Whats The Best Way To Overclock This?

Hey, I am thinking of buying a AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724

I would like to overclock it to just 3.0ghz on stock cooler cause im picky and 3 seems like a much bigger number then 2

What would be the best, easiest, stable way to do this, change a multiplyer or frequency? Please and Thank You.

And I also heard people can unlock a 4th core on this, how does that work 0.0 And would that increase heat?

Welcome!!!

Im not sure if that CPU has an unlocked multiplier but even so, with a 200Mhz HTT bus, a +1 change on the multi would be a 200Mhz increase. So with your meager goal, raise the HTT up to get 3Ghz. You will more than likely not need to change anything else at all.

Search 'unlock cores' here and you will see a pleathura of threads on this subject!

Thanks, ya I know 3ghz is utterly useless but I am a picky person and I want it to say 3ghz in my xfire profile lol

Before I find that guide could you just quickly tell me if unlocking a 4th core comes with any dangers, does it increase heat or anything? Will it work with stock cooler?

Of course it will increase heat, but the same cooler you have on it is the same that comes with the X4 anyway I believe.

Unlocking the 4th core just may not work at all and you have to revert back to 3.

that'll be fine, I was originaly looking at a dual core but i found this triple one for only 10 bucks more, its a steal.

the dual core was 2x1mb of l2 though, and this one is 3x512kb, but i think the extra core is more then enough to make up for the half meg less l2 cache.

so with the 200mhz step increase i cant make 3.0 but 3.1ghz instead? either way is fine

i see lots of reviews of people pusing 3.4 and even 3.7 on stock cooler and even with the 4th core unlocked, that sounds amazingly impossible

Well actually, the way you unlock the fourth core is by using a BIOS option ONLY available on motherboards with the AMD SB750 South Bridge. Although I am not sure if ALL SB750 Motherboards have that option, pretty much any mid to high end non-value-brand board will do. As far as the multiplier goes, that chip is not a Black Edition, so it wont go past stock. However, if you really want 'just' 3ghz, then either a 207mhz bus with stock 14.5x multi (207 * 14.5 = 3.001ghz) or a 215mhz bus and 14x multi (215 * 14 = 3.010ghz). Since neither is a big OC, your temps will probably stay exactly the same. A thing to note with unlocking the 4th core though: by doing this you basically allow data to pass through the locked core, whereas only voltage was going through; so, your temperature wont actually go up very much at all. Depending on you cooling, a 2C - 4C difference. Just make sure you buy a good brand (like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Foxconn, Zotac, JetWay, or ECS).

When buying a motherboard just make sure it has the SB750 (no, SB700 or SB710 wont work) SouthBridge with ACC. When you get the board, fire it up, and enable ACC to unlock the 4th core. You may have to up the voltage to around 1.3v - 1.35v if it's not already.

DDR2 Example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135235 (this one DOES have the ability to heavily OC and unlock your cpu, definite recommendation especially at like $70)

DDR3 Example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186168 (this one is a very good board, but kinda pricey at $100 if your on budget, this is one of the cheapest AM3 SB750 plus it has a 790GX, so it's top-of-the-line as far as AMD chipsets go)

Hope this helped

Top of the line chipsets are the 790X and 790FX - but with only a small OC you won't need anything so pricey. As noted, since you don't have a BE CPU raising the clock is the only way to OC it, which isn't a problem at all. Most of the newer boards will run well above 250 MHz.

CPU heat mostly comes from vCore and you should be able to get by using the stock 1.35v to get into the 3.3-3.4 GHz range. Temps might be a little high with the stock cooler but with good case ventilation (and assuming your machine's not parked in a greenhouse) you should be golden ...