Please Help overclock AMD FX 8350 on Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 mobo

[KidAce]

Hello everyone,

I just took advantage of Micro Center's CPU/Mobo combo bundle and bought the Asus M5A78L-M/USB3, with the AMD FX 8350 Black.

Along with that setup, I also have 8GB HyperX (1600MHz) RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS (with 512MB), for GPU.

I bought a Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU cooler, and I think it'll be more than adequate to keep the proc nice and chilled.

I would like to overclock my rig to 5GHz, if at all possible, but I'd settle for 4.8GHz or 4.6GHz.

The default CPU speed is 4.0GHz (1.30v), and it's OK, but I render a lot of video, and 4.0GHz is still crawling.

Basically, I'm somewhat new to overclocking, so if at all possible, I'd appreciate as much suggestions as possible.

Thanks so much,

KidAce

 

[has159]

Just an FYI, be very careful with this mobo, i tried to overclock the cpu to 4.2ghz(which is weird because its the turbo speed so not sure just my opinion), i now have no bios or boot and i personally think the mobo is fried.


Edit: after resetting the bios it has booted and everything seems to be in order.

 

[Hassan83]

ok. first thing you'll need are some sort of heatsink on those mosfets. This is the part that will cost you a little $$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011

here are examples of what i'm talking about. I would probably get the MOS-C10 C1100. There should be enough in just one pack to cover your mosfets. Clean the surface of the mosfets with rubbing alcohol and qtips. use the included thermal tape, and stick them onto the mosfets.

Next go back to microcenter, get yourself a good case fan, then get some double sided tape. You're going to need to secure that fan directly over the new mosfet heatsinks. Because you have a solid cpu cooler, and i don't know the size of your case, you'll have to figure out the size of fan you'll need. it probably will be 2-80/90mm fans... though some cases you might be able to fit a 120mm fan instead.

now you'll be able to aggressively overclock this computer.

Go into the bios, go to the advanced tab, scroll down to the cpu, change it from automatic to manual, this will unlock most of the overclocking options. Now go to the turbo, and change it from automatic to disabled. Then go to quiet and cool, turn it off. Turn off c1 and c6 power states. Go to your LLC settings and change the cpu to ultra (or whatever that bios calls it's highest setting), and the northbridge to high. jump down to the voltage control, turn off offset mode, and change the voltage setting from automatic to manual. manually set it to whatever voltage the cpu is currently operating at (this is different on every chip, so i can't tell you what to set it too. it will probably be somewhere between 1.32-1.38 volts. Do the same to the northbridge (this also varies chip to chip, but should be somewhere around 1.1-1.2 volts). Now slow down your northbridge and hypertransport speeds to 2000 (note the original settings)... keep them the same speed. make sure the cpu frequency is 200, save and reset your computer.

now you're ready to overclock.

go back into the bios and Head back up to the top and change the multiplier by +0.5 (it will now be 20.5), keep the cpu frequency at 200. save and restart. Make sure you can load into windows. Save and restart. load into your bios and bump the cpu multiplier by 0.5 again (it should now read 21, and your cpu will now be operating at 4.2ghz (21x200=4200). save and load into windows.

Keep doing this until you no longer can load into windows or POST. If the pc fails to post typically it will reset your bios to stock settings after 3 failures... sometimes this doesn't happen. You can fix that problem by clr_cmos.

anyway, once you run into trouble, you'll know what your last good setting was. make sure your bios is identical to that setting. load into windows, download Intel Burn Test - AVX, and HWMonitor. Keeping an eye on your cpu core temp and motherboard socket temp, run IBT on it's 2nd toughest setting for 10 passes. if any result is a negative number the cpu failed. if the program crashes, a negative number comes on any core in IBT-AVX or your computer blue screens or simply resets you'll need to add vcore.

