Total noob to Phenom II x3 720 OCing, what do i have to do?

[Chronobodi]

ok, i don't know what to do...

i had it at 3.4 Ghz with an extra .05 voltage, and it's not stable... is there something else i forget?

(edit: oh wait... i had cool n quiet on auto, whoops...)

hopefully it should work fine, and should i decrease the voltage to 1.35 instead of 1.37?

 

[JSD13]

Do you have the stock cooler? I also have a Phenom II 720. I just changed the multiplyer to 15 to get mine up to 3.0 GHz. Havent tried going any further as I dont want to mess with the voltage or anything.

Also, what are you using for temperature monitoring? In speedfan I have a CPU reading and a CORE reading. The Core reading idled at ~25c before I OC'd and now its 28-30c at idle and the CPU reading is 36-40c at idle.

 

[Chronobodi]

Do you have the stock cooler? I also have a Phenom II 720. I just changed the multiplyer to 15 to get mine up to 3.0 GHz. Havent tried going any further as I dont want to mess with the voltage or anything.

Also, what are you using for temperature monitoring? In speedfan I have a CPU reading and a CORE reading. The Core reading idled at ~25c before I OC'd and now its 28-30c at idle and the CPU reading is 36-40c at idle.

well, weird... i don't have any CPU on mine, and i used the CORE for my temps.

and, you can go 3.2 Ghz without messing around with the voltages, any increase after that needs a specific boost in volts to be stable.

mine's 3.4 with a .025 volt increase, on stock cooling. idle temps are 30C, load temps (FSX, prime) are 39-42C.

 

[JSD13]

well, weird... i don't have any CPU on mine, and i used the CORE for my temps.

and, you can go 3.2 Ghz without messing around with the voltages, any increase after that needs a specific boost in volts to be stable

Interesting.

Well my Core temp is usually lower so thats good I guess.

I just upped the voltage to 1.35 and the multiplyer to 16. Should I go take the Voltage back to auto? My temps actually seem a touch lower with the upped voltage.

 

[JSD13]

ok, i don't know what to do...

i had it at 3.4 Ghz with an extra .05 voltage, and it's not stable... is there something else i forget?

(edit: oh wait... i had cool n quiet on auto, whoops...)

hopefully it should work fine, and should i decrease the voltage to 1.35 instead of 1.37?

Are you leaving cool n quiet enabled or disabling it?

 

[Chronobodi]

disable It!!! it only leads to instabilities for overclocking, as it screws around with the voltages when the CPU is in idle. That's ok for stock volts, but not ok for increased voltages.

and, 16 multi is fine on stock volts, it's only after 3.2 ghz that voltage increases are needed.

JSD13, are you using AMD overclock or BIOS? You're better off doing it in BIOS, as there's always something fishy when you do it in a Window environment as opposed to the BIOS environment. Besides, the program has to overclock your CPU everytime you log onto Windows, whereas BIOS is already set when you save and exit.

 

[JSD13]

disable It!!! it only leads to instabilities for overclocking, as it screws around with the voltages when the CPU is in idle. That's ok for stock volts, but not ok for increased voltages.

and, 16 multi is fine on stock volts, it's only after 3.2 ghz that voltage increases are needed.

JSD13, are you using AMD overclock or BIOS? You're better off doing it in BIOS, as there's always something fishy when you do it in a Window environment as opposed to the BIOS environment. Besides, the program has to overclock your CPU everytime you log onto Windows, whereas BIOS is already set when you save and exit.

I did it in BIOS. So youre thinkin I should put the voltage back down to auto then. What benefit does this have if any?

 

[Chronobodi]

if you want 3.2Ghz, go Auto... if you want 3.4 and higher, go Manual and set the volts

what Motherboard you using?

 

[JSD13]

if you want 3.2Ghz, go Auto... if you want 3.4 and higher, go Manual and set the volts

what Motherboard you using?

Asus M4a78t-e

 

[Chronobodi]

so, what's the BIOS screen on that one?

 

[kscelt]

I posted to a different section some of this info but it might be helpful for you here. I'm not running the same MB, but the basics should be very similar for this CPU. I would strongly recommend not just overclocking the CPU, but also boosting the northbridge frequency to get the best result. Here's what I did.

