CPU undervolting, which to do.

[Eat_those_lemons]

So I was reccomended to lower my cpu voltage ( i am running a Phenom II X4 965) to lower my temp a little bit but I am having trouble with finding the right one to lower.

So looking at the AXTU (asrock's overclocking software) it only has cpu voltage. And then in the BIOS it only has VDDA voltage. i thought that vcore was VDD. is the UIEF BIOS just changing the name?

(and is there a lowering to much point?)


and is is bad to have to many crashes becuase of the overclocking? (or in my case undervolting?)

And I cannot seem to raise the fan speeds on any of my fans above 1400 rpms. (with cool n quiet disabled) I thought that they should be higher than that. are they where they are supposed to be?

Thanks for all replies

 

[Z1NONLY]

CPU voltage is the voltage you want to lower in order to "undervolt".

If you go too low, your system will crash. It shouldn't hurt any hardware though.

Lower the voltage in small steps. Do some stress-testing after each "step".

At some point, your PC will crash, then you will need to back up one step to the last voltage that did not crash.

 

[MU_Engineer]

So I was reccomended to lower my cpu voltage ( i am running a Phenom II X4 965) to lower my temp a little bit but I am having trouble with finding the right one to lower.

So looking at the AXTU (asrock's overclocking software) it only has cpu voltage. And then in the BIOS it only has VDDA voltage. i thought that vcore was VDD. is the UIEF BIOS just changing the name?

Vcc = Vdd = Vcore. Different terminology for the same thing.

(and is there a lowering to much point?)

and is is bad to have to many crashes becuase of the overclocking? (or in my case undervolting?)

You can lower the voltage too much. It will behave exactly as if you had overclocked it like you said- the computer will crash. Lower the voltage from stock in small steps and then once you find the lowest stable voltage, go up a few VID steps (50 mv or so) and then use that voltage. You get the most "bang for the buck" in the first few VID steps you drop rather than the last few as heat/power varies with the square of the voltage rather than in a 1:1 ratio.

And I cannot seem to raise the fan speeds on any of my fans above 1400 rpms. (with cool n quiet disabled) I thought that they should be higher than that. are they where they are supposed to be?

Thanks for all replies

I don't know what fans you are running. 1400 rpm seems about right for a top speed on a decently quiet 120 mm fan like you would find on a 120 mm aftermarket tower heatsink or in a decent case fan. A 70 mm heatsink fan on a stock AMD heatsink ought to be able to spin at around 4000 rpm or better when running at full speed- and you will certainly hear it spin that fast. If you are running a stock heatsink I will bet that your fan speed sensing is not working correctly or that your chip just isn't getting hot enough to trip the fan speed up much- which can be true particularly when undervolting.

 

[Eat_those_lemons]

Okay so I have just lowered the votage and the cpu ratio and I can get it to run nice on full load. I would like to save this to bios but I would like to know what the 'A' at the end of the VDD stands for.

Thanks for the responses. they did help

 

[Z1NONLY]

Lowering your CPU ration slows down your CPU.

If you did this to stabilize the lower voltages you want, then it makes sense. But I wouldn't underclock beyond the standard power saving features unless I had to.

 

[Eat_those_lemons]

Got better heat Sink and it works Thanks for the replies