Some help with OC'ing. (FX-8350 & H80i).

[Guest]

This is going to be a long one guys, sorry about that. Up Votes and Best Answers will definitely be a thing in this thread.


Figured it was high time I went in for this overclocking mumbo jumbo. Held off before due to cooling requirements (Both CPU and VRMs).

I'm fairly confident I can achieve a modest overclock using the Corsair H80i and ASUS Sabertooth (990FX Rev.2) board. With that said this will pretty much be my first ever OC.
I mean, you could count the time I was 12 and set a school computer to 6GHz before swiftly running away while it began smoking from the case. That was jolly good stupidity and fun combined into one glorious mess of childhood toe-raggedness.

Pretty much all the specs can be found in my sig. As far as case cooling goes, I have 6 Corsair SP120 Quiet fans running at full-speed all of the time, two of which on the rad itself, and, 2 AF140 Quiets, also running full-tilt in the top. It's summer in England at the moment so things are a bit warm, which may need consideration, but it's basically sub-zero for the rest of the year.
Also, using a small amount of AS5, made sure to get a perfect mount with it recently which is rather tricky on the two-clips mounting bracket. All previous paste was thoroughly removed using Isopropyl alcohol until it came back clean on both the block and CPU.

The BIOS has the latest version for this board as of around a month ago.

While I'm fairly experienced with IT in general, overclocking is new to me. I get the basic concept, understand the jargon, but, as far as actually doing it, I'm rather hazy.

My aim is to achieve a decent OC without spitting out too much heat and at the lowest stable voltage possible (Obviously). In short. 4.4GHz should be achievable, 4.6 desirable and 4.8 as a possibly-in-reach-but-difficult-to-do-so.
While performance is the target I do still want to allow for some lee-way for longevity sakes. The future is as always uncertain, but I don't particularly want to be upgrading 3 years from now because the chip fried, or something.


Right then, on to the questions:

1. I've read a lot in to FSB overclocking. I'll be honest, I'd rather keep it simple and just stay in the CPU multiplier and voltage comfort zone. I'm happy to put a little bit of strain on the CPU itself, but not too cool with putting strain on everything else. My question then, is in regards to its setting:
I hear keeping it on 'Auto' causes it to overclock/overvolt itself depending on what I do on the CPU end, would I need to change it to 'Manual' to keep the original settings as they are?

2. I've been getting to grips with the AMD Overdrive software and like it very much. The current plan is to use it for the OC until I can find the right sweet spot, reset to default and then punch those settings in to the BIOS. It's quite the pain to get in to my BIOS since Windows boots 90% of the time before I can hit the button. I have to use the DirectKey button on the board itself, so this software is awfully handy. I'm pretty certain it doesn't change the BIOS settings to what you set, merely acting as a software wall, so it makes sense.
Would this be advised? Like I said it can save an awful lot of hassle if it is. I particularly like the Stability Test function.

3. Roughly, what kind of settings do you think I'll be aiming for here? How many MHz does a 1x multiplier equate to? and, Would you recommend upping this first until it becomes unstable and then pumping up the voltage slightly, rather than the up-voltage then OC method?

4. I've read in to turning off almost all power-saving features first, such as Cool n' Quiet, while this makes some sense, I would ideally like to use these when I reach the OC. Wouldn't it be wiser to just leave them on so that stability tests can factor in this portion also?
As for 'TurboCore', that will be disabled right from the get-go.

5. Finally, depending on the voltage set, aproximately how many extra watts do you think the CPU would consume at, say, 4.6GHz in the early 1.4v mark? I know that the 9590 is basically an overclocked 8350, on this PSU I can handle such a TDP, but for bills sake I'd prefer not to. Although, I do believe they used a mahooosive voltage of around 1.5v for that.


Well, that's about it. I'm pretty certain I can figure it out from there once I know the answer to these little details. As an extra, how much added performance do you reckon a .6GHz OC will achieve?

Thank you very much for all of your help in advance.
Apologies for the really long post, I would add a potato but I'm unsure about this forums' hot-linking rules.

