[HELP] Overclocking Athlon II X4 630

[trents]

Yeah, it looks like your vcore may have been too low and your HT to high. Those are the only problems I see at this point.

What is your CPU/NB voltage set to? You were having trouble finding that item in bios and I had suggested setting it to 1.225 to star with.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Okay guys so after a lot of testing this is what I have so far:







It is late here so I am going to call it a night, but I will be on tomorrow to hear what you guys think, and if you think there is still more room. Thanks again for all of the help!

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Looks good so far. However you have power savings on which is ok in my book, but to stick the overclock, you need to turn it off. Cool and Quiet. Temps are good. Only temp screen shots we really need is that full load temp. Nice work though. 3500mhz is a decent clock speed. That chip will top out between 3.6 and 3.8ghz. NB is at a good speed. You can lower that NB multiplier if you run into stability problems.

 

[trents]

As SB said (and I forgot to tell you this) this generation of CPU generally overclocked better when the power saving stuff was disabled: Cool N Quiet an C6. I don't think they had Turbo Boost back then but if it's there in bios turn it off as well. Seems like there were some other power saving features that needed disabling but I can't remember what. It's been too long. C7? That stuff would be in a different tab in the bios. Disabling these eliminates the herky jerky swings of voltages and frequencies associated with power saving that can cause instability in the higher ranges of overclock.

But Paul, you've done very well. There might be a bit more overclock in that CPU but even if you don't want to fuss with it any more you have done well. If you want to push it any more the CPU/NB might need more attention, either increasing the CPU/NB voltage (safe up to about 1.35 volts) or just limiting the frequency or both. You have have to take it off of Auto to do that. The adjustment is a multiplier I think or it may be the actual frequency. If it is a multiplier just lower it a notch if necessary.

Your core temps are wonderfully cool for this amount of overclock. Great little CPU cooler, isn't it?

You are at the point now where you need to do a long stress test to confirm stability: 2 hr. if using Prime95 and 3 hr. if using OCCT.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Cool and Quiet - C1E and C6 power states are to be disabled. Any windows power save features as well.

 

[trents]

Yes, C1E. That was it. Thanks, Shrimp.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Hey guys sorry it's taken me so long to reply, been a busy day! I would like to get more out of the over clock if possible with it still being stable. I am sorry for my lack of knowledge, but I am not sure what CE1 and C6 are. Also I hate to ask for more from you Trents, but if you wouldn't mind kind of running me through the next part of the overclock like you did before that would be amazing. Like a step-by-step. The only reason I was able to do what I have done is because of you guys, so thank you very much for that. The cooler you suggested is amazing. Keeps the processor extremely cool. Thank you again.

 

[trents]

Cool and Quiet, C6 and C1E are technologies that control CPU frequency and voltages when the computer is idling so as to reduce power usage (power saving, energy efficiency, "green" stuff). The would be found in the bios under one of the other tabs that you have may have not looked at. When active they can cause instability in higher overclock ranges. We are suggesting you disable those three in bios. you just have to find them.

The rest of the overclocking beyond the point where you are is no different than what you have been doing. Increase FSB freqency, stress test, monitor temps. When instability is encountered increase vcore and maybe CPU/NB voltage, or cut back on the CPU/NB frequency. Keep HT frequency close to stock, not more than about 2150 mhz.

Paul, your pics of the bios earlier on are too small to be helpful. I cant't make out the tab labels across the top where the green technologies might be found.

 

[trents]

Here you go. It's under "CPU Configuration" but I don't see C6. There may not be a C6 with that CPU.

One thing you should do that will turn off some green stuff through Windows is to go to Control Panel>Power Options and set the Power level to "High Performance."

As Shripmbrime mentioned earlier, the "Advanced Clock Calibration" would be an option to see if the L3 cache on the CPU is viable. On the Athlon II CPUs it was disabled at the factory. That's what makes an Athlon II different than a Phenom II. Phenom IIs have L1, L2 and L3 cache and the L3. CPU cache is a small amount of very high speed memory built into the CPU that greatly speeds up processing. I would not mess with the Advanced Clock Calibration until you have your final overclock nailed down and I would first write down all your overclock values so as to be able to quickly plug them back in before messing with ACC. It may render the system unable to post. L3 is usually disabled at the factory because it is defective but sometimes it is done for marketing niche purposes ans is viable or it is close enough to spec to be viable.

 

[trents]

The big thing to keep in mind is that any additional .1 ghz of overclock will require significantly larger vcore increases to be made stable than the one before it. You might just want to go ahead and jump from your current 1.4 vcore amount to about 1.46 and get it over with so as to save time. Check to make sure temps are okay if you do this but they should be.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Okay guys, back at it. I have disabled the Cool and quiet. The C1 was already disabled. Turned the power option to high performance and went to 255MHz on the FBS with the vcore at 1.46. Testing as we speak. I will keep you updated.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Just to clarify so that I do not mess something up, I should NOT exceed 1.5 volts on the vcore? Correct?

 

[pcwhockey18]

So if I cannot exceed 1.5 on the vcore, I think this is all I can get out of the overclock. Before I do the extended stress test I want to make sure that everything looks good. If I can get more out of the overclock I definitely want to push it. Let me know.

 

[trents]

End of the road. I would not push the vcore beyond 1.5 as you risk shortening the life of the CPU significantly and it might not be good for the motherboard as well. It's not a high end board. But you should be proud. You did very well.

You will likely find you need to add a little more vcore to pass a long stress test so leave a little room in the vcore department.

I would be interested to know how much you feel the overclock made a difference. You have added over 31% to your CPU's processing power and it cost you noting but time . . . and a new CPU cooler.

 

[trents]

If you can't pass a long stress test you might also need to give your CPU/NB a voltage bump or lower its frequency.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Thank you for all of your help. I am starting the long stress test here soon. I have the vcore set to 1.5 because I needed it to pass the last test. Is there anything I need to change before I start the test?

 

[trents]

Not that I know of. If you can't pass the long test at 1.5 vcore than I would reduce the FSB by 5 mhz and retry. We all have certain overclock goals in mind but we must reckon with reality.

 

[pcwhockey18]

Yeah so I failed the long test. I haven't changed any of the CPU/NB voltage or frequency setting. I am not sure what the frequency should be. Bumping the voltage is easy but not sure if I should do both or one, but none the less I am not sure what the frequency should be.

 

[trents]

The CPU/NB frequency is open ended. There is no "what it should be." You try to get it as high as you reasonably can but the limit is typically somewhere between 2500-2600. Or you can try extra voltage on it up to about 1.35 max. Or you can lower the frequency below 2500 which I might suggest you do to discern whether the CPU/NB is causing the failure or the core frequency/voltage.

 

[trents]

Paul, you need to create a "Sig" which will list details of your system hardware/OS. You can refer to mine or other users for a pattern. The Signature tool is found in "Settings" at the top of the page and once in settings scroll down the left side for "Edit Signature."