Mission 4.0 (stable/air)

[erf]

I'm just starting to OC my new rig and am only somewhat familiar with the settings. I'm aware that with BE cpus OC'ing is somewhat simplified by the unlocked multiplier. The question I have is concerning voltage to the cpu.

I'm now up to 3.8ghz@1.45v and after running Prime for 30 minutes (I know this is a short run but 30 min. should give a good idea as to max temps right?) my temps didn't go over 30C. I hope to hit at least 4.0ghz stable and I'm pretty sure from what I've read this is going to involve bumping the voltage up quite a bit.....possibly in the 1.5 range. Is temperature the only thing I need to be concerned with when upping the voltage/overclocking?

Thanks in advance for the help.

erf

 

[MrFace]

Are you positive your CPU temps didn't go over 30c? That seems really low and leads me to believe maybe your CPU temp sensors aren't working properly or the software you're using is wrong.

 

[King Icewind]

30C on air load? That's what my water cooling rig idles at lol...What are you using to monitor temps?

 

[erf]

Hmm...I'm using Coretemp and Speedfan. I guess my sensors could be out of whack or something. I've been keeping close tabs and if Coretemp and speedfan are working correctly my idle temps are a consistent 21-23C. I will say that after running P95 last night for 2.5 hours my load temps reached 36C. I guess that's more like it.

edit: I've also checked my temps through AMD Overdrive and they are reading the same. All three programs are showing the same temps consistently.

Anyhow, back to my main question...are temps the only thing i'm worried about when bumping up the voltage? From what I've gathered from research so far 1.50v should be the highest I go. I guess I'll find out tonight when I get time to mess around in the bios again.

 

[SolidBladez]

Try Everest and/or HWMonitor.

Edit: What CPU cooler are you using?

 

[Kenjiwing]

30c load is absolutely incorrect.

 

[erf]

30c load is absolutely incorrect.

Here is a screenshot of my temps after running P95 for 30 minutes.

 

[cbliss1000]

Are you positive your CPU temps didn't go over 30c? That seems really low and leads me to believe maybe your CPU temp sensors aren't working properly or the software you're using is wrong.

x2. Unless your ambient temps are crazy low (where do you live? The Arctic?), then something is out of whack. On load, that processor at that speed should be running, I should think, in at least the mid-40s on air - at least.

Here is a good review on the general overclocking abilities you're looking at: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenom2x2_athlon2x2/.

Don't really know what to tell you as to correcting your sensor reads...

 

[Rossi~]

That's nice and cool but i would touch your heatsink and see how hot it is @ load. Could be either damn good cooling or faulty sensor.

 

[erf]

x2. Unless your ambient temps are crazy low (where do you live? The Arctic?), then something is out of whack. On load, that processor at that speed should be running, I should think, in at least the mid-40s on air - at least.

Here is a good review on the general overclocking abilities you're looking at: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenom2x2_athlon2x2/.

Don't really know what to tell you as to correcting your sensor reads...

Well when I first got my machine put together last weekend and got it booted up the first thing I did was check the temps because I wanted to see how well the N520 was going to do.

It was idling at 26C for the first 6-8 hours, I didn't really run any stress tests at this time so I can't say what the load was. (I think it was 26 after installing windows 7) The next day when I booted up my idle temps were as low as 20C.

The first time I ran P95 I could've swore my load temps according to CT didn't go over 30C. I may have been looking at the temp read outs wrong. However a couple of nights ago I did run P95 for 2.5 hours and the loads reached 36C. Last night I ran it for 30 minutes (screenshot above) and it never got above 33C according to HW.

I reset my heatsink 3 times when building this rig to ensure my thermal paste was applied just so and think it may have paid off. I'm also running my fans in a push pull setup with 1-120mm in the frong, 2-92mm's offset on the N520(push/pull), 1-140mm out the top, and the standard 120mm out the back.

 

[erf]

That's nice and cool but i would touch your heatsink and see how hot it is @ load. Could be either damn good cooling or faulty sensor.

I'm not sure how well it's going to do touching this thing even under load.

 

[tempo*]

well as long as you arent having lock ups or any major problems, then good luck! What is the cooler btw?

 

[erf]

well as long as you arent having lock ups or any major problems, then good luck! What is the cooler btw?

As posted in sig, CM Hyper N520. And I haven't had any lockups to speak of. When i took it to 4ghz it crashed after just surfing the web for awhile but I was just messing around and hadn't tried to tweak any other settings to get it stable. That's the goal of this thread. I'm needing help on what to tweak besides the multiplier. I'm a nub when it comes to this stuff.

 

[erf]

Update. I'm up to 3.9ghz @ 1.45 volts, stable. Ran Prime 95 for 30 minutes and as before load temps did not go over 33C.

 

[BretG57]

passing prime95 for 30 minutes hardly means it is stable. try to get it to pass for 12 hours and then occt for 3 hours, then you will know if it stable. even still some ut3 engine games might still crash to desktop, mass effect for example was even more picky in my experience.

 

[harlanpepper]

This is blowing my mind. How can you be running almost 4GHz on air and getting load temps of 33c? Wow!

