OC Bundle AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Overclocked Properly?

Makeem95

Makeem95

Makeem95

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Hi,

I recently received the following OC bundle and installed it this weekend:

*OVERCLOCKED* AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz @ 3.60GHz / Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P Motherboard / Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Bundle

The system is very fast & stable, but looking in the BIOS, I noticed that the CPU clock speed was 3.5Ghz and not 3.6Ghz and the memory clock was only 1097Mhz when it's capable of 1600Mhz.

I am a newbie when it comes to overclocking so I'm not sure, but is an issue I should raise with customer service?

OC_bios.jpg
 
It's hardly worth ringing up - you'll see no noticible difference between 3.5 and 3.6. But why not do it yourself? Just set the bus (CPU frequency) to 200mhz and the multiplier (clock ratio) to x18. Job done.

Although your CPU voltage is unnessesarily high! 1.45v is normally the most any Phenom II 940 needs for 3.6ghz. Mine at 3.7 only uses 1.45...
 
shinester184 said:
It's hardly worth ringing up - you'll see no noticible difference between 3.5 and 3.6. But why not do it yourself? Just set the bus (CPU frequency) to 200mhz and the multiplier (clock ratio) to x18. Job done.

Although your CPU voltage is unnessesarily high! 1.45v is normally the most any Phenom II 940 needs for 3.6ghz. Mine at 3.7 only uses 1.45...
Click to expand...

My 940 only needed 1.425 for 3.6GHZ.
My current C3 needs 1.425 for 3.8GHZ lol.
 
Thanks for the replies, I'll start doing some tweaking this evening. It seems this overclock bundle was shipped before it was completed fully...

One question though, having read the sticky on overclocking, I'm not sure how you decide on whether to overclock the clock multiplier, the FSB or both.

Going by my BIOS example, I assume if I decrease FSB to 200Mhz and increase the clock multiplier to x18 to get 3.6Ghz, I can set the chipset voltages to normal (and try reduce my CPU voltage as well to 1.45). Also set my RAM multiplier to x8 to get 1600Mhz.
 
Makeem95 said:
Thanks for the replies, I'll start doing some tweaking this evening. It seems this overclock bundle was shipped before it was completed fully...

One question though, having read the sticky on overclocking, I'm not sure how you decide on whether to overclock the clock multiplier, the FSB or both.

Going by my BIOS example, I assume if I decrease FSB to 200Mhz and increase the clock multiplier to x18 to get 3.6Ghz, I can set the chipset voltages to normal (and try reduce my CPU voltage as well to 1.45). Also set my RAM multiplier to x8 to get 1600Mhz.
Click to expand...

Hmm nice overclock guys :'(.
For your mem you should have options after 5.33 in

SET MEMORY OVERCLOCK, remember that it only shows half of actual speed ( double it for set speed ), allso check your mems website ect for what voltage and timings it needs for full diff speeds..
Allso that Northbridge is way way way too low, that should be 2000mhz for stock and me and many others run this around 2400/2600mhz. Oc'in the nb you will allso have to probly add extra volts to the cpu-nb1.3v but try it at what you have first.

As others have said your vcore is way to high for such a overclock, my 940 does 3.6 @ 1.4, but we all have diff chips maybe your stock volts are higher but i very much doubt it.

This is a terrible overclock, i'm not happy :'(

Oc via the multipliers dude, fsb on be chips is more for fine tuning every mhz out of that cpu.

I've allways been a firm believer that nb clocks must allways be higher than htt clocks and your htt is higher then the Nb clock
 
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Hmm, with so many settings needing a tweak, I wonder if I should start from stock settings and work from scratch.

Glad I bought the bundle when it was on special offer, I really would be annoyed if I had to redo an overclock for which I paid a premium to have someone else do it. What does OCers guarantee with their overclocked bundles? Just that it hits the stated overclocked CPU speed (or near to it) and is stable?

I guess at least they've tested that all the components work before I received it.
 
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If your happy and confident in doin a reset and starting at the start then yes that would be a good idea as good knows what has been done to your settings.
Go from stock and up the cpu multiplier up by x1, start at 16x, then test then up by x1 again which will give u 100mhz everytime then when you get a reboot up the cpu volts +0.25.
After you have a good cpu clock you can start overclocking the northbridge , sooner or later at around 2400mhz you may/will need to up ur cpu-nb volts ( id say around 1.25/1.3v and allso up your actual northbridge core from 1.1 to 1.3/1.4v, try 1.2 first though.

This is a very good guide to overclocking phenoms, i was a noob 6 mopnths ago and now after much reading and many many many hours of countless oc fun i know my amd chip inside out. Practice makes perfect, using others help will only get you so far.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=596023 ( the first tut that made my world come to life ) .
 
Easytuen which comes with thg GB mobos is good as you can chnage all your seetings after rebooting without going into bios; much like AOD.

You should get 3.5ghs at least on stock voltage. 3.6 should be doable.
 
No idea why they needed so may volts for 3.5 Running 18x200 3.6 on stock voltages . I guess it was just a bad clocker and need the extra volts for stability .

Persil
 
After taking all your advice, I redid the overclock to the following:

CPU multiplier x18 (3.6Ghz)
FSB 200MHz
PCI-E 100MHz
NB 2000 MHz (stock)
HT 2000 MHz (stock)

Voltages all normal settings
Memory set by SPD

It's running stable now with no voltages increases required :).
I'm going to now try upping the CPU to 3.8GHz and then the NB to 2400/2600MHz

One question: I've got the voltage setting set to Auto atm and it seems to suggest the voltages will be increased automatically if the overclock requires it.
Is this auto-voltage setting reliable or is manual setting better?
 
Don't forget to do the memory. Gigabyte boards don't show half the RAM speed in that slightly greyed out bit... thats its actual speed.

Set it to 6.66 to get 1333Mhz, x8 to get 1600Mhz. You may need to change the RAM voltage, depending on what the RAM is, and what voltage its rated for.

Don't leave the voltage on auto if you can help it... Yes, with lower overclocks it'll adjust as and when, but it'll change even at stock. You should find what the overclock needs, and leave it there :)
 
Indeed WTF is with that clock?!

You should get 3.6 easy and aim for around 2.4ghz on the HT/NB.. you will see some nice performance gains from clocking HT/NB
 
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