ElButcho

I'm running an FX 6100 with a Cooler Master Hyper N520 ( included CM paste ) on a Gigabyte 970A-UD3 Mobo, 16 GB Ram @ 1333 and trying to OC to around 4.6 as I've read I could. I've built a coupla dozen computers but this will be my first OC.
I'm @ 4.0 but when I raise my multiplier to get 4.2 my OS (7) becomes unstable immediately. I understand I may have to go 3 core and/or increase voltage to get there.
Any help would be appreciated and I'll hold no one's feet to the fire if I somehow fry my proc but I know enough I believe to not do that.
Thanking anyone in advance.

He is being helped right there in this thread...


Someone Help me with Overclocking my AMD Six Core FX 6100 3.3Ghz

Have you done any core temp monitoring? There are some pretty well established core temp stability thresholds for AMD CPUs and heat is one of the main caues of instability. I would suggest Downloading and installing HWMonintor and Prime95, both freeware programs. With HWMonitor already open on the desktop run Prime95 blend test for 10-20 minutes at your last stable overclock setting to check for maximum "core" temps. Don't be surprised if your system won't even run Prime95 blend for 10 minutes as it works the CPU really hard and exposes overclocks that appear to be stable in casual computing but really aren't reliably stable. Report back to us what you find.

OK Guys - Ran Prime 95 for 23 mins OC'd from 3.3 to 4.0 eyeballing the temps on all six cores and never broke a sweat above 35C, half the CPU's max. My Cooler's eight copper pipes push-pull seem to be doing their job.
I didn't think temps were the problem as above 4.2 GHZ my OS became unstable within seconds.
What next, Thanks again.

Oh... 8GB Corsair @ 1333
8 GB Patriot @ 1333
2 Vids, AMD 6870 ( main 22" 1920 X 1080 LED LCD) and 5570 for 2 secondaries @ 1280 X 1024 ( 17" LCD )
2 HDD, 1 new Seagate 1 TB 003-9YN162 (0 )
1 Samsung HD 103 SI
LSP Ultra 550 PS

Okay, now download and install CPU-z, a freeware program. Run the program and post pics of these tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" that will tell us a lot about your system and bios settings.

To post pics, click on the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of any new post window. Then click on the paperclip tool at the top of the advanced post window. This will conjure up the file browser/loader tool and the rest is obvious. "Snipping Tool" in Windows Accessories is great for framing, cropping and saving images on the desktop.

Forgot - No Raid Config, just drive 0 OS Seagate and Samsung storage.

All six cores idle @ 17C.

That idle temp is probably 5 C. or so too low as 17 C. would be below room temp in most people's living environment. Impossible with air.

With those two video cards (one of them being a power hungry 6870 and an FX 6100 overclocked CPU that might be pushing that 550W PSU.

Not sure what you are saying Sir. I only reported the temps HWMonitor reported to me.
Are you saying 17C idle is impossible with air as I said? I closed all apps and browsers after running Prime 95 and waited a few mins watching HWM. I keep my room temp at 75 F plus or minus a coupla degrees.
I am in earnest Sir.

Yes, to actually have a CPU temp to be colder than the room air temperature is physically impossible when you are cooling it with room air. What I'm saying is that either the temp sensor is calibrated poorly or the software reporting program is reporting it wrong. And its probably the former. Not an uncommon problem with certain CPU families.

Then I might be in a world of hurt if my thermistors are that far off?
Can I be sure of what HWM is reporting?
Just curious trents - have you a desktop?

Yes, I'm using a desktop as I type. I just need to enter it into my "Sig". I was using a laptop exclusively for a few months but recently built myself a desktop again. I never had a laptop until recently and it was novel and nice in some ways but I missed the power and customizability of a desktop too much. Like most of us here I like to tinker and I missed that too much.

There are many hardware monitoring apps for Windows but you are much more limited in Linux. Right now I'm playing with Windows 8 Customer Preview which is free for the downloading. I had a spare hard drive I installed it to. By the way, its common knowledge that some CPU families are pretty far off in their calibration. The old Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane cores were invariably inaccurate and so are the Thuban core Phenom IIs. The Thubans typically read about 10 C. too cool in their core temps. If the core temp is more than about 10 C. cooler than the CPU socket temp then something is wrong with the sensor calibration.

I'm running Win 7 and have Win 8 on a spare drive and have found it to be a real pain. Heck I hadda Google how to turn it off the first time I brought it up.

After doing a little research I discovered 7 plays the devil with six core procs and needs two patches to recognize all six cores at once.
Maybe I've found my glitch.
I'll try 4.2 ( and above ) tomorrow.
Appreciate all your help friend.

You're welcome. Time to get ready for beddy bye.

Thanks for reminding me I need to update my Sig. You need to give us yours now. Go to Quick Links at the top and "Edit Signature".