Overlocking an old 1055T

So about 6 years ago I purchased this kit. I immediately upgraded the PS to this and the MB do this although in hindsight I probably should have upgraded the SSD (that's tomorrow's problem). Worked fine for my needs (I don't really game, obviously) until last month when I started wanting to add another monitor for MLB.tv streams while I'm working.

So I decided it was time to add a budget video card (had one when I first built but it crapped out a couple years ago and I just ran onboard since) so I bought this. Then the bug hit me and I decided maybe it would be a wiser investment to just upgrade MB and so I did that with this as I figured I could kill a couple more birds with a $50 stone than just the additional inputs of a video card and I could finally get some USB 3.0 ports. I'm still undecided on whether or not I'll keep the video card. So the board swap went great and after a few BIOS tweaks I got everything purring. But it ran the stock 1055T fan way too high so I upgraded to the Evo 212 and it's probably the best $30 I've ever spent. I feel stupid to have ran that stock AMD cooler for so long after hearing (or NOT hearing) this fan for two days. I just bought a new Corsair Spec-M2 to house this crap better (cooler doesn't fit well in the original Thermaltake case) and now I'm wanting to do some simple overclocking on that old 1055T. Back when I bought the kit I always planned to do a little mild stuff just for fun but never got around to it. Now I'd like to play a little bit and I'm looking for some advice. I know the basic ideas but I want to do it right so I'm looking for a little help. All the materials discussing OC'ing that 1055T are quite dated now.

And yes, I realize I could probably buy a better processor for another $50 at this point but honestly I'm happy with what I got now. I really just want to tweak and get a little more juice out of it as a learning experience. I don't expect anything crazy and don't even need to really. Just want to learn. All advice (besides buying a newer processor) is welcome....

I saw your post in my thread.
It's not worth spending money on a new CPU, the 1055T has plenty of kick.
From my experience 3.5GHz should be easy to achieve by simply changing the FSB speed. Above that it took some tweaking with voltages and memory timings. I have been running that system as daily driver with absolutely no issues whatsoever.
It obviously depends on your MB and memory but i think you should get the same numbers, either a super easy stable 3.5GHz or up to 3.7 or perhaps a bit more depending on your ambient temps.
Is your Phenom underclocked? You're running at 11 multiplier and 2.2GHz instead of the stock 14x and 2.8GHz.

Start by upping the multiplier until it fails Prime95 blend. Then up the Vcore one notch. Run prime95 again. if it's stable up the multiplier again, then test again with prime. Wash rinse repeat.

No more than 1.5v Vcore and no more than 45C!
Once you find the highest stable overclock, you can then up the NB frequency. For this I run Hyperpi 32M setting, or Minecraft. In Minecraft, you will dart around the map rather than smoothly walk around the map. You may also notice the Windows log in screen fade away very choppy rather than fade away smoothly - this means the NB is unstable and you need more CPU/NB v.

After you get a nice NB you can drop the multiplier and raise the FSB to get the same CPU speeds as your max overclock you found earlier. Run Memtest from a bootable USB to make sure your memory is still stable. You DO NOT want unstable memory. Bye bye OS, silent corruption is a b*tch.

But that's really it. These Phenoms are super fun to tweak!


Now, personally, I wouldn't expect more than 3.5Ghz out of that motherboard... ECS is not know for quality boards - save for a few models.
I highly recommend a fan blowing over the VRM and NB heatsinks on that motherboard before you even start overclocking.

@Silver OP's text is a bit confusing as they mention parts not relevant to the task at hand, but I think the MB is the Gigabyte on their sig.
With that in mind I think he will be able to get similar results as I did (3.7GHz stable with 212 Evo).

Silver_P, the multiplier on that CPU is upwardly locked. He can't raise it unless it is currently set to below stock, which there are indications it may be.

55c on the core/package temps is about the limit.

jax, the key here is lowering the memory ratio to 1066 mhz to start with and then increasing the FSB in small increments until you hit instability when running the Prime95 blend stress test for 20 minutes. Then increase the CPU core voltage by .025 and retest. Always monitor core temps and CPU temps (which is really the socket area temp) with HWMonitor whenever you stress test. Lower the HT Link and CPU/NB multipliers as needed to keep them near stock frequency as they will grow as the FSB frequency is raised. Keep those two near stock or they create instability, though the CPU/NB can handle some overclocking with added voltage to that component. Your motherboard will be the limiting factor here, even with good aftermarket cooling on the processor.

When you think you have reached max overclock (which will be about 3.5 ghz as others have said) then run the Prime95 blend test for 2 hr. to confirm stability.

XN said:

@Silver OP's text is a bit confusing as they mention parts not relevant to the task at hand, but I think the MB is the Gigabyte on their sig.
With that in mind I think he will be able to get similar results as I did (3.7GHz stable with 212 Evo).

Click to expand...