 

[W.Feather]

those temps arnt that unusual.....my 550 running at 3.5 GHz on a stock Phenom 1 cooler is idling at 26C with an ambient of 70 F....and only gets to 33 under full load.......the 550 runs very cool, at 3.8 mine was able to idle at 40 C(due to stock cooler I have), but only hit 55 C on load(due to the cooler it came with)


anyhow, as to your question, I would personally not throw the voltage at 1.5 v around the clock, 1.45 is probably where I would shoot it.....however I got my 550 to ~3.75 GHz with only 1.35 v(may be the Crosshair III that let me do it stable, dont know), make sure your hitting the multi hard and the FSB to tune it higher if you want......as long as it stays cool, 1.5 v isnt too bad on the chip(plenty of people run the PII's at 1.5v, just isnt my "cup of tea").....also make sure you watch your ram speed and such make sure you get the full amount out of that.

edit: for those that are curious at 3.5 my chip is at 1.325 vcore,

also - out of curiosity, does that cooler give you clearence to use high profile RAM? such as OCZ Reaper HPC(the one with tall heat pipes on it)?

 

[erf]

those temps arnt that unusual.....my 550 running at 3.5 GHz on a stock Phenom 1 cooler is idling at 26C with an ambient of 70 F....and only gets to 33 under full load.......the 550 runs very cool, at 3.8 mine was able to idle at 40 C(due to stock cooler I have), but only hit 55 C on load(due to the cooler it came with)


anyhow, as to your question, I would personally not throw the voltage at 1.5 v around the clock, 1.45 is probably where I would shoot it.....however I got my 550 to ~3.75 GHz with only 1.35 v(may be the Crosshair III that let me do it stable, dont know), make sure your hitting the multi hard and the FSB to tune it higher if you want......as long as it stays cool, 1.5 v isnt too bad on the chip(plenty of people run the PII's at 1.5v, just isnt my "cup of tea").....also make sure you watch your ram speed and such make sure you get the full amount out of that.

edit: for those that are curious at 3.5 my chip is at 1.325 vcore,

also - out of curiosity, does that cooler give you clearence to use high profile RAM? such as OCZ Reaper HPC(the one with tall heat pipes on it)?

I'm using Patriot G-series...it's got the heatsinks but I don't think it is what I'd consider "high profile" if it's the actual physical size you're talking about.

 

[W.Feather]

are you able to get your chip up to 4 GHz ?(i havent shot there on mine b/c of inadaqute cooling)


is there a bit of clearence for your memory ? or is the fan that is facing the memory overtop of the DIMMs ?

 

[cbliss1000]

I dunno. I'm still dubious as to those temps - but chips are always different, and maybe you're just lucky.

You asked for advice on getting past 4: hard forum has a good guide on advanced oc'ing here. Anandtech has some solid guides too.

good luck man! wish i had those temps...

 

[erf]

Update - Mission 4.0 = FAIL

After spending all night and most of the day reading, tweaking, and more tweaking I've reached my final stable OC. My chip just does NOT like 4ghz. With multiple changes to voltage, cpu frequency, cpu multi I just couldn't find stability at 4 and it sucks. The highest voltage I applied was 1.55 even then all I could was boot to windows and start OCCT but it would fail after 30 sec. So I've settled at 3.9.

I've left my CPU voltage at 1.475 for now as temps seem fine there. I tried to find a balance between my CPU mulitplier and FSB speed and settled with an 18.5 multi and FSB @ 211. I've set my RAM to 1333 as I just don't like running above the 1666 my mobo allows. I think it's @ 1406 with my 211 FSB...the ratio is something weird like 3:10. I read up on the 1:1 and from what I can tell this is a debatable subject so for now I'm not going to worry about it.

After all of the reading I did last night I'm still a noob and have alot to learn about OC'ing and would appreciate any info that you guys can provide. Here is a screen shot of OCCT running after 20 minutes.

 

[erf]

Just thought I'd post an update on my OC'ing venture. I've narrowed down what is holding my overclock back...

After MORE reading and research and numerous runs of OCCT, I finally figured out my errors were being caused by a dip in my 3.3v rail. From what I gather this is connected to the IMC. The RAM i'm using is sold as 1600 to be powered at 1.8v with timings of 9-9-9-24. What's weird is that when clearing CMOS and returning to the BIOS, my RAM is defaulted to 1033 @ 1.6v with timings of 11-11-11-30.

I am gunning for the most efficient OC and though it's taking ALOT of time and tweaking it will be worth it in the long run. I'm learning alot about general OC'ing too.....Quite fun....I built my computer for gaming and I'm spending more time tweaking than I am gaming. I get the feeling that I'm not the only one in this boat though. Overclocking is becoming as much of a game as gaming itself.

Anyhow, now that I've figured out a little more about my AM3 setup I'm hoping to push my overclock a little further...so back to reading and tweaking I go.

 

[zero940]

Hmm...I'm using Coretemp and Speedfan. I guess my sensors could be out of whack or something. I've been keeping close tabs and if Coretemp and speedfan are working correctly my idle temps are a consistent 21-23C. I will say that after running P95 last night for 2.5 hours my load temps reached 36C. I guess that's more like it.

edit: I've also checked my temps through AMD Overdrive and they are reading the same. All three programs are showing the same temps consistently.

Anyhow, back to my main question...are temps the only thing i'm worried about when bumping up the voltage? From what I've gathered from research so far 1.50v should be the highest I go. I guess I'll find out tonight when I get time to mess around in the bios again.

I know for a fact Speedfan is notorious for being WAYYY off in some instances. Use Hwmonitor without fail.