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

[darkfa8]

I would check to make sure your PSU is putting out stable voltage under load.

Make sure your case is cleaned out of all dust.

That does seem like a high voltage to achieve 3.4GHz, but I guess our voltages are all going to differ a bit. Though I thought I read somewhere that pushing the cpu to 1.5 was bit much. Can anyone else chime in on this?

I had mine running at 3.6 at 1.425 without any problems and idling at 33C or so.

 

[bildo123]

I at least know for the the Intel's around this period 1.5V was the absolute highest max voltage, but even then thats pushing it hard. I would just check that nothing is clogged up, usually a nice little layer of test can cause this. Also, do you BSOD at idle or load or both? If at idle I would bring down the voltage a bit and find a more subtle frequency, maybe 3.2Ghz so you can kick the voltage down a notch as well. It *could* be damage to the CPU but that's for another day.

 

[JSD13]

Well on stock voltage/multiplier, I was running hot still. I opened up the case and cleaned the heatsink with some compresses air. Booted back up, and now Im idling at 25-26*c.

Amazing.

I do want to go back to OC though. Maybe Ill try 16 multiplier with a voltage of 1.35. It wouldnt even boot before at 16 with stock voltage.

 

[darkfa8]

that's a lot better!

I hope while you were in there, you blew out the rest of the PC, including the power supply and the other boards, drives and cards and such.

Dust = bad for computers. Clean often!

 

[JSD13]

that's a lot better!

I hope while you were in there, you blew out the rest of the PC, including the power supply and the other boards, drives and cards and such.

Dust = bad for computers. Clean often!

Pretty crazy. We are talking about 20*c here!

I didnt think a little dust would make THAT much of a difference.

 

[darkfa8]

yep...

I clean out my computer semi-often. I'll check it weekly.

I recently brought it in to work to blow it out with shop compressed air and also made sure to scrub all of the fan blades to remove built up dust.

I've cleaned a few of our work computers too as preventative maintenance.

 

[JSD13]

I keep getting BSOD with the multiplier at 17 and voltage at 1.4.

Bummer, as others can get 3.4ghz with voltage at 1.35

 

[Wisecracker]

Here is a Comparison of PhII Voltages/Steppings

You could do the maximum of 1.5v on a C2 940 or you could try to drop back on your voltages. Phenoms seem to like a little voltage tweaking, but not too much. Sometimes they have a sweet spot and you have to work many different combinations of voltages, multipliers and clocks until you find the right one. Hopefully the maxed volts didn't wear your processor down.

My sweet spot was 17x200MHz @ 1.32v (minus 0.125v) :: 2400MHz IMC :: 1800HT

Idles in the 27-28c range. I probably made 2 dozen attempts with different settings and even different BIOSs. I have a second saved BIOS setup with C&Q that drops cpu load down to 44w :: 25c idle at 4x240MHz -- 0.9v

IIRC my stock voltage seemed to 'auto' at 1.35v.

 

[JSD13]

I had to settle at 16x200 @ 1.4 volts.

Any less voltage and any higher MP would crash constantly. Guess I have a lame PhII

 

[bildo123]

Pretty crazy. We are talking about 20*c here!

I didnt think a little dust would make THAT much of a difference.

Although you've said a little, it's pretty relative but one time I had a buddy give me a call up because his computer kept shutting down after about 30 minutes of use, and each time shortly after it would shut down even sooner. Right away I knew it sounded like a heating problem. We pop open the case and there was a layer of dust that literally blocked 100% of the air flow from touching the fins. We took off the fan and peeled off the dust like a sticker (mmmm) and it was good as new.

 

[Wisecracker]

I had to settle at 16x200 @ 1.4 volts.

Any less voltage and any higher MP would crash constantly. Guess I have a lame PhII

With your motherboard you should be able to do much better -- don't rely so much on the CPU multi. As the OP said --- sometimes simply changing the multiplier can be a limit. Get 14x240MHz stable and work your way up from there.

Glad the 'clean-up' worked -- might need to consider a filter or 2