 

[Hello man]

This is going to be a long one guys, sorry about that. Up Votes and Best Answers will definitely be a thing in this thread.


Figured it was high time I went in for this overclocking mumbo jumbo. Held off before due to cooling requirements (Both CPU and VRMs).

I'm fairly confident I can achieve a modest overclock using the Corsair H80i and ASUS Sabertooth (990FX Rev.2) board. With that said this will pretty much be my first ever OC.
I mean, you could count the time I was 12 and set a school computer to 6GHz before swiftly running away while it began smoking from the case. That was jolly good stupidity and fun combined into one glorious mess of childhood toe-raggedness.

Pretty much all the specs can be found in my sig. As far as case cooling goes, I have 6 Corsair SP120 Quiet fans running at full-speed all of the time, two of which on the rad itself, and, 2 AF140 Quiets, also running full-tilt in the top. It's summer in England at the moment so things are a bit warm, which may need consideration, but it's basically sub-zero for the rest of the year.
Also, using a small amount of AS5, made sure to get a perfect mount with it recently which is rather tricky on the two-clips mounting bracket. All previous paste was thoroughly removed using Isopropyl alcohol until it came back clean on both the block and CPU.

The BIOS has the latest version for this board as of around a month ago.

While I'm fairly experienced with IT in general, overclocking is new to me. I get the basic concept, understand the jargon, but, as far as actually doing it, I'm rather hazy.

My aim is to achieve a decent OC without spitting out too much heat and at the lowest stable voltage possible (Obviously). In short. 4.4GHz should be achievable, 4.6 desirable and 4.8 as a possibly-in-reach-but-difficult-to-do-so.
While performance is the target I do still want to allow for some lee-way for longevity sakes. The future is as always uncertain, but I don't particularly want to be upgrading 3 years from now because the chip fried, or something.


Right then, on to the questions:

1. I've read a lot in to FSB overclocking. I'll be honest, I'd rather keep it simple and just stay in the CPU multiplier and voltage comfort zone. I'm happy to put a little bit of strain on the CPU itself, but not too cool with putting strain on everything else. My question then, is in regards to its setting:
I hear keeping it on 'Auto' causes it to overclock/overvolt itself depending on what I do on the CPU end, would I need to change it to 'Manual' to keep the original settings as they are?

2. I've been getting to grips with the AMD Overdrive software and like it very much. The current plan is to use it for the OC until I can find the right sweet spot, reset to default and then punch those settings in to the BIOS. It's quite the pain to get in to my BIOS since Windows boots 90% of the time before I can hit the button. I have to use the DirectKey button on the board itself, so this software is awfully handy. I'm pretty certain it doesn't change the BIOS settings to what you set, merely acting as a software wall, so it makes sense.
Would this be advised? Like I said it can save an awful lot of hassle if it is. I particularly like the Stability Test function.

3. Roughly, what kind of settings do you think I'll be aiming for here? How many MHz does a 1x multiplier equate to? and, Would you recommend upping this first until it becomes unstable and then pumping up the voltage slightly, rather than the up-voltage then OC method?

4. I've read in to turning off almost all power-saving features first, such as Cool n' Quiet, while this makes some sense, I would ideally like to use these when I reach the OC. Wouldn't it be wiser to just leave them on so that stability tests can factor in this portion also?
As for 'TurboCore', that will be disabled right from the get-go.

5. Finally, depending on the voltage set, aproximately how many extra watts do you think the CPU would consume at, say, 4.6GHz in the early 1.4v mark? I know that the 9590 is basically an overclocked 8350, on this PSU I can handle such a TDP, but for bills sake I'd prefer not to. Although, I do believe they used a mahooosive voltage of around 1.5v for that.


Well, that's about it. I'm pretty certain I can figure it out from there once I know the answer to these little details. As an extra, how much added performance do you reckon a .6GHz OC will achieve?

Thank you very much for all of your help in advance.
Apologies for the really long post, I would add a potato but I'm unsure about this forums' hot-linking rules.

