Voltage too high on X2 4400+?

[YoshiDark]

First off:

Mobo: Asus A8V Deluxe (VIA K8T800 Chipset) (FSB 250)
CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo core) @ 2.75 GHz
CPU fan: Stock cooler (52C full load, 44C idle)
RAM: 2x512MB PC3200 Corsair Value Select (2.5-3-3-8 ) @ 211 MHz
Video card: eVGA GeForce 6800 AGP 128 MB (Yes, I unlocked the pipelines)
PSU: CoolerMaster RealPower 450W

To get the CPU that high, I had to raise the Vcore to 1.6 otherwise it wasn't stable. Am I doing something wrong? I've noticed most people don't raise their voltages that high and get a lot more from their CPU. I know X2's don't overclock well, could that be it?

 

[3Ball]

Personally I wouldnt leave it that high, but from what i have read 1.6v seems to be the max. I personally dont like to go over 1.5v i have my 3700+ Sandy at 2.8ghz with 1.465v and it's perfectly stable. If the Toledo is anything like the Sandy it is sometimes luck of the draw...I. E. one may be able to reach 2.9ghz on air while another may need water and high volts to get there...so it is possible that you are just a vitum of bad luck. I would recommend running your FSB at 260 with a multiplier of 10x with a mult of 4x on the HTT for a final result of 2600mhz core / 1040mhz HTT (2080mhz effective). you might be able to reach that on stock volts and if not it wont take much more to keep that baby stable. Happy OC'ing!!!

Antec NeoHE 550w PS
DFI Lan Party UT NF4 Ultra
AMD Athlon 3700+ Sandy @ 2.8ghz (10x280) - "Arctic Freezer 64"
2gb (2x1gb) Patriot Performance Memory (2-3-2-5)
ATI Original X1900XT
Creative XF-I
(2x120gb WD SATA II HD's) - Raid 0

 

[apache_lives]

yeah for a 90nm cpu it is a little high, if you have to have it at that speed make sure your cooling is good

 

[Crucify]

Better run S&M to check you TRUE MAX load, cause I really dn;t think that a 90nm Toledo at 1.6V would peak at 52C with stock cooler...
Mine (4400+ Toledo) is stable at 1.4V, 2.5GHz, and maxes out at 51.5 (using S&M). Try not to go above 1.45-1.50, benchmark everything like hell to insure stability. For voltages that high, you really need to go for a water-cooling solution (better be a good one, too).

 

[YoshiDark]

Doh, I forgot to change the HT multiplier. That might have something to do with it.

I've heard at higher voltages it's also a good idea to cool the voltage coils?

Thanks for the help.

 

[luminaris]

You should've have the voltage that high. The thing to do is, start over. Relax the RAM timings and drop the LDT/FSB to 2.5 or 3 and raise the multiplier to where the machine is not stable. Read my thread too as it might prove useful for you.


http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Opteron-165-Overclocking-ftopict177075.html

 

[rodney_ws]

Christ! 2.75 is one hell of an overclock for a X2-4400... I got mine to 2.6 and that was enough... but I stayed below 1.5 on my VCore. I wouldn't feel comfortable with the setup you have mainly due to the voltage. Mine idles lower than yours (that's to be expected) but my max temp is higher than yours (58-60 full load on both processors)

I'm curious... when you did the full load test, did you run two instances of it to maximize both cores? The CPU Burn-in app I used required me to run it twice in order to utilize both cores.

 

[YoshiDark]

Yes I did...maybe my temp monitor is off? I keep the side off my case, perhaps that has something to do with it.

Your article is helpful. I've heard you can have a low temperature and still break your CPU by overvoltage, so I wanted to know what a "safe" voltage would be.

 

[mopeygoth]

i'd say 1.65v for an SD, MC, T - core

be sure to watch your temps and volts in a monitorprogram, most boards over or undervolt during operation (e.g. not equivelant to bios-setting)

The X2's need a quite a lot of vcore for extreme overclocks, but also they heat up a lot from added vcore

 

[YoshiDark]

Yeah, voltage fluctuations at 1.6 are scary. I don't know what a safe range is, but it was about 0.025V up and down. My mobo only has three-phase regulation, that may be a factor. My BIOS won't let me go over 1.6v, either.

 

[mopeygoth]

hehe, scary indeed

my board is constantly overvolting, as all Asusboards are. Just make sure is doesn't 'Fluc' over/close to 1.65

it's a good idea to use a few different monitoringprograms, at the same time perhaps, and not rely solely on a since piece of software

i'm getting a new board tomorrow mostly because of only being able to supply a lame 1.50v to the cpu, i really want to go 2.6 (x2-5000+). it's four phase also (the new board), so i hope it improves the instabillity i suffer in some apps now.

let us know how far you fare, the 2.7 you've got going is pretty impressive 😉 congrats