965 @ 4ghz

Recently updated my board to a 990fxa ud3 so I can overclock the hell out of my 965. I have run into some problems though and only can get a 3.8.

I don't know if it's the fact that it's summer or that the thermal paste needs curing but my idle temps at the moment are 42ish.

When I try going above 3.8 it blue screens underload or just doesn't accept the OC at all.

Are you at stock voltage? Try upping the voltage a bit but not too much. I think 3.8 is great if you can get it stable, you won't see much of a difference if you're trying to go for 4.0

dhappy said:

Are you at stock voltage? Try upping the voltage a bit but not too much. I think 3.8 is great if you can get it stable, you won't see much of a difference if you're trying to go for 4.0

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I upped it to 1.44. I really don't need it to run hot during the summer.

My 955 ran at 4.0-4.2 for it's entire life, you should be able to get the 965 to 4.0; though I was using an Antec 920 at the time to cool the 1.45v down...

KazeoHin said:

My 955 ran at 4.0-4.2 for it's entire life, you should be able to get the 965 to 4.0; though I was using an Antec 920 at the time to cool the 1.45v down...

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I was thinking of getting one of those but I blew all my money on the board. I heard that people get it at 4 on air alone.

I'm also confused about how much I have to OC the ram and FSB to get it stable.

What is your temps under load? If you'ld like some more help with your OC we'ld need some more info, such as:

CPU Clock Ratio
CPU Northbridge Frequency
CPU FSB Frequency
HT Link Frequency
Memory Clock
DRAM Settings (example: 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 2t)
CPU PLL Voltage
DRAM Voltage
NB Voltage
HT Link Voltage
NB/PCIe/PLL Voltage
CPU NB VID
CPU Voltage

AMD C1E Enabled/Disabled
AMD K8 Cool & Quiet Enabled/Disabled

Also, what Ram (part# or specs) do you have and what are you trying to get it to run as?

I've had a 955 that could hit 4Ghz but it required 1.475v to do it and I didn't want to run it at anything higher then 1.45v for temp issues. It still runs happily at 3.8 with 1.425v though. Also have a 740 unlocked to quad at 3.7Ghz 1.45v with 1600Mhz 7-7-7-24 1.65v ram in wife's PC. Been running like that for years and have had zero issues. Both with H50's cooling them though.

my temps during gaming go to 60. I think that might be too high.

KazeoHin said:

My 955 ran at 4.0-4.2 for it's entire life, you should be able to get the 965 to 4.0; though I was using an Antec 920 at the time to cool the 1.45v down...

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My 955BE only did 3.7 GHz. Overclocking isn't an exact science. Skill helps, but in the end it comes down to luck.

Something is definitely unstable at 4ghz. I don't necessarily think it's the temps.

If the temps are going over 55c..It's the temps.
http://www.overclock.net/t/777378/o...overclocking-guide-with-too-many-smileys/0_20
That guide tells you how to properly overclock AM3

If you are getting to 60 with gaming that is bad. I would back down the clock a bit and just tweak the Northbridge some.

As an example this is our unlocked 740 & our 955 which is very similar and these should work well for you and bring your temps down a little:

CPU Clock Ratio x18
CPU Northbridge Frequency 2600 should be easy so x13
CPU FSB Frequency 200
HT Link Frequency x11
Memory Clock 1333
CPU PLL Voltage auto
DRAM Voltage 1.5 if you have 1.5 ram
NB Voltage 1.20
HT Link Voltage 1.20
NB/PCIe/PLL Voltage normal
CPU NB VID 1.3v-1.4v start at 1.3v and raise for stability
CPU Voltage 1.4-1.425

AMD C1E Enabled
AMD K8 Cool & Quiet Enabled

Raising your northbridge speed can be almost as good as raising clock speed on these Phenom II's. At least that was what I noticed. That guide posted is a good tutorial on how to start overclocking these chips.

I noticed the DOCP was set to dissabled, you may want to load a DOCP profile if your RAM supports it... It's basically the same thing as XMP on the intel side.

Phenom II's don't always hit 4.0 at least not stable in Prime95 or OCCT. 3.7 or 3.8 is a out the average for them so you may just be topped out.

I got myself a Corsair H55 and it brought the temps down about 5c. Now it won't even go past 47 under game load or even prime95.

Still unsure if the OC to 4 will be stable.

It's definitely not the temps. It was sitting comfortably in the 40's and was on for about 5 min. Then it rebooted. no BSOD. I wonder what it is.

I also followed Moqus settings except I had it at 4.0ghz

3.9 failed too.

I went back to my orignal setting which is getting the cpu up to 3.8 and then just upping the voltage to 1.4. Seems pretty rock solid.

Go on up to 1.5 if you have to and see if 3.9 will work. 4 might be a stretch but 3.9 should be doable. I know that sounds crazy since it's just .1 but these chips have a wall and they'll run great all day long then smack right into that wall and theyre done.

Also lower the HT Link speed down to 1800. HT doesn't affect Phenom one way or the other and lowering that speed some can give you a little extra wiggle room in the CPU clock.

Why do you have the RAM and NB Voltage set manually?
I would try both of them at Normal once and see how it goes.

After that you should focus on overclocking the NB. That gives a Phenom II a nice boost in performance. Note when you do this you probably need to change the NB Voltage to 1.2 for up to around 2600. Keep the HT at 2000.