Help Overclocking AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition

[jtisgeek]

Full specs
9950 Agena stock v-core stays around 1.376 idles at 32c at 2.7 load around 36c to 40c
4gig Kingston hyper x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820134009 stock timings 2.0 volt
timing are 5-5-5-18-24-2T by cpu-z
Full tower case antec neo power 500 watt
ati 4830 512 stock
Motherboard is asus m3a78 pro everything on it is watercool north and south bridge.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 813131325R

Got 2 500 gig in raid zero 250 gig sata drive for windows
Am running windows 7 64 rc1 newest drivers.

 

[igithepop]

right. first results - my case is something i should have picked better to start of
anyway...i fitted some more fans to help with the cooling. news flash - you can't fit a front intake fan in this case! blast them!

i had the top, rear and one 92mm side fan. i fitted another one of those and another monster 12cm inside the case 😀 as you cant fit it on the "normal" spot i fitted it inside on the HDD rack )

cpu idle down by 11°C
chipset down by 15°C (it had insane temps from day one, and now in the summer it drove me nuts!)
GPU down by some 5-10°C (it never overheated as it's the 4870 with a monster factory cooler on it but it's still nice to se a change

)

drawback - noise. i almost feel i have to shout to type this 😀 kidding, it's noisy but not to the point of madness..

by the way - i like the pc case 4ryan suggsted, but in my country it costs almost 100€ so i'll pass for now...
cheers for any ideas you gave or will give me in the future!

 

[igithepop]

3dmark all defaults

 

[jtisgeek]

Sweet results I got tried of dealing with heat that's why i when with water but it's alot more money so not for everyone. Am going to do some 3dmarks once i get my issues worked out but I only have a 4830 so have to get some good clocks out of it to get up there with you guys.

 

[igithepop]

'ere we go again. my cooling seems to be sorted since i'm typing of a 3.2GHz (stock is 2.6GHz) machine at <50°C 😀 a BSOD here and there but it could be i need to touch the voltage a bit..

test:

 

[juravieal]

Im a bit curious about the 2nd post. Ive playing with OCing my 9950 black a bit, Ive got it at 3.1 currently, stable. Just using x15.5 multiplier without changing anything else.

My question is on the voltage setting. Topper suggests setting it to 1.25 to 1.28. The stock voltage on my 140w, or at least on my motherboard, is 1.3 already, bumping this up to 1.35ish doesnt seem to help me get it any higher.

Running the 9950 black with a gigabyte MA790X-DS4 motherboard. Corsaisr dominator ram, but its being replaced. Its only 800mhz ram, the 1066 is in the mail. Any thoughts on what I can do to push it a bit higher?

Im using a Zalman 9700 cpu cooler and sitting at sub 40C under a load, so heat shouldnt be an issue for a bit.

 

[mashew]

well i dont know how some of you guys are doing it cause mine WILL NOT RUN @3.2 on less then 1.3750V in my BIOS on my M3A78-T, will not complete boot. I would love to get 3.2 on less for the drop in heat but i cant no matter how many other things i change. If one of you guys know how to use ACC properly i would love to know as even at 1.3750V, 3.2 is not stable for me. I need to go higher to get stabililty and then it gets too hot on my stock cooling, even on my 125W model.
Plus any luck in Ocing the NB? I can get mine 2.2 no prob but would love to get 2.4, but cant get it stable.

9950BE(obviously)
ASUS M3A78-T
Corsair XMS2 1066 @ 5-5-5-15-22-2T(specs according to Ramguy @ corsair)
cooler master 550W
stock cooling but i have a 250mm fan blowing on my open case at the cpu
sapphire 4850 1GB

 

[igithepop]

i did not even try to touch my NB. as for my other settings here's a probe and anything else you want of my settings just ask and i'll post:

 

[mashew]

cool cool thank you very much. If i may be a jerk i would ask what your values are @ 3.2GHz though as that is what im trying to acheive. ive not goen for 3.1 as in my mind it would be best to get a multiple of my ram spd at 1066.66666~MHz. If you dont want too np man, i have NO IDEA how topper got his to 3.2 with only 1.28V, i cant even load windows at 3.2 with that.

