Can't overclock my P II 720BE past 3.4 Is it my mobo?

[sparky13]

Advance thanks to anyone who can help me out here. I'm trying to get my 720 BE stable at 3.5 or above but to no avail.

My system:

Antec 300 w/4 120mm fans (2 blue led intake, 2 exhaust)

550w Rosewill PSU

Gigabyte MA-78GM-US2H mobo

Phenom II 720 BE cpu

Coolermaster Hyper 520 CPU cooler

XFX GTS 250 pci-e graphics card

6GB Patriot Viper DDR2-800 ram


So... I first stayed at stock voltage (3.25 i think) and upped the multiplier to 16 which got my CPU to 3.2 ghz. I ran Prime95 for 16 hours w/no problems my temps maxed out between 38-42 C. I went up to 3.3 and it was still stable for 9 hours, temps were the same at stock voltage. I then went up to 3.4 and system restarted after about 5 hours. I upped the voltage to 3.75 and tried again this time temps got to 47 under load but system still shut down and restarted after 8 hours. I upped the voltage to 4.0 and tried again. It was stable for 12 hours. I tried to go 3.5 but crashed right after Windows booted up. I thought it might have something to do w/my RAM so I ran MEMtest overnight/everything checked out fine. I think I read the northbridge chipset gets hot on this mobo. Could that be the reason I can't OC further? My buddy also said that mATX mobos aren't really built for high overclocks. Would an aftermarket northbridge cooler help? Just curious. Thanks again to any who reply!
'
-Sparky13

 

[gunnarhx]

I hope you didn't crank up the cpu voltage to 3.25, or you'd experienced some fireworks....

My experience and seemingly the vast majority on the web seem to believe that the path to simple overclock include the following steps
- Raise the cpu multiplier until you hit low 3.x GHz, now you probably see stabiulity issues ( you did that, right?)
- Now you raise the voltage towards 1.5-1.55V or so (if bios allows)
- See how high the multiplier can go; 18 - 18.5 seems to be the max for most, i.e. 3.6 - 3.7 GHz
- Monitor the temperature now, use HWMonitor from CPU-Z website for example. If it reaches high 50C's, you need better cooling. I run the same cpu at 3.6 under 40C.

 

[El_Capitan]

That's fine, I keep my 720 BE at 3.4 GHz 24/7 at 1.4V. My max stable is what's on my sig, with the cooling that I have on it, I can keep it there, but since it's my gf's computer, longetivity is more useful than speed. The NB is at 2.6 GHz at 1.4V.

 

[OvrClkr]

If all else fails you can lower your multiplier and raise your FSB.

 

[sparky13]

LOL I meant I had kept stock vcore at 1.32, not 3.32 that would have been something. Last night I raised vcore to 1.44/Multiplier to X 17.5 for an OC of 3.5 and ran Prime95 again. i let it run overnight and expectd to see the 'windows recovered from an unexpected shutdown' message but... it was still going strong this morning (stable for 13 hours). Temps topped out at 56-58 C. Idle temps are between 27-32 C. Do these temps look good to you guys? I restared my computer after I let it cool down this morning and raised multiplier to 18 and am trying for 3.6 as it is running now while I'm at work. Thanks again for all your help everyone.

 

[OvrClkr]

Well those temps are kinda high for that clock....

Try 1.4v on the CPU and 1.38v on the NB and check temps again...