Help with OC'ing my 965 BE & 990FX mobo

[walkerdoug33]

OK, I have done a whole lot of reading about this lately, including a bunch of videos and online forum manuals about overclocking the phenom CPU. As far as I can tell, I am performing this procedure correctly, but I want to make sure before I push it any further. I recently installed a liquid cooler on my phenom II X4 965 BE, which is on my Sabertooth 990FX mobo. I haven't touched the FSB yet, and I guess that is where my questions begin. My multiplier is currently at 20, and I am at 4ghz. If I push it any further, I have BSOD big time. At this point, do I adjust the FSB upwards slowly while changing the multiplier back to the stock number of 16, or leave it at 20? At what point do I adjust voltages? Also, when should I mess with the CPU/NB? Help is greatly appreciated, as I know I'm in the right place for it.

 

[Wisecracker]

What speed are your RAMs?

 

[walkerdoug33]

I have G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage (2x4gb) @ 1600mhz. The timings are set @ 9.9.9.24, 2T.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Have you checked out the black edition sticky up top?
without wanting to jump the gun on that, whats your 'liquid cooling'?
whats your Cpu voltage?
temperatures on load at 4GHz?
I'd drop the ram to a lower speed until you can get stable as well, 1333 works well for my experiments around 4GHz, but I have to drop to even slower for higher clocks above 4.4, and timings set to 10,10,10,30,2T
It may be you are at the point where voltage boosts are needed but if your cooling isn't up to it, don't do it, or you are on a path to a dead chip
**Edit to add Sticky link**
Moto

 

[Wisecracker]

The sweet spot with 1600MHz RAMs is a system clock at 240MHz. You simply drop the RAMs divider from 8.00 to 6.67, and your RAMs will be running spec speed. It works like this .....

At stock your memory is effectively running 8.00x200MHz. You will be running 6.67x240MHz, or, 1600MHz!

The side benefit is your IMC/NB will be running 10x240MHz. It may not be necessary, but you may bump your NB volts to 1.2v or so for stability. Be sure to clock back your HT Link, however. 8x (or, the 1600MHz setting) 240MHz will be fine.

I would start with your CPU multiplier at 16x with your VCore at 1.375v to 1.3875v when you use 240MHz. Check for temps and stabilty.

You may raise the CPU multiplier in .5 increments. If you stub your toe, bump the VCore in +0.0125v increments. Stop when you find the AMD Volt Wall!

You will find a spot where you simply have to add more and more VCore to gain any more speed, and the additional voltage just adds more and more heat.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

And thats where stupid amounts of cooling come into play
You need to find the speed that suits you at acceptable temps on load
Moto

 

[walkerdoug33]

Best answer selected by walkerdoug33.