does cost $30 more then the one you are looking at. But I would go with a h80i or the one I that I have a link here for you. I am sure once you look up a few reviews of the Nepton 140xl you will se how well it cools.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103197

As for overclocking your 2600k. Until you get a better cooler just leave everything stock and increase your turbo speeds for a 4 cores to 40x and then check voltage with Cpuz and your temps also to see if they are better. When I first got my 2600k I just increased the turbo to 42 on stock volts and she ran fine.

Now that my h50 AIO cooler is just about 3 years old it is not cooling like it used to.....I am guessing I have corrosion on the micro channels on the cold plate and possibly in the radiator. I know the Coolermaster Nepton 140xl is on my to get list along with a nice sized 240-512gb SSD to replace my original 1st generation Corsair Force 60gb SSD...but I am broke at the moment.

Asus won't be responsible if anything goes wrong, I can almost guarantee you they have disclaimers somewhere in the manual or documentation or even the BIOS itself that says 'overclocking is at your own risk' or something. However, it's very hard to actually break something by overclocking these days. The CPUs have built-in protection so unless you do something completely stupid like set it to the absolute highest voltage level for no reason and cause damage over time to the CPU there shouldn't be a problem.

K, without going in to the BIOS yet, I opened up the ASUS TurboV EVO app, and here are the options it gives me to play with:


Fast and Extreme auto-tuning (of Course)


Under Manual Mode:

BCLK Frequency 100.3 100.3 (MHz)
CPU Voltage 1.165 1.165 (V)
DDR Voltage 1.5000 1.5000(V)


Advanced Mode"


VCCIP Voltage 1.05000 1.05000
CPU PLL Voltage 1.80000 1.80000
PCH VOltage 1.05 1.05
CHA DATA 0.500 0.500
CHA CTRL 0.500 0.500
CHB DATA 0.500 0.500
CHB CTRL 0.500 0.500

(There is ample room on all the above sliders)

There's an option called CPU Ratio, but you have to reboot to find out what it changes.

There's an tool Called EPU, but I've got it set for High performance already. CPU is 32C at idle, MB is 28C.

I have NOT messed with DIGI+VRM yet. Phase control is set to extreme. Load-line calibration is Regular, CPU Current Capability is at 100%, Frequency is set to AUTO (Spread Spectrum and VRM Fixed mode are set to OFF), and Duty Contorl is set to T. Probe.. I'm pretty sure all those are the defaults.


I've have to dig up my manual, to see what options are available in the BIOS.

Anybody got any free time to help my figure this out? I just want to get the CPU to a nice4 stable 4GHz, and maybe boost the RAM a touch.



EDIT:

since it was asked, I have a Cooler Master case, with a 120 or 140 mm rear fan, and giant 200+mm side fane, a 120mm blowhole fan, and two 120mms up front for the HDDs. Have an upper mounting modular PS, and a two fan, closed loop Sapphire HD7950, with a baffle covering it for airflow.


EDIT 2: On a side note, I wish Asus included swappable op-amps like Gigabyte does. I don't have the greatest speakers in the universe, but the audio sounds flat and terrible, even thru my nice headphones. No amount of messing with the Realtek equalizer can create anything remotely acceptable.

Grab yourself a white box Sound Blaster X. I am using one now and it is a fine sound card...cost around $69 if you want the EMI sheild around $100
I have yet to see a Review comparing the SB X vs the ASUS Zonar DSX.

vargis14 wrote:

Grab yourself a white box Sound Blaster X. I am using one now and it is a fine sound card...cost around $69 if you want the EMI sheild around $100
I have yet to see a Review comparing the SB X vs the ASUS Zonar DSX.

I'm tempted to see how the external sound card VS the EMI shielded internal pans outs. I like the fact that whatever the latest G.Sniper MB is, has completely isolated (and LED lit, too boot) traces related to the audio system, has replaceable op-amps, and the even gold plated the audio chip.


That said, I starting tinkering with some of the OC settings on my 2600K. I got it up to 4.5GHz, before the temp warning got up to 72C, briefly. It's hovering around 32-40C on idle. Even speed up the DDR3, as well. Anybody know of a good, CPU limited game, to test this thing out a bit? Think Shogun 2 or PCSX2 would benefit from going from 3.5 to ~4.2-4.5Ghz?

UPDATE 4:

Taking it up to 4.5 with just that stock cooler brought it up to 80C. I backed it down to 3.8, which is a respectable 300MHz faster.

I think I really am going to switch to the kuhler 650 after all. Before it got too hot, Shogun 2 and Blacklist were buttery smooth. I *need* to get that extra GHz back now!

Feel free to get an all-in-one water cooler if you want, but imo good 120mm fan tower heatsinks provide a better value and often a lower max noise level. The dual fan all-in-ones make sense for heavy duty cooling, and the single fan ones for systems where a tower cooler won't fit, otherwise they are a compromise in one way or another versus tower coolers (but I kind of care about how loud my PC is, even when loaded.)

MadManOriginal wrote:

Feel free to get an all-in-one water cooler if you want, but imo good 120mm fan tower heatsinks provide a better value and often a lower max noise level. The dual fan all-in-ones make sense for heavy duty cooling, and the single fan ones for systems where a tower cooler won't fit, otherwise they are a compromise in one way or another versus tower coolers (but I kind of care about how loud my PC is, even when loaded.)

If you could point out some things i could change, in all that stuff I posted up above, I'd happily stick with my heatsink/fan. The main reason I'm look at the Kuhler, is because it has a larger pump, and counter-rotating fans on the 120mm radiator, and it's $20 cheaper than a Noctua N4, but supposedly works just as well. And it would save me having to figure out what each of those settings I posted means, and possibly melting my CPu in the process.

Yeah Ive been pretty happy with my CM Hyper 212 EVO lets me run my Ivy i7-3770K at a nice stable 4.3. I am replacing the stock fan on it with a noctua fan that runs faster and quieter to see if I can get any more out of it.

Starfalcon wrote:

Yeah Ive been pretty happy with my CM Hyper 212 EVO lets me run my Ivy i7-3770K at a nice stable 4.3. I am replacing the stock fan on it with a noctua fan that runs faster and quieter to see if I can get any more out of it.

I've been pretty happy with mine as well, EXCEPT that I've put enough hours on the fans to wear them out (I bought a fan to match the stock one, the 212 EVO comes with hardware to mount 2 fans) - I've re-lubed one fan once and the other twice, and the bearing on the 2nd squeaks every time it spins up and down. There is actually a newer version of the 212, the 212X which is supposed to have improved fans (among other minor changes). It's hard to track down but I'd go for it if you can find it.

Sure, you can add a $45 pair of Noctua fans to the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo and get a bit more out of it than you could with the stock fan, but you've also more than doubled its price.

That may be true, but its easier to do that then shop for a new cooler thats just as expensive along with paying and waiting for delivery...then pulling the old one out and putting the new cooler in. I am only running one fan anyway, so more like $20ish.