Phenom II 940 first overclock

vcl_X1

vcl_X1

vcl_X1

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Hi,

I've just swapped my old Phenom 9600 for a shiny new 940, what an upgrade.

Mobo is Gigabyte GA MA790FX DQ6

Just by upping the multi to 17.5 and clock to 206 I'm quite stable at 3.6Ghz - using AMD overdrive manually.

Temps are 29-32.

Voltages are stock.

Cooling via an Antec 900 case with Zalman 9700 Led.

How am I doing, any advice on how to take it nearer 4Ghz?

Oh, and runing Vista 64 as that does seem to make a difference per earlier threads.

VCl_x1
 
That should be your limit for stock volts. Time to increase the volts a bit and see how high you can get it. Not sure what volts are safe with that chip tho :)
 
Just reading a post on another forum and people saying 1.55 is the max on air cooling 1.45 -1.5 look like the norm for 3.8 -4.0 ghz thats with good cooling and with loads temps under 55c. As always do so at your own though risk mate :D
 
Cheers for that, I don't think cooling is an issue, even with all the fans on lowest speed (and so nice and quiet) with that Zalman fan blowing air through the fins at the 200 mmm fan on top.

I guess 3.6ghz is good enough for me, I don't want to cook anything and perhaps stock volts are the way to guard against this.

Time to really stress it with a coupe of hours UT3 or Crysis :)
 
i have to ram 1.55v through mine to get 3.6 semi stable at an x18 multi with 8gb of pc 8500 ocz ram. a lot of ram but its a crap chip.

at 3.4ghz and 1.45v its pushing 65c+ with a scythe ninja and a scythe 1500rpm 120mm fan. makes me want to smash something...
 
So I seem to have found the limit at 1.4v.

18.5 x 205 @ 40 c or less idle and stable in normal use (Photoshop, Lightroom, Itunes and Outlook - 3dmark06 does kill iimmediately)

So just shy of 3.8 Ghz @ 1.4v on air

Any advise from here or do I call it a day and be happy where I've gotten to?

VCL_x1
 
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Yeah i think most people agree that but anything above 1.4v on 45nm chips can start to degrade your chip.
Though i would prime98/intel burn test to make sure it is stable for a few hours.
 
Provided temps are ok I'd keep pushing it...

The 1.4V limit is for intel chips but AMD even says that the max VID is 1.5V in their spec sheet...
 
gurusan said:
Provided temps are ok I'd keep pushing it...

The 1.4V limit is for intel chips but AMD even says that the max VID is 1.5V in their spec sheet...
Click to expand...

I'm playing it safe, making small changes and then running it for a couple of hours of normal use, if it's stable in normal use then I'm happy, I know 3dmark06 is going to stress it enough to bsod.

I set the 1.4v limit myself, I see elsewhere that 1.5-1.55 has been achieved by others, they are more experienced oc'ers than me.

At the end of the day I don't want to burn out anything.
 
I've upped volts to 1.45 and it's not stable above 3.85Ghz, I guess I've found the limits of my set up, temps def rose between 1.4 and 1.45 volts.

Not prepared to take the volts any higher.

I guess 3.85Ghz ain't too shabby for a 3Ghz chip and a first overclock :)
 
Runs fine in use, Photoshop, Lightroom, Outlook and Itunes for several hours of photo manip, also runs UT3 fine for an hour or so then I have to stop playing.

Not stable when I run 3dmark.
 
Use Prime95 to test stability across all cores, you say it's stable in Photoshop etc but that's like saying your tuned Ferrari runs fine after testing in a 30mph zone but as soon as you get to the motorway and floor it the wheels fall off. :p

You're better off backing off a bit than risking file corruption etc.
 
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