First Post: Oc'd 8350 on air to 4.5ghz

[Fugu]

Is there any direction I should be going right now? Should I try the 4.5ghz Overclock using AMD overdrive and try to make it stable? Seems that even at 4.3ghz it will shutdown in Prime95 but runs my Racing sim effortlessly.

 

[Skribble]

i think your going to have to throw some volts at it, as daunting as that sounds. I'm like you, just starting to get the hang of things. I didn't want to up the volts for fear of system failure just as you, but it really does help. if its failing prime just up the volts just one step and try again. It really isn't as dangerous as it sounds as long as you take it very slowly.

 

[Fugu]

i think your going to have to throw some volts at it, as daunting as that sounds. I'm like you, just starting to get the hang of things. I didn't want to up the volts for fear of system failure just as you, but it really does help. if its failing prime just up the volts just one step and try again. It really isn't as dangerous as it sounds as long as you take it very slowly.

Something i've found hard to find.. What increments of voltage? I don't want to go to slowly and spend days finding stability and I don't want to make massive jumps either.

What i'm curious about is if the Ram has any effect on the OC. Do I put the ram up to 2133 with the 11-11-11-27 timings as recommended by Corsair or leave as is until I get the CPU set at 4.5ghz stable.

 

[Skribble]

in the bios my voltage moves up in "steps" +.025, +.050, +.075. when i was at stock volts and i failed in prime or drop a core stop the test, reboot into bios and set the voltage to manual and click +.025. then i tried it again and worked perfectly. the heat did rise a bit, but nothing crazy. all it takes usually is just a small step. never take a massive jump.

it wont take days. just up the voltage one step at a time, usually it doesn't take more than one or two increases if your trying something modest like 4.4. But i am in no way at the level to be giving you advice, this is simply what i've been doing to gain some confidence and get my foot through the door, once you do it once it's not so scary any more .

 

[Fugu]

Just don't want to blow it up! Thanks for the advice!

 

[Fugu]

I gave it a go with manually adjusting the Voltage and i'm 2minutes in on Prime. It's never made it this far before!

4.5ghz running at 1.332V in CPUz and set to 1.4375volts in AMD overdrive.

It's showing stability with 1 step up of voltage with the AMD overdrive utility. I know alot of people like to manually set this up in Bios but I really like a utility like this. For a beginner it gives insight into clock settings and how multipliers affect the Overclock.

6 minutes in and no errors. I'm thrilled so far!

Got excited. Forgot to load the 4.5ghz profile and then torture test on that setting. So i'm trying it again now.

 

[Fugu]

 

[PolRoger]

I believe that you should be able to stabilize a 4.5 overclock by just adjusting voltages in BIOS... Usually vcore and LLC (to control vdroop) and some bumps to CPU/NB.

You ought be able to eventually run your ram at 2133 11-11-11 but you could test first at 1600 or 1866 to help take a variable out of the mix while your dialing in your overclock.

I would try 4.5 with ~1.45v vcore and LLC set to ultra. Keep an eye on your temps while stressing under load.

Here is a picture of my current "crunching" overclock... (Note: Vcore set to 1.475 in BIOS but droops ~1.45v under load):

 

[Fugu]

I ran some more last night and got the Voltage up to 1.46 and although the 4.5ghz overclock ran it's farthest it locked up the PC this time while making its way through the 3rd test on Prime95 (4 minutes) and was sitting at 59C.

I'm very tempted to just buy a WaterCooling setup and install it but if I can't figure out how to get it stable on Air i'm just asking for trouble taking it a step further with water.

 

[caddi daddi]

if your at 59c package temp you require more vcore, if you add more vcore you add more heat.
reduce your clock with this cooler.
with your cooler i think 4.4 should suffice.

 

[caddi daddi]

as for going to water, what do you want to do with this combo?
clock to high ghz or get real work done?

 

[Mandrake4565]

Fugu, I have found on my 8350 that a combo of multiplier and fsb offers a better overclock performance wise. Just keep in check the frequency of your ram, ht link and nb frequency. I have also found as well as others that increasing the VDDA voltage helps stabilize the overclock at lower CPU V core.

 

[Fugu]

Hmm. Keep temps down really. I'm almost thinking a Push Pull with higher RPM or CFM would do well to.

I did step it down to 4.4ghz and as soon as I turned on Prime95 I went to a BSOD.


So it's basics and i'm learning, Stability comes from adding VCore and heat comes with it. Better cooling allows you to run a higher clock with more voltage with more stability, I got that.

The Clocks i'm having trouble with.

200mhz (ht ref) x (multiplier) gives me my Core Clock. Can I raise the Ht Reference clock above 200mhz and what happens when you do?

What does the HT (hyperthread?) multiplier do? whats the difference between 11 and 13 (13 being max setting and 11 being Stock setting).

 

[caddi daddi]

at this point don't mess with all that, multi and vcore only, learn to overclock by learning one setting at a time or it gets out of hand.

once you can get all you can get the basic way then begain to get into the finer details.
temps, temps, temps, 55c-62c max "core" or "package temp".
"cpu" or "socket" temp within 10c of that and you will be safe.

 

[Fugu]

Fugu, I have found on my 8350 that a combo of multiplier and fsb offers a better overclock performance wise. Just keep in check the frequency of your ram, ht link and nb frequency. I have also found as well as others that increasing the VDDA voltage helps stabilize the overclock at lower CPU V core.

If I can set my VDDA to Auto would that be respectable? VDDA is the Droop as mentioned before if I'm correct.
My last BSOD may have been caused by a large drop in voltage? While watching the cores work in AMD overdrive I can see voltage fluctuations as well as Core speeds. (noticeable on HWmonitor too with less fancy graphics).

I looked up the definition of VDDA and there is a risk of overvolting if it's too high. I'm guessing it works like a large Capacitor that holds a charge ready to let it go when it's needed.

 

[Fugu]

at this point don't mess with all that, multi and vcore only, learn to overclock by learning one setting at a time or it gets out of hand.

I agree! Learn to walk before I run. So 4.5ghz might be a bit much for me right now to stabilize. 4.2ghz is turbocore's setting. 4.3ghz stable might be a start and if I can get that to be stable i'll move on to the next logical step. Buy an intel i7

 

[caddi daddi]

can't argue with that.
any 8 core processor makes lots and lots of heat.

 

[caddi daddi]

do you have harware monitor, amd overdrive and at suite installed?

 

[Fugu]

at suite? Have hwmonitor, Cpu-Z I honestly should get my Bios Version posted too.

 

[caddi daddi]

excuse me AI suite, it came on your asus driver cd.
do you have all these installed at the same time?