Need help overclocking a Phenom II 955

Alright, I'm kinda new to OCing.

I have an AMD Phenom II 955 3.2 GHz Black Edition Quad-Core using the stock AMD Fan and Heatsink and I'd like to know what's the best and safest overclocking settings. And should I use AMD OverDrive or the BIOS(BIOS has TONS of overclocking settings).

Motherboard is an ASRock M3A785GXH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=ASRocks_Motherboard-_-13-157-167-_-Product

Thanks.

Go to the BIOS and turn the FSB to 220 (from 200) and see what you get. Run Prime95 and Core Temp and report back. That will get you 3.52ghz without a bump in voltage.

Read This
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

Download this
Everest
Prime 95
Occt
Htmonitor - realtemps

OHAITHERE said:

Alright, I'm kinda new to OCing.

I have an AMD Phenom II 955 3.2 GHz Black Edition Quad-Core using the stock AMD Fan and Heatsink and I'd like to know what's the best and safest overclocking settings. And should I use AMD OverDrive or the BIOS(BIOS has TONS of overclocking settings).

Motherboard is an ASRock M3A785GXH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=ASRocks_Motherboard-_-13-157-167-_-Product

Thanks.

Click to expand...

The best and safest setting is one that doesn't push the load core temp over 60°C - and not over 55°C is even better. With the stock heatsink you won't get very far but I'm sure you can get a little bit of speed from it depending on your case cooling.

You should first test your load core temp at stock settings. Use Prime95 and CoreTemp OR OCCT, which has it's own temp reading, to get load core temp. Note this is different from the CPU temp your motherboard reports.
OCCT
Prime95
CoreTemp

If your load core temp is 55°C or less at stock then you can start playing with BIOS settings. I'd set the vCore (aka CPU voltage, CPU VID) manually to 1.35v. You might also want to download CPU-Z to keep real-time track of your vCore since many boards won't hold the BIOS setting completely. From there just increase your CPU multiplier (NOT the FSB clock setting!) from 16X to 17X then use half increments (17.5, 18, etc.) after that. Each time you raise the CPU multiplier you should run Prime95 and/or OCCT to check your load core temp and check for stability. If either of these programs will run for 5-10 minutes and your temp is good then try the next step. That'll get you on your way to OC'ing though you will need a better cooler to see a really good overclock.


I do not recommend AOD (AMD OverDrive) for overclocking. Once you learn the BIOS and get a better cooler (if you plan on that) then you can use AOD for quick testing some OC settings but until then stick to the BIOS.


Good luck! and post back with your results/questions ...

I don't advise overclocking on the stock AMD cooler. I recently took off my Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 so I could test the stock cooler and the Zalman CNPS 8700 NT. My Antec P180 Mini case has two Scythe S-Flex-D fans (800 RPM each) for intakes, one Scythe S-Flex-E (1200 RPM) for exhaust and then the case's giant 200mm fan on the top set on its lowest setting. At completely stock speeds, the AMD stock cooler with Arctic Silver 5 did very poorly. After only 27 minutes of Prime 95 Core Temp was reporting 69 degrees Celsius and rising. I shut it down and removed the stock cooler.

I know the stock coolers aren't very good, but I didn't think they would include a cooler that performed that poorly at stock settings!

Those stock coolers must be getting worse but you shouldn't see temps that high at stock no matter what. It does seem your case airflow across the CPU is rather low, though.


However, it does point out the reason for measuring the load core temp before even starting down the OC road with a stock cooler ...