MB GIGABYTE | GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD770
Bios : FC2
CPU AMD|PH II X3 720 BK AM3 2.8G
CPU COOL SCYTHE|SCMG-2000 (Mugen 2)
MEM 2Gx2|OCZ OCZ3P16004GK
VGA BFG|BFGEGTX260MC896OCDE GTX260
HD 1T|WD 7K 32M SATA2 WD1001FALS
DVD BURN LG|GH22NS30 22X SATA
PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-550VX 550W
CASE ANTEC|THREE HUNDRED BK

Right now I am running Windows 7, at 3.6 GHz on 3 cores or 3.4 Ghz on 4th core unlocked, CPU voltage at 1.44. Might be able to push this further, but running very stable at that, so probably stay sane on those CPU speeds. (Except with 4th core for some reason get browser crashes, while all other software has run stable) Temps are well in hand at 28-30 C in general use such as browsing, with all cores testing at 100% I have not exceeded 41 C. Memory is currently at 1333 with 6-6-6-24 1T timing, at 1.6 voltage. CPU-NB at 2617 MHz with +.2 bump to CPU-NB VID voltage. I've gone for tighter timings and faster northbridge frequencies rather than higher memory clocks, as that seems to achieve the best performance with AM3 systems.

I think it's a burner of a system for the bucks once tweaked and overclocked. I don't know if your MB will let you unlock that 4th core, or if your particular CPU is capable of it. Some say it's a dicey thing to do so be warned. I had to have my bios flashed to the latest version to get it to work. I then enabled ACC and set it to hybrid. Poof, I had a quad core

I actually am using it with the 4th core disabled most of the time to get the higher CPU speed, but if you use multi-threaded apps much it might be worth it. Either way, when overclocking it's best to try small increases at a time, see what's stable, if you hit an unstable speed short of your goal, tweak the voltage one step at a time until either it's stable or your temps are not in a safe range (Personally I would not go over 1.5). Some people like to push things as far as possible, but the settings I shared give me the performance I wanted, and are in a range I feel comfortable as being sustainable on a daily use level. This is also higher than you should go with stock cooling of course, but you may upgrade at some point.

The 720 is a great little CPU, hope you get it dialed in where you want it

 

[JSD13]

so, what's the BIOS screen on that one?

I have the ability to change most things. What do you mean exactly?

 

[JSD13]

I posted to a different section some of this info but it might be helpful for you here. I'm not running the same MB, but the basics should be very similar for this CPU. I would strongly recommend not just overclocking the CPU, but also boosting the northbridge frequency to get the best result. Here's what I did.

MB GIGABYTE | GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD770
Bios : FC2
CPU AMD|PH II X3 720 BK AM3 2.8G
CPU COOL SCYTHE|SCMG-2000 (Mugen 2)
MEM 2Gx2|OCZ OCZ3P16004GK
VGA BFG|BFGEGTX260MC896OCDE GTX260
HD 1T|WD 7K 32M SATA2 WD1001FALS
DVD BURN LG|GH22NS30 22X SATA
PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-550VX 550W
CASE ANTEC|THREE HUNDRED BK

Right now I am running Windows 7, at 3.6 GHz on 3 cores or 3.4 Ghz on 4th core unlocked, CPU voltage at 1.44. Might be able to push this further, but running very stable at that, so probably stay sane on those CPU speeds. (Except with 4th core for some reason get browser crashes, while all other software has run stable) Temps are well in hand at 28-30 C in general use such as browsing, with all cores testing at 100% I have not exceeded 41 C. Memory is currently at 1333 with 6-6-6-24 1T timing, at 1.6 voltage. CPU-NB at 2617 MHz with +.2 bump to CPU-NB VID voltage. I've gone for tighter timings and faster northbridge frequencies rather than higher memory clocks, as that seems to achieve the best performance with AM3 systems.

I think it's a burner of a system for the bucks once tweaked and overclocked. I don't know if your MB will let you unlock that 4th core, or if your particular CPU is capable of it. Some say it's a dicey thing to do so be warned. I had to have my bios flashed to the latest version to get it to work. I then enabled ACC and set it to hybrid. Poof, I had a quad core

I actually am using it with the 4th core disabled most of the time to get the higher CPU speed, but if you use multi-threaded apps much it might be worth it. Either way, when overclocking it's best to try small increases at a time, see what's stable, if you hit an unstable speed short of your goal, tweak the voltage one step at a time until either it's stable or your temps are not in a safe range (Personally I would not go over 1.5). Some people like to push things as far as possible, but the settings I shared give me the performance I wanted, and are in a range I feel comfortable as being sustainable on a daily use level. This is also higher than you should go with stock cooling of course, but you may upgrade at some point.

The 720 is a great little CPU, hope you get it dialed in where you want it

Thanks. You using stock cooling? Those temps are great if so. I hit 50c with prime95 stock cooler.

 

[kscelt]

No look at my system specs, I am using the Scythe Mugen 2, it's a big tower heatsink but excellent, keeps your CPU cool while being for practical purposes, silent.

 

[kscelt]

Btw, with no more bumps to voltage I'm now running at 3.8 GHz on the CPU, without any instability. That's a great overclock at a conservative voltage, IMOP.

