OC on my new 980 BE

I just got done putting a new X4 980 BE in my Asus M4A79T Deluxe mobo. I also installed an Hyper 212 Evo for cooling. I used AOD program to do the initial settings. I first tried 3.9 GHZ at stock voltage which is 1.437 volts. It ran at 42C running Prime95 for about an hour. So I upped to 20X which gives me 4.0 GHZ. It still ran at 42C with Prime95 but started locking up and wouldn't load Firefox. It did finally blue screen with something about a memory dump. It did this a few times so I raised the voltage to 1.475 at 20X. It has ran Prime95 now for over 2 hours without a glitch. This is with CPU-Z, Asus Probe, AOD and Firefox all running. The temp is steady around 51-52C. My memory is running at 1600 at 1.66V.
I have a few questions. Can I get to 4.1 or 4.2 GHZ? Is there any other changes I need to make? Any other settings needed changed or modified?
Any advice from the experts would be helpful. I'm not too familiar with all the settings in the BIOS on these new mobos. I'm used to OC the old Athlon XP CPUs where you basically upped the FSB or if you were lucky to get an unlocked CPU or a mobile processor and changed to multiplier and upped the voltage and got a stable unit.

55c core temp is about the limit of stability. You might get 4.1 ghz. It would help with stability (and maybe get you by with less CPU voltage) if you would bump your CPUNB voltage to about 1.25 and raise your CPUNB frequency from the stock 2000 mhz to around 2400-2500 mhz.

I'll give that a try. It's getting late here in Ohio and I need to go to bed. I appreciate the input. I'll post back with the results.
I thought the Evo would keep it cooler than what it does. Right now at stock speed it runs around 35C

madman7 said:

I'll give that a try. It's getting late here in Ohio and I need to go to bed. I appreciate the input. I'll post back with the results.
I thought the Evo would keep it cooler than what it does. Right now at stock speed it runs around 35C

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When you mention temps you need to let us know if you are talking about core temps or CPU temps. And by the way, AMDOD is a pretty flaky program. You will get much better results by manually overclocking in the bios.

I'm not sure what temp is getting reported. Asus probe just says CPU and shows the temp. AOD also shows the temp the same as Asus Probe so I'm not sure what the temp relates to.
After a little more digging around, it looks like the temp is the CPU temp. The core temps are reading all zeros.

madman7 said:

I'm not sure what temp is getting reported. Asus probe just says CPU and shows the temp. AOD also shows the temp the same as Asus Probe so I'm not sure what the temp relates to.
After a little more digging around, it looks like the temp is the CPU temp. The core temps are reading all zeros.

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If your core temps are reading zeros that usually means you have the core unlocker feature enabled. You need to turn it off as you don't have any cores to unlock anyway. When the core unlocker is enabled it disables the reading of core temps, which are the critical ones. If you will also use HWMonitor to monitor temps (and voltages) you will see it gives both core temps and CPU temps.

I'm not sure what setting I have in the BIOS that does this. I'll look thru the manual to see if I can find it.

Is there a bios setting called "ACC"?

Would be something called Advance Clock Calibration? I have mine set - All cores.

That's it. Disable it.

Will do. I set the CPUNB voltage to 1.25v and the HyperTransport Link to 2400 like you suggested but have done any testing yet.

No, not the HT Link to 2400! Keep it between 1800-2000. Set the CPUNB (maybe called just NB in your bios) to 2400.

Would that be the CPU/NB Frequency? If so, it has multipliers. Do I use 22X?

madman7 said:

Would that be the CPU/NB Frequency? If so, it has multipliers. Do I use 22X?

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Yes, it is the CPU/NB frequency but it sounds like you are getting that confused with the main CPU frequency. The CPU/NB frequency is a multiple of 200mhz. Stock would be 10x200=2000mhz. So if you want it to be 2400mhz then set the multiplier to 12x.

I've got it all set now. The mult. is 12 and all the cores now show temps in AOD. I guess it's time to do some Prime95. I did set the CPU voltage at 1.450 up a little from 1.437 . I did notice when I changed the CPU mult. that the CPU voltage went to1.516 when I left it at Auto. Anything I need to do before I run the tests? With just a few things running, my temps are around 35C.

If I were you I would not use AMDOD to monitor temps or anything else. It's kind of a buggy program and could create instability of its own if it's loaded in memory. Use "HWMonitor" instead. Have it open on he desktop and it will give you loads of info about voltages and temps.

madman,

It would be very helpful to those helping you if you would upload pics with your posts. To do that:
1. Crop the relevant desktop images and save to disk with Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories.
2. Click on the Go Advanced button at the bottom of any new post window. When the Advanced post window pops up, click on the little paperclip icon at the top. That will cause the file browser/uploader to pop up and the rest is obvious.

What settings do I use on Prime95. Also, what pics are you looking for? Sorry, I'm new to some of this stuff

Prime95 "blend".

Attached images of CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" plus an image of HWMonitor after a stress test of at least 20 minutes are standard helps around here. With forum file browser/upload tool you can attach up to three images per post.

madman, what I suggest to beginner overclockers is to start with CPU multiplier and voltages at stock and then begin to increase the CPU multiplier by .5x increments. Run the Prime94 blend test for 20 minutes after each voltage increase and repeat that process until you cannot pass the 20 minute Prime stress test, which means either BSOD or one of the Prime95 core workers droops out. At that point, add a small increase in CPU core voltage and retest for 20 minutes. If stable, start increasing the CPU multiplier again until failing the test and then add more voltage. Of course, always, always have HWMonitor open on the desktop to monitor core temps and CPU temps. If core temps begin to exceed 55c or CPU temps begin to exceed 65c you are at "the wall". And need to start putting the finishing touches on the overclock. Passing 20 minutes of Prime stress testing is adequate to prove that you are at least "almost" stable and can usually get completely stable with a few tweaks. Yet 20 minutes is economical time-wise and shortens the "front end" of the overclock process. When you are at the upper end "wall" of the overclock, longer Prime95 tests are run to insure stability - at least two hour tests.