Core i7 8700K OC at 4800 MHz 1.3 volts

Core i7 8700K OC at 4800 MHz 1.3 volts

1.3 V and higher voltages can cause serious problems for Coffee Lake CPUs because of the TIM used under the heat spreader (instead of a solder like in the Sandy Bridge range). Our (delidded) Core i7 8700K was set to 4800 MHz, at 1.3 volts. We used wPrime 2.10 (3 times, 1024 M) this time as well. IDLE temperature measurements were taken in the desktop, with almost no stress to the CPU. 

The temps shouldn’t go beyond 90°C, as otherwise the CPU might degrade and also throttling can occur (especially applicable to the AMD Ryzen range, which normally operates at lower temperatures). AIO coolers usually perform very well with our delidded Core i7 8700K. The Deepcool Castle 240EX is not an exception. Let’s try it with a voltage higher than 1.3 V. 

Core i7 8700K OC at 4800 MHz beyond the 1.3 volts

 There are five stages for the charts below:

• Default
• 4.8 GHz @ 1.3 V
• 4.8 GHz @ 1.35 V
• 4.8 GHz @ 1.4 V
• 4.8 GHz @ 1.45 V

The Deepcool Castle 240EX managed to keep the CPU temperatures under control until 1.4 V. At 1.45 V the temps already went a bit north of 80 degrees Celsius, but the final result is still good, and most users will not find this an issue.