Mild O/C for Phenom II X4 955 BE

[Cage]

Hi all,

I'm an old fart that builds his own computers, for general computing and photo processing. Some of the photo processing programs can bog your machine down so I'm always looking to squeeze a bit more from it.

I've just installed a new mobo and when setting up my BIOS saw lots of tools for tweaking in the M.I.T. section.

I've read Dolk's guide but got lost at the end, and was not sure whether I had to play with the FSB or not on my BE CPU.

What I'd like to achieve is a stable overclock, and from my googlings about 3.6MHz seems about the optimum.

I've read quite a few posts on overclocking the 955, but they mostly seem to be aimed at those looking to max it out.

Also my RAM is maxed @ 1333Mhz because of the Memory Controller on the 955.

Any help most appreciated.

My system:

W7 Pro SP1 64bit O/S
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P (no onboard GPU or SLI support)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 (BE) Revision C3 with Noctua NH-U9B twin fan HS
4 x 4GB G.Skill F3-12800CL9D (Running @ 1333Mhz Unganged)
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 Pro
3 x WD HDD (1 x 2Tb and 2 x 500Gb)
Sapphire Radeon HD5750 with 1GB DDR5
Cooler Master 550W PSU (Probably my weak link)
Antec 300 case with 5 fans (It can hit 40C+ here in the summer)

Cheers
Cage

 

[Zebodog]

The 955 BE has an unlocked multiplier.

The easiest method of overclocking to your desired 3.6GHz would be to increase the multiplier until you reach the target. You shouldn't need to mess with voltage at that speed.

 

[Efonzerellie]

I'm currently running at 3.6 myself and have undervolted. Just raise the multiplier and lower voltage if you wish.

 

[Cage]

Thanks for the info guys.

I was looking at HWMonitor and was surprised to see what I think is an under performing PSU. I'm not real cluey on the sparky stuff but I thought that the voltage readings should have been higher than they are.

Cheers

 

[Cage]

I'm currently running at 3.6 myself and have undervolted. Just raise the multiplier and lower voltage if you wish.

Now I'm confused. To me it seems that if you increase the load you should increase the power. Told you I'm not real bright with electricity.

 

[RGone]

Since the AMD Phenom II X4 955 is showing to have 4 core temps, we know it is an outdated version of Hardware Monitor. Try the latest version and see if the Voltages do any better. That is about as entry a level Giga board as they make so there maybe some issue with the I/O chip for Temps and Voltages. Have not seen many of the D3P versions come thru this forum section.

Try the newest free version HWMonitor from Cupid com and see if that makes a difference in voltage readings. If not then were the rig mine I would be getting a DVM/DMM and checking the actual voltages coming from the power supply while in use. That is key anyway. Then you could dis-regard the HWMonitor readings if they get no better with a newer HWMonitor version.
RGone...

 

[RGone]

Now I'm confused. To me it seems that if you increase the load you should increase the power. Told you I'm not real bright with electricity.

Why be confused? You increase load, you increase the voltage/current, "IF" necessary. If it happens that your particular system or in the case of what you read here >> "I'm currently running at 3.6 myself and have undervolted. Just raise the multiplier and lower voltage if you wish" << he said if you wish.

You may have to up your voltage. You might be able to lower voltage. None of us can say for sure. You try it and see. Test to see. P95 in Blend mode for 2hours without a failure and you would be good. Then lower the voltage and test. If it does not fail...that too would be okay.

No two rigs are much more alike than the names on the outside of the boxes it seems. That is why it is so good that there are decent tutorials on overclocking out there. You must tweak and make your own adjustments. We really can only guide or point in a direction. The full burden of proof is on you and your parts.
RGone...

 

[Cage]

Since the AMD Phenom II X4 955 is showing to have 4 core temps, we know it is an outdated version of Hardware Monitor. Try the latest version and see if the Voltages do any better. That is about as entry a level Giga board as they make so there maybe some issue with the I/O chip for Temps and Voltages. Have not seen many of the D3P versions come thru this forum section.

Try the newest free version HWMonitor from Cupid com and see if that makes a difference in voltage readings. If not then were the rig mine I would be getting a DVM/DMM and checking the actual voltages coming from the power supply while in use. That is key anyway. Then you could dis-regard the HWMonitor readings if they get no better with a newer HWMonitor version.
RGone...

Thanks for the reply.