Load back into your bios and increase your vcore by +0.0125V. save and restart, try IBT-AVX again. continue bumping vcore until your system passes IBT-AVX or your computer temps get too high (core temp over 65C and socket temp over 72C). assuming you can pass 10 runs of IBT-AVX without overheating or failing the test, you can bump your cpu multiplier another step. from this point on you'll need to test the overclocks with IBT-AVX until temps stop your overclocking. once you get to a ghz (probably around 4.5-4.8) which maxes your cooling, you'll need to run IBT-AVX on it's hardest settings for 10 passes, to insure you're completely stable.

Assuming you pass you'll be good to go.

Now go back into the bios. turn c1&c6 back on. Save and make sure your computer will post, load into the bios, increase the northbridge and hypertransport to their stock settings (this depends on the motherboard), save and restart, assuming it posts, see if you can't get it to work with the NB frequency at the same speed as the HT... piledriver gets it's best performance from a 2600/2600 setup... but only some motherboards will give you this. I'm not sure about that m5a78, but its probably unlikely you'll get better then 2400/2400 out of it.

This may seem weird but do you think gluing staples together would work as a mofset heatsink? I can't find any mofset coolers at stores around where I live

 

[ingtar33]

ok. first thing you'll need are some sort of heatsink on those mosfets. This is the part that will cost you a little $$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011

here are examples of what i'm talking about. I would probably get the MOS-C10 C1100. There should be enough in just one pack to cover your mosfets. Clean the surface of the mosfets with rubbing alcohol and qtips. use the included thermal tape, and stick them onto the mosfets.

Next go back to microcenter, get yourself a good case fan, then get some double sided tape. You're going to need to secure that fan directly over the new mosfet heatsinks. Because you have a solid cpu cooler, and i don't know the size of your case, you'll have to figure out the size of fan you'll need. it probably will be 2-80/90mm fans... though some cases you might be able to fit a 120mm fan instead.

now you'll be able to aggressively overclock this computer.

Go into the bios, go to the advanced tab, scroll down to the cpu, change it from automatic to manual, this will unlock most of the overclocking options. Now go to the turbo, and change it from automatic to disabled. Then go to quiet and cool, turn it off. Turn off c1 and c6 power states. Go to your LLC settings and change the cpu to ultra (or whatever that bios calls it's highest setting), and the northbridge to high. jump down to the voltage control, turn off offset mode, and change the voltage setting from automatic to manual. manually set it to whatever voltage the cpu is currently operating at (this is different on every chip, so i can't tell you what to set it too. it will probably be somewhere between 1.32-1.38 volts. Do the same to the northbridge (this also varies chip to chip, but should be somewhere around 1.1-1.2 volts). Now slow down your northbridge and hypertransport speeds to 2000 (note the original settings)... keep them the same speed. make sure the cpu frequency is 200, save and reset your computer.

now you're ready to overclock.

go back into the bios and Head back up to the top and change the multiplier by +0.5 (it will now be 20.5), keep the cpu frequency at 200. save and restart. Make sure you can load into windows. Save and restart. load into your bios and bump the cpu multiplier by 0.5 again (it should now read 21, and your cpu will now be operating at 4.2ghz (21x200=4200). save and load into windows.

Keep doing this until you no longer can load into windows or POST. If the pc fails to post typically it will reset your bios to stock settings after 3 failures... sometimes this doesn't happen. You can fix that problem by clr_cmos.

anyway, once you run into trouble, you'll know what your last good setting was. make sure your bios is identical to that setting. load into windows, download Intel Burn Test - AVX, and HWMonitor. Keeping an eye on your cpu core temp and motherboard socket temp, run IBT on it's 2nd toughest setting for 10 passes. if any result is a negative number the cpu failed. if the program crashes, a negative number comes on any core in IBT-AVX or your computer blue screens or simply resets you'll need to add vcore.

Load back into your bios and increase your vcore by +0.0125V. save and restart, try IBT-AVX again. continue bumping vcore until your system passes IBT-AVX or your computer temps get too high (core temp over 65C and socket temp over 72C). assuming you can pass 10 runs of IBT-AVX without overheating or failing the test, you can bump your cpu multiplier another step. from this point on you'll need to test the overclocks with IBT-AVX until temps stop your overclocking. once you get to a ghz (probably around 4.5-4.8) which maxes your cooling, you'll need to run IBT-AVX on it's hardest settings for 10 passes, to insure you're completely stable.

