Is it safe to overclock i5-4690K with this motherboard?

[daerragh]

Hi. I've got MSI H81-P33 (not to be confused with H81M-P33), which has 6 power phases (4 has a radiator) and I OCed i5-4690K to 4.2GHz with 1.23Vcore on this mobo. CPU temp is max. 63C and, if I read this correctly, the VRM temperatures are 62C (but I'm not sure that I read the correct VRM temps in HWMonitor, they can be higher). Do you think I won't damage this motherboard with such overclock?

Here's a picture of this mobo.

 

[newtekie1]

I didn't even think overclocking was possible on the H81 chipset...

 

[daerragh]

It is if it's not blocked by Intel's microcode updates (via Windows Update). But there's a workaround for this too.

 

[Valantar]

I wouldn't worry. Most VRM components are capable of handling quite high temperatures (beyond 100C), and even if it uses cheapo 50A power stages for the 4 phases connected to the cores (the other two are likely for the Uncore (iGPU, memory controller, etc.)) that means it can handle plenty of power for an overclocked 4690k. 50Ax4 at ~1.2V - that's 240W of maximum throughput, although at that kind of wattage the VRM would of course be putting out rather crazy amounts of heat. On the other hand, according to bit-tech's review full-system power (i.e. not just CPU power) draw with their 4690k at 4.8GHz was 180W. In other words, your CPU at 4.2 is nowhere close to that kind of power draw. Of course there might be other issues such as the VRM not being able to deliver clean enough power to keep stable at your desired clocks, but that would be rather obvious as things would start crashing.

 

[bonehead123]

<<<< see my avatar <<<

This is what will happen, and theres nuthin you can do to stop it, hehehe

just kidding of course, you'll be fine unless you try some crazy oc speeds like 5ghz, which I seriously doubt that cpu can reach anyways, at least not without LN2 cooling...