FX-6300 first time OC

[GroovyMotion]

Greetings,
I have started to experiment with the OC, first of all my mobo is a GA-990FXA-UD5, my RAM is G.Skill 1600.
So I tried different settings and so far the only stable one is:
-FSB@220
-HT@1800
-Disabled Turbo and C1E
When I combined FSB and multi it became unstable and the furthest I got is in windows7 and start Prime95 but it froze after 3min:
-FSB@200
-Multi@19x
-Vcore: +0.150v
-HT: Auto

My casing is a Carbide 330R with stock front/back fans and a Corsair H60 for the cpu...setup for pushing outside air and swapped the back fan to the top, also pushing hot air out.

Here are some graphs...I really want to go to beyond 4.2Ghz, not pushing for 4.5 either! I am mostly running FSX which is an extreme cpu sim!
Any help would be appreciated!
Cheers!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Vcore is high for your overclock.
Ram is in single channel (probably wrong slots).
Ram is way overclocked.

 

[GroovyMotion]

Vcore is high for your overclock.
Ram is in single channel (probably wrong slots).
Ram is way overclocked.

RAM is now in dual channel, thanks

 

[Johan45]

As Mr.Scott says your V_Core is quite high for that clock, you may want to have a look at your LLC setting or just dropping it a bit.

 

[GroovyMotion]

As Mr.Scott says your V_Core is quite high for that clock, you may want to have a look at your LLC setting or just dropping it a bit.

Yeah I had set my vcore to +0.150v, will try at default.
For my LLC it's set @100% what should I put? 50%?

Also, I can't get the RAM to stay @1600, it bumps to 1700+ as soon as I raise the multi or the FSB even if I force the RAM to 8x multi?!

 

[Johan45]

LLC settings are more board/ manufacturer specific. You'll have to try it out. I set mine to get just a slight increase under load for example from 1.45v to 1.475 under load. Others prefer it spot on where there's no change under load. You'll have to pick a setting then go into the OS and test it with P95 while watching your voltage with HWmonitor and decide from that where to set it. Also check for an EPU and APM setting in the bios and disable them. Some boards have them some don't.

 

[GroovyMotion]

Yes there is an APM, will disable it! Thanks!
And I will try the LLC settings as well

 

[trents]

GroovyM, one thing you may not realize is that when you increase the FSB frequency there are three other frequencies that will increase at the same time because they are tuned to the FSB: Memory, HT Link and CPU/NB. That's why your ram frequency isn't staying put. So if you are going to employ the FSB in overclocking you will need to start the memory at 1333 instead of 1600 to give it some headroom.

 

[GroovyMotion]

GroovyM, one thing you may not realize is that when you increase the FSB frequency there are three other frequencies that will increase at the same time because they are tuned to the FSB: Memory, HT Link and CPU/NB. That's why your ram frequency isn't staying put. So if you are going to employ the FSB in overclocking you will need to start the memory at 1333 instead of 1600 to give it some headroom.

Thanks Trents, I was limiting the HT and CPU/NB but not the ram!

 

[RGone]

The race begins at the starting line...

.
...getting to the starting line.
We have no idea what will be just fine. Most is trial and error in overclocking. Here is how you tell for any AMD FX processor and any motherboard.

Written by Mandrake4565 at the link below. And is SO for all FX overclocking. Period.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7603641&postcount=16

I read through the posts above and this is what I'm thinking. First off I agree with the statement Trents often makes, trying to push these Fx chips on low end motherboards is usually a tough task. Inadequate, power sections usually require more Cpu V for X Mhz which in turn causes a lower end board to throttle the Vrm section to save it's own life. . I feel your best bet would be to start from square one again using Prime 95 blend to test. Trying to overclock to a certain mhz target and just plugging in numbers can be a very frustrating way to overclock, one can easily get lost trying to find a stable overclock.

What I would do is go back to default settings then set your Cpu V manually to 1.40 and your Cpu Nb Voltage to 1.2, then start bumping the multiplier .5 and run prime 20 minutes until it fails prime, ie BSOD, Freeze or a lost worker. At that point I would test for true stability, passing 2 hours of prime, by doing the following. Back the multiplier down .5 and run prime, if it fails then raise the Cpu V until it either passes or you reach 70c on the Cpu or 62 c on the package.
END what "mandrake4565 said.

Doing as "mandrake4565 is suggesting will rather logically get you very close to the max speed your cpu can run and THEN you can deal with ram speeds and timings and CPU_NB speeds and all the ancillary stuff. Using just the multiplier will give the quickest route to finding the max cpu speed and then the other can follow since the the ball is in the park not foul out in left or right field.

RGone...

EDIT:
To begin to overclock and make it easier so things in the background are not fooling around making 'changes', it is suggested to disable C1/E, C6, Cool N Quiet, TurboCore, APM or EPU if in particular board's bios (look for it). In many gigglebyte boards you have an option to enable HPC which is HighPoPC. Enable HPC.