Assuming you pass you'll be good to go.

Now go back into the bios. turn c1&c6 back on. Save and make sure your computer will post, load into the bios, increase the northbridge and hypertransport to their stock settings (this depends on the motherboard), save and restart, assuming it posts, see if you can't get it to work with the NB frequency at the same speed as the HT... piledriver gets it's best performance from a 2600/2600 setup... but only some motherboards will give you this. I'm not sure about that m5a78, but its probably unlikely you'll get better then 2400/2400 out of it.

This may seem weird but do you think gluing staples together would work as a mofset heatsink? I can't find any mofset coolers at stores around where I live

100% copper foil + thermal tape. you can get copper foil at high end craft / art supply stores, or go to a metal working place (bigger cities have places that do custom metal work). In fact most metal working places could custom make you some mosfet heatsinks out of copper, of course it will be pricy so you might just be better off buying the copper foil from them. Some merchants sell copper foil for electrical supplies as EMI shielding. Staples are usually made out of some sort of zinc plated steel, which does not do a good job transferring heat. Copper transfers heat well. The thing you have to be careful about is copper is CONDUCTIVE, so any type of home made heat sink will need to NEVER touch the motherboard. So if you use copper foil, make sure the wind from your fans don't bend it into any of the parts on the motherboard (copper foil is usually pretty stiff, so this shouldn't be a major concern, but just keep this it in mind in the event you get some particularly thin stuff)

At the absolute min, you could use aluminum foil plus thermal tape, but again you need to make sure it doesn't touch the motherboard, and unlike copper foil it probably will be flexible enough a good breeze might just cause it to flutter and touch the motherboard.

 

[Hassan83]

ok. first thing you'll need are some sort of heatsink on those mosfets. This is the part that will cost you a little $$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011

here are examples of what i'm talking about. I would probably get the MOS-C10 C1100. There should be enough in just one pack to cover your mosfets. Clean the surface of the mosfets with rubbing alcohol and qtips. use the included thermal tape, and stick them onto the mosfets.

Next go back to microcenter, get yourself a good case fan, then get some double sided tape. You're going to need to secure that fan directly over the new mosfet heatsinks. Because you have a solid cpu cooler, and i don't know the size of your case, you'll have to figure out the size of fan you'll need. it probably will be 2-80/90mm fans... though some cases you might be able to fit a 120mm fan instead.

now you'll be able to aggressively overclock this computer.

Go into the bios, go to the advanced tab, scroll down to the cpu, change it from automatic to manual, this will unlock most of the overclocking options. Now go to the turbo, and change it from automatic to disabled. Then go to quiet and cool, turn it off. Turn off c1 and c6 power states. Go to your LLC settings and change the cpu to ultra (or whatever that bios calls it's highest setting), and the northbridge to high. jump down to the voltage control, turn off offset mode, and change the voltage setting from automatic to manual. manually set it to whatever voltage the cpu is currently operating at (this is different on every chip, so i can't tell you what to set it too. it will probably be somewhere between 1.32-1.38 volts. Do the same to the northbridge (this also varies chip to chip, but should be somewhere around 1.1-1.2 volts). Now slow down your northbridge and hypertransport speeds to 2000 (note the original settings)... keep them the same speed. make sure the cpu frequency is 200, save and reset your computer.

now you're ready to overclock.

go back into the bios and Head back up to the top and change the multiplier by +0.5 (it will now be 20.5), keep the cpu frequency at 200. save and restart. Make sure you can load into windows. Save and restart. load into your bios and bump the cpu multiplier by 0.5 again (it should now read 21, and your cpu will now be operating at 4.2ghz (21x200=4200). save and load into windows.