I have an 8350. On my first over clock with it I used an H50, fans in push/pull. I stayed within range until I hit 4.5Ghz. Then temps were in the high sixties. Here are some things you should know.

First off, who makes you're power supply, and what is the wattage? The 8350 starts at 120W and climbs higher quickly as you over clock. Second. The "thermal margin" is the degrees C until the processor starts throttling (bad). If you see 1C there, STOP!!! Third. Always have a fan blowing on the VRMs when over clocking. Helps prevent voltage ripples. Fourth. Take it slow, there is no rush. Move the multiplier up one .5, then run a stability test. If you loose stability, up the voltage a small amount. (I can't exactly say how much, no 8350 is the same in that regard)

You asked what 1X increase of the multiplier equates to. It happens to be another 200MHZ. Essentially, when you take the number the multiplier is at and multiply it by the base clock (in the 8350s case 200MHZ) you get the speed in MHZ. 1000MHZ=1GHZ.

You mentioned Overdrives built in stability test. I would also look into using Prime 95. It will tell you if one core has lost stability, even if others have not.

Definitely disable any auto-overclocking functions on the board. That could really screw you up. Turn off Cool n' Quiet for now, it is easy to turn back on. In terms of turbo core, I have actually experimented with over clocking there. I ran Prime 95, and while it was running upped the turbo ratio as well as voltage. That way your processor is not stressed when it is not being used heavily, but still delivers performance gains.

A side note on cooling. If you ever get serious about over clocking look into at least a H100i, if not something like a H20 320 Edge HD. Hope I could help.

 

[Guest]

This is going to be a long one guys, sorry about that. Up Votes and Best Answers will definitely be a thing in this thread.


Figured it was high time I went in for this overclocking mumbo jumbo. Held off before due to cooling requirements (Both CPU and VRMs).

I'm fairly confident I can achieve a modest overclock using the Corsair H80i and ASUS Sabertooth (990FX Rev.2) board. With that said this will pretty much be my first ever OC.
I mean, you could count the time I was 12 and set a school computer to 6GHz before swiftly running away while it began smoking from the case. That was jolly good stupidity and fun combined into one glorious mess of childhood toe-raggedness.

Pretty much all the specs can be found in my sig. As far as case cooling goes, I have 6 Corsair SP120 Quiet fans running at full-speed all of the time, two of which on the rad itself, and, 2 AF140 Quiets, also running full-tilt in the top. It's summer in England at the moment so things are a bit warm, which may need consideration, but it's basically sub-zero for the rest of the year.
Also, using a small amount of AS5, made sure to get a perfect mount with it recently which is rather tricky on the two-clips mounting bracket. All previous paste was thoroughly removed using Isopropyl alcohol until it came back clean on both the block and CPU.

The BIOS has the latest version for this board as of around a month ago.

While I'm fairly experienced with IT in general, overclocking is new to me. I get the basic concept, understand the jargon, but, as far as actually doing it, I'm rather hazy.

My aim is to achieve a decent OC without spitting out too much heat and at the lowest stable voltage possible (Obviously). In short. 4.4GHz should be achievable, 4.6 desirable and 4.8 as a possibly-in-reach-but-difficult-to-do-so.
While performance is the target I do still want to allow for some lee-way for longevity sakes. The future is as always uncertain, but I don't particularly want to be upgrading 3 years from now because the chip fried, or something.


Right then, on to the questions:

1. I've read a lot in to FSB overclocking. I'll be honest, I'd rather keep it simple and just stay in the CPU multiplier and voltage comfort zone. I'm happy to put a little bit of strain on the CPU itself, but not too cool with putting strain on everything else. My question then, is in regards to its setting:
I hear keeping it on 'Auto' causes it to overclock/overvolt itself depending on what I do on the CPU end, would I need to change it to 'Manual' to keep the original settings as they are?

2. I've been getting to grips with the AMD Overdrive software and like it very much. The current plan is to use it for the OC until I can find the right sweet spot, reset to default and then punch those settings in to the BIOS. It's quite the pain to get in to my BIOS since Windows boots 90% of the time before I can hit the button. I have to use the DirectKey button on the board itself, so this software is awfully handy. I'm pretty certain it doesn't change the BIOS settings to what you set, merely acting as a software wall, so it makes sense.
Would this be advised? Like I said it can save an awful lot of hassle if it is. I particularly like the Stability Test function.

