AMD® Phenom™ II Overclocking Thread

Muel · 5 Feb 2011 at 23:17

You can do it how you like, whatever works for you.

dfour · 6 Feb 2011 at 00:04

welshdragon said:
Is it wrong I'm oc'ing my 965 with multi/voltage bumps only and leaving the ht/fsb etc on auto?

Yeah thats fine. You only need to change the HT when you start using the fsb. You just wont hit your chips max on the multi's.

welshdragon · 6 Feb 2011 at 10:13

Ahh thats ok then. cheers for the replies. managed 3.8 so far so may leave it there.

PapaLazaru · 16 Feb 2011 at 08:46

Damn!

My OC failed this morning. My 965 has been running sweet for 6 months @ 4Ghz. I have had two random BSOD'd this year but thought nothing of it.

Powered up this morning and the BIOS froze. Powered it up again and was informed that the OC has failed. Had to revert to stock and it booted up fine.

Think I will leave it for now and see how my gaming is affected.

welshdragon · 16 Feb 2011 at 08:52

Might be worth checking psu/ram, as something has obviously destabilised it? I got that once when a stick of ram was dodgy.

Uriel · 16 Feb 2011 at 12:42

PapaLazaru said:
Damn!

My OC failed this morning. My 965 has been running sweet for 6 months @ 4Ghz. I have had two random BSOD'd this year but thought nothing of it.

Powered up this morning and the BIOS froze. Powered it up again and was informed that the OC has failed. Had to revert to stock and it booted up fine.

Think I will leave it for now and see how my gaming is affected.

I'm starting to hear of this happening quite a bit and it's frequently the motherboard VRM that won't take it in the long term. Generally it's mosfets and chokes giving up. It's extremely common on MSI boards that have 4+1 phase power regulation, which seem to have a worryingly high death rate. The best chance of long term stability seems to be 8+2 phase VRMs or more with a decent mosfet cooler. What board are you running?

Just cooked a VRM choke on my Jetway HA08 Combo last week (was just after a BIOS flash and swapping out DDR2-800 for DDR3-1600 so I'm not sure what actually caused it). Running a Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 as a quick replacement now.

Muel · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:04

Mine too! My 965 is over a year old now, and when I first overclocked it I could get 3.7ghz @ 1.475v, now I need 1.500v. I've got the CPU-NB overclocked now too though at 2600mhz @ 1.325v. Maybe that caused the need for a vcore bump?

PapaLazaru · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:11

welshdragon said:
Might be worth checking psu/ram, as something has obviously destabilised it? I got that once when a stick of ram was dodgy.

Well I am going to leave it for a week or so and see if anything happens. Annoying thing is nothing has been changed since I OC'd it. All decent equipment, both PSU and RAM are Corsair.

Uriel said:
I'm starting to hear of this happening quite a bit and it's frequently the motherboard VRM that won't take it in the long term. Generally it's mosfets and chokes giving up. It's extremely common on MSI boards that have 4+1 phase power regulation, which seem to have a worryingly high death rate. The best chance of long term stability seems to be 8+2 phase VRMs or more with a decent mosfet cooler. What board are you running?

Basically the best AMD board out there, Crosshair IV. That board should, if any, be able to handle that OC, surely? :confused:

Uriel · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:14

Suppose another limiting factor is heat. How's the dust build up on the cooler?

PapaLazaru · 16 Feb 2011 at 13:45

Uriel said:
Suppose another limiting factor is heat. How's the dust build up on the cooler?

Good point, though I clean it quite regularly, though might have slipped for a few months. Will check it later!

jakejacob0 · 16 Feb 2011 at 18:02

What is the average overclock which is most likely to be achieve from a 955BE?

Muel · 16 Feb 2011 at 18:50

3.8ghz. Some will go to 4.0ghz, depends how good a clocker they are.

welshdragon · 16 Feb 2011 at 18:52

I ahve my 965 @3.8 with a small multi and voltage bump. And I think they are the same chip essentially just set to different speeds.

jakejacob0 · 16 Feb 2011 at 18:52

any specific setting because i'v never really overclocked before

welshdragon · 16 Feb 2011 at 18:58

Using the multiplier I found is the easiest way. Should have an option in the bios screen. Select a small increment say multi 17 and vcore 1.375 (this depends on chip and what your vcore is now) roughly for 3.4ghz then work from there. You may ahve to enable 'manual' clock control.

I have mine at mulitplier 19 vcore at 1.425 (I think) giving 3.8ghz. Everything else I left on auto and its solid as a nut!

Others oc using the ht/nb but I ahve avoided that as I cannot get my simple head around it.

What motherboard/hsf you got?

jakejacob0 · 16 Feb 2011 at 19:01

okay thanks i'll give that a ry at some point

panthro · 17 Feb 2011 at 00:35

Is there much difference in overclocking results between the 955 and the 970?

Muel · 17 Feb 2011 at 09:00

welshdragon said:
I ahve my 965 @3.8 with a small multi and voltage bump. And I think they are the same chip essentially just set to different speeds.

The C3s are, but the C2s were different I think. 955 was 125w and 965 was 140w, meaning that often the 955 would clock further than the 965.

3.8ghz on 1.425v? Mine wouldn't even boot at that! Needs 1.525v to be stable enough for benching, would probably need 1.55v to be safe for daily.

I'll stick to 3.7ghz at 1.5v for the time being.

welshdragon · 17 Feb 2011 at 11:12

Mine is a 965 C3 125w and as you have pointed out every chip is different.

welshdragon · 17 Feb 2011 at 11:15

panthro said:
Is there much difference in overclocking results between the 955 and the 970?

I would say being 140w chips the 970 may be easier to overclock in that they can achieve the speed with a lower vcore perhaps. But I have my 965 running at 3.8 no issues. Its the same chip as the 955 for all intents and purposes too.