Dolk's Guide to the Phenom II

[trents]

SuperNewB,

I suspect with your CPU voltage at 1.544 and only using the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ to cool it you are having temp related instability. With that amount of voltage and six cores it's going to be producing a lot of watts. What we need you to do is to open up HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open while you run the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes. Then post back with a pic of the HWMonitor interface. If you cannot pass the test for 20 minutes take note of what the max core temps were and the max CPU (socket) temps were right before BSOD. The CPU socket temp may be masked by a generic label like TMPINx. We need to know what your temps are like under full load.

Also, could you post CPU-z tabs: "Memory" and "SPD" along with "CPU" please?

 

[narasimhan]

Hi this is my first post in this forum.
Thanks for this wonderful guide.
I have a few questions.
I have 940BE and have not overclocked yet.
1. The stock CPU speed is 3 GHz and stock CPU-NB speed is 1600MHz.
But as per the table 3 in 1st page my CPU-NB speed should be around 1900 MHz (1700-2100MHz if I include the plus or minus 200MHz) for CPU speed of 3 GHz. So should I increase the CPU-NB multiplier to match table 3 (even for the stock speed of 3 GHz)?
2. I am planning to overclock to 3.4 GHz. I have heard that fot 3.4 GHz I don't need to change any voltages and just need to increase the multiplier to 17 (200 x 17 = 3400). Is that true?
3. I currently use the cool n quiet function. When I select power saver mode in Windows 7 power settings the CPU downclocks to 800MHz when not in use. While gaming I select high performance mode so that the CPU remains at 3 GHz all the time. I would like to retain this functionality even after overclocking. If I select power saver mode the CPU should downclock(to say 800MHz) and in high performance mode it should remain at 3.4GHz. Is it possible?

Here is my rig
Processor: amd phenom quad 940BE (stock cooler)
motherboard: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GXB
Ram: Transcend 4GB ddr2 800mhz
Graphics card: Powercolor hd 4870 1GB(Planning to upgrade to HD7850)
harddisk:Seagate barracuda 1TB and Western digital green 640GB
smps: Corsair VX450

 

[RGone]

1. One 1800 MHz 16-bit HyperTransport link is stock and not 2000Mhz so I don't think I would worry overly about that speed at stock anyway. When you reach your overclock and check temps then you might see if the speed can be increased some. Increased speed here will help some for sure.

2. Is that true? Maybe and maybe not. If you have a crappy processor the answer could be NO. If you have a diamond of a cpu, then the answer could certrainly be YES. It is your own components that will determine Yes or No.

3. I keep cool N quiet working on my Later AMD cpus without any problems. I keep Windows power mode set to Balanced and use 15% as my minimum power setting. This keeps the jump from nearly idle to WFO from being as severe as it could be. I also have a very good CHV mobo that has good voltage response times.

So I would say Yes to #3 within limits. I appreciate the ability to clock down when not loaded very much. That allows me to run 4.5 to 4.8Ghz for work and fall back to about 1500Mhz when doing jack squat.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Cool and Quiet will work up to a multiplier of 18.5 on any board as long as you don't play too much with HT Ref. Clock.

 

[RGone]

Yeah my CHV and 8120 does C n Q fine at 20 x 240.

 

[HitchHiker]

Hi Everyone - I'm a new (noob) member directed here by my older brother who recommended this site as a great resource for OC'ing. As I'm reading up on Dolk's excellent guide here I thought I'd post my specs and and give a brief overview of the situation. In general I'm an avid flight simulation enthusiast and builder of simpits. Generally my flight sim interest revolves around the excellent Digital Combat Simulator series most notably DCS A10C Warthog! I copied the below post from a sim enthusiast site I'm a member of, where I was hoping to get a little help but thought I'd be better off coming to the experts here. Thanks for looking/reading!

Roughly a year ago I received a newer PC from my older brother. He builds new PCs all the time and usually gives me the old one which keeps me up to date in gaming. This current rig is a little old but its still a beast for what it is. The problem I have isn't graphics and such but DCS World (most notably A10C) brings this thing to its knees in terms of CPU performance.