 

[NeilCar]

I am also a noob and will share my small bit of experience. I have been very brave in doing this because I have the stock cooler but I haven't been ocing it for long periods of time. I usually just run Cinebench a couple of times in a row to see if it locks up. I have the Asus M4A78T-E. I up'ed the multiplier until I got a crash running Cinebench Multi GPU test several times in a row then I would up the votage little by little until it didn't crash. I am OCing in the ASUS Turbo V app. I got to 15.5x with no voltage increase (1.3) I went to 16 at 1.35 then to 16.5x at 1.4. I went to 1.45 at 17x. I saved all of those profiles and then got really brave and jumped to 18x at 1.475 and everything was fine with Cinebench run repeatedly scoring 8200-8300 taking between 1:38 and 1:40 on the Mult GPU test(7200 at 2:00 at the stock 2.8). The CPU temp got to 51 and would not go any higher no matter how many times I ran Cinebench. I did not go any higher and set everything back to normal. This is the first time I built a computer and the first time I ever OC'd anything. If i were to run the machine oc'd all the time, I would get a good CPU cooler. My case is a Thermaltake Element S with an extra 120mm fan added in the front so it has 2 120s pulling in the front and a 140 and 230 pushing out the back and top. My PS is an Antec 650 earthwatts. I am running the onboard graphics currently. I am very satisfied with the machine. I originally was going to by a Core i7 but since I was upgrading from a 4yo Pentium 4 3.0 so I figured that I could spend half as much and still feel like just as fast because of my frame of reference.

 

[volks1470]

hmm...I could never get my 720 to ever be stable at 3.8GHz no matter what. Even at 1.55V.

Has anybody else noticed that Windows 7 dislikes overclocking? I was 100% stable at 3.72GHz in XP then I switched to 7 and it BSODs instantly. I'm currently at 3.6GHz with a 1.5V.

 

[kscelt]

No volks, I'm running Windows 7, and not had that experience. Never gone that high on voltage. The key may be cooling, they say the Phenom II's as a whole like cooler temp ranges to get at better overclocks, where are you averaging?

 

[BeRkStA]

Hey guys, I have been experimenting with my phenom 720 also and currently the highest stable clock I can reach is 3.5GHz @ 1.5v (this is on stock cooling) my temps are 30c idle 50 max. Ran overnight for 9 hours. You guys think this is ok?

 

[bildo123]

Hey guys, I have been experimenting with my phenom 720 also and currently the highest stable clock I can reach is 3.5GHz @ 1.5v (this is on stock cooling) my temps are 30c idle 50 max. Ran overnight for 9 hours. You guys think this is ok?

Sounds just peachy, I wouldn't push the voltage any higher though. But really any higher than 3.5Ghz wouldn't really be necessary anyhow.

 

[Chronobodi]

yea, 3.5-3.6 is the sweetspot.

3.8-> is like overkill and too hot, 3.2-3.4 is cool, but doesn't sound as cool as
"it's 3.6 ghz, bitch!"

at 3.5 or 3.6, it will be more than fast enough for many normal apps and games.

 

[JustChrono]

Pretty awesome thread, i'm about to get myself a Phenom II x3 720 myself along with:

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
SAPPHIRE 100283-2L Radeon HD 5770 1GB
And some other components that dont really relate to this topic...

Looks like we've got a pretty similar setup kscelt so i'll definately try pushing mine up to 3.5 in increments once i order and get it all assembled, but this thread has a ton of helpful info for anyone with this processor, it's my first build so i obviously have to get it running and figure out BIOS and get it all set up first.

kscelt, did you do any other cooling besides the CPU heatsink and fan? The illusion case i'm getting comes with some built in fans and i'm wondering if you added extras to keep your interior cool...

 

[Chronobodi]

finally, i got over my fears and flashed the mobo, set EC to hybrid and ACC to auto.

BAM! quad-core!

but.... it's at 2.8 for now, i need some sort of stabilty program...
considering that it's hotter with the extra core on, i'm only going to oc it to 3.2, 3.4 if i'm REALLY lucky...
and this requires a good cooler as well. I got a xigmatek cobra for that.

 

[bildo123]

finally, i got over my fears and flashed the mobo, set EC to hybrid and ACC to auto.

BAM! quad-core!

but.... it's at 2.8 for now, i need some sort of stabilty program...
considering that it's hotter with the extra core on, i'm only going to oc it to 3.2, 3.4 if i'm REALLY lucky...
and this requires a good cooler as well. I got a xigmatek cobra for that.

Hey, if it can Prime95 all night, you just got a really good deal.

 

[JSD13]

Old threa here fellas, but I've got something going on.

I have been running my Phenom II OC'd to 3.4 with the multiplier at 17 and the voltage at 1.5 for many months. Recently I have started getting BSODs, so I monitored my temps and Im idling at 54*c.

I put all the multipliers and voltage back to default, now Im idling at 39*c for the core and 44*c for the CPU. I remember when I first OC's Id idle @ 29*c.

I have changed nothing, any idea what would cause the temps to increase? Everest still has my CPU fan spinning at 3400rpm