AMD FX-4100 Overclocking Help

[kevinduke13]

I'm new to overclocking, and i just got my new Thermaltake NiC C5 120mm CPU cooler and i want to overclock it from a 3.6ghz to 4.5ghz because i feel like my cpu is bottlenecking my gpu. Will my CPU cooler be enough for this task? All the help would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance

MOBO > Biostar TA970 Ver.4.6.4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...72&cm_re=Biostar_TA970-_-13-138-372-_-Product

CPU & Cooler > AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6ghz (goal 4.5ghz) / Thermaltake NiC C5 120mm CPU cooler

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996

Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6&cm_re=thermaltake_c5-_-35-106-216-_-Product

MEMORY > G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._DDR3_1600_(PC3_12800)-_-20-231-428-_-Product

POWER SUPPLY > RAIDMAX Blackstone series RX-700AC 700W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ctive_PFC_Power_Supply-_-17-152-042-_-Product

VIDEO CARD > SAPPHIRE 100364-4GBF4L Radeon R9 270X 4GB GDDR5 Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...X_4GB_GDDR5_Video_Card-_-14-202-078-_-Product

HDDs/Optical drives > Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._WD10EZEX_1TB_7200_RPM-_-22-236-339-_-Product

SOUND DEVICE > Onboard


O/S > Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit

Case > RAIDMAX Raptor ATX-823BR Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...279&cm_re=raidmax_case-_-11-156-279-_-Product

 

[Johan45]

Hi there kevinduke13 to OCF

If you're looking to OC that CPU then I would suggest you have a read through this guide http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688663 . The next thing I would ask and thank you for all the info by the way that helps a lot. The one thing I would ask is after you read through that guide take anther SS of HWMonitor while running P95 blend for about 20 minutes this will tell us a lot about your OC prospects. It'll let us see the system under load and how hot it gets at stock.

 

[RGone]

Going forward; remember that the Biostar TA970 Ver.4.6.4 motherboard, is 4 +1 VRM power phase with heat sink over the VRM area.
RGone...

 

[trents]

Kevin, the possible/probably limiting component to your goal may not be the cooler but the motherboard, as RGone has already alluded to. Even though you are only using a four core FX it's TDP rating is the same as the 8 core FX CPUs and will put a lot more strain on your board's power phase components than you might realize. AMD used lower quality silicone in the four and six core FX chips and that means they need more volts to run at the same speed as the FX eight cores. More volts equals more heat.