Not knowing if i've gone as far as possible

[EddWills95]

I'm trying to overclock my Phenom II X4 Black Edition

I've managed to get it to 4.1GHz, but i'm wondering if i can get it even further

All i'm doing at the moment is changing the Multiplier and the Bus Speed

I'm kind of fiddling around with that for the moment and thats how i've managed to get it up to 4.1.

Is this about as good as it gets for me
and wondering if i can undervolt?

I'm using an Asus M4A87TD Evo. Motherboard

Cheers Guys

 

[jamesriley94]

Is that stable under load?

4.1ghz without changing volts at all?

My old 965 just managed that with volts up at high as I could.

 

[FTLN]

I'm trying to overclock my Phenom II X4 Black Edition

I've managed to get it to 4.1GHz, but i'm wondering if i can get it even further

All i'm doing at the moment is changing the Multiplier and the Bus Speed

I'm kind of fiddling around with that for the moment and thats how i've managed to get it up to 4.1.

Is this about as good as it gets for me
and wondering if i can undervolt?

I'm using an Asus M4A87TD Evo. Motherboard

Cheers Guys

You need to stress the cpu to see if its stable... OCCT is a good app to start with.

 

[GBcf]

Yes OCCT is good, or use prime95 and run it for a couple of hours... Oh and watch the temps! Those CPU's cannot run much hotter than 70c... to monitor this use HWmonitor...

Cheers!

 

[airdeano]

also, keep an eye on the VRM temperatures. there are no heat sinks on that model.
just the NB. so monster voltage control needs monitoring.

 

[EddWills95]

Okay I'll get prime95 running tonight for an hour or two.

I've left the volts on auto. I literally had no idea what I'm doing.
There is the option to change it to manual and ofset. Not sure of the difference.

I'm a real beginner with this stuff.

I'll run the tests when I get home from 6th form tonight.

With regards to the NB I have noticed what little heatsink there is gets a bit hot, and that was running stock. So yeah I guess I need to be better motherboard if I want to go mad

Anyways I'll let you know

 

[FTLN]

If you have no idea what your doing then why don't you have a read up around the forums 1st, last thing you want to be doing is blowing your cpu.. Do a little research via Google about safe voltages etc, see what other people's overclocking experiences are with similar setups.. Good Luck

 

[jamesriley94]

Put volts up to about 1.45v. I wouldn't go over 1.5v with your cooling.

Can't be left on auto. You need to change it to manual, and then choose the 1.45-1.5 there.

Then try again. Get CPU-z, HWMonitor, and Prime95.
Stress with Prime, monitor temps, and don't let them go above around 60 degrees - although AMD temps aren't really accurate, so be cautious if you get close to that.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Auto volts mean the board is upping them for you dude...... always do it manual

 

[EddWills95]

I have read up on it, but i just can't seem to follow a lot of it. :/

got Prime 95 running. Wasn't entirely sure what settings to put it on so i went custom and put min max to 8k as thats what was suggested on the forum where i downloaded it.

i'll go back and change the BIOS in a second though. How do i know what voltage to set it at? take a stab at what shows up most frequently on CPU-z?

 

[jamesriley94]

I have read up on it, but i just can't seem to follow a lot of it. :/

got Prime 95 running. Wasn't entirely sure what settings to put it on so i went custom and put min max to 8k as thats what was suggested on the forum where i downloaded it.

i'll go back and change the BIOS in a second though. How do i know what voltage to set it at? take a stab at what shows up most frequently on CPU-z?

I just use Prime95 blend test tbh.
Set it at 1.45v and see how you go with that. Temps will hopefully be fine with that, and it does give you a little extra room to work with if you want to push it more.

 

[EddWills95]

okay will do

Thanks all for help and advice thus far will come back and let you know if i blow it up or not

update/
Okay ran it for about half an hour and got no errors
so all good at 4GHz it seems

But i''ve now got another q, annoyingly it seems that my CPU temp reader doesn't seem to want to move with the Core Temps ?

stayed at 24c while the cores went up to 47c

But thanks for the help guys, so simple when you know what you're doing i guess

 

[EddWills95]

Had a fiddle and now trying to push it up to 4.1, pushed the voltage up by one notch (Currently at 1.453125) and i'm now getting an error on the 4th core.

"Rounding was -.462890625, expected less than 0.4"

Do i just need to push the V up a bit ?

 

[alienware]

No. I wouldn't go any higher you'll kill the chip.

4GHZ stable is about what you'll get out of a 965. I had a 940 and I could get it stable at 3.8ghz but no higher.

 

[jamesriley94]

No. I wouldn't go any higher you'll kill the chip.

4GHZ stable is about what you'll get out of a 965. I had a 940 and I could get it stable at 3.8ghz but no higher.

Agreed. If you were incredibly lucky, you got one that did 4.1/4.2. Mine did 4.1 if I really pushed it.

Reduce the clock down a little if you're getting rounding errors and try again. You've reached the limit of the chip really.

You need to be stressing with Prime for 12 hours really to ensure stability.

 

[EddWills95]

I've left it at 4GHz its all good seemingly not had any problems so far cheers guys

although when i get some time i will leave it for 12 hours. I'm a bit bust with Blood Dragon and Tomb Raider

 

[Liarma]

You haven't run Prime95 for anywhere near long enough dude. "an hour or two" will not be nearly enough time to find errors. I suggest running 'Small-FFT' test as it's maximum stress on the CPU. Run that for a good 12-14 hours and then see if you're still "stable"

 

[AverageNinja]

You haven't run Prime95 for anywhere near long enough dude. "an hour or two" will not be nearly enough time to find errors. I suggest running 'Small-FFT' test as it's maximum stress on the CPU. Run that for a good 12-14 hours and then see if you're still "stable"

I second that

 

[Liarma]

I second that

I dont blame him, he did say he has no idea. I used to be terrible with overclocking. I'm surprised my E8400 lasted as long as it did back in my noob days lol.

That being said, Prime95 isn't the "be all, end all". I'd also suggest running Linx and or another type of burn test as well. Prime95 is decent, but i've found it can on occasion fail to pick up any errors.

 

[EddWills95]

Okay i've left it for 12 hours (well probably a bit more (didn't actually check the times foolishly) like you suggested)
on the blend test from Prime95.

and it all seems to be running well at 4GHz so i'm pleased, particularly for my first OC attempt