Keep doing this until you no longer can load into windows or POST. If the pc fails to post typically it will reset your bios to stock settings after 3 failures... sometimes this doesn't happen. You can fix that problem by clr_cmos.

anyway, once you run into trouble, you'll know what your last good setting was. make sure your bios is identical to that setting. load into windows, download Intel Burn Test - AVX, and HWMonitor. Keeping an eye on your cpu core temp and motherboard socket temp, run IBT on it's 2nd toughest setting for 10 passes. if any result is a negative number the cpu failed. if the program crashes, a negative number comes on any core in IBT-AVX or your computer blue screens or simply resets you'll need to add vcore.

Load back into your bios and increase your vcore by +0.0125V. save and restart, try IBT-AVX again. continue bumping vcore until your system passes IBT-AVX or your computer temps get too high (core temp over 65C and socket temp over 72C). assuming you can pass 10 runs of IBT-AVX without overheating or failing the test, you can bump your cpu multiplier another step. from this point on you'll need to test the overclocks with IBT-AVX until temps stop your overclocking. once you get to a ghz (probably around 4.5-4.8) which maxes your cooling, you'll need to run IBT-AVX on it's hardest settings for 10 passes, to insure you're completely stable.

Assuming you pass you'll be good to go.

Now go back into the bios. turn c1&c6 back on. Save and make sure your computer will post, load into the bios, increase the northbridge and hypertransport to their stock settings (this depends on the motherboard), save and restart, assuming it posts, see if you can't get it to work with the NB frequency at the same speed as the HT... piledriver gets it's best performance from a 2600/2600 setup... but only some motherboards will give you this. I'm not sure about that m5a78, but its probably unlikely you'll get better then 2400/2400 out of it.

This may seem weird but do you think gluing staples together would work as a mofset heatsink? I can't find any mofset coolers at stores around where I live

100% copper foil + thermal tape. you can get copper foil at high end craft / art supply stores, or go to a metal working place (bigger cities have places that do custom metal work). In fact most metal working places could custom make you some mosfet heatsinks out of copper, of course it will be pricy so you might just be better off buying the copper foil from them. Some merchants sell copper foil for electrical supplies as EMI shielding. Staples are usually made out of some sort of zinc plated steel, which does not do a good job transferring heat. Copper transfers heat well. The thing you have to be careful about is copper is CONDUCTIVE, so any type of home made heat sink will need to NEVER touch the motherboard. So if you use copper foil, make sure the wind from your fans don't bend it into any of the parts on the motherboard (copper foil is usually pretty stiff, so this shouldn't be a major concern, but just keep this it in mind in the event you get some particularly thin stuff)

At the absolute min, you could use aluminum foil plus thermal tape, but again you need to make sure it doesn't touch the motherboard, and unlike copper foil it probably will be flexible enough a good breeze might just cause it to flutter and touch the motherboard.

Okay, I will try the copper foil method. Thanks for letting me know

 

[Hassan83]

ok. first thing you'll need are some sort of heatsink on those mosfets. This is the part that will cost you a little $$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011

here are examples of what i'm talking about. I would probably get the MOS-C10 C1100. There should be enough in just one pack to cover your mosfets. Clean the surface of the mosfets with rubbing alcohol and qtips. use the included thermal tape, and stick them onto the mosfets.

Next go back to microcenter, get yourself a good case fan, then get some double sided tape. You're going to need to secure that fan directly over the new mosfet heatsinks. Because you have a solid cpu cooler, and i don't know the size of your case, you'll have to figure out the size of fan you'll need. it probably will be 2-80/90mm fans... though some cases you might be able to fit a 120mm fan instead.

now you'll be able to aggressively overclock this computer.

