FX-8320 Overclock & Northbridge Overclock

[alexh92]

Just was curious on opinions of my overclock. I am a little paranoid I might be doing long term damage, so just wanted to see what more experienced users think.

Currently my setup is:

4.4GHz @ 1.4v
CM Hyper 212 Evo w/ CM Jetflow replacement fan
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
HT 2.4GHz
NB 2.8 GHz @ stock volts
G. Skill Ares 16GB RAM 1866 MHz no overclock, don't know how yet

Does this seem like pushing it too far? I haven't seen any temperature issues, and ran stress test for a couple hours with no issues. Haven't had any crashes as of yet. But I'm still a bit worried.

 

[Shaun o]

What`s the maximum temp reached after running a prime 95 test on your system Alex @ 4.4 Ghz with a 1.4 cpu core setting ?

It greatly depends when it comes to the tempreture reached, how many cores the FX cpu you have.
With 8 cores the cpu will heat up faster with a slightly higher max temp at a set clock frequency when overclocking.

If it was compared to a four core FX cpu such as a 4300 or a 4350 model cpu.
Due of course to the fact that there is a higher transistor count in a eight core cpu Alex.

Though both could be set at a 1.4v cpu core voltage.

It then depends on how good your air cooler is on your cpu, from the start at keeping the cpu it`s self cooler as you increase the clock speeds, the faster you push a cpu in speed the more heat is generated as a by product, as well as the core voltage increase to keep it stable when overclocked being increased.

You did very well to get a FX 8320, from a stock speed of 3.5Ghz up to 4.4Ghz.
That is a 900 Mhz speed increase.

Where as on average some FX cpus will only reach a maximum of 800 Mhz overclock from the factory default stock frequency Alex.

1.4v for the core is pretty safe in any case, it`s when you reach 1.5v to 1.55v.

As the maximum you can safely set a FX cpu core is about 1.6v on the core, where you risk damage to it.
As the temps can run away very rapidly, and reach the thermal maximum rated for the cpu.

Even with a good air cooler on the cpu.
If you are in the 50c + range with a prime 95 test running for a few hours then it is fine.

 

[alexh92]

The default torture test on Prime95 was showing 52c on HWmonitor after an hour when I first tried it. I did notice just recently HWmonitor also shows my volts max at 1.44, probably why it is so stable at 4.4GHz. I do wish I could get that 1GHz overclock though, but so far all my attempts end in infinite crashes.

Would maybe adding a push fan to my CM 212 Evo bring the efficiency up enough to hit higher than 1.44v without overheating? The fan I use currently is a high static pressure 95 CFM fan, so would doubling that show great gains?