3. Roughly, what kind of settings do you think I'll be aiming for here? How many MHz does a 1x multiplier equate to? and, Would you recommend upping this first until it becomes unstable and then pumping up the voltage slightly, rather than the up-voltage then OC method?

4. I've read in to turning off almost all power-saving features first, such as Cool n' Quiet, while this makes some sense, I would ideally like to use these when I reach the OC. Wouldn't it be wiser to just leave them on so that stability tests can factor in this portion also?
As for 'TurboCore', that will be disabled right from the get-go.

5. Finally, depending on the voltage set, aproximately how many extra watts do you think the CPU would consume at, say, 4.6GHz in the early 1.4v mark? I know that the 9590 is basically an overclocked 8350, on this PSU I can handle such a TDP, but for bills sake I'd prefer not to. Although, I do believe they used a mahooosive voltage of around 1.5v for that.


Well, that's about it. I'm pretty certain I can figure it out from there once I know the answer to these little details. As an extra, how much added performance do you reckon a .6GHz OC will achieve?

Thank you very much for all of your help in advance.
Apologies for the really long post, I would add a potato but I'm unsure about this forums' hot-linking rules.

I have an 8350. On my first over clock with it I used an H50, fans in push/pull. I stayed within range until I hit 4.5Ghz. Then temps were in the high sixties. Here are some things you should know.

First off, who makes you're power supply, and what is the wattage? The 8350 starts at 120W and climbs higher quickly as you over clock. Second. The "thermal margin" is the degrees C until the processor starts throttling (bad). If you see 1C there, STOP!!! Third. Always have a fan blowing on the VRMs when over clocking. Helps prevent voltage ripples. Fourth. Take it slow, there is no rush. Move the multiplier up one .5, then run a stability test. If you loose stability, up the voltage a small amount. (I can't exactly say how much, no 8350 is the same in that regard)

You asked what 1X increase of the multiplier equates to. It happens to be another 200MHZ. Essentially, when you take the number the multiplier is at and multiply it by the base clock (in the 8350s case 200MHZ) you get the speed in MHZ. 1000MHZ=1GHZ.

You mentioned Overdrives built in stability test. I would also look into using Prime 95. It will tell you if one core has lost stability, even if others have not.

Definitely disable any auto-overclocking functions on the board. That could really screw you up. Turn off Cool n' Quiet for now, it is easy to turn back on. In terms of turbo core, I have actually experimented with over clocking there. I ran Prime 95, and while it was running upped the turbo ratio as well as voltage. That way your processor is not stressed when it is not being used heavily, but still delivers performance gains.

A side note on cooling. If you ever get serious about over clocking look into at least a H100i, if not something like a H20 320 Edge HD. Hope I could help.

The power supply is the Corsair AX760, in this kind of build there should be several hundred watts to spare hopefully, I don't mind too much about extra power draw, I'd just preferably like to keep it as low as possible since I'll most likely have to disable the CPU power saving features in the BIOS to get a stable OC. Bills n' stuff. I bought it for its efficiency but I'm hoping its extremely low ripple and overall clean supply of DC current will help out a little here.

Indeed, from what I've been reading around 4.4 and/or 4.5GHz seems to be the range the 8350 can reach on stock voltage. Providing of course the LLC is set to its highest value.
For OCD sakes I'll try my best to push that to 4.6.

I'm a little bit hesitant to use Prime95 since I hear it has some issues with FX chips, even at stock.
If I do use it, is it correct to use the 'Small FFT' test?

That multiplier is great help, I'll have to have a look at what the stock multi is for the 4GHz to get an idea of what to aim for when reaching 4.6. As for airflow around the VRMs, that may or may not be tricky. The H80i is quite a chunky monkey and manages to pretty much cover the entire heatsink on them, there's plenty of airflow around the case, whether or not any of it is reaching them or just being sucked in to the rad is a complete guess on my part.

