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Did I get a really good chip? 4ghz on 1.375v Phenom II

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firefoxx04

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Joined
Oct 14, 2013
I built my dad a rig recently and I think I got way too good of an overclock to be true, but it would not fail a stress test.


Phenom 965
Asus M5A97 (970 chipset)
Cruicial Ram kits 2x4gb 1600mhz
750W corsair
7850 GPU
OCZ SSD
XIGMATEK Gaia cooler running a single 120mm fan. Stays under 60C full load.

The cpu is running 4ghz with a multiplier overclock with only 1.375v. Yes you read that correctly.

The NB is at 2800mhz with only 1.375v. The system runs stable in prime for hours. I ran it hard multiple times to try and get it to fail but it simply would not. This astounds me because the board is a 4+1 phase but it has nice heatsinks on the VRMs.


Meanwhile my personnel rig is running 4.2ghz with a phenom 965 (UD3 990fx board) but my chip is at least a year older than my dads. Maybe his is binned much higher + a little luck. I need 1.55volts under load to get 4.2ghz stable and I needed about 1.475-1.50v to get 4ghz stable. I also could not get my NB to run 2800mhz with the same voltage, I settled for 2600mhz @ 1.375v.

My system runs cooler with the water loop, maxes out at 50C.


anyways, I thought I would share both of the overclocks that I have done with AMD systems.
 
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This is a decent voltage for the clock speed.

With a Max Pstate vcore of 1.4v, your really not pushing the VRM package very hard at all.

I've run multiple mini ATX boards with 7 series chipsets. TBH, I've had some really good luck with them. NB at 3ghz with Phenom II processors was never a problem even all the way back to my 940BE when it was released.

Word of advice for the motherboard.... actively cool the VRMs just in case. They can handle high heat, but keeping them cool will help them last longer and prevent failing.

Thanks for the input. You got a decent setup for probably pretty cheap :D
 
Thanks. The case I used was a Corsair 300R with a 140mm exhaust and 140mm intake. Cables are all hidden and the air flows really good.

I was just surprised because ive never been able to get 4ghz on any phenom II (dual cores and quad cores) with under 1.4v. Hell, the board defaulted to 1.425 volts. Overclocked and under volted.

Im starting to think the old stock newegg is selling of the 965 are from the most recent production and possibly put together better. If anything, my board should OC better than my Dads.. but not with my chip. Id love to trade with him and see what I can get when i turn up the voltage and add my water loop.
 
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