Go into the bios, go to the advanced tab, scroll down to the cpu, change it from automatic to manual, this will unlock most of the overclocking options. Now go to the turbo, and change it from automatic to disabled. Then go to quiet and cool, turn it off. Turn off c1 and c6 power states. Go to your LLC settings and change the cpu to ultra (or whatever that bios calls it's highest setting), and the northbridge to high. jump down to the voltage control, turn off offset mode, and change the voltage setting from automatic to manual. manually set it to whatever voltage the cpu is currently operating at (this is different on every chip, so i can't tell you what to set it too. it will probably be somewhere between 1.32-1.38 volts. Do the same to the northbridge (this also varies chip to chip, but should be somewhere around 1.1-1.2 volts). Now slow down your northbridge and hypertransport speeds to 2000 (note the original settings)... keep them the same speed. make sure the cpu frequency is 200, save and reset your computer.

now you're ready to overclock.

go back into the bios and Head back up to the top and change the multiplier by +0.5 (it will now be 20.5), keep the cpu frequency at 200. save and restart. Make sure you can load into windows. Save and restart. load into your bios and bump the cpu multiplier by 0.5 again (it should now read 21, and your cpu will now be operating at 4.2ghz (21x200=4200). save and load into windows.

Keep doing this until you no longer can load into windows or POST. If the pc fails to post typically it will reset your bios to stock settings after 3 failures... sometimes this doesn't happen. You can fix that problem by clr_cmos.

anyway, once you run into trouble, you'll know what your last good setting was. make sure your bios is identical to that setting. load into windows, download Intel Burn Test - AVX, and HWMonitor. Keeping an eye on your cpu core temp and motherboard socket temp, run IBT on it's 2nd toughest setting for 10 passes. if any result is a negative number the cpu failed. if the program crashes, a negative number comes on any core in IBT-AVX or your computer blue screens or simply resets you'll need to add vcore.

Load back into your bios and increase your vcore by +0.0125V. save and restart, try IBT-AVX again. continue bumping vcore until your system passes IBT-AVX or your computer temps get too high (core temp over 65C and socket temp over 72C). assuming you can pass 10 runs of IBT-AVX without overheating or failing the test, you can bump your cpu multiplier another step. from this point on you'll need to test the overclocks with IBT-AVX until temps stop your overclocking. once you get to a ghz (probably around 4.5-4.8) which maxes your cooling, you'll need to run IBT-AVX on it's hardest settings for 10 passes, to insure you're completely stable.

Assuming you pass you'll be good to go.

Now go back into the bios. turn c1&c6 back on. Save and make sure your computer will post, load into the bios, increase the northbridge and hypertransport to their stock settings (this depends on the motherboard), save and restart, assuming it posts, see if you can't get it to work with the NB frequency at the same speed as the HT... piledriver gets it's best performance from a 2600/2600 setup... but only some motherboards will give you this. I'm not sure about that m5a78, but its probably unlikely you'll get better then 2400/2400 out of it.

For your overclocking tutorial, I would like to ask, what should I set the LLC to? I have the same motherboard and the BIOS is giving me % options. The default is 51.6% so should I set it to 100%?

 

[ingtar33]

ok. first thing you'll need are some sort of heatsink on those mosfets. This is the part that will cost you a little $$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708011

here are examples of what i'm talking about. I would probably get the MOS-C10 C1100. There should be enough in just one pack to cover your mosfets. Clean the surface of the mosfets with rubbing alcohol and qtips. use the included thermal tape, and stick them onto the mosfets.

Next go back to microcenter, get yourself a good case fan, then get some double sided tape. You're going to need to secure that fan directly over the new mosfet heatsinks. Because you have a solid cpu cooler, and i don't know the size of your case, you'll have to figure out the size of fan you'll need. it probably will be 2-80/90mm fans... though some cases you might be able to fit a 120mm fan instead.

now you'll be able to aggressively overclock this computer.

Go into the bios, go to the advanced tab, scroll down to the cpu, change it from automatic to manual, this will unlock most of the overclocking options. Now go to the turbo, and change it from automatic to disabled. Then go to quiet and cool, turn it off. Turn off c1 and c6 power states. Go to your LLC settings and change the cpu to ultra (or whatever that bios calls it's highest setting), and the northbridge to high. jump down to the voltage control, turn off offset mode, and change the voltage setting from automatic to manual. manually set it to whatever voltage the cpu is currently operating at (this is different on every chip, so i can't tell you what to set it too. it will probably be somewhere between 1.32-1.38 volts. Do the same to the northbridge (this also varies chip to chip, but should be somewhere around 1.1-1.2 volts). Now slow down your northbridge and hypertransport speeds to 2000 (note the original settings)... keep them the same speed. make sure the cpu frequency is 200, save and reset your computer.

now you're ready to overclock.

go back into the bios and Head back up to the top and change the multiplier by +0.5 (it will now be 20.5), keep the cpu frequency at 200. save and restart. Make sure you can load into windows. Save and restart. load into your bios and bump the cpu multiplier by 0.5 again (it should now read 21, and your cpu will now be operating at 4.2ghz (21x200=4200). save and load into windows.