Well I invested in the H80i fairly recently so I'll probably not give it up just yet xD Based on its reputation I'm hoping it can help keep me nice and cool at the clock I'm aiming for.
I'll be using multiple programs at the same time to measure temp readings. Overdrive for the thermal margin. HWMonitor for the socket and die, and possibly Corsair Link, since it gives me a reading of liquid temperature.

Thanks for your help! I should be able to manage it from here. Found a really great page over on Overclock.net for OC'ing the FX line specific to ASUS motherboards.
I'll give my AS5 a few more days to cure since I only re-mounted a few days ago, Ideally I should give it about a month (200hr cure time yo') but damn darnit I can't wait that long.

 

[Hello man]

This is going to be a long one guys, sorry about that. Up Votes and Best Answers will definitely be a thing in this thread.


Figured it was high time I went in for this overclocking mumbo jumbo. Held off before due to cooling requirements (Both CPU and VRMs).

I'm fairly confident I can achieve a modest overclock using the Corsair H80i and ASUS Sabertooth (990FX Rev.2) board. With that said this will pretty much be my first ever OC.
I mean, you could count the time I was 12 and set a school computer to 6GHz before swiftly running away while it began smoking from the case. That was jolly good stupidity and fun combined into one glorious mess of childhood toe-raggedness.

Pretty much all the specs can be found in my sig. As far as case cooling goes, I have 6 Corsair SP120 Quiet fans running at full-speed all of the time, two of which on the rad itself, and, 2 AF140 Quiets, also running full-tilt in the top. It's summer in England at the moment so things are a bit warm, which may need consideration, but it's basically sub-zero for the rest of the year.
Also, using a small amount of AS5, made sure to get a perfect mount with it recently which is rather tricky on the two-clips mounting bracket. All previous paste was thoroughly removed using Isopropyl alcohol until it came back clean on both the block and CPU.

The BIOS has the latest version for this board as of around a month ago.

While I'm fairly experienced with IT in general, overclocking is new to me. I get the basic concept, understand the jargon, but, as far as actually doing it, I'm rather hazy.

My aim is to achieve a decent OC without spitting out too much heat and at the lowest stable voltage possible (Obviously). In short. 4.4GHz should be achievable, 4.6 desirable and 4.8 as a possibly-in-reach-but-difficult-to-do-so.
While performance is the target I do still want to allow for some lee-way for longevity sakes. The future is as always uncertain, but I don't particularly want to be upgrading 3 years from now because the chip fried, or something.


Right then, on to the questions:

1. I've read a lot in to FSB overclocking. I'll be honest, I'd rather keep it simple and just stay in the CPU multiplier and voltage comfort zone. I'm happy to put a little bit of strain on the CPU itself, but not too cool with putting strain on everything else. My question then, is in regards to its setting:
I hear keeping it on 'Auto' causes it to overclock/overvolt itself depending on what I do on the CPU end, would I need to change it to 'Manual' to keep the original settings as they are?

2. I've been getting to grips with the AMD Overdrive software and like it very much. The current plan is to use it for the OC until I can find the right sweet spot, reset to default and then punch those settings in to the BIOS. It's quite the pain to get in to my BIOS since Windows boots 90% of the time before I can hit the button. I have to use the DirectKey button on the board itself, so this software is awfully handy. I'm pretty certain it doesn't change the BIOS settings to what you set, merely acting as a software wall, so it makes sense.
Would this be advised? Like I said it can save an awful lot of hassle if it is. I particularly like the Stability Test function.

3. Roughly, what kind of settings do you think I'll be aiming for here? How many MHz does a 1x multiplier equate to? and, Would you recommend upping this first until it becomes unstable and then pumping up the voltage slightly, rather than the up-voltage then OC method?

4. I've read in to turning off almost all power-saving features first, such as Cool n' Quiet, while this makes some sense, I would ideally like to use these when I reach the OC. Wouldn't it be wiser to just leave them on so that stability tests can factor in this portion also?
As for 'TurboCore', that will be disabled right from the get-go.

