Want to overclock my 955be, help please.

Armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillo

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I want to get a bit more power out of my x4 955BE, it's completely stock at the moment, but from looking around most people seem to be running at 3.6-8 and it would seem it isn't too hard, so I would like to give it a go. I have a black edition, so have the unlocked multiplier, so would like to use the multiplier to overclock it (from reading, using that alone seems the least hassle).

I have some questions though before I go on (don't want to break anything)

First, northbridge. The one on my board (msi 770-c45) seems to get quite warm on stock anyway (48c or so), so I'd rather not put anymore voltage into it if I can avoid it. How ever looking around, I'm picking up conflicting answers in regard to adjusting it.

Some places suggest it's frequency needs to be upped only when the memory frequency/fsb is adjusted. So as I would be running them at stock and only adjusting cpu multiplier, I can just leave it at standard 2000mhz. Other places seem to suggest it will need to be increased regardless to avoid bottlenecks?

If I can just use the multiplier, then from what I've read, it's just a case of bump it up a notch, test it with prime or similar, until it isn't stable, bump voltage up and repeat? while keeping under 1.4V and 62C?

Two other questions related to that. First the max temp, that's the overall right? not the core temps? As I read on the x4 you should ignore the core temp and look at overall? Hwmonitor says I idle at around 30 and under load about 55, which is in line with the bios, where as coretemp registers about 4-6c higher.

Last thing, I see people saying they get X on stock volts?, what's considered stock? On this board (msi 770-c45) auto volts, which I have it set to now, seems to use the range amd give. So idling it's 1.008, then under load it goes to 1.4V, which is apparently max anyway.

CPU is a c3 revision according to cpu-z.

Thanks.
 
You have it almost exactly right. To keep the voltage below 1.4V I would take it from auto and put 1.375 - 1.4V in. Disable turbo but keep cool and quiet. Start at 17.5x (3.5) and go up in 0.5x steps. Each time boot into windows run cpuz, hwmonitor and prime 15 mins or so to establish temps. Leave a few degrees below 62C. If you get to 19x (3.8) I would run a longer prime session for a couple of hours.

What cooling have you?

Coretemp does not work with AMD.
 
955 doesn't have turbo. So to start with it'll just be setting the multiplier for me after I change the voltage from auto.

I have a hyper 212+ on it. Not a high end cooler, but better than stock and people do seem to get modest overclocks on it.
 
Last edited:
Armadillo said:
955 doesn't have turbo. So to start with it'll just be setting the multiplier for me after I change the voltage from auto.

I have a hyper 212+ on it. Not a high end cooler, but better than stock and people do seem to get modest overclocks on it.
Click to expand...

hyper 212+ should be good, a lot better than stock, good luck, andy.
 
CPU Multi - 19x (for 3.8Ghz)
NB Multi - 10x (just to make sure it stays at stock)
HT Multi - 10x (just to make sure it stays at stock)

CPU NB Voltage - Default
CPU Voltage - 1.45V (nice easy voltage to start with, and you can back it down once you have the 3.8GHz solid, to find the lowest voltage your CPU is capable of)

C1E - Disabled
Cool n Quiet - Disabled

Then just set all your memory timings (which you probably already have done).


About all there is to it.

Boot into windows, fire up HWmonitor and LinX.

Fire up HWmonitor.

Fire up LinX, set problem size to 20000, loops 20, and hit start.

If LinX passes 20 loops you're CPU is stable and good to go. Keep an eye on your temps in HWmonitor (correct temp will be listed as TMPIN0/TMPIN1 usually). As long as you are below 62C you are fine.


If LinX passes, drop the voltage to 1.425V and run again, repeat until it's no longer stable, then go back to the previous settings.


Once you've got your core clock solid you can work on your CPU-NB, but we'll save that for another day :D
 
Tried them settings, but had to stop. Not because of heat or anything like that, but something that did concern me, so thought I'd ask more experienced people.

Once linx gets going, the computer starts to squeal. The sound is similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22b5fLzZLJY, or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZU9JKCdCVg

Just no where near as bad and comes and goes. It seems to be appear once linx gets going, then stops near the end of the pass, then starts up again as it gets going.

