Intel Core i7-2600K Review

Hi everyone,

My motherboard (Maximus IV Extreme-Z, LGA 1155 socket, Z68 chipset) recently died and i've been looking for a replacement , but as they're out of production there are very few available and all are quite expensive.

Does anyone know of any mobos that are still in production and compatible with my processor? Or can anyone recommend a mobo that is easier to source and preferably does not cost a huge amount?

My CPU and GPU incase it's relevant are as follows:

CPU: Intel core i7-2600k

GPU: Nvidia GTX 580

Thanks so much in advance!

This is an 8-year old platform. No, motherboards are not in production anymore.

• Find a used board on eBay. It's not going to be up to you on what you can pick or choose.

• Sell off the parts and move onto a new build.

Alright thanks for your reply. I tried ebay but i was having a hard time filtering effectively. Is socket the only thing that matters or is also important that i get the same chipset?

Hardware that old just get a used one. Go on hardware exchange.

They aren't in production. You take what you can get, which in this case usually means an inflated price due to low supply and hopefully it's functional.

Do you know if there's a way that i can find a list of motherboards that are compatible with my build? Is it just a case of finding a list of boards with the LGA 1155 socket?

Hey guys, I play cod warzone and r6s. My cpu is on a high end asus p8z68 mobo oced to 4.2 ghz with cryroign m9i. The case has decent airflow. I just upgraded my gpu from a gtx 1650(non super). In r6s, I got about a 20 fps gain, which is a bit less than expected. In cod warzone, I got less than a 10 fps gain on all low settings, while other benchmarks yielded about a 30-40 fps gain in warzone. CPU utilization in warzone is also 90-100%, leading me to believe there is a severe bottleneck. Is this true? My cinebench and userbenchmark scores for the cpu are very high, 95th percentile. Latest drivers and windows version, xmp enabled. I'm concerned because I spent 170 on the card with a negligible improvement. Another thing worth highlighting is that my psu is only 460w, OEM psu, which has been used lightly for a few years. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Is hyperthreading turned on in the bios? (Just to check)

I'm pretty sure that the RX 580 is about 20% to 30% faster than the 1650 non super. It might just be that isn't really that huge of an upgrade.

Yes hyperthreading is on and task manager confirms. The thing is, the 580 is getting significantly less fps than other benhcmarks

No, I don't think it is. I think you are just expecting too much from an rx580

Possibly, but I average around 80-90 fps on low while zwormz benchmark averaged 120. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont think the cpu utilization is supposed to be at 100%

I recently came into a z77 motherboard and want to overclock my 2600k, but am running into trouble in the bios making manual changes, as if I'm locked out.

Can anyone offer a bit of help with my old equipment?

I have used the board for many years and didn't ever have any trouble with it.

What are you trying to change?

You can directly dial in most values if I remember correctly, only for the memory timings you have to enable "memory timing mode = manual" first.

THanks for the response, It's been a while since I overclocked something, but I know the basics. What seems to be happening is that I either can't make changes to the settings in the bios, or when I do manage to make changes, they don't seem to save when I reboot

Would you be willing to take a little time with me to help me unleash this beast?

hey guys! i got a good deal on a i7 2600k with asus p8p67 pro mobo and ram, the seller seems trusted and said it was never overclocked.

i want to achieve a slight overclock by barely touching the v core, is that possiblee? because i want 24/7 stability and dont really need to hit 5 ghz or anything aha, or what is a safe overclock for longevity and reliability?

what do you guys recommend i should do now in 2020? the cpu is prob 8-9 years old by now and idk how hard it was used in its past, is it even okay to oc it at this time of its life?

I ran a 2600k at 4.5 for like 6 years with forays as high as 4.8

It's got plenty of life left. At stock voltage aim for ~4.3GHz, above that you'll likely have to increase it. It's worth noting that a little extra voltage isn't going to harm the chip, and 1.35v or 1.375v should get you ~4.5GHz without too much effort at all and still keep temperatures within acceptable parameters if you're on at least a decent air cooler (not the stock Intel heatsink).

YMMV and all that; some chips ramp up fairly linearly, but some require a wall of voltage all at once. You'll have to do some testing and incremental bumps to find your particular chip's sweet spot.

so you think the safe bet is 1.35v max? i know they are probably all save under 1.4v but i just dont want to have premature cpu failure or something.

is it true the lower i can keep the voltage the better? or is the difference between 1.3 and 1.35 negligible in the long run for longevity as long as the temps are good!

ill be running a hyper 212 evo if that makes a diff

I have the same setup but my 2600k died xd because i used crazy volt. I must say the 2600k is one of the best cpus that intel released. 4.9 with 2133 ram i beat the shit outta 7700 non K it has 2x higher price then 2600k when it came out intel is a joke. My friend has 7700k and slightly oc but i still managed to get close to him. His score was around 970 and my best score was 920cb stable. Unstable oc 5.1 at 1.56v it runned cb without crash and i managed to score 943. Intel has done nothing since 2gen. My next cpu gonna be ryzen