Keep doing this until you no longer can load into windows or POST. If the pc fails to post typically it will reset your bios to stock settings after 3 failures... sometimes this doesn't happen. You can fix that problem by clr_cmos.

anyway, once you run into trouble, you'll know what your last good setting was. make sure your bios is identical to that setting. load into windows, download Intel Burn Test - AVX, and HWMonitor. Keeping an eye on your cpu core temp and motherboard socket temp, run IBT on it's 2nd toughest setting for 10 passes. if any result is a negative number the cpu failed. if the program crashes, a negative number comes on any core in IBT-AVX or your computer blue screens or simply resets you'll need to add vcore.

Load back into your bios and increase your vcore by +0.0125V. save and restart, try IBT-AVX again. continue bumping vcore until your system passes IBT-AVX or your computer temps get too high (core temp over 65C and socket temp over 72C). assuming you can pass 10 runs of IBT-AVX without overheating or failing the test, you can bump your cpu multiplier another step. from this point on you'll need to test the overclocks with IBT-AVX until temps stop your overclocking. once you get to a ghz (probably around 4.5-4.8) which maxes your cooling, you'll need to run IBT-AVX on it's hardest settings for 10 passes, to insure you're completely stable.

Assuming you pass you'll be good to go.

Now go back into the bios. turn c1&c6 back on. Save and make sure your computer will post, load into the bios, increase the northbridge and hypertransport to their stock settings (this depends on the motherboard), save and restart, assuming it posts, see if you can't get it to work with the NB frequency at the same speed as the HT... piledriver gets it's best performance from a 2600/2600 setup... but only some motherboards will give you this. I'm not sure about that m5a78, but its probably unlikely you'll get better then 2400/2400 out of it.

For your overclocking tutorial, I would like to ask, what should I set the LLC to? I have the same motherboard and the BIOS is giving me % options. The default is 51.6% so should I set it to 100%?

oi. its been a few years since I played with a piledriver, but LLC was of debatable impact on overclocking. Some overclockers swore by it, and claimed you could REALLY stabilize an overclocked piledriver, some claimed it did next to nothing.

To understand more about LLC you have to understand something called "voltage droop". When a piledriver is under load the amount of electricity it will draw is enormous, and usually, what happens is there is a very brief drop in voltage on the CPU as the voltage regulation fails to keep up with the extra power or "uumph" the cpu is asking for. Now some people believe this causes instability on the piledriver. AMD however contradicts that and claims the chips are DESIGNED for this voltage droop. Either way motherboard makers brought in LLC to allow you to "limit" the voltage droop. the more you dump into LLC, the less droop happens. Of course this also increases the load/stress on the MOSFETs and voltage regulation system on the motherboard. As a result you can generate some immense heat on the board.

So the choice is yours. the MB manufacturer added LLC to give you the option to prevent voltage droop. and if you find your overclock isn't stable bumping up the LLC will limit that droop and may stabilize the overclock.

I actually believe LLC and limiting the droop helps stability. So when I overclocked piledriver cpus I'd ratchet up the LLC to the max or near max for the board.

 

[shad0wydr3ams]

Link to Image as proof of concept on stock mobo and fx8350 https://imgur.com/gUb9kUn

i have the same motherboard and processor and am using a coolermaster v8 heatsink and am able to get up to 4.7ghz at a stable 48c all day long under load and when idle my cpu stays at a constant 28c
i have yet to experience any throttling cpu wise

but each mobo and cpu has a differnt build quality yours may not be able to acheive said results like i have