955 from 3.6 to 4Ghz with a new cooler!?

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Hi, At the moment im running my 955 at 3.6Ghz with a 'ASUS Silent Knight 2' with stock Voltage. The temps get around to 57.5c after an hour when running stress tests in AMD overdrive. Tbh ive only changed the Multiplyer from stock to 18x (i think if not 18.5) When ever i change the voltage and increase Multiplyer It just crashs after around 20mins.
Im a bit of a noob when it comes to overclocking (as u may be able to tell)-_- thats why i just stuck with changing Multiplyer. id REALLY love to get it upto 4Ghz. Would i need a new cooler to do this? If so would buying a "Corsair H50-1" allow me to get it upto 4Ghz do you think? I know going down the route of a custom watercooling unit would be much better but i dont have £300 to spend just to get an exta 0.4Mhz :(and if i was gunna spend £300 id throw in an extra £100 and get an i7 920 :D thanks for any help you can give this noob - Adam w
 
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To be honest I think probably not. 57 is on the high side and a really good air cooler / h50 could probably get that down to high 40s low 50s but I am not convinced that a reduction like that will affect the clock-ability of the chip in a big way. (Others with knowledge feel free to disagree - I am just talking from personal experience).

It really depends on what is causing the crashes. Do you see very high temps (above 60) when you increase the multi one more step (before it crashes after 20mins)?

If you do then it may be the temp causing the crash but otherwise I suspect it will be the limit of the chip. I think these chips will clock huge amounts if they are kept in the low 40s but I think it takes custom water to do it.

A lot of that is just guess work from my own overclocking though. Any one with real knowledge may say different. :D
 
The heatsink seems to get an average review on FrostyTech:

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2260

OTH,it maybe worth it for the OP to reapply the thermal compound on the CPU again as the temperatures seem rather high for a Phenom II X4 955BE overclocked on stock voltages.

was thinking about that, wasnt too happy with the way i put on the AS-5 (a line down the center of the cpu and put the cooler on top. Didnt seem to work as well as it did on a stock cooler. ill give it a try :D

And reply to the guy above. Not really. when i had it oc'ed to 3.8 it was around 58.5c :( it didnt crash after an hour of stress test but programs kept crashing -_- :(
 
Oh. Well if it is just a bit of instability rather than full on BSODs etc then you might just need to up the vcore a bit (since you are still on stock). I reckon up the vcore and then run prime95 blend for 8 hours or so. Sit with it for the first 15 mins to check that the vcore increase is not going to make the temps go crazy and just see. If they do go crazy see if you can cool the room down with an open window / door to control it. That way you can test for stability as if you had a new amazing cooler.

Then if it passes you can go ahead and get the cooler knowing it will be doing something productive.

Also +1 to making sure your thermal paste is applied correctly.
 
Oh. Well if it is just a bit of instability rather than full on BSODs etc then you might just need to up the vcore a bit (since you are still on stock). I reckon up the vcore and then run prime95 blend for 8 hours or so. Sit with it for the first 15 mins to check that the vcore increase is not going to make the temps go crazy and just see. If they do go crazy see if you can cool the room down with an open window / door to control it. That way you can test for stability as if you had a new amazing cooler.

Then if it passes you can go ahead and get the cooler knowing it will be doing something productive.

Also +1 to making sure your thermal paste is applied correctly.

How much v? ive noticed some poieple running it at 1.4500 and 1.5V when there running it at 4Ghz. ... you know what..i think im just gunna reapply the compound and hope for the best :'( lol
 
with a true fenrir or baram you should be ok heat wise but whether you can get to 4.0 stable is another matter ive had mine upto 4.1 in windows (955) with a fenrir. temps dont go above 50c but i run 3.7 24/7 at 1.4 rocksolid. more than like 3.8 is realistic any more bonus for 24/7 use . most of the real high clocks u see are for people just benchmarking anyway not actual daily clocks they use.

i bet theres only one or two who leave it above 3.9 daily on the phenom on here
 
How much v? ive noticed some poieple running it at 1.4500 and 1.5V when there running it at 4Ghz. ... you know what..i think im just gunna reapply the compound and hope for the best :'( lol

Well it depends what you are on at the moment. The 'stock' setting is I think generally an auto setting which may increase vcore as needed. Have a look in cpu-z and see what you are on. Just dont go above 1.5 unless you fancy the risk.
 
with a true fenrir or baram you should be ok heat wise but whether you can get to 4.0 stable is another matter ive had mine upto 4.1 in windows (955) with a fenrir. temps dont go above 50c but i run 3.7 24/7 at 1.4 rocksolid. more than like 3.8 is realistic any more bonus for 24/7 use . most of the real high clocks u see are for people just benchmarking anyway not actual daily clocks they use.

i bet theres only one or two who leave it above 3.9 daily on the phenom on here

Hmm well ive bought some new grease comound. At the moment I have a duct with a fan running to exstract air from the GPU to outside the window (keep room temps down :D)


See the duct at the back? Though since ive upgraded to a 5870 from a 4870x2 its not really needed lol

im gunna have one running along side it pumping air fromoutside through the back 120MM fan onto the CPU cooler :D... could get it a lot cooler lol.
 
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Cool idea! I was considering ducts for a while but my comp is not quite in the right position and its just not going to work.

Watch out for doing all your clocking in the winter though. You may find what is stable now will fail in the summer!
 
Cool idea! I was considering ducts for a while but my comp is not quite in the right position and its just not going to work.

Watch out for doing all your clocking in the winter though. You may find what is stable now will fail in the summer!

Aye :( Was thinking that! Tbh im not into the exstreme overclocking where u go to the BRINK of failing just to squeeze out that extra 0000000.2Mhz lol thanks for advice tho :D
 
A small update.. Just put my voltage to 1.400 and its running at 3.7 but heats gone up a bit its not at 60-63 -_- I do prefer to keep it below the 60c mark tbh.. so i think ill go back to 3.6 untill i get new grease + the air duct. :)
 
where are you getting the duct from?

EDIT: I am assuming the suppliers of air conditioner ducting do not count as a competitor?
 
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