Newbie seeking advice on 445x3 core unlocking

[shawned]

Hi all. Kindly bare with me as this is my first AMD rig and im newbie in unlocking/ocing.

First of all, my rig setup

CPU: AMD Athlon 445 x3 (stock cooler)
MB: Biostar A880G+
GPU: Integrated
RAM: 2 x 2gb ddr3 1333mhz Kingston ValueRam
PSU: Andyson f500m
OS: Win7 Ultimate

I've learnt about possibilities of unlocking my Athlon 445x3 by simply turning on the ACC function of my A880G+ MB.

Screeny before attempting unlock:

Upon turning on the ACC function (without touching any other settings), im able to log on into my Win7 successfully. The 4th core showed up together with the 6mb L3 cache. Screeny:

Now, I've yet to run the stability test with prime95 because i noticed warning messages appearing nonstop under the Event viewer, something about AMD Northbridge?

Spent few hrs surfing net, watching youtube etc.. and my pc crashed & auto-reboot suddenly. Re-logging back, i trace for the event & did some google search. Using BlueScreenView to view the minidump log file, i believe it's something to do with hal.dll which i think is linked to the unlocking of the core.

And when i reverted back to the x3 core state (off ACC), the warning messages ceased and have yet to face any crash/BSOD.

Any pros care to advise?

Thank you in advance.
(Apologies for the lengthy details)

PS: Feel free to point out any other missing info/screeny that i'll need to provide.

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF!


Unlocked cores are not my area of expertise, though I do know X4's fairly well, but a lot of times the unlocked CPUs need a little more vCore and/or cpuNB voltage to run correctly. Remember, if this were a "real" X4 it would run fine at stock voltages but it isn't. There was some reason AMD disabled that fourth core. Try going into BIOS and moving the vCore (CPU voltage) up to 1.375 and the cpuNB to 1.15v to see if that helps.

Also, you really need to post your load core temp. You can get that by using OCCT or Prime95+CoreTemp and letting one or the other run for 5-10 minutes ...

 

[Marshmallow64]

It looks unstable, when I unlocked the 4th core for my phenom II 720, i was getting weird video driver issues, where windows would say my driver stopped working, screen would flash, then it will be normal again.

I tried a lot of different voltage settings, downclocking, etc. Eventually I just concluded I had a very unstable 4th core and reverted back to 3.

Play around with it see if you can get it stable, but it is not guaranteed. Good luck and .

 

[shawned]

wow Thanks for all the warm welcome!


now i really feel so newbie and helpless with these...

I wanted to try increasing the vcore as advised. After doing some search & referring to MB's manual, i believe the setting can be done at "Performance -> CPU FID/VID control -> Custom P-State Enable -> Core VID. And to my surprise, it only have options below 1.325V (i.e don't have any option above 1.325V.)

Am i missing something?

(images are taken from manual)

 

[trents]

No, the setting you want to adjust is the "CPU Vcore". The Custom P states are something else that I don't fully understand but I don't think you need to be concerned with them. The items you mentioned fall under the Custom P-states. Keep that disabled.

The other suggestion QuietIce had was to increase the "CPU NB Overvoltage". Give it about 2 bumps over default.

 

[QuietIce]

The very first, highlighted line here is the vCore and it looks like the cpuNB is "over voltage" in this BIOS:

Or are you saying you get the custom P-states when you press "Enter" at the highlighted line? If so, what happens when you press "Enter" on the cpuNB over Volt line ...?

 

[mastrdrver]

I've always had those errors in Event Viewer when the memory controller or memory is unstable. Since you are trying to unlock the L3 on the die I'd suggest upping your CPU-NB Vid to 1.20v (if you can) to see if that fixes your problem.

As far as I know 1.175 should be the default CPU-NB Vid for all AM3 cpus except for Phenom II X4s which are 1.10v.

 

[coonmanx]

You need to use the CPU overvoltage option. That being said the values don't always add up to what you think they should be. You might have to play around with it. but I would first set the CPU-NB voltage up a notch or two. That will also be in the overvoltage option.

 

[QuietIce]

As far as I know 1.175 should be the default CPU-NB Vid for all AM3 cpus except for Phenom II X4s which are 1.10v.

That 1.175v isn't the "default" - as far as I can tell there is no official default setting. 1.175v is the top end of the "AMD safe" range for most CPU's. For the X6's it's 1.05-1.175, for some of the Athlons it's 1.125-1.175, and other CPUs have other ranges.

The Phenom II X4 AM3's have an "AMD safe" range of 1.175-1.250v with the AM2+ X4's having a slightly wider range of 1.15-1.30v ...

 

[mastrdrver]

While you're probably right on the default voltage, (except for the X6s) AMD says that the safe high end for any AM3 processor is the same 1.55v that is the limit for the core according to the Overdrive instructions.

 

[QuietIce]

While you're probably right on the default voltage, (except for the X6s) AMD says that the safe high end for any AM3 processor is the same 1.55v that is the limit for the core according to the Overdrive instructions.

I refer you to AMD Technical Publication #43375. You can debate them about the accuracy of the numbers.

I don't know of any CPU where 1.55 vCore is officially acceptable. I believe the highest I've seen is 1.50v on a few Athlon II X2/X3's.


NOTE: On boards with single-plane power systems the cpuNB VID is not independently adjustable and is listed as N/A (and is sometimes interpreted as being the same as the vCore). Is it possible you've confused information on single-plane systems with systems having dual-plane power, where the cpuNB VID is adjustable?

 

[mastrdrver]

I've read that one but those are the limits of production silicon running at stock clocks unless that was what you were saying. If so, then you'll find no disagreement with me on that.

What I was referring to was in the AMD Overdrive performance tuning guide. Though I'll have to correct myself in that the limit on air (and probably water) is 1.50v for cpu and cpu-nb.

 

[QuietIce]

Dolk ran his 940BE at 1.40v for about a year before it was dead (and the 940BE has an AMD safe range of 1.15-1.30v). I'll let you figure out what 1.50v will do to a Phenom II 9x5 or 970 with their range of 1.175-1.25v.


BTW - Here's what Dolk says about cpuNB voltage now:



Not many people running 2800 MHz or more day to day.


PS
Which Phenom II do you own ...???

 

[Dooms101]

The P-States are power states I believe. They are for Cool'n'Quiet technology and are associated with different FID's. The FID's are states that C'n'Q can 'choose' from with an associated safe P-state that goes with it. Like if C'n'Q felt like dropping your cores down to 800Mhz like it often does when the CPU is idle, that 800Mhz is the product of a pre-determined FID which has some appropriate P-state with a lower voltage. I am not sure why or how you modify the P-states but I think it is if you want to use them in conjunction with C'n'Q.

 

[mastrdrver]

I would just like to add real quick I think eBay or even some of the classified off the forums are the best to find proven unlocked AMDs. I've picked up 3 myself off eBay and never paid more then retail. I know there is the whole warranty thing but if you're going after an unlock you're already counting that out.

Dolk ran his 940BE at 1.40v for about a year before it was dead (and the 940BE has an AMD safe range of 1.15-1.30v). I'll let you figure out what 1.50v will do to a Phenom II 9x5 or 970 with their range of 1.175-1.25v.

BTW - Here's what Dolk says about cpuNB voltage now: