How high should I push the CPU NB voltage?

[Yoshinat0r]

I currently have my CPU NB clocked to 2600 MHz at 1.16v stable. The stock settings were 2000 MHz @ 1.10v. I am trying to hit 2800 MHz but my question is how far should I try to push the cpu NB voltage before it would be dangerous to go any further? The range of voltage options are 0.60v - 1.55v.

Also how do you find out how hot the CPU NB is getting? Is it just the temperature of the CPU as a whole?

My specs are:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
MOBO: ASRock 890FX DELUXE3 AM3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.40 GHz
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB SATA III MLC
RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870
PSU: Kingwin 1000W ATX/BTX 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified PSU

 

[henydiah]

min voltage option for save

 

[acer0169]

Kinda' depends on what cooling you have in your case etc. Those who are benchmarking with liquid nitrogen etc can put their CPU voltage way past those with air.. so it's not just a case of what the component can take, but how hot it's getting too. I would think if you set it to 2800MHz and up the voltage to 1.2v and then benchmark and stress test it should be stable. If you need to increase a little but only by single increments at a time. Not sure what the max is, so just keep an eye on your temps and remember to touch heatsinks etc on your motherboard. Regardless of what any temp reading says in software, if a heatsink is white hot inside your case something is wrong! :]

 

[Yoshinat0r]

well I have had to put the CPU NB voltage up to 1.37v to get 2800 mhz stable under prime. It has run successfully with no errors in prime for two hours, I think if the CPU NB was overheating it would have restarted the computer or froze during those two hours? I have been doing many things and have had no problems, everything seems perfectly stable. I will touch the heatsinks on the motherboard to make sure, should I do that while the computer is on?

Also just curious, but where would you mainly feel a performance increase when OCing the CPU NB? I have taken it quite far, from 2000 MHz all the way to 2800 MHz, so I'd imagine I would notice a difference in some things.

 

[Yoshinat0r]

I have just felt all of the heatsinks I could find on my mobo while running prime and none of them are getting hot at all, just warm. I suppose that is a safe voltage then for the CPU NB.

 

[acer0169]

I would say so. I've read before that if a heatsink is doing it's job right it should be warm to the touch. If it's cold then whatever is creating the heat as a heatsink too large for it, and if it's hot then it's not losing the heat quick enough. Good thing to remember as it can be applied to all heatsinks in your system :].

 

[Yoshinat0r]

Best answer selected by yoshinat0r.

 

[acer0169]

Thanks for the BA, much appreciated! :]

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey