First Time Ever Overclocking. Help Please :)

[!SeekerOfTruth!]

Hello everybody.

I just finished building my first computer and I was interested in learning more about overclocking and related things. I am just looking to see how to do it, benefits and limits of my CPU. I can't edit my signature yet because this is my first post, but here are my specs.

MOBO > MODEL: BIOSTAR Group A880GZ BIOS: American Megatrends Ic. 4.6.4,12/22/2011
CPU & Cooler > CPU: AMD FX(tm)-6100 Six-Core Processor 3.3 GhZ COOLER: Stock Fans, CPU came with Heat Sink Fan
MEMORY > MANUFACTURER: Kingston Hyper X, 8GB, DDR3-1600 CL9 240-Pin
POWER SUPPLY > MANUFACTURER: Dynex, WATTS: 520W
VIDEO CARD > MAKE: Radeon MODEL: HD 5750 NUMBER: 1
HDDs/Optical drives > SSD: Samsung 830 128 GB. HDD: 1TB Western Digital
SOUND DEVICE > Onboard Sound
O/S > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
Case > Diablotek Abyss ATX Mid-Tower 1 x Front LED 120MM Fan, 1 X Rear 120MM Fan

I already installed CPU-Z, HWMonitor, prime95. But I am not sure what to do with them exactly.

Thanks for reading

 

[trents]

Welcome to OC Forums, Seeker!

The first thing to do is to do a core and CPU socket temp check with everything at stock frequencies and voltages to see how much if any headroom you have for overclocking. Overclocking drives up temps and maintaining temps below a certain level is critical to stable overclocking. Instability sets in before temps are reached that can damage the processor. With the stock CPU cooler there will likely not be much temp room to overclock.

So, first, open up HWMonitor on your desktop and leave it open while you run a 20 minute Prime95 blend test. If at any time you see core temps exceed 60c or CPU temps exceed 70c, stop the Prime95 test.

At the end of that time, leave HWMonitor open and use Windows Accessories Snipping Tool to crop the image and save it to disk. Then click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window. This will load the Advanced post window. Click on the little paperclip icon at the top and the rest of how to attach an image will be obvious.

Harry Trent

 

[Solder]

Let me first say to the OCers forums!

Start here, give it a good solid read through. As for your board, I've heard nothing about OC performance on those. If you're looking to do any real overclocking, you will have to buy an after-market CPU cooler for sure.
I'm sure others will welcome your questions and have some good advice after you have read through the guide. OCing can be dangerous for your hardware so you have to do your research first.

 

[!SeekerOfTruth!]

Thanks guys!! Attached is the HWMonitor screenshot you were looking for

 

[Suppressor1137]

^_^
Now...to business...

Is it just me, or are his voltages Very low...

Am I just not seeing something?

I would await further input from more seasoned members before you start messing with Overclocking with those voltages.

 

[trents]

Seeker, looks like you need to disable the "green" power-saving, down-throttling stuff that messes with voltages and frequencies and can cause instability when overclocking.

Go into bios and disable cool n quiet, C1e, C6, Turbo and APM. Then go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance. After doing all that, rerun the 20 minute Prime95 stress test with HWMonitor open and repost with a new HWMonitor interface pic.

Your CPU socket temp would appear to be the line in HWMOnitor, "TMPIN0" or "THRM" and since they are both registering the same it doesn't make any difference.

 

[!SeekerOfTruth!]

I went into BIOS and disabled c6, and c1e. However I see no option in the BIOS for cool n quiet, turbo and APM. And I have the power option set to power performance. Yet...as the test is running again I am not seeing any difference in the voltage at all. Am I missing those options in the BIOS?

 

[!SeekerOfTruth!]

See above post for issues with disabling options in BIOS. Here is the HWMonitor after I changed what I could.

 

[RGone]

1. How about some straight talk.

2. The likelihood of a board that shows for sale at only $60.00 in todays market has little chance for much real overclocking. The components are not hefty enough for overclocking an FX series processor as most of us usually do in forums. No heatsinks on the CPU voltage circuit and appears to be a 3+1 or maybe a 4+1 power phase to the cpu. And the VRM circuit is lagging behind technology as it is analog.

3. If what this NewEgg reviewer posted is accurate, then I am not surprised the 'seeker' says he does not see many of the needed overclock options in the bios.

Nov 1, 2012 NewEgg Reviewer >>
Cons: BIOS sucks....somewhat difficult to navigate, but beware: no way to overclock the core clock! Everyboard i've had has been able to do this. I think it's worth taking an egg off.

Other Thoughts: I will use this board and am happy with it ....seemingly very stable. However, I'm a bit ticked off that i can't overclock at all with this board (unless, i suppose, i get an unlocked processor..... guess you get what you pay for..

If accurate, the lack of FSB/CPU frequency adjustment certainly is not a good reference for the A880GZ motherboard to be considered overclockable.

4. The FX-series of processors have built in circuitry to auto-overclock the processor based on Loading of the processor and if left to do what the processor was designed to do will likely do quite well performnace wise on a motherboard that is definitely not suited to overclocking as most understand overclocking.

5. Here in the AMD CPU Forum section we have been for nearly 20 mos. suggesting that users stay away from Biostar and some MSI AMD boards. The Biostars have had a habit of blowing the Mosfets off the motherboard and there seems no changes made to that circuit but just a bios change to allow FX processors to run on the older 800 chipset instead of the 900 chipset.

6. IF it is for real that the FSB/CPU Freq settings are removed or absent from the Bios, it is most likely because Biostar does not intend for users to get in bios and push the speed of the processor upwards and risk damage to the motherboard.

7. The motherboard and power supply are the foundation of a system that can be overclocked. The A880GZ is not such a foundation from all information currently available.

 

[trents]

Seeker, I think some of those green bios options (Cool N Quiet for sure) disappear and are not active when Power Mode is set to High Performance.

 

[swampdonkey]

Yea just as RGone said you wont get very far with that motherboard. The power delivery just isnt very good. You can overclock a little but not very far. If you are serious about it and want to get 4ghz and up then get yourself a good quality asus board like the sabertooth 990fx r2.0 or the crosshair V formula. Another thing to think about is the stock cooler isnt very good for overclocking so look at upgrading that.

 

[trents]

Seeker, the approach I would take with overclocking that CPU would be to see how far it will go on stock voltage before trying to add any CPU voltage. I would increase the CPU multiplier .5x at a time. I would run the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes after each increase to check for stability and temps. If you pass the test, increase the multiplier (maybe called "CPU core ratio" or something like that in bios). Failing the Prime95 stress test means either blue screen, spontaneous restart, lockup or if you are very close to being stable, one or more Prime workers will drop out but the rest keep going. Always have HWMonitor to track temps when you stress test. You want to not allow the core temp to exceed 60c or the CPU socket temp to exceed 70c. Stop the test if they do but you may encounter instability before that.

The first time you fail the Prime stress test, reduce the multiplier back to the previous stable value and then post back with pics of:

1. HWMonitor after the highest CPU speed stable run.
2. CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD"

As others have said, don't expect too much out of this board and your limited CPU cooling.