AMD FX 4100 quad core 4GHz overclocking

[James1202]

Hello all, and as always thanks in advance for the surely expert help i will get ^^

Ok, so i am currently trying to get the best i can out of my PC as i doubt i will be getting to upgrade anything in it for quite a while. Although i know a bit about pc's and hardware on a very basic level overclocking is still a very new thing for me but im picking it up as i go.

At the moment i have a AMD FX 4100 4GHz processor on a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Mobo with stock fan. I am probably going to look at getting a cheapish fan to go on it to squeeze a little more out of it but i just need help with knowing what to adjust, best ways to test and what NOT to do.

I know my way around my BIOS but a lot of what it has in there is a bit overwhelming and i didnt want to go in too strong and end up causing damage. I have checked online and i think i can take my "core multiplier" or something from x20 to x21 safely with my stock fan to give me 4.2GHz but i don't know what could go wrong and mainly, how to fix it if it does go wrong.....

Also im stuck with 1333Mhz Ram and i have also heard a way of being able to get more out of that by changing settings in Bios, is this doable?

Many thanks

 

[Stefan Bargisen]

Well... You should probably not do alot of OC with a stock fan, I had an AMD ii X4 3ghz CPU, I managed to hit 4 ghz or so with it with watercooling.

Anyway, do you really find the use for OC'ing? I have the FX-6350 now (3.9 GHZ) oc'ed to 4.2 ghz, watercooled ofcourse, but I have had it to 4750 ghz stable with no issue, but I just didn't see any noticeable difference in FPS or anything.

Basically, you need to up the voltage for the CPU as you go on with the OC, this however, can ruin your motherboard.
You need to get PRIME95 to stresstest your CPU (Read up on this.) and you need some sort of temperature program, I used several to be sure of the CPU, VRM and such temp. I hit an all time max of 67 degrees with @4,75 ghz, still needed some tweaks though.

 

[James1202]

Honestly, im not too sure i would find a use for Overclocking yet..... I just love to tinker with my computer and this is the next thing i can do I use my rig for gaming 95% of the time and watching films with the family the other 5%. Saving up for a wedding and have a 10month old daughter just means i got no money for nothing and am just going through things i can do to squeeze a little more out of what i got, but realistically want to do it without causing any problems as no money

Last thing i did was upgrade my PSU to a EVGA Supernova B2 750w and a get an Asus GTX 760 GPU which i have maxed out the overclocking i can safely do on that and that was my first push into overclocking. Know my Processor and ram is the other things which are slowing my computer down so that was the next thing for me to tackle. My Mobo only goes to 1333Mhz and i have 16gb of that in there already so i wanted to tinker with that and see if i can get a cheapish upgrade to Ram and then push to try and get some extra power out my processor to last me another year or so.

Long story short, i dont really need to but i would like to, plus i like to try and learn as i go with computers and this is something that i havent really got involved in so its definitely something i want to learn more about and get comfortable doing for this and future projects

 

[mdocod]

Which version of the GA-78LMT-USB3 do you have?

The one I have experience with supported memory multipliers all the way up to 2400MT/s. A BIOS update might open up options for this. Keep in mind that supporting a multiplier and actually running that speed are separate issues. Almost ANY DDR3 made will run 1866-13-13-13@1.5V or so, and can be be tightened up to 1866-11-11-11 (or better) with ~1.65V or so. (some will do much better than this of course). The FX memory controllers really run at their sweet spot in the 1866-2133MT/s range IMO. Going beyond 1866 MT/s on your FX-4100 would require overclocking and overvolting the CPU-NB (memory controller), which doesn't return good performance scaling for the change in power dissipation and temps, so my advise would be to aim for the 1866 multiplier (if supported) and just work on trying to achieve tightest possible timings at 1.65V or less.

In order to performance tune the FX-4100 you will need aftermarket cooling. I would advise a traditional heatpipe liquid "tower" style cooler. The SilverStone AR01 and Arctic A30 are both strong performers on AMD CPUs, with big 8mm heatpipes. Check for RAM clearance though 😉 Take the 70mm fan from your OE boxed cooler and install it over your VRM heatsink for best results.

Basic AM3+ BD/PD performance tuning starts with the disabling of APM and turbo, switching to manual voltage controls and finding a reasonable balance between clock speeds, voltage and thermal dissipation. In my experience, Gigabyte boards can be fine tuned with offset voltage settings, in order to retain properly working power states (cool/quiet). This is something to aspire towards after finding a stable clock speed and voltage. Thermal management issues bloom rapidly beyond ~1.45V.