[Unlocking&Overclocking] Phenom II X2 555BE on a GA-890GPA-UD3H

[coalesce]

Hi All,

Purchased a Phenom II X2 555BE and a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H. It is my first build so once I have the system up and running I would like to try and unlock the 2 hidden cores and then try some overclocking.

With this I purchased:

Patriot Viper Extreme Performance 4GB DDR3 2X2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 CL 7-7-7-20 Memory Kit

Antec Nine Hundred Two Gaming Case

Corsair 650TX 650 Watt, ATX12V and EPS12v 2.91, Power Supply (This is in case I want to Crossfire in the future)

Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler for cooling.

I will be using the GTS250 and my old hard drives and cd/dvd drives out of my old PC.

I have read as much info as I can find regarding unlocking the other 2 cores but if anyone has any last minute pointers to share it would be appreciated. I'm certain I have picked a motherboard with the capability to unlock but if anyone sees any compatibility issues let me know. I tried to pick a board with some future proofing goodies on it.

I will try and update this thread as I go so everyone can get in on my newbie building experience. I'm sure once I get to the overclocking portion I will have many questions.

I will be picking up the parts tomorrow and will start the assembly saturday night.

Thanks in advance for any information you can share.

Tim

 

[simon12]

I installed speed fan and the CPU temp reports within 1C as the ASRock OC tuner. 1 thing that weird/worrying id speed fan has a AUX temp I have no idea what it is but idle it reports 80-90C but running prime 95 it immediately drops to mid 40s but the second I stop prime it goes straight into the 80s I have even seen 91C. Any idea what it is? I took the side off my case and nothing feels hot to touch.

 

[OvrClkr]

I installed speed fan and the CPU temp reports within 1C as the ASRock OC tuner. 1 thing that weird/worrying id speed fan has a AUX temp I have no idea what it is but idle it reports 80-90C but running prime 95 it immediately drops to mid 40s but the second I stop prime it goes straight into the 80s I have even seen 91C. Any idea what it is? I took the side off my case and nothing feels hot to touch.

What program is reporting the AUX temp? Install Everest and this way you can monitor ALL your sensors.

http://download.cnet.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition/3000-2086_4-10499291.html

 

[simon12]

What program is reporting the AUX temp? Install Everest and this way you can monitor ALL your sensors.

http://download.cnet.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition/3000-2086_4-10499291.html

Both speed fan and everest report this AUX temperature see below showing idle and load I hope as I have never put a pic in a forum before

[/img]

 

[OvrClkr]

That has to be a bad sensor, especially if it shoots up to 87c @ idle. I had the same issue with my first Asrock board and it came out to be a bad sensor wire. You can either ignore that reading or get a new board if it's still under warranty.

 

[coalesce]

Well, it looks like the final verdict is 3 Cores @ 3885Mhz 18.5X212 RAM @ 8-8-8-24

It's at idle at 38C on a hot day that's breaking records all over the province and sits ~56C with Prime95 running.

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/1613/cpuz1.png

The RAM seems to be the limiting factor. Once I tweak it up to ~3900 I get BSOD's in Prime95 and I can't figure out what to do to the RAM to let me push it higher. I figure I'm probably at the point with the greatest performance or maybe even a lower clock speed with 7-7-7-20 timings.

Thanks for all the help. What a blast this has been. I think I'll be playing around with it all the time though!

Edited for proper linkage and temps.

 

[simon12]

Thankyou for a helpful thread, I am currently running my old 3.55GHz 4 core setup as I have not tested the stability of 3.75 for long enough but hope to get more soon. My temps are identical to yours above currently also at very high room temps. What voltage are you running to get this stable? Also I found running 3 cores lowered the temps 6C did you find this too?

 

[coalesce]

Simon, when I thought I was 'stable' with 4 cores I could only run it at ~3600 becuase of temps and BSOD's. That might be because of the one faulty core or my RAM but yes, temps should come down 3-5C by using 3 cores. 4 Cores at ~3600 on Prime95 would net me ~60C.

I'm currently running at 1.48 Vcore but I'm pretty sure I could bring it down a couple notches. I just pumped it up there so I didn't have any cpu power issues while I was tweaking. I just haven't tweaked it back down yet.

Love that TX3 man.