Overclocking phenom II 965be

[Diffracted]

So I felt it was time for me to actually overclock my cpu.

Got bsod at 4.0 GHz with 1.3625v but at 1.3750v it's stable, so I'm just above. Got to ~50c at the most running prime95 in one hour with noctua nh-u12p (1 fan) in an R4 case, and 30-34 idle, cool n' quiet is off. I'm going to run it longer later to be sure. Is it reasonable? And can I leave cool 'n' quite on after testing or does it hurt gaming performance/make it unstable??:huh: (again noob)

Another thing I didn't want to touch until I got some advice is the CPU-nb multiplier and voltage. I think I've read that upping the cpu-nb a bit helps as well but I'm not sure about what's safe. I've got 1600mhz ram (not sure if that matters or not haha) so I don't know what frequency is best to run at. It's on 2000mhz now with 1.1000v (stock)

Sorry if I missed some vital information, I'm completely lost.:lol:

 

[jamesriley94]

What, you've got your RAM running at 2000mhz on a Phenom II?
Got screenshots for that?

The Phenoms were a nightmare with any RAM above 1600mhz (some couldn't even manage that).

As for the overclock itself, 4.0ghz is about as high as you'll get on one tbh.

Post screenshots of CPU-z, HWmonitor while running a Prime95 test and we can probably try and help you more with that. You need to be running Prime95 for around 12 hours really to properly ensure stability.

 

[Diffracted]

Oh no, the cpu-nb is at 2000mhz/1.1000v not the ram. :crazy: Sorry if I was unclear. xD I just mentioned the ram frequency since I thought that might be a factor in choosing the best settings(?).

Okay so I ran prime again and this time I got an error.

No idea what it means.

 

[kilobravo]

1.36v is pretty good running 4ghz on a P2.Cpu-nb and cpu voltage could use a Little tweak,think it could be what causes your error.Just be shure it doesnt exceed 60c on load.

 

[Diffracted]

So I ran these settings for 3 hours this morning. Couldn't be bothered to run it more than that. I'm guessing this is as stable as I even need to to be. I'm still getting decent load temps as well.

Also, the CPU NB is at 2000MHz and 1.1000v. Do I dare touch it up to 2400MHz without having to up the voltage? And will it even up the performance at all? Thanks

 

[Kei]

Upping the cpu-nb is the most crucial element to overclocking a phenom II. I've seen my system @ 3.75GHz actually outperform another running at 4.3GHz simply because they hadn't bothered touching anything other than the cpu multiplier.

My C2 stepping 955 has been running this for 7 months now. 1.45V vcore, 1.35V cpu-nb. (cool 'n' quiet is on, which is why cpuz shows 1.072V and 968MHz) I've also fine tuned the timings too, which helps a small amount, but running two different sets of ram hinders my ability to improve it.

I have pushed it as high as this when benchmarking, but it wasn't particularly stable. (1.55V vcore and 1.45V cpu-nb)

For reference, this is what it got back on my old settings which i'd run for nearly 4 years.

 

[Diffracted]

What voltage did you put on north bridge with +400?

I tried some different different settings in cpu-nb but my monitor died briefly and my rams showed 1333mhz in bios home screen even though they are set to 1600.

Ended up with 2400MHz and 1.1125v. Does that look wrong in any way?

 

[Kei]

IIRC, at 2400Mhz it was set to 1.2V on mine. You should be able to get 2600MHz out of it though, which is a good place to get. Keep your ram speeds around 1600 if you can and don't forget that a higher cpu-nb speed is slightly more important than the overall clock speed.

 

[Diffracted]

So cpu-nb at 2600mhz just wouldn't want to work whatever voltage so I just said screw it. :lol:

But it's now running 4GHz/1.3875 for good measure and 2400MHz/1.1125. Tested 4-5 hours in prime and it's stable.^_^

Thanks for showing interest and helping guys! :beerchug:

 

[Kei]

Maybe a poor imc on your chip. Might have needed to reduce the overall clock frequency to stabilise the cpu-nb. Out of interest, how much voltage did you give it? Presumably you are running your ram at 1600 with xmp/spd timings and 1.65V? (That crazy suicide run I did at nearly 2.9ghz had the ram at 2.0V to keep it stable enough to run superpi 32m)

 

[Diffracted]

The nb voltage tested was max 1.1500v and I didn't feel I should have gone any higher for safety since I don't know what I'm doing haha. I've read somewhere that 2400MHz was kind of a good spot for my 1600MHz ram anyway so I didn't bother with it any further. The ram is 4x4 low profile corsair 1.5v. It says they're on xmp profile 9-9-9-24, of which I have no idea what it means. :crazy:

When it comes to ram and timings and all that jazz I'm really literally clueless :lol:

 

[Kei]

nb voltage is safe up to at least 1.55V, so you had more than enough head room, provided your cooling is adequate. (these voltages come from the AMD documentation) My megahalems used to keep my 955 just under 60 degrees using prime.

I'd stick the cpu-nb voltage up to 1.35V and see how it goes at 2600. If that isn't enough, then I'd stick at 2400 like you have. If it's ok running 2600 at 1.35V, try dropping the voltage back a notch and testing it and keep at this till it becomes unstable then put the voltage back up to where it is stable. 2400 at less than 1.2V sounds like it could go far. I've seen some clock above 3GHz.

Ram timings you may as well leave as they are, as it's not a fun task and the gains are marginal. Just make sure the command rate is set to 1T.