I assume it's just the caps on the board or in the psu squealing as I'm guessing linx asks a lot from the system, but just thought I'd ask. PSU is a corsair tx650w, so I have a nice supply.

Thanks :)
 
Ran into a problem. I guess maybe this board is no good for overclocking :(.

There are two settings cpu voltage and cpu vdd voltage. Earlier when I tried I had the cpu voltage setting to 1.4 (next jump was too high), but was getting 1.45V on the cpu when running linx.

After looking around I found that apparently the cpu voltage setting on this is some sort of offset

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...-136-now-available-post-7&p=380767#post380767

(same menu, different board)

and that cpu vdd is what I need to adjust. Which is why it was going 1.45 as it would have still been on auto. This is where the problem comes in.

The adjustment goes 1.375->auto->1.5. 1.5 is too high and 1.375 is too low and resulted in no boot and cmos reset.

So I'm guessing that's the end of it then? Board not really suited for it :(, unless anyone has any suggestions?

Seems odd that it will quite happily give 1.375-1.425 on auto, but won't let you manually select that range.
 
Well that's just rubbish =/

So your CPU VDD has no other options than 1.375 - AUTO - 1.5 ? :confused:

:|

Does the offset have negative options? I know on my board I can set an absolute CPU voltage, but then I also have the option to have a -/+ offset as well.

So if your board has the capability you could set:

CPU VDD = 1.5V
CPU Voltage = -0.05V

To get 1.45V. Pretty ridiculous way of going about it though!

Can't believe a modern board doesn't have proper CPU voltage adjustment.


What options do you have in the 'Offset'?
 
sorry for the mini thread hijack, but i figured this was kinda similar to what the OP is doing. i can overclock my CPU just fine, but what i cant do is make it turn itself down to really low speeds again when its not doing much. it will constantly stay on 3.x Ghz when i try and overclock. cool and quiet and advanced clock interrupt are turned on, and im doing the overclock by adjusting the multiplier only
 
HeX said:
Well that's just rubbish =/

So your CPU VDD has no other options than 1.375 - AUTO - 1.5 ? :confused:

:|

Does the offset have negative options? I know on my board I can set an absolute CPU voltage, but then I also have the option to have a -/+ offset as well.

So if your board has the capability you could set:

CPU VDD = 1.5V
CPU Voltage = -0.05V

To get 1.45V. Pretty ridiculous way of going about it though!

Can't believe a modern board doesn't have proper CPU voltage adjustment.


What options do you have in the 'Offset'?
Click to expand...

I guess the board was just being a bit weird. Since I reset the cmos, I hadn't tried any of the settings again and had just left them on auto. Just went in the bios to write down what options it has and now it's given me the full range :confused:

Before I reset the cmos it was 1.375-auto-1.5 and then it went up to 1.55 I think, just went to check it now and have the full range :). Maybe when I mistakenly used the offset setting it done something to the range (even though I did reset that back to auto before trying the vdd).






Reaper 392 said:
sorry for the mini thread hijack, but i figured this was kinda similar to what the OP is doing. i can overclock my CPU just fine, but what i cant do is make it turn itself down to really low speeds again when its not doing much. it will constantly stay on 3.x Ghz when i try and overclock. cool and quiet and advanced clock interrupt are turned on, and im doing the overclock by adjusting the multiplier only
Click to expand...


From my research before I started on mine, I think that depends on the board and may be something you just have to put up with. My board is the same, if you touch the multiplier, you lose cool n quiet.
 
Just a quick update. Think my original feelings of board not really suited for it may be back :(.

Board seems to run the voltage higher than what's it set at :(. When set to 1.425, cpu-z shows it at around that, until I load it up. Once linx gets going it spikes to 1.48V :(. Same story if I lower it, 1.4 in bios, spikes to 1.45/6.

Offset setting doesn't have any negative values to bring it down. On this board it seems it's there only for trying to get higher than normal voltages on cpu.

Not too happy about it spiking so much over what I set it to :(. So unless anyone has any suggestions, I guess this board is just not that great for overclocking :(.
 
Its the not the most expensive board but from msi you would expect better :(
I would just get something like 3.6-7 and then drop the volts as low as you can , you dont want to push too hard :P
 
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