5. Finally, depending on the voltage set, aproximately how many extra watts do you think the CPU would consume at, say, 4.6GHz in the early 1.4v mark? I know that the 9590 is basically an overclocked 8350, on this PSU I can handle such a TDP, but for bills sake I'd prefer not to. Although, I do believe they used a mahooosive voltage of around 1.5v for that.


Well, that's about it. I'm pretty certain I can figure it out from there once I know the answer to these little details. As an extra, how much added performance do you reckon a .6GHz OC will achieve?

Thank you very much for all of your help in advance.
Apologies for the really long post, I would add a potato but I'm unsure about this forums' hot-linking rules.

I have an 8350. On my first over clock with it I used an H50, fans in push/pull. I stayed within range until I hit 4.5Ghz. Then temps were in the high sixties. Here are some things you should know.

First off, who makes you're power supply, and what is the wattage? The 8350 starts at 120W and climbs higher quickly as you over clock. Second. The "thermal margin" is the degrees C until the processor starts throttling (bad). If you see 1C there, STOP!!! Third. Always have a fan blowing on the VRMs when over clocking. Helps prevent voltage ripples. Fourth. Take it slow, there is no rush. Move the multiplier up one .5, then run a stability test. If you loose stability, up the voltage a small amount. (I can't exactly say how much, no 8350 is the same in that regard)

You asked what 1X increase of the multiplier equates to. It happens to be another 200MHZ. Essentially, when you take the number the multiplier is at and multiply it by the base clock (in the 8350s case 200MHZ) you get the speed in MHZ. 1000MHZ=1GHZ.

You mentioned Overdrives built in stability test. I would also look into using Prime 95. It will tell you if one core has lost stability, even if others have not.

Definitely disable any auto-overclocking functions on the board. That could really screw you up. Turn off Cool n' Quiet for now, it is easy to turn back on. In terms of turbo core, I have actually experimented with over clocking there. I ran Prime 95, and while it was running upped the turbo ratio as well as voltage. That way your processor is not stressed when it is not being used heavily, but still delivers performance gains.

A side note on cooling. If you ever get serious about over clocking look into at least a H100i, if not something like a H20 320 Edge HD. Hope I could help.

The power supply is the Corsair AX760, in this kind of build there should be several hundred watts to spare hopefully, I don't mind too much about extra power draw, I'd just preferably like to keep it as low as possible since I'll most likely have to disable the CPU power saving features in the BIOS to get a stable OC. Bills n' stuff. I bought it for its efficiency but I'm hoping its extremely low ripple and overall clean supply of DC current will help out a little here.

Indeed, from what I've been reading around 4.4 and/or 4.5GHz seems to be the range the 8350 can reach on stock voltage. Providing of course the LLC is set to its highest value.
For OCD sakes I'll try my best to push that to 4.6.

I'm a little bit hesitant to use Prime95 since I hear it has some issues with FX chips, even at stock.
If I do use it, is it correct to use the 'Small FFT' test?

That multiplier is great help, I'll have to have a look at what the stock multi is for the 4GHz to get an idea of what to aim for when reaching 4.6. As for airflow around the VRMs, that may or may not be tricky. The H80i is quite a chunky monkey and manages to pretty much cover the entire heatsink on them, there's plenty of airflow around the case, whether or not any of it is reaching them or just being sucked in to the rad is a complete guess on my part.

Well I invested in the H80i fairly recently so I'll probably not give it up just yet xD Based on its reputation I'm hoping it can help keep me nice and cool at the clock I'm aiming for.
I'll be using multiple programs at the same time to measure temp readings. Overdrive for the thermal margin. HWMonitor for the socket and die, and possibly Corsair Link, since it gives me a reading of liquid temperature.

Thanks for your help! I should be able to manage it from here. Found a really great page over on Overclock.net for OC'ing the FX line specific to ASUS motherboards.
I'll give my AS5 a few more days to cure since I only re-mounted a few days ago, Ideally I should give it about a month (200hr cure time yo') but damn darnit I can't wait that long.

X20 is the stock multiplier.