Won't matter really... 4+1 VRM. Phenom may not be an FX 8core but it still draw some serious volts.
Gigabyte isn't the best for AMD to begin with too unfortunately
He may get 3.7, depends on his other parts too. Since I know now that the chip is upwardly locked. I did not know that!!

trents said:

Silver_P, the multiplier on that CPU is upwardly locked. He can't raise it unless it is currently set to below stock, which there are indications it may be.

55c on the core/package temps is about the limit.

jax, the key here is lowering the memory ratio to 1066 mhz to start with and then increasing the FSB in small increments until you hit instability when running the Prime95 blend stress test for 20 minutes. Then increase the CPU core voltage by .025 and retest. Always monitor core temps and CPU temps (which is really the socket area temp) with HWMonitor whenever you stress test. Lower the HT Link and CPU/NB multipliers as needed to keep them near stock frequency as they will grow as the FSB frequency is raised. Keep those two near stock or they create instability, though the CPU/NB can handle some overclocking with added voltage to that component. Your motherboard will be the limiting factor here, even with good aftermarket cooling on the processor.

When you think you have reached max overclock (which will be about 3.5 ghz as others have said) then run the Prime95 blend test for 2 hr. to confirm stability.

Click to expand...

Thanks trents!
I thought all phenoms were unlocked but I guess that's only the higher end phenoms.

Jaz, your best bet is to ignore the multiplier part in my post. It does not apply to you at all.
Drop your RAM speed and take the FSB upwards slowly as trents has described.

Keep the temps in check!

In the Phenom 2 series, they used the designation "BE" (black edition) to indicate the ones that had upwardly unlocked multipliers.

trents said:

In the Phenom 2 series, they used the designation "BE" (black edition) to indicate the ones that had upwardly unlocked multipliers.

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Yup!

I thought the 1055t was one of them though!

Yeah sorry my first post got a little long-winded. My sig has my current build...

trents said:

55c on the core/package temps is about the limit.

jax, the key here is lowering the memory ratio to 1066 mhz to start with and then increasing the FSB in small increments until you hit instability when running the Prime95 blend stress test for 20 minutes. Then increase the CPU core voltage by .025 and retest. Always monitor core temps and CPU temps (which is really the socket area temp) with HWMonitor whenever you stress test. Lower the HT Link and CPU/NB multipliers as needed to keep them near stock frequency as they will grow as the FSB frequency is raised. Keep those two near stock or they create instability, though the CPU/NB can handle some overclocking with added voltage to that component. Your motherboard will be the limiting factor here, even with good aftermarket cooling on the processor.

When you think you have reached max overclock (which will be about 3.5 ghz as others have said) then run the Prime95 blend test for 2 hr. to confirm stability.

Click to expand...

Will follow this advice and report back. I'll make a bootable Memtest USB too. BTW I've never used Prime95 before (just downloaded). How will I know when I'm getting instability during the blend stress test? I'm assuming through a log once I quit?

Bumped up FSB. Ended up leaving Volt Control on as it said it would automatically adjust for OC'ing. Ran Prime95 for approx 25 min, here are screens -

Also, BTW I first lowered memory ratio to 1066 as suggested but when I bumped up FSB it automatically bumped mem ratio up some with it. I left it, not sure if you can tell what I'm talking about from screens. Probably should have wrote down what it auto bumped mem ratio to....

Set the RAM ratio manually and disable ANY sort of turbo core and auto overclocking and overvolting options. They will just get in the way. You can enable turbo core after if youd like. Just stress test again with them on to be sure.

Anyway you will know if the system is unstable in Prime95 if you drop a worker or any worker stops with a rounding error or a SUMOUT error.

Also when you stop the tests, check to see if any workers completed less tests than the others. If core 5 lets say only ran 53 tests, but the others ran 79 tests, then core#5 is your weakest core and from what I understand, will limit your overclock. You could disable it if you want and see if you can overclock higher.

My 1090t has a weak core. If i disable it, my load temps drop dramatically and i van drop the vcore a bit lower too. I dont get a better overclock though...

Tweaked a little more, it doesn't look like my cooler speed is stepping to control the temps for some reason -

jaxwithanx said:

Also, BTW I first lowered memory ratio to 1066 as suggested but when I bumped up FSB it automatically bumped mem ratio up some with it. I left it, not sure if you can tell what I'm talking about from screens. Probably should have wrote down what it auto bumped mem ratio to....

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That's the point and why we had you lower the starting memory frequency. The mem frequency is tied to the fsb and rises with it. If you start with the mem at max rated frequency and then start increasing the FSB then soon the memory will exceed what it is capable of running at and cause instability. The same is true for the HT Link and CPU/NB frequencies.

Instability when running the Prime95 stress test looks like any one of the following: Spontaneous restart of system, blue screen, system lockup or some (one or more) of the Prime95 core workers dropping out.

trents said:

That's the point and why we had you lower the starting memory frequency. The mem frequency is tied to the fsb and rises with it. If you start with the mem at max rated frequency and then start increasing the FSB then soon the memory will exceed what it is capable of running at and cause instability. The same is true for the HT Link and CPU/NB frequencies.