Topper if you see this did or do you use ACC at all, and could you give me some pointers in using it anyone really?

thanks very much.

 

[igithepop]

will do! you CAN'T get any clocking done with that low voltage in my experience. 3.2 was on the same or one step higher voltage for me. so, 1.328 or smth a nudge higher...as soon as i get home i'll let you know what my V was

(that RAM multiplier you mentioned never crossed my mind cause as far as i know one must chase ram base speed. in my and your case that would be 533MHz...however, i never got to the bottom of that topic so i might be wrong)

 

[igithepop]

right. here i go
got it to 3.2GHz, NB to 2.2, made 3x everest ultimate hardware benches and still running pretty smooth 😀
setup:

if interested in the benchmarks of everest please go to my blog at The Round Table
i did not want to spam here with loads of text and can sort it better there so...

nota bene: you WILL HAVE TO COOL the mofo! especialy if it's like in my country now with temps easily over 30°C and no air conditioner available. i have a solid cooler and at idle with this setup it's close to or a bit over 50°C...
use at yer own risk

 

[mashew]

Cool, I should do some benches now too I guess. I went and got a new case (cooler master cm690 [rc? or something]) and now run four 120mm fans in it. On idle @3.2 my temps are similar but the new setup did bring down the under load temps to only ~55.

I use both my HT and NB at 2.2 and she runs a titch warm(NB usually about 7% cooler then CPU) but now she eats through anything I throw at it, except CIV4, I play really big maps with lots of ai and it still takes awhile for the next turn.

one question though my 1 GB sapphire I got OC'ed to 700MHz core and 2.1GHz RAM, how bad is it draging down the rest of my setup? should I sell it and get a 4870? or even a 4890? I'm only interested in get a single GPU no x2's or CF cause I play alot of old games that dont use that kind of thing anyway.

 

[igithepop]

i got a sapphire 512MB factory OC'd card with a stock monster cooler and can clock it to the top alowed by software with no fears. in translation - 820core and 1200MHz memory. hence my almost 10k score on the 3Dmark Vantage 😀

i would not say it's dragging at all. for all i know it's a good enough card
what I would like to get my hands on is a 512bit 2900xt card but that's off topic, old and not interesting to gamers 😀

 

[edson_bsx]

hey, i've been refering to this thread quite a lot whilst doing my first few overclocks on my Phenom Black.

I've managed to get good temps, results and stability from 2.6GHz to 3.00GHz. As im typing this im currently testing 3.20GHz and it's going well so far.

People keep mentioning different wattiges of processor (125w and 140w) i was just wondering how do I find out which i own, and what is the differences between them regards to overclocking?

I know not all processors are born equal but some of the voltage variations on here seem to be quite excessive. Some people having stock volts at 1.2, and some overclocking 3.00GHz at over 1.4.

I think i'm somewhere in the middle, my stock is 1.300V and can achieve 3.00GHz at 1.3125. I'm currently trying to get 3.2GHz to work under 1.3875v as no less will work.

Given that the max temp is 61c? (Although i've also read 64c) - i'm maxing temps are no m ore than 53, and idle temps around 39.

Does this all sound in order? I don't want to make any fatal mistakes, and is there anything else i can do to help it?

 

[4Ryan6]

Given that the max temp is 61c? (Although i've also read 64c)

61c is according to AMDs website

 

[mashew]

Nice work on the GPU, what chip is it? 4870? 4890?

also im trying to get my system to the following spec's but my face hurts after runing into the brick wall too many times.

CPU: 3.3GHz
NB & HT: 2.2GHz
RAM:1.1GHz

i can do it theroetically with a FSBClk of 275 and then dropping my RAM multi back to what woul doriginally be 800MHz, but i only got it to partially POST once(it locked up RIGHT after the RAM check)

I would be very grateful if you could manage the above stats and could post your BIOS settings to get them.

Alternitively, if you either dont want too or cant do that above, if you can get your NB & HT too 2.4GHz and leave the other stuff to what we had b4 that would also be amazing.

 

[igithepop]

4870 sapphire
it's stock cooler is a monster...