HELP OVERCLOCKING FX6300 on 970A-DS3P FX

[h3n0420]

ok so im a computer geek on a extreamly tight budget. i started with an a6 pc i found in the trash, found a couple more crap pcs over time and was able to get 1x 4gb stick of ram and 3x 2 gb sticks of ram for 10 gb of ram. just got my friends old cpu after he upgraded so now i have a fx 6300. i broke down and bought the gigabyte 970a-DS3P FX to go with it along with an akasa venom voodoo cpu cooler.its got 6 copper heat pipes and i beliveve its rated for 200 watt heat displacement or w/e.i also have 5 140mm fans in the box i built to make a desk pc. so air flow is awsome. id say all the air in the case is pushed in and sucked out in under a sec.with a smoke test it fills my box and emptys it in about a second. i want to get every bit of performance outta the cpu and am wondering what settings i should change and to what to get best oc performance outta it. any and all imput is appreciated! tnx for the help in advance

 

[Darkbreeze]

That board is not of suitable quality for overclocking FX6 chips. FX4 will OC fine on there but it lacks adequate power phase for FX6 overclocking and does not have good enough VRM cooling.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/745146-OC-with-GA-970A-DS3P


If you want to overclock on FX6 processors you will need one of the following motherboards, IF you want to have a stable overclock and not thermally destroy your hardware at an accelerated rate. There may also be a few additional, newer models, than what is listed here, but this covers the majority of models known to be adequate for overclocking FX6 and most FX8 chips. FX 9 series chips require very high end boards, but that is unrelated to your question.

GA-990FXA-UD7
Extreme6 (Termed as 990X chipset board on some sites)
Extreme9
Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Crosshair V Formula-Z
Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD5
MSI GD80V2
M5A99FX PRO R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD3
MSI GD65V2
990FX Killer
Extreme4
M5A99X EVO (R2.0 as well)
GA-990XA-UD3
990XA-GD55
GA-970A-UD3P
M5A97 or EVO or PRO (R.2 as well)
GA-970A-UD3
970 GAMING
970A SLI Krait
Extreme 3 R2.0

 

[h3n0420]

idk if it matters but this is the 970a-DS3P FX not the 970a-ds3p. the one that was just made this yea. i was able to oc the fx6300 to 4319.78 mhz. and it also oc'd my gtx 750 to 1150 on the core and 2550 on the memory and is now playing all my games on high settings peeking around 160 fps and around 50 in heavy action spots. im sure with a more expensive mother board i can get better but like i said.. im on an extream budget.. befor this my whole pc was built from parts salvaged from finds in teh trash. i found this board for 60 bucks on new egg and the cooler for 30. i was aware i needed a better mobo, that wasn't my question. i needed help for this mobo. it very stable right now running at 30c and dosen't get much higher than 35c. like i said my case is EXTREAMLY well cooled. and i dont think 1/2 of those mobos are in stock right now.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, good luck. Just because you CAN overclock on a given board, doesn't mean you should. That board is pretty borderline and the chances you will create a shortened lifespan for the motherboard or CPU is high, possibly even probable. I won't help with that, but if you're insistent that you want to do this no matter what then this is probably the best guide you'll find.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1140459/bulldozer-overclocking-guide-performance-scaling-charts-max-ocs-ln2-results-coming

 

[h3n0420]

yea, i just got done following that guide, i got up to 4922mhz and the heat is still under 40c. the cooler i got on it is blowing right into a side panel and down onto the vmr. along with 2 140mm fans blowing across the mobo and 3 140mm's sucking it all out. i ran prime95 for a half hour with 0 errors and temps stayed around 39c. am i missing something that will mess my stuff up?

 

[xaviiniesta6]

yea, i just got done following that guide, i got up to 4922mhz and the heat is still under 40c. the cooler i got on it is blowing right into a side panel and down onto the vmr. along with 2 140mm fans blowing across the mobo and 3 140mm's sucking it all out. i ran prime95 for a half hour with 0 errors and temps stayed around 39c. am i missing something that will mess my stuff up?

Wow bro, you are running it at 4.9ghz? Can you tell me what voltage you are at?
I have overclocked mine @4.47ghz at 1.368v on Asus M5A97 R2 board with CM Hyper212 as a cooler with good case airflow. Also, i live in India so it's pretty hot in summers to push it any further than that while requiring considerable amount of volts too.

 

[h3n0420]

yea, i just got done following that guide, i got up to 4922mhz and the heat is still under 40c. the cooler i got on it is blowing right into a side panel and down onto the vmr. along with 2 140mm fans blowing across the mobo and 3 140mm's sucking it all out. i ran prime95 for a half hour with 0 errors and temps stayed around 39c. am i missing something that will mess my stuff up?

Wow bro, you are running it at 4.9ghz? Can you tell me what voltage you are at?
I have overclocked mine @4.47ghz at 1.368v on Asus M5A97 R2 board with CM Hyper212 as a cooler with good case airflow. Also, i live in India so it's pretty hot in summers to push it any further than that while requiring considerable amount of volts too.

 

[h3n0420]

Since then I reinstalled windows and ramped it down to 4.42. I think this is the sweet spot for these 6300s the added volts arnt enough to make me wanna keep it that high, in what I do the extra .5 ghz doesn't add enough performance. My cooler is also conciderably better than a 212 Evo. I can't get the 6300 over 53c even with fans off. I was also able to turn c6 and c1e back on

 

[h3n0420]

I believe my volts were 1.43 when I was at 4.9 tho

 

[madmatt30]

Not a board I'd be pushing big overclocks on personally.
4.2-4.4 maybe depending on voltage.

It's still only a 4 phase vrm , you will shorten it's lifespan with big clocks & voltage without a doubt.

 

[madmatt30]

1.4v+ is way too much for a 4 phase vrm imo.
Theyll be burning up under full load.

 

[h3n0420]

I know, that's also y I ramped it down to 4.4 the risk is the worth the reward. But for the 60 I paid for this board it gets the job done and wont feel to bad if it lasts a couple yrs

 

[h3n0420]

I get the 4.4 with out touching the volts also

 

[madmatt30]

Youll still be running 1.36-1.38 at 4.4 (the board will compensate automatically for that)

Id deem that acceptable & safe though.

Im running about the same on a worse asus 760g board (I do have active vrm cooling though)

The 6300 does honestly perform pretty admirably above 4.2ghz imo for a 6 year old budget CPU.

Was always my favourite fx chip by a long way.

 

[h3n0420]

I have fans on my vmrs. Is that what u mean by active vmr cooling?

 

[madmatt30]

Yes it is , I just use a pallas cooler which kills 2 birds with one stone because its a massive downblowing cpu cooler with a 140mm fan which is purposefully designed to overhang the vrms.

 

[h3n0420]

Thought u were using g the 212 evo

 

[madmatt30]

Nope , 212 evo on my fx 8320 (gigabyte ud3p so doesn't need vrm cooling ), pallas on my 6300 (on a asus m5a78 so it does)