First time overclocker, can you pleasee help me?

[trents]

I am just posting this for when you come back. I tried to overclock to 3.1Ghz. Ran prime for 1hr it said Completed 29 tests in 59 minutes, 0 errors, 0 warnings. I noticed that often the voltage will go down to 1.160 and the speed to 1600mhz for a while then goes back to 1.260V and 3.1Ghz and vice-versa. Did that throught the entire test. It stayed at 1.160 @ 1600Mhz for longer periods of time over the 3.1Ghz. Is that normal? Attached is the HWMonitor report for the testing.

View attachment 124159

View attachment 124161

What could be happening is that the system is down-throttling itself to protect against power draw overload.

Do a couple of things, please.
1. Go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and make sure the option is set to High Performance.
2. Make sure the "green" stuff is disabled in bios: Cool N Quiet, C states and Turbo Core.
3. Check the bios for a setting that shuts things or gives an alarm when a Thermal Limit temp is exceeded. It may be found in a bios section with a label like "PC Health" or some such thing.

Retest with Prime95 and see if you get that same down-throttling effect. If so, there may be nothing that can be done. It's just a limitation of the motherboard. What you really need to do is get a better motherboard with a heavier duty power phase rating.

 

[johnnysti08]

Ok all "green stuff" is disabled, set it to high performance also but it still downthrottles. I saw an option in the bios saying enable thermal throttle, which is on. However i am really afraid to disable that cause im afraid i fry it as i cant afford to buy a new mobo right now. Howver i have been looking and when prime was off it never downthrottled

 

[trents]

Yeah, Thermal Throttle is the technology that you're fighting against right now. So the deal is you can run it overclocked when doing light tasks but demanding tasks will cause it to down-throttle, which it may have done anyway, even at stock settings. For future reference, if you want to overclock buy a motherboard rated at a higher TDP than the CPU.

 

[johnnysti08]

So do you think when i get my new ram i should still try to go for 3.5Ghz?

 

[trents]

No, I don't think you can get 3.5 ghz on that CPU with that motherboard. The ram isn't the problem. You can always lower the starting speed of the ram to accommodate the overclock of the CPU. Personally, I think the money would have been better spent on another motherboard than on new ram.

 

[johnnysti08]

Strange though, im currently running games, that the overclock was meant for and it isnt downclocking, maybe as prime is supposed to the the ultimate test of the cpu, it was downclocking due to the huge stress

 

[trents]

Strange though, im currently running games, that the overclock was meant for and it isnt downclocking, maybe as prime is supposed to the the ultimate test of the cpu, it was downclocking due to the huge stress

This is probably the case. So what you can do is explore the level of overclock your system will handle while running the apps you use without down-throttling. And you also may find that will change with the seasons and fluctuating room temps.

 

[johnnysti08]

Hahaha i live in the Caribbean its hot most of the times without the aircondition I think im gonna try the 3.5Ghz now and see if it downclocks. Do i have to interfere with anything in voltages?

 

[trents]

With a small overclock you usually can get by without any voltage increase and still have the system stable, I man like .1 to .3 ghz overclock. But if you want to go all the way to a .8 ghz increase you probably will need to add some voltage to the CPU cores. But then you really begin to exacerbate the power draw problem that you are beginning to come up against anyway.

 

[johnnysti08]

Ok max ill go to at least 3.3Ghz

 

[trents]

You would need to take this off of Auto and see if it gives you options to raise the CPU voltage if you want to try that:

 

[johnnysti08]

Ok thanks, final question, when i get my new ram, which is GSkill Ares DDr3 1600, with the overclock at 3.3Ghz can i run it at 1600?

 

[trents]

Ok thanks, final question, when i get my new ram, which is GSkill Ares DDr3 1600, with the overclock at 3.3Ghz can i run it at 1600?

Yes, but you may have to manually tell the bios to run at 1600 instead of 1333. On many motherboards the default ram frequency is 1333.

 

[johnnysti08]

Is there anyway to give rewards on this website?? U have been so awesome and helpful and have taught me alot in the hours you helped me. I am very grateful. Hope anyone who needs help meets you because they will definitely solve their issues. Thanks a million!!

 

[trents]

Your expression of gratitude is plenty of reward. You have been a good student. Keep in touch with us and let us know how it goes with your system as you do upgrades. Where in the Caribbean are you? When I was about 14 yrs. old (I'm now almost 62) we took a vacation to Puerto Rico. It was the most fun vacation of my life! We stayed with my uncle's family as he was stationed in the Air Force on the NW corner of the island. I well remember the azure blue water - just like on the post cards; snorkeling and fishing every day. I could live in that place in a heart beat!

 

[johnnysti08]

Ahh Puerto Rico is nice! I live in Trinidad and Tobago, which is the southern most Caribbean island nearest to South America which is very nice. U should come for a visit, u will enjoy it!

 

[johnnysti08]

This is how it looks like at 3.3GHZ

 

[trents]

Ah, look how low you HT Link frequency is! 1002.9 mhz. Wait a minute! I bet your board can't support AM3+ CPU native HT Frequencies. Let me check it out.

 

[johnnysti08]

My friend keeps on telling me, its the ram, wait till i get the new ram for it to work properly. When i get the 8gb do i have to run it at low speeds with cpu overclock? Also im running default and the HT link is 1004Mhz

 

[trents]

Your current ram is rated for 1333 mhz. If you are getting 1600 mhz ram that will make a little difference. You might notice it.

What I have found out is that your motherboard is a hybrid motherboard. It combines DDR2 and DDR3 capability. The big limitation is that it has an AM2 (as opposed to AM2+/AM3) chipset. That means your HT Link frequency should not be allowed to exceed 1000 mhz and it also suggests you need to limit the CPU/NB frequency (to 2000 mhz, I would say) to prevent too large a disparity between the two which can cause instability. So, cut your CPU/NB back from 2256.6 to 2000 or slightly less (lower the multiplier). See if that helps.