amd phenom ii x4 925

[chelseablue96]

Hi peeps, We have an old Acer Aspire M3201 with Acer RS780HVF mobo. AM2+ i think. Anyways i was thinking about a cpu upgrade so i bought phenom ii x 4 925 which works fine (thank god and saves me buying a new mobo) as some said its an AM3 cpu. The ram i have in pc is poor i have 4gb (3xpc2 6400 and 1 pc2 5300). Im also buying a new psu and gfx card. anyways i want to overclock the cpu when im all ready can some kind soul talk me through this? thanks

 

[laviniuc]

phenom II are the last processors from amd to feature both a ddr2 and ddr3 ram controller. that's why they work in pretty much anything (am2+, am3 i think even on fx ready boards). if it's the black edition of the cpu you can just increase the multiplier in the motherboard bios and you're set. the problem is the motherboard, it won't let you overclock too much without crashing.

 

[Wisecracker]

The bad (and good) news ...

An Acer OEM mobo/BIOS will have few if any OC'ing options, but the PhII 925 will take an 'old school' over-clock --- if you purchase a new motherboard.

Your current limited OC options will revolve around the AMD OverDrive utility. You should download, install and see if it expands your OC capabilities (it depends upon the southbridge on the OEM mobo).

To over-clock you must simply raise the system clock speed above stock 200MHz. Aftermarket cooling really helps your over-clock. There are two sweet spots: 250MHz or 240MHz. With the stock cooler you will be lucky to get there (it depends on your CPU volts).

If you are purchasing RAM, you should likely replace your motherboard. A 2x2GB kit of DDR3 1333 with a new motherboard will cost less than $100 US, and work like this:

System clock: 250MHz (25% over-clock)
IMC/NB multiplier: 9x
HT Link Speed: 8x
RAM divider: 533

The max CPU multiplier for the PhII 925 is 14x -- that would take your chip to 3.5GHz, or 14x250MHz

Your RAMs will be running 1333MHz (5.33x250MHz) with the HT link speed at 200MHz. Your IMC/NB at 2250MHz.

Hopefully, with your CPU volts at 1.35v or so ...

 

[chelseablue96]

Wisecracker your a diamond buddy. I will be gtoing down the new mobo route. Keeping the cpu im lookingt at thisa mobo -AS ROCK 970 EXTREME is this an ok mobo?

 

[Wisecracker]

I suspect you could hit 4GHz with the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P AM3+ with good air 😀

System clock: 285MHz
IMC/NB multiplier: 8x
HT Link Speed: 7x
RAM divider: 533

Using the 533 divider will run DDR3 1600 at 1519MHz, right?
(5.33x285MHz)

POSSIBLE: You could give DDR3 1866MHz a shot -- that's likely pushing the limits of the 925.