Mine has been at 4.5GHz for about 7 years. Recently updated the BIOS and didn't know I couldn't restore old settings from another version so I had to OC it again. Just got it stable on 4.5GHz @ 1.4v manual, which seems high, but oh well, it's old.

what do you think of this so far, btw i upgraded my cooler to phanecks tc14 pe so I have a i7 2600k with a asus p8p67 pro mobo and a mid tower with a bunch of fans.

i went into the bios and set i have a asus mobo AI tweaker to 44 x 100 LLC SET to high (not the highest setting) offset - 0.03V

and so far i am running OCCT and it hasnt crashed, i went up to 4.5 and windows locked up so i came down to 4.4ghz.

temps are okay, around 60 celcius durring occt and cpuz v core hits 1.320max and is between 1.3-1.320 during the stress test

what do you guys think of this overclock? should i change anything?

some people say dont use offset because it lowers the idle voltage too much the pc seems fine so far, can i get the voltage lower some how? or what should i do in this scenario

Yeah I’ve seen that!! But I just wanna be safe and won’t really need the extra gHz. I heard not to pass 1.35V

But wondering how my settings look

Dont bother oc above 4.7ghz there is 0 perfirmance gain. 4.5 vs 4.7 you can see an increase but above that not that much that would impact gaming soo much. Try oc the ram i been Running hyper x savage 1600cl8 kit at 2133cl11 and i saw really good performance increase.

Kk thanks a lot! I noticed I basically need an extra 0.2V for 4.5 ghz vs 4.4 ghz. I basically don’t feel like it’s worth it, I’m happy with my low voltage with 4.4 so I’m prob gonna stay with that!

Hello, I have a i7 2600K running at stock 3.4GHz.

Attached to it I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Cooler.

Motherboard is a: MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3).

Memory (info from taskmanager): 4x4GB 1333MHz DIMM

On Windows 10, 64bit.

750W Corsair Power Supply.

My intention is to gain performance for games, but I have no stress to see this goal achieved. So I would like to overclock in small steps and try each OC step out for some time (maybe days) to see that it works well.

From what I have gathered it is more safe to only change the CPU Multiplier in the BIOS, and not OC in other ways. But what about the RAM, do I need to do changes there to acustom for the CPU OC?

Do I have to unlock something in the BIOS for it to work?

What program do you recommend for monitoring the CPU temp?

I don't know much about overclocking so all help and advice is appreciated.

Just fyi that CPU on stock boosts to 3.5ghz on all 4 cores.

Software to download before beginning. Monitoring Software: hwinfo64 Benchmarks: cinebench 15 Stresstest: prime95

When starting hwinfo64 check the arrow in the beginning for Sensors only.

Go into bios, load defaults, enable xmp for your RAM, max CPU powerlimit, Boot into Windows to test Initial Performance(score) with cb15 and check temps with hwinfo64.

Go into bios, Set CPU voltage to 1.35v, Boot Windows, run cb15, check temps with hwinfo64, if below 85-90c we are good.

Go into bios, Set CPU multiplier to 36(3.6ghz),boot Windows, check cb15 score, check temps with hwinfo64, scores better? Good, temps under 90c? good.

Repeat previous step ( increasing multiplier by 1) and check scores and temps.

When you Hit 4ghz make sure to run prime95 and check temps for at least 1h (4-8h would be nicer) because cb15 isnt that hard to run.

If you bluescreen at any point you are not stable and need higher vcore.

Come back with any questions

You can monitor your CPU temp with HWInfo64 for example. You shouldn't have to unlock anything.

I managed to get my 2600k to 4.4ghz by using a +0.05 offset with temps at 55c-63c during heavy gaming and low 40's at idle.

I hear no more than 1.35, but others say as high as 1.45 Id like to stay below 1.3.

2.I noticed my the vid goes higher than my max VCore. HW monitor shows my max Vid is 1.391 (Thats a little scary to me, but Im still kinda of new to this)

Is the cpu is receiving what the vid shows or can I safely monitor the actual VCore with hw monitor and CPUZ ?

Fyi: My cooler is a N520 http://us.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/cooling/hyper-series/hyper-n520.html

Thanks for any help

If you can cool it 1.45v is no problem with sandybridge. 1.3v would make it so the Chip lasts longer than you want it to. We are talking 10 20+ years, by that time the motherboard died and you replaced it twice.

If you can dont use hwmonitor, hwinfo64 is generally better.

When stresstesting with prime aim for 90c because Gaming is going to be 20 30c cooler.

And when overclocking allways ignore vid. Its not there.

Thanks for the info.

It ran great until tonight, when it blued screen after 3 games of Starcraft 2 3v3's

I dialed it back to 4.3ghz with -0.05 offset. We'll have to see how that works out.

Another question,

If Im able to disable offset and determine the correct static vcore , will intel speedstep still allow the clock speed and voltage to drop down when its not needed ?

Im dont think I have a good understanding of how offset works.

I have been trying to overclock my 2600k and am currently at 4.5ghz at 1.385 volts I was able to get stability in prime 95 at 1.35V but would crash regularly in Apex. After doing some reading it sounded like at times my CPU needed some more juice so I upped the voltage.