I run a mutli-monitor set up with the main monitor (a projector) at 1600x1200 and the secondary at 1920x1200. I utilize HELIOS for displaying gauges and export the MFDs and RWR as well from DCS. I turn the MFDs off in the ingame cockpit as to give the game a little break display wise. I also run the DCS on cores 3-4 to get a little FPS boost. Even with all that my current rig still suffers in custom missions. I seem to average anywhere from 10-30 FPS in DCS usually in online play and almost always flying custom missions of various size. My specs are below and I was wondering if any of the tech gurus here could help out an overclocking noob such as myself in OCing this machine.


GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ940XCGIBOX

XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler with Stealth Aerospace Industry Thermal

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Desktop Memory Model KHX8500D2K2/4G (actually x2 since its running 8gigs of ram)

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC

XFX HD-487A-ZDDC Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

The case itself has great cooling and although the room its in produces a lot of heat due to the PC and projector running I usually just open a window to get cool air indoors.

Can anyone help a noob out? I'm no noob to PCs or PC gaming in general but I've never OC'ed before. My older brother did have it up from 3.0ghz to 3.4 running perfectly stable but thought he could have gone higher if he wanted to but decided to play it safe. I appreciate any help anyone can give me. I'm really hoping I can squeeze some more performance out of this machine DCS is the most CPU intensive game I play and Arma II is probably a close second!

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

In a nutshell are there any surprises or dangers I should be aware of before attempting to OC this machine?

NOTE: If anyone has interest in flight simming or simpits in general PM me and I can send you links to my simpit build and a quick video of my gear.

NOTE 2: I figured it would be good to mention I'm also running the following:

Win Vista 64
On-board MOBO sound
Not sure of the case but it has great airflow and roughly 7 fans

As for USB devices that's a list:

Photo printer
Receiver for G930 Wireless Headset
Logitech wireless key/mouse

Hooked up through two powered USB Hubs are the following:

Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS (joystick/throttle)
Saitek Pro Command Unit
Contour Shuttle Pro A/V controller
Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital
Thrustmaster MFD controllers
TrackIR

 

[RGone]

Since you say your brother had the rig up to 3.4Ghz, ask him for his settings and try that first and foremost since you say it was 'perfectly' stable.

 

[HitchHiker]

Yeah that's where I started this journey but since he was already using his new PC for about 6 months before he gave it to me he doesn't remember what he set everything at. Its a little frustrating from my point of view because he reset the machine to stock settings and wiped the thing clean before he handed it over. I'm banging my head against the wall since he knows from all the discussions we've had about how the sims I play are really CPU intensive. Thanks for the response though, I'll keep reading through the guide here to see if I can wrap my head around this.

Note: I'm not sure if a hard drive plays much into OC'ing but my brother gave me an Intel 510 series SSD hard drive tonight. It's 120gb that he replaced with a 240gb SSD drive. I plan to back up my current drive to it in the next few days and get installed. I'll install the old drive as a secondary. Pretty excited about this!

 

[RGone]

This is a very long running thread an n0t many even bother to look in it since only the very newest actually post in this thread. That statement in general after it has been here so long.

Get out of this thread and start your own thread in the AMD cpu section. Make a signature like unto what is shown in mine in red/green. Mobo, ram, cpu, cooling, case, etc. The more specific you are about mobo/bios version, ram/make/model/ etc, the better the replies you may get.

Help in overclocking my 940BE is a good thread title.

Tell them you have established your baseline by doing as outlined below. That will make it OH SO much better. Simply though you up the multiplier and test as below until it fails in P95 blend mode or gets too hot. Fails and not too hot...raise Vcore. It does not get harder nor easier than that.

These are the types of information that most users supply in order to be able to help them very much.

CPU Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

Memory Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

SPD Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

And this is screen capture of HWMonitor (free version) from CPUID com
HWMonitor has been scrolled enough and large enough to show Min/Max of Voltages and includes the CPU CORE TEMPS fully visible.