Then in windows power manager set "performance mode" so that winders is not dorking the speeds around. Finally now most of the green shett is off and captures taken should reflect the full monte.
END EDIT.

 

[Priller]

What ram speed do you have? You are currently running your ram at 1760 and if you only have 1600 then you are getting issues from overspeeding the ram. Back down the FSB and start to raise the multi.

Also set your HT link speed to 2200(default)

 

[GroovyMotion]

Ok I went back to:
-FSB: 220Mhz
-LLC: high
-RAM: around 1400Mhz
EDIT: It was rock stable for 45min. My vcore and temps are quite good now, what do you think?
Here are my new graphs:

 

[GroovyMotion]

What ram speed do you have? You are currently running your ram at 1760 and if you only have 1600 then you are getting issues from overspeeding the ram. Back down the FSB and start to raise the multi.

Also set your HT link speed to 2200(default)

My ram is 1600 and I set it to ~1400
I was reading that the HT should not be set to default or is it with much more OC speeds?

 

[GroovyMotion]

What I would do is go back to default settings then set your Cpu V manually to 1.40 and your Cpu Nb Voltage to 1.2, then start bumping the multiplier .5 and run prime 20 minutes until it fails prime, ie BSOD, Freeze or a lost worker. At that point I would test for true stability, passing 2 hours of prime, by doing the following. Back the multiplier down .5 and run prime, if it fails then raise the Cpu V until it either passes or you reach 70c on the Cpu or 62 c on the package.

So should I bump the multi by 0.5 with these low voltage and then once it fails I lower the multi and up the voltage or leave it at v 1.40?

Thanks for all the great details RGone, I will go through them

 

[Priller]

My ram is 1600 and I set it to ~1400
I was reading that the HT should not be set to default or is it with much more OC speeds?

Your voltage has fallen. I would fix your LLC level until your voltage is stable under load.

Meaning you set it to 1.45 and with prime95 running it will remain at 1.450 volts.

Your default HT link multi is x11 for 2200. I set mine to x12 and it does help with performance.

 

[GroovyMotion]

Your voltage has fallen. I would fix your LLC level until your voltage is stable under load.

Meaning you set it to 1.45 and with prime95 running it will remain at 1.450 volts.

Your default HT link multi is x11 for 2200. I set mine to x12 and it does help with performance.

So you mean put LLC at max?
My vcore is at default right now, in the mobo it shows 1.236 this is too low?
I just set the HT to default 2600

 

[trents]

Your settings and your temps look great at this point. What you want to do is eventually increase your FSB to the point where your RAM frequency is back to 1600 mhz, it's rate max frequency. Yeah, the RAM may be stable at a little higher than 1600 mhz, especially if you over volt it by about .05 but basically, shoot for 1600 mhz. If that takes your CPU frequency or the HT Link or the CPU/NB too high then adjust them downward. Aim for about 2400 mhz in both the HT Link and CPU/NB.

You will also need to add to your CPU voltage at some point (what we call "vcore") as you progress in your overclock to maintain stability.

Also, monitor your RAM timings with the CPU-z "Memory" tab and compare them with the XP-1600 column timings in the CPU-z "SPD" tab which gives manufacturer recommendations for the timings at several frequency levels. When you take the the RAM speed onto Manual, then the timings do not dynamically adjust like they would on Auto. So you may have to tweak the timings manually at some point.

 

[GroovyMotion]

Your settings and your temps look great at this point. What you want to do is eventually increase your FSB to the point where your RAM frequency is back to 1600 mhz, it's rate max frequency. Yeah, the RAM may be stable at a little higher than 1600 mhz, especially if you over volt it by about .05 but basically, shoot for 1600 mhz. If that takes your CPU frequency or the HT Link or the CPU/NB too high then adjust them downward. You will also need to add to your CPU voltage at some point (what we call "vcore") as you progress in your overclock to maintain stability. Aim for about 2400 mhz in both the HT Link and CPU/NB.

Also, monitor your RAM timings with the CPU-z "Memory" tab and compare them with the XP-1600 column timings in the CPU-z "SPD" tab which gives manufacturer recommendations for the timings at several frequency levels. When you take the the RAM speed onto Manual, then the timings do not dynamically adjust like they would on Auto. So you may have to tweak the timings manually at some point.

Thanks trents! I now set my HT@2400 and it shows running @ 2639 in CPU-Z.
In the spd tab this is what I see right now:

 

[trents]

The "SPD" tab simply reports what the manufacturer's recommendations are for the memory timings and voltage at several frequency levels. The "Memory" tab of CPU-z is what reports your current memory frequency and timings and also the CPU/NB current frequency. You must multiply CPU-z'x memory frequency report by 2 in order to convert it to DDR3 terms since it is reporting the bus speed not the DDR3 frequency.

Please add the "CPU" tab and "Memory" tab pics to the "SPD" tab pic you posted in #18. Not enough info without them. We generally want those three posted together.

 

[GroovyMotion]

Ok @ 225Mhz and 230 I got a BSOD after running prime for 15min.
Those were my figures @225 but it crashes: