Help using Crosshair IV for first time OC

[Darkst4r]

I recently upgraded my mobo to an ASUS Crosshair IV formula and am a bit overwhelmed by the amount of bios options, settings and onboard buttons.

I'm running an AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition and have a few questions if someone wouldn't mind helping me :

1. Is it worth using the "core unlocker" button on my CPU or being a black edition are the cores already unlocked and accessible ?

2. Does the "OC" button provide a decent and stable overclock and if so, how can I see what it is actually doing to my system ? ie volts and frequency etc. I tried it with and without the OC button activated but was still getting the same idle temps of around 27/28 degrees with a Coolermaster V8, leading me to think it wasn't actually doing anything.

Any help or advice would be great. Cheers in advance

 

[Reaper 392]

dont bother with the core unlocker. all the cores are unlocked with the X4 chips. its only the X3's and X2's that you can unlock cores with.

as for the auto overclock i'd avoid it if i were you. generally the auto overclock will put way too high a voltage through the chip

idle temps wont change atall because cool and quiet will turn the chip's voltage and speed down when you arent doing anything. only under load will you see any difference. the easiest way to do this would be to download and run a free program called prime95 for a long time (minimum 1 hour for a final stability check) to see if its stable and the temps are acceptable (62C or less)

 

[Darkst4r]

Awesome, thanks a lot for your help. I ran Turbo V auto setting and it gave me an overclock of 3.4 instead of the stock 3.2 but I reckon I'll read up on how to do it all properly.

For some reason though it's done something to the RAM frequency in the bios where instead of running at 1600mhz, I can only run at either 1400mhz or at 1700mhz. There is literally no option now in my bios to run it at the rated 1600mhz. Odd...

 

[Surveyor]

Awesome, thanks a lot for your help. I ran Turbo V auto setting and it gave me an overclock of 3.4 instead of the stock 3.2 but I reckon I'll read up on how to do it all properly.

For some reason though it's done something to the RAM frequency in the bios where instead of running at 1600mhz, I can only run at either 1400mhz or at 1700mhz. There is literally no option now in my bios to run it at the rated 1600mhz. Odd...

I assume the overclock has inreased the bus speed and this will affect the RAM frequency.

For an overclock of 3.2 to 3.4GHz the bus speed will have been increased by around 6% and the RAM frequencies accordingly.

1333MHz + 6% = 1400MHz approx.

1600MHz + 6% = 1700MHz approx.

If you overclock using the unlocked multiplier, and leave the bus speed at 200MHz, you should be able to select 1600MHz for the RAM.