First time OC'ing Phenom II x4 940 BE

[smeg4brainsuk]

Hey all, i'm looking to OC my CPU from 3.0Ghz to 3.6Ghz. I have read the excellent Phenom II overclocking test from the site, which is why i am only going to 3.6 and not higher due to the power consumption, and it all seems pretty straight forward so i'm here for two things really. 1) are there any issues i should be aware of? 2) will i notice a boost or is the rest of my system holding me back?

Current System Spec:
OS - Windows Home Premium 7 64bit
Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0 Ghz
Motherboard - Asus Crosshair II Formula
GPU - Asus GTX570 Direct CUII
PSU - High Power Plus 750W
RAM - 8GB DDR2 - 4 x 2GB 800Mhz in Dual Channel

22" Samsung Synmaster, gaming resolution 1680x1050

I primarily play Skyrim and the Witcher 2 atm

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Nope, theres nothing there to hold you back at that speed, I'm not familiar with your Psu brands reliability, but with sufficient cooling your good to go,
Watch temps and voltages, and check out the black edition guide up top of the forum 🙂
Moto

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

It's a decent modular psu from what i have found, though it will be the next part i upgrade before the motherboard/cpu/ram later in the year so if it doesn't do the job it will just get replaced sooner ^^

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Cool,
johnnyguru is a good review site for Psu's and he rated the 1000w version at 7 so I'll trust your judgement there
just don't want you risking a nice rig with some P.o.s. powersupply mate
Moto

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

If the psu wasnt up to the task it would just die correct? or could it harm the rest of my system? (also its 2 years old so i know it wont be as efficient as when i first got it)

If the latter is correct any recommendations? Were i to upgrade the psu i would want to make sure it was more than enough for my next system (I7, fast mobo, sli, all the trimmings). Cheers

 

[pharoahhalfdead]

I had the same processor and hit the 3600mhz barrier, stable, and with stock voltage. I had raised the voltage and hit around 3750 but temps ran about 8c warmer. My max temp was 54c under full load but I like keeping my system cool so I dropped back down to stock voltage and 3600mhz
Even going to 3600mhz is a 20% overclock for free, not bad.

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

I had the same processor and hit the 3600mhz barrier, stable, and with stock voltage. I had raised the voltage and hit around 3750 but temps ran about 8c warmer. My max temp was 54c under full load but I like keeping my system cool so I dropped back down to stock voltage and 3600mhz
Even going to 3600mhz is a 20% overclock for free, not bad.

great, so was that using the AMD Overdrive utility or just BIOS?

 

[pharoahhalfdead]

Bios. I got better overclock with the Bios compared to Overdrive.

I used Overdrive automatic on my new system and it drove the voltage up to 1.5 or something crazy. I am definitely a fan of bios overclocking

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

Aha, thanks again. will learn to oc via the BIOS this week, i presume this site has a good guide for it (at work till midnight so wont be qlable to check properly for a while)

 

[Motopsychojdn]

+1, Overdrivel put my old x3 435 to 3.1GHz, I had it at 3.5 on four cores,
Theres a great Black edition guide up the top of this section
Moto

 

[smeg4brainsuk]

For some odd reason i cant use AMD overdrive, whenever i try to load it up it says it cannot detect an amd component! bah oh well

OC'ed the cpu with just the bios and managed to quite happily get the CPU to run at 3.4GHZ without touching the voltage at x17 multiplier. Though it would knock this down to stock if i enabled cool 'n quiet oO? regardless the cpu is running through is 4th hour of prime95 and doing great, temp of 65°c but i aint too bothered by that as an additional front fan could help (i use the zalman aero flower for my heatsink).

I tried 3.6GHZ however this required me tweaking the voltage a fair bit, in fact i knocked the vcore voltage to 1.45 and it still would BSOD within seconds of loading prime95. Dont think im gonna risk pushing the voltage up any higher as im worried about causing long term damage, are there any other settings i can change that might help? might try going for 3.5GHZ with the increased voltage and see if that works.

But thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it and if you know why overdrive is telling me i have no amd devices that would be excellent XD

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Might be your chipset is my first thought, amd710 is the lowest it supports,
Nice one on the clocking though, but yes, get that topline temp below 62, below 55 if you can
Moto

 

[pharoahhalfdead]

This is how I had my set up. I saved the CPUZ html exports from all of my previous computers.
Specification AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 940 Processor
Package Socket AM2+ (940)
Core Speed 3600.0 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 15.0 x 240.0 MHz
HT Link speed 2160.0 MHz
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 8192 MBytes
Memory Frequency 480.0 MHz (1:2)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 5.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 5 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 18 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 24 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 2T

My mobo supported 1066mhz ram with only two occupied slots, and my memory was 1066mhz, but in my mobo when all four slots were occupied it would only run at 800mhz. That's just the way the mobo was designed. That's why I could oc my ram to 960 mhz.

 

[pharoahhalfdead]

When C&Q is enabled, if you don't have your power management profile set to high performance, then when your system is idle, the clock multiplier drops down to 4 times what ever clock frequency(bus speed) you have. Mine would be 4x240=960 mhz when idle. I always enable C&Q.

I never ran prime 95 but my system was always stable. I had Vigor Monsoon III with MX-2 paste. Only on extremely hot days did my temps ever jump over 50c on full load, and I don't even have air conditioning. Well I do, but it only blows room temperature air lol.