AMD Athlon II X2 270 3.4ghz Overclocking max?

[Willem Kimberley]

Hey guys, I was wondering how high i could overclock my CPU, it is an AMD Athlon II X2 270 Dual-Core 3.4ghz, I know it's not the best, but I am low on cash and can't buy a new one. That's out of the question. What I'd like to know, is how far can i overclock it?

Motherboard:
Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P AM3+ Ultra Durable

Power Supply:
EVGA 500W Bronze PSU

GPU (Not sure if it matters):
AMD HD 7770 1GB (Not overclocked)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Asrah]

I would suggest overclocking via small steps in the clock, bus, and voltage. Keep in mind that higher frequencies create more heat, same with higher voltages. Before you start trying to OC your CPU, monitor your CPUs idle and load temperatures over a few days. Compare the results for each day, and then start with 100MHZ core clock intervals with the CPU if the temperatures are below the safe limits. Safe limits are generally 70C at the highest. It is best to try and keep your CPU under 70C on full load.

Since your CPU is only a dual core, you might be able to achieve higher OC margins than with a quad core. However the differences (if present) would likely only be in the 100-200MHZ range because of the downside of a lower TDP.

If you get around to the actual overclocking, tweak the CPU frequency by 100MHZ until you can no longer boot into windows, up to a maximum of 500MHZ. After that go into the bios and tweak the voltage by ONE step until you can either boot into windows, or your system fails to post, up to a maximum of 2-3 steps. If you need to, tweak the HTT bus from 200-210. Doing so can bring you to OC levels in between each hundred, which could be the difference between booting into windows and a BSOD. I have overclocked my FX-8350 via HTT bus at 201 and 21.5 multiplier. With 22 multiplier, and 200 bus, i cant boot into windows. I can with 201 bus, and 21.5 multiplier.

If you have the know how and technical ability, replace your thermal paste BEFORE you do ANY overclocking, unless the thermal paste hasnt had time to set. Set times for thermal paste depends on the brand and composition. If you cannot replace old thermal paste, do NOT try to OC your CPU.

 

[damric]

Hey guys, I was wondering how high i could overclock my CPU, it is an AMD Athlon II X2 270 Dual-Core 3.4ghz, I know it's not the best, but I am low on cash and can't buy a new one. That's out of the question. What I'd like to know, is how far can i overclock it?

Motherboard:
Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P AM3+ Ultra Durable

Power Supply:
EVGA 500W Bronze PSU

GPU (Not sure if it matters):
AMD HD 7770 1GB (Not overclocked)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

Since you will be raising the reference clock above 200MHz, be sure to drop your RAM speed down while keeping timings loose. Drop your HT Link multi so that it stays around ~2000MHz as you raise your reference clock. If things aren't stable you can also decrease the CPU-NB multiplier a bit. That's the basics, but you can read AMD's pdf if you want to really go in depth.

http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

You should be able to aim for around 4GHz on the core for that CPU, and at least 2600MHz on the CPU-NB. Don't worry about RAM until after you got those two max'd out. I seriously doubt that you will have a problem keeping that chip cool since it's only a dual core and has no L3 cache.

 

[Willem Kimberley]

Hey guys, I was wondering how high i could overclock my CPU, it is an AMD Athlon II X2 270 Dual-Core 3.4ghz, I know it's not the best, but I am low on cash and can't buy a new one. That's out of the question. What I'd like to know, is how far can i overclock it?

Motherboard:
Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P AM3+ Ultra Durable

Power Supply:
EVGA 500W Bronze PSU

GPU (Not sure if it matters):
AMD HD 7770 1GB (Not overclocked)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

Since you will be raising the reference clock above 200MHz, be sure to drop your RAM speed down while keeping timings loose. Drop your HT Link multi so that it stays around ~2000MHz as you raise your reference clock. If things aren't stable you can also decrease the CPU-NB multiplier a bit. That's the basics, but you can read AMD's pdf if you want to really go in depth.

http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

You should be able to aim for around 4GHz on the core for that CPU, and at least 2600MHz on the CPU-NB. Don't worry about RAM until after you got those two max'd out. I seriously doubt that you will have a problem keeping that chip cool since it's only a dual core and has no L3 cache.

Hi, thanks for the info, im using AMD overdrive for this, and was wondering what values i should change? I would go with what you said but there is a lot of things to change on here. Please take a look at the screenshot below and tell me what value specifically i should change

http://i.imgur.com/BBmXWRD.png

 

[damric]

Hey guys, I was wondering how high i could overclock my CPU, it is an AMD Athlon II X2 270 Dual-Core 3.4ghz, I know it's not the best, but I am low on cash and can't buy a new one. That's out of the question. What I'd like to know, is how far can i overclock it?

Motherboard:
Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P AM3+ Ultra Durable

Power Supply:
EVGA 500W Bronze PSU

GPU (Not sure if it matters):
AMD HD 7770 1GB (Not overclocked)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

Since you will be raising the reference clock above 200MHz, be sure to drop your RAM speed down while keeping timings loose. Drop your HT Link multi so that it stays around ~2000MHz as you raise your reference clock. If things aren't stable you can also decrease the CPU-NB multiplier a bit. That's the basics, but you can read AMD's pdf if you want to really go in depth.

http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

You should be able to aim for around 4GHz on the core for that CPU, and at least 2600MHz on the CPU-NB. Don't worry about RAM until after you got those two max'd out. I seriously doubt that you will have a problem keeping that chip cool since it's only a dual core and has no L3 cache.

Hi, thanks for the info, im using AMD overdrive for this, and was wondering what values i should change? I would go with what you said but there is a lot of things to change on here. Please take a look at the screenshot below and tell me what value specifically i should change

http://i.imgur.com/BBmXWRD.png

What you be raising to overclock is your HT reference clock. You can see the slider on that page of AOD. You can lower HT Link one notch to keep it near 2000MHz. That's not a very overclock friendly motherboard, and there doesn't seem to be much that it offers in AOD. You should check out your BIOS to see if there are better options, otherwise this might not go very far.