Phenom 965 OC'ing

Jinxter · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:33

OK my rig is pretty old now. I dropped in a Phenom2 965 late last year and very recently replaced the crappy PSU with a new one. It's got a bit more lease of life too thanks to a 7850 but I've never really been successful at OC'ing this chip. I recently bought a Zalman CNPS5X cooler which has taken my temps down considerably compared to stock cooler but I have to feed it 1.425v to get stable at 3.6ghz testing under Prime. This is a lot considering a lot of people report on getting around the 4ghz mark at this sort of voltage. I'm pretty sure it's down to my mobo which has never been any good - it's a bad product as you can't manually set the vcore above 1.3v and selecting auto feeds out 1.475 so I'm forced to use software to modify. Asus really did a poor job here IMO as they've never released a BIOS update to address the issue.

Does anyone have any advice on what else I should be tweaking to achieve a better higher stable clock? I know I'm not going to get 4ghz based on my cooler alone but I would have thought 3.8ghz might be a reasonable target. Or could it be the MOBO just isn't up to the job / software modding the voltage is preventing me? Your advice and opinions much appreciated

honosuseri · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:43

This should be in the overclocking section really bud. You'd get better assistance there, a mod might well move the thread for you

What settings are you running? Are you just upping the multiplier or tweaking the CPU FSB too?

The memory controller is only 1333mhz. You might find better results upping the CPU FSB and lowering the multiplier. My Asus mobo lets me set the RAM speed, upping the CPU FSB overclocks the RAM too. My 555BE i've had stable @4.1Ghz with the RAM @1333mhz and @1600mhz at 1.5V. It could well be stable at a lower voltage but the temps are more than fine so I leave it be.

I should think you'd get 3.8Ghz but again keep an eye on the temps

Jinxter · 7 Apr 2013 at 22:53

Sorry for wrong section - should have thought of that, doh!

I'm just upping the multiplier and playing with voltages - not touched the FSB - BTW my RAM is DDR2 1066mhz on AM2+ Asus M3A78 Pro.

What sort of FSB increase would be safe and stable from your experience? Thanks again.

tres_kun · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:13

The FSB has no high limit
I can take mine to 309Mhz
But remember you have to decrease HT speed and ddr2 speed do not go over the designed limit
If you overclock the ram you have to increase voltage on them
If you overclock the HT do not increase the voltage >_<
I will use just the multiplyer in your stead
Amd overdrive dos not give you voltage control?

honosuseri · 7 Apr 2013 at 23:16

I've never touched a 965BE. I always went with the 955BE which was cheaper and you overclocked it to match the 965. I was using 1600mhz RAM though and I'm not familiar with your mobo and the options it gives you.

I still have the 555BE in my HTPC (it does unlock to a quad but I've left it as an X2). Currently I have the FSB at 242 * 17 (= 4114Mhz or 4.1Ghz) on the multiplier. This pushes the RAM a little past 1600Mhz. My M4A88T-V EVO mobo lets me set different memory speeds, so I could tweak it back if I had slower RAM fitted.

You should be able to find Dolks guide if you google it. Overclocking takes patience and there are lots of things to tweak, I haven't even mentioned the HT link etc. Most overclockers will step back the multiplier and see how far they can OC the FSB then try and find a happy medium by tweaking the multiplier too.

Best of luck with it bud. Unforunately I can't just give you settings that work you'll have to do a little homework and experiment

Jinxter · 8 Apr 2013 at 21:17

Thanks for the advice people!