Higher overclock possible?

B4901 · 8 Oct 2010 at 23:36

Hello all, first time posting here!

I have an AMD Phenom II x2 550 BE overclocked to 3.7Ghz at 1.47Vcore.
I've been using this overclock for some time - but I would like to push things further.

At the moment, idle temps are in the low 40s and under stress testing with Prime95, increase to the high 60s. The manafacturer's stated temperature limit is 62C. I have suspicions that my cooler isn't a great brand - as it was supplied by the OEM and I can't even identify it.

Basically, I want to know if i could push to 4Ghz with air cooling. Are there any AM3 coolers you guys could recommend as being up to the job?

geoirv23 · 9 Oct 2010 at 00:26

I get about 3.7ghz unlocked to a quad with 1.38v and a Cooler Master hyper 212.

B4901 · 9 Oct 2010 at 00:32

1.38V? I had to up mine a lot to get it stable... unlucky with the chip I guess!

geoirv23 · 9 Oct 2010 at 01:15

Keep trying, more than just that to get it stable.

B4901 · 9 Oct 2010 at 14:39

Tried lots of stuff today and got it stable at 1.42 by pushing that chipset voltage up a little (which I thought was just for GPU overclocking?) Anyway, tested with Prime95 again and temps peaked a good 10C lower! Still looking for a cooler at the moment.

By the way, geoirv23, what motherboard did you unlock the cores on? Been considering that for a while.

reiyushin · 9 Oct 2010 at 15:20

Titan Fenrir (original) in an Antec 1200.

3.9Ghz @ 1.475v (should do this clock with less vcore but I was being lazy

)

Prime got me a max temp of 50.

I normally run it unlocked at 3.4-3.6Ghz with prime temps of 55-59.

A strange thing occurred though, I can't get it to boot @ 4Ghz as a dual core but as a quad I was able to boot and run some benchies at 4Ghz....very strange, all settings identical except the unlocking.

reiyushin · 9 Oct 2010 at 15:24

Oh, your case airflow could also be holding you back.

I moved from a CM330 to an Antec 902 last Christmas and knocked 13 degrees off my temps...

B4901 · 9 Oct 2010 at 18:28

Thanks reiyushin, I'll give the Fenrir a look. 50C at 3.9 sounds much better! Pretty sure it is my questionable CPU cooler, as my Inwin case has plenty of fans and nice tidy cables.

I'd love to be able to unlock my cores, but my motherboard is an Asus M4N78-AM m-ATX and as far as I can see, there's no ACC option even in the lastest BIOS update I could find.