I5 2500K Overclock Using Stock Cooler

[DanielMsi]

Hi Guys,

I have a i5 2500K and wanting to overclock my Cpu in order to allow my 7970 to "breath" more comfortable especially with it comes down to minimum fps in games. I have a feeling the Cpu at stock speeds is holding me back a little, as getting Alright Fps frames in Crysis but it can dip quite low at times, mid 30's we are talking. When tesselation is disabled it is quite high and nothing under 60, however all reviews and benchmarks show 7970 with tessellation x64 should be well handled by a 7970 and average 60fps on 1080p. Im averaging 50fps at 1680x1050.

I have spent quite alot on my rig. At first I bought a 7970 and thought that was it, then I needed a new powersupply, and decided to upgrade my phenom 2 965be to an i5. So Yes I am tight ass right now, and can not take my girlfriend out this week to fancy resturants because of this and dont wanna have to buy an after market cooler on top of that. What overclock using a standard cooler would you guys recommend?

Cheers,

Daniel Delindi

[SoloCamo]

What overclock using a standard cooler would you guys recommend?

To be honest, nothing that will give you the results you are looking for.

However, I understand your current money limitations so with that said, what are your current cpu temperatures at idle and under load?

That will play the biggest factor here. Realistically, assuming you've got a decent batched cpu you and your temps are good, I don't really foresee 3.8-3.9ghz being too much of an issue.

But factor this in, the "trubo speed" for it is 3.7ghz w/ the factory cooler. This said, your only looking at 200mhz or so over what it is already performing at.

That alone is not going to net you a huge frame jump.

In all honesty I'd recommend waiting till you save the cash and get a decent aftermarket cooler for any noticeable results, otherwise it's kind of a waste. I highly recommend the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ evo. It runs around $30 usd and does an excellent job.

I'm running an 8-core FX - 8120 from 3.1ghz to 4ghz on it, and the temps at idle are usually always under 30*c and even when gaming I don't see more than 48-50*c at most after hours of load on it.

This said, my CPU runs A LOT hotter than your i5, so that will be an excellent match for it when the funds come in.

Again, an overclock is attainable, and you may have better than average temps so it could be you get lucky and hit 4ghz, but don't count on it, and even then I don't trust the stock cooler at all considering your climate

[ShyguyXPC]

add to that, the turbo mode is only for a single core, it clocks up one core, and downclocks all the others, so for single threaded applications it will help, but multi threaded, the performance actually suffers and degrades significantly, as your throttling up the clock on one core a small amount and dropping 3 others cores quite a bit to do this.

[JLK03F150]

Darn... I was about to post a newegg link, then saw you are down-under. The Hyper 212+ is on sale for $19.99us after rebate with free shipping. I ordered it for my own PC.

[DanielMsi]

Hi Guys, Thanks for your replies. Im no longer in Tight-ass central and have decided to go with Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP CPU Cooler. Do you guys know anything about this cooler?

Because of my inexperience with Overclocking, The computer shop here have advised me they will add the cooler, and overclock my cpu at the right level for $70. They recon they can hit Atleast 4.3Ghz with this cooler as a minimum. Ill be getting this done tomorrow.