Instability when running the Prime95 stress test looks like any one of the following: Spontaneous restart of system, blue screen, system lockup or some (one or more) of the Prime95 core workers dropping out.

Click to expand...

I figured as much, as I understand the mem freq is part of the process of raising the FSB but I just wanted to be explicit. How are the memory timings and everything else look (bank cycle seems high)? I see where I can specifically adjust HT Link frequency so I brought that back down to 2000 manually but am a little confused by the "CPU/NB frequency" reference. I'm assuming we are talking about two separate frequencies there; a CPU and a NB, correct?

I've had no errors or "instability" during my tests with Prime95 at the levels above but my temps seem high. That being said my damn CPU fan (and front fan too for that matter) doesn't seem to be increasing to keep them down either. Figure I need to get that sorted before going ahead.

Regarding multiplier, the CPU is locked it means you can't raise the multiplier above the (default) 14x.
Afaik there's no Black Edition of 1055T. The Black Edition CPUs were 1090T. It's essentially the same chip but binned higher from what I understand (plus unlocked multiplier).
I noticed on OP's CPU-Z screenshots that for some reason the CPU had the multiplier dropped to 11x, thus being seriously underclocked. Latest screenshots have the multiplier correctly set @14 so this has been addressed.
@op I was taught by the experienced people here that the temp reading we're interested in mostly is the CPU reading and not the motherboard.
In your latest screen the CPU temp readings aren't expanded, if you check again and post back we can see if you have margin (temp wise) to increase the FSB further.

Some inspiration:

http://hwbot.org/benchmark/cpu_freq...Id=processor_2156&cores=6#start=0#interval=20

(obviously those aren't daily-use overclocks, far from it)

When I wanted to o/c my CPU I spent over 1 week searching everything I could find. The most informative post is Dolk's guide. It's lacking a bit when it comes to 1055T however i found it helped me more than any other read understand overclocking in general and Thuban overclocking more specifically.

There are 2 NB's on AMD Phenoms. One on the motherboard and another in the CPU. CPU/NB is the CPU NB, raising this voltage can help get higher CPU/NB speeds.
Raising the CPU/NB has an impact on CPU preformance, so you definitely want t0 overclock it a bit.

The CPU/NB has to do with the memory controller. In some bioses it is labeled "CPU/NB" and in others it is labeled just "NB." But as SP pointed out, there is also a NB on the motherboard which has to do with the frequency and voltage of the onboard GPU. It can be a little confusing but the context of where each is found may be a clue. Overclocking the CPU/NB can improve memory performance. Some Phenom 2 Thuban core CPU like you have overclocked best when the HT Link and CPU/NB were allowed to rise in lockstep with the FSB, with more voltage support for those components of course. Other Thubans didn't like that. See if you can bump the FSB up enough to get your RAM frequency back to 666 so it's running at full rated speed. You can always lower the CPU multiplier if necessary to accommodate that.

trents said:

The CPU/NB has to do with the memory controller. In some bioses it is labeled "CPU/NB" and in others it is labeled just "NB." But as SP pointed out, there is also a NB on the motherboard which has to do with the frequency and voltage of the onboard GPU. It can be a little confusing but the context of where each is found may be a clue. Overclocking the CPU/NB can improve memory performance. Some Phenom 2 Thuban core CPU like you have overclocked best when the HT Link and CPU/NB were allowed to rise in lockstep with the FSB, with more voltage support for those components of course. Other Thubans didn't like that. See if you can bump the FSB up enough to get your RAM frequency back to 666 so it's running at full rated speed. You can always lower the CPU multiplier if necessary to accommodate that.

Click to expand...

Sounds good. So I went back and put the HT Lunk and CPU/NB back to where they were with the FSB increase and am going to test that with Prime95. That being said, I'm hesitant to do this as I still can't get temps for my CPU. In HWMonitor it shows 0F/32C for all 6 cores and CoreTemp doesn't read them either now (it used to read them but I stopped using it as it always slowed Windows to an eventual freeze requiring a reboot. This was before any overclocking too. But I dl'ed it again to see any temps and now it doesn't even register there (and still froze system of course). What's weird is I can get temps when in the BIOS...too bad this doesn't help me when I'm actually trying to stress test.

Here is new screenshot of HWMonitor and CPUZ while idling....you can see the issue with CPU temps I mentioned as well -

Wierd...

TMPIN1 IIRC, is the socket temperature, which is usually about 8-10C hooter than actual CPU temps. You can use that as a very rough guide.

I had HwMonitor not read the voltages for some reason once. Installing a new version fixed it. Try that.
Openhardware monitor was able to read some voltages when hwmonitor couldn't so try OpenHardware monitor too.