S like the title says, i'm a noob to CPU overclocking, I've read multiple guides across the web and have a good grasp on whats happening. However i still have a few questions i can't seem to find the answers to.
Ok so i have an
i5 - 4670k
z87-hd3 Gigabyte Ultra Durable
and an H100i cooler on the way
NOTE: i haven't ran stress tests on stock and won't until i get my cooler
Some of the main questions I have are about voltage. The motherboard i have has an overall sucky voltage control system. Is there an adaptive power setting, and if so where is it? If not, will my idle voltages be too high? Will high idle voltages decrease my CPUs life? Sorry if i'm making a big deal out of nothing but i just need to know.
I lack experience with the z87-hd3 specifically, but when I've been butting my head against a motherboard that lacks for instance offset voltage tweaking I first aim to figure out how much can be done without manually raising the voltage at all. If it's enough for you, there should be a good chance to reach roughly 3.9 or 4.0 GHz on all cores with that CPU this way. Raise only the turbo mode core multipliers if the motherboard allows for that, and the power draw at low load will remain unchanged. It won't be a big overclock, but another motherboard might be preferable for going far above 4 GHz.
I'm about to rebuild my main rig with a 4690k and an ASUS Z97-Pro board, which sports both high quality power regulation and supposedly top notch built in overclocking routines. Yet I don't really hope to reach much more than perhaps 4.4 GHz while sticking to safe voltages. Stability and low noise beats benchmark scores any day. ;-)
Ok first i'll see what i can do without raising the voltage using intel turbo, and if i'm still not pleased i'll work up to a place where the voltage under idle is still <.9v. Or is that too much for idles?