Based on my reading it seems like the voltage is pretty high for the frequency I am able to get. My temps at 1.385V are still good with them hitting 80 for a very short period of time during stress tests but typically are ~77C

CPU i72600k, Air cooler, 5700xt, 8gb corsair ddr3, asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3, Powerspec 750W PSU.

Is this the limit of my chip? Any increase in frequency gets hard crashes during stress test or clock_watchdog_timeout or WHEA uncorrectable overclock error

Also have screenshots from bios.

https://ibb.co/cLtxbb1 https://ibb.co/txndWGc https://ibb.co/PchW7Dz https://ibb.co/n79VpVh https://ibb.co/ctsHwnP https://ibb.co/4Tm1TgC

1.385V for 4.5GHz isn't great but also isn't terrible. If you are fully Prime95 stable that is the important thing.

Sandy Bridge chips can daily up to 1.5V, but it requires some pretty good cooling. Big AIO or custom loop. On a decent air cooler you will want to stick around the 1.4-1.42V range as a maximum. There are also some stuff you can do like IHS lapping to gain a few degrees, but it is marginal.

How much does your voltage droop coming from idle to full core load? If it is excessive, raise your load-line calibration. You want to have some droop while avoiding too much overshoot at idle.

At full load it is at 1.392 - 1.416 it's minimum when at idle is 1.384. I have messed with the LLC settings from medium to ultra high and it seems even more unstable when it is off of auto.

Hey guys, Im new to this sub, so forgive me if something is wrong. I have an i7 2600k on ASUS p8z68 v pro gen3 mobo. Im using the Cryorig M9i with Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. The cooler gets an intake and exhaust fan, so airflow in the case is decent. How much could I push my 2600k, and what voltages should I use and/or other things I should do? Thanks:)

Not too sure about the 2600k, but I had a 2500K at 4.5 GHz fairly easily. I think Voltage was around ~1.35V for that CPU to run stable. It ran like that for years, until I destroyed the pins on the socket one fateful day... lol.

As always, the lower the Voltage the better, and be mindful of temperatures as you overclock / up-Volt.

I would imagine it would be fairly similar for the 2600K. Just don't destroy the pins on the socket like I did (damned microfibre cloth!)....

ok so based on yours and assassins reply i have decided on 1.33 volts. Do you have any idea what frequency i could achieve with my cooler. It performs a tiny, tiny bit better than the 212 evo

I owned a 2600k for 6 years with AsRock Z77-Extreme6 board and sold it to my cousin who now plays games with it. It has been running at 4.4 GHz at 1.33V stable for years (no blue screens, no freezes with gaming and encoding videos).

I used this guide (extend second post for details and pictures). I'm sure there is an Asus guide somewhere as well, and the explanations were in details and can be used as reference/general/knowledge guide. My settings were generally a bit less than they have (LLC, voltages, clocks, etc.) as I didn't feel the need to push the hardware too much, I prefer stability over a few extra % of speed gain.

Which cooler? Thanks for your voltage recommendation btw.

The other replies pretty much have you sorted - with the M9i you'll be more thermal limited than voltage limited, and ~4.5GHz is a pretty good goal. Most chips can do this with between 1.325v and 1.375v. Don't be afraid to bump it further if you want to try for higher speeds, but you'll likely find that your temperatures swiftly work their way into the high 80s and low 90s (Celsius) at ~1.4v and/or 4.7GHz with that cooler.

The guide posted by AssassinK1D is a great resource, and has a lot of tips that'll likely allow you to get things dialed in, such as PLL/VCCSA voltage as well as loadline calibration (LLC) considerations. Depending on your memory, you may also be able to tighten the timings or bump it up a speed bin (with a maximum of 2133MT with the stock 100MHz FSB).

Sandy Bridge chips are great for playing around with - they're quite forgiving and respond well to stepped adjustments. They'll thermal throttle themselves at ~98°C in the absence of any other automatic motherboard temperature limitation, which means that even if you're a bit too heavy handed and overshoot an aggressive voltage setting, they'll let you easily work it back down.

If that system has an SSD and a decent GPU, it'll still be surprisingly capable with most modern software.

Hello, I have a i7 2600K running at stock 3.4GHz. Attached to it I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Cooler. Motherboard is a: MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3). Memory (info from taskmanager): 4x4GB 1333MHz DIMM On Windows 10, 64bit.

My intention is to gain performance for games, but I have no stress to see this goal achieved. So I would like to overclock in small steps and try each OC step out for some time (maybe days) to see that it works well.

From what I have gathered it is more safe to only change the CPU Multiplier in the BIOS, and not OC in other ways. But what about the RAM, do I need to do changes there to acustom for the CPU OC?

Do I have to unlock something in the BIOS for it to work?

What program do you recommend for monitoring the CPU temp?

I don't know much about overclocking so all help and advice is appreciated.

r/overclocking and read the wiki. Will give you some ideas.

i am typing on a 2600k oc 4.7ghz on same motherboard

what gpu do you have?

what is your motherboard bios?

I have a regular 2600, you should be able to go up to 4ghz in the regular freq. range, going beyond is OC