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Phenom II 955 BE overclock, 3.8 GHz, stock cooler

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Hi.

This is my first time overclocking a CPU. I have adjusted only the multiplier and the voltage to get this overclock. I have my multiplier set at 19X, and my voltage at 1.375, all in AMD Overdrive. I am confident setting this in the BIOS, if it's okay. I am only using the stock cooler for now. I will be getting an aftermarket one soon. Right now, the maximum temperature I get when running Prime 95 small FFTs is 59C. I have read that anything up to 62C is safe for my CPU. I ran Prime95 small FFTs for about half an hour to test stability, no errors. Is all this fine? Shall I change the settings in the BIOS?

Thanks.
 
Soldato
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Fine temps, looks like you've had a good read and know what you're doing. If this was me i'd keep it at 2.8 and try bumping the voltage down a notch to see what the minimum volts are for your chip. Lower volts = better temps.
 
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Fine temps, looks like you've had a good read and know what you're doing. If this was me i'd keep it at 2.8 and try bumping the voltage down a notch to see what the minimum volts are for your chip. Lower volts = better temps.

Thanks. I have had a play around with the voltages and I anything lower is unstable.
 
Soldato
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No worries, when I had my old 955 I managed to get it to 4.2Ghz on 1.4v if I remember correctly. Did go up to 4.5Ghz but wasn't stable, still pretty good though. :p
 
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No worries, when I had my old 955 I managed to get it to 4.2Ghz on 1.4v if I remember correctly. Did go up to 4.5Ghz but wasn't stable, still pretty good though. :p

It's a tad hot at 1.4 volts with the stock cooler. I'll see what I can do with it when I get the new cooler.

Should I adjust the CPU northbridge clock?
 
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What multiplier options do you have for the Northbridge and HT?

Up to 2.4GHz is probably safe, on my gigabyte board the max multi is 10x but because I was overclocking on the bus clock I used 9x 250MHz or 2.25GHz.

You should overclock both NB and Ht clocks similarly.

The HT is like the FSB, right? So if I turn it up, my processor clock speed will go up. It isn't stable over 3.8 GHz at this voltage. As I'm not adjusting the HT, I'm using the multiplier instead, does that mean I shouldn't overclock the Northbridge? What are the benefits of overclocking the Northbridge?
 
Soldato
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THe HT bus is not the 'bus clock', it is one of the buses CPU, NB, HT and mem that rely on the bus clock. But yes if you have a standard 200MHz bus clock, you would have to have a higher multiplier than 10x in the bios for both HT and NB.

If you have 11x or 12x you can OC these two buses to 2200 or 2400. Otherwise as you say you need to increase from 200. I would wait until you get a better cooler to overclock further.
 
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I'm struggling to get 4.1 GHz now I have my new heatsink. It seems to be stable now, with 1.45 volts set in overdrive. CPU-Z is showing 1.52 volts though, which is correct? And what is the maximum safe 24/7 voltage?

EDIT: I can do 4 GHz easily with 1.4 volts.

EDIT 2: No I can't. I need 1.425 volts (1.5 in CPU-Z).
 
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With 1.425 volts set in overdrive, the voltage shown in CPU-Z fluctuates. When idle, it shows 1.464 volts. Under load, it goes up to 1.496 volts. What's going on here?

EDIT: Forget it, I'll make a new thread.
 
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