The HWMonitor I downloaded from CPUID today, version 1.23.0 released June 28, 2013 so I guess it's the latest.
Looks like I'll have to learn how to use my new DMM without getting electrocuted.
I'm going to have a look at the voltage readings in the BIOS and see how they stack up.
Oh, and the GA-970A-D3P is a new board. I went for the 970 chip because I didn't need all the bells 'n' whistles.
Cheers

 

[Cage]

OK, I checked the voltage readings in the BIOS and they are all up on what HWMonitor says.
Vcore........1.392V
Dram.........1.464
+3.3v........3.284
+5v...........5.070
+12v.........11.736

My computer is running fine so I suspect HWMonitor is out of sync.

Cheers

 

[RGone]

Sounds like the P/S Voltage readings are not accurate. Everything else seems pretty spot on.

OK, I checked the voltage readings in the BIOS and they are all up on what HWMonitor says.
Vcore........1.392V
Dram.........1.464
+3.3v........3.284
+5v...........5.070
+12v.........11.736

My computer is running fine so I suspect HWMonitor is out of sync.

Cheers

RGone...

 

[tikithorsen]

That Motherboard is not bad to OC with 4+1 power phases, plus having a HS on the VRM's and consider the massive Cooler you have, you should be able to easily reach 3.6-3.8.

 

[Zebodog]

I had a problem with HW Monitor and my 990FXA-UD3; it would report lower voltages much the same as yours is, Cage. I decided to can it and go with a program called Open Hardware Monitor instead.

It was 3.8GHz on my 955 BE before I had to add additional voltage; it was by far the easiest overclock I ever did! The 955 BE is a wonderful chip.

 

[Cage]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

I fitted the new mobo yesterday and spent most of today thinking "Will I, or won't I" ?

After the feedback I've received I will give it a try, just sneaking it up a bit at a time. I'd be really pleased with a stable 3.6/3.7 as I hate it when my machine gets flaky. Had enough of that with Vista and Windoze Updates.

When I first put this build together I had a nightmare first four or five months with constant screen freezes, and MS were no help. All they were interested in doing was blaming component failure.

In desperation I used to have HWMonitor, CPUZ and Core Temp up on my screen and the first freeze after installing Core Temp I found out what the problem was. My 4GB of RAM was maxed out. Bit the bullet and put in 8Gb of Ripjaws and haven't had a screen freeze since.
I don't know what is happening with the voltages with HWMonitor on this board though. Maybe they don't like each other.

Cheers
Cage

 

[tikithorsen]

I would also recommend Open Hardware Monitor, IMHO is way better then HWMonitor and is open-source/free.

Also, check your CPU vcore, since sometimes these MoBo's give it a high vcore by default because they assume you are going to OC.
Ej.: Mine is at 1.475V by default, when I can actually set it 1.275V when stock.

 

[manu2b]

You can also increase the CPU-NB. It's set@2000MHz/1.2v IIRC.

With your CPU [email protected]/3.8GHz, taking the CPU-NB to 2600/2700MHz (usually with less than 1.35v) will give a nice perf increase.

 

[trents]

Sounds like the P/S Voltage readings are not accurate. Everything else seems pretty spot on.



RGone...

I had this problem of very low readings on the 12v rails as well recently. It was a $20 piece of junk PSU. Not sure if that had any affect on the readout but surely it was not a true report, even for that PSU as the system would not work at all if it was. Could this be a bug in the newest release of HWMonitor?

 

[tikithorsen]

You can also increase the CPU-NB. It's set@2000MHz/1.2v IIRC.

With your CPU [email protected]/3.8GHz, taking the CPU-NB to 2600/2700MHz (usually with less than 1.35v) will give a nice perf increase.

On that note, having the CPU at 4.0GHz is better to still have the CPU-NB at 2600MHz or take it to 2800MHz?

 

[manu2b]

On that note, having the CPU at 4.0GHz is better to still have the CPU-NB at 2600MHz or take it to 2800MHz?

Well, the gain won't be huge, but if your CPU can do it while staying out of the danger zone temp wise (55°C on the core), why not?

 

[Cage]

Well my system is happily chugging along @ 3817MHz with no signs of instability.

I tried to download Prime95 but finished up with iMesh, some sort of music p-to-p site, and a lot of rubbish.

Instead I've run the IntelBurn Test and it seemed to show no problems.

I'm already quite chuffed to be getting a seemingly stable 3.8MHz, fingers crossed, when I would have been happy with 3.6MHz.

I haven't disabled throttling. Should I?

Tomorrow I'll try to drop the Vcore voltage a tad.

The big plus so far is that I haven't affected my memory and my core temp hasn't gone above 46C.

Once again, many thanks to all who have offered very helpful advice to a very green, and a bit nervous, first time overclocker.

Cheers
Cage

 

[manu2b]

Very good.

You still have some headroom temp wise, a good 8/10°C and 0.1v extra to feed the vCore.

I'd try to hit the 4GHz barrier!