This capture is made of HWMonitor after it has been open on the desktop logging Min/Max temps and voltages while Prime 95 was running Blend Mode test on all cores for at least 20 mins and then the capture of HWMonitor was made and it shows the Min/Max temps and voltages before P95 Blend was started and while running P95 Blend mode and gives much greater insight into how the system is performing without guessing.

In order to attach screenshots of images as suggested, first crop and capture the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories or equivalent. Then click on Go Advanced, a button at the bottom of every new post window. Then click on the little paperclip tool at the top of the Advanced post window when it opens. Clicking on the paperclip tool brings up the file browser/upload tool and the rest is fairly obvious.

 

[HitchHiker]

Rgone thanks so much for the reply will get to work on the necessary info and post and a new thread as you suggested.

 

[RGone]

Rgone thanks so much for the reply will get to work on the necessary info and post and a new thread as you suggested.

Good deal.

 

[HitchHiker]

RGone thanks again for the tips as a result of the CPUZ software I realized some of the info my brother provided me on components was incorrect most notably the MOBO, GPU and Ram! I'm now gathering the correct info from the machine itself and putting together the info to make a thread. I'm thinking some damage has been averted!

 

[RGone]

RGone thanks again for the tips as a result of the CPUZ software I realized some of the info my brother provided me on components was incorrect most notably the MOBO, GPU and Ram! I'm now gathering the correct info from the machine itself and putting together the info to make a thread. I'm thinking some damage has been averted!

Most of these rigs are a lot tougher than we give them credit for. Glad you are getting accurately acquainted with your rig. Looking forward to your thread.

RGone...ster.

 

[JLiRD808]

Could anyone take a look at my thread here, and let me know if I supplied the adequate info?

Tryin to OC a 1055t in a Biostar BIOS.

THANKS!!!

 

[narasimhan]

Hi guys. I tried OCing in my stock cooler and successfully OCed till 3.3GHz(200x16.5). But my temp when I ran Intel burn test is 66 C which is high.
But when I enabled CnQ and it reduced to 800MHz(200x4) and temp also reduced to 31 C idle. I only use the OCed 3.3GHz while gaming(all other times I use CnQ). And moreover most games does not load the CPU like intel burn test.
So can I continue with this OC or should I go back to stock(3GHz which is around 60 C in intel burn test)?

 

[tikithorsen]

Hi guys. I tried OCing in my stock cooler and successfully OCed till 3.3GHz(200x16.5). But my temp when I ran Intel burn test is 66 C which is high.
But when I enabled CnQ and it reduced to 800MHz(200x4) and temp also reduced to 31 C idle. I only use the OCed 3.3GHz while gaming(all other times I use CnQ). And moreover most games does not load the CPU like intel burn test.
So can I continue with this OC or should I go back to stock(3GHz which is around 60 C in intel burn test)?

Well, what I do either for my CPU or GPU, when I stress test them, I set the fans speed to their max and after back to auto/PWM with CnQ on the CPU enabled. Because gaming will give you around 10c less on the CPU and GPU, so there is no need to worry about them temps after you know they are stable.

 

[narasimhan]

Hey thanks for the tip. Then can I also try 3.4GHz or 3.6?

 

[tikithorsen]

Hey thanks for the tip. Then can I also try 3.4GHz or 3.6?

Go for the 3.6!

 

[narasimhan]

Thanks. But I'll just stick with 3.4GHz . I am planning to buy HD7850 2GB OCd graphics card and my main reason for overclocking is to make sure the processor does not bottleneck the graphics card.
I have one more question. I was hoping that HW monitor will show the power consumption on OCing. But the power remains at 140.40W even after OCing. But if I activate CnQ it goes back to 44W.
Can you guys tell a rough power difference between stock 3.0GHz(VID at 1.328V) and 3.4GHz(VID at 1.357V)? I guess it is the voltage difference x current. But I don't know the current and I am not sure if the current is same. I just want to know if my power supply corsair vx450 can support the OCd processor and graphics card. It did support the stock processor and HD4870(which consumes more than HD7850 I guess).

 

[tikithorsen]

¿Anyone knows what is the stock voltage or the lowest voltage of the CPU-NB of a 965?