Overclocking an AMD 960T

[cooperman1504]

AMD+ 960T Phenom11
Asus M5A99X EVO Bios v 1208 (08/04/2012)
8GB Kingston HperX DDR3
Crucial 128gb SSD
WD 500gb 7200 sata111
AMD Sapphire HD 6870
Noctua NH-C12P SE14 Air cooler
OCZ 750W Fatality (Champion Series)


I'm quite new to overclocking but believe I have a pretty decent setup. Looking at different threads it looks like some have been able to unlock extra cores which is interesting but really not why I'm on here.

I would be very interested if anyone has had experience in overclocking this processor and based on the info on my rig what would you recommend as a decent overclock?

As I say I'm pretty new to overclocking and want to get the best advice.

Thanks in advance

 

[walldow]

yes youre chip is unlockable! (see comments)
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition - HD96ZTWFK4DGR.html

how to unlock cores using ur board !
http://www.helpowl.com/p/Asus/M5A99X-EVO/Research/149842?search=m5a99x evo core unlocker

once cores are unlock go into bios and make sure all cpu power down functions are turned off such as cool n quit , turbo core, think there might be one or two others. once you get that done then ull be ready to over clock we will need a little more info on ur system like ram speed ull need to download and install cpu-z latest version so we can see what you have going on! once you download then post a screen shot of cpu-z CPU-MEMORY-& SPD tabs from cpu-z. so we can see then we can go from there

 

[walldow]

also i have the pII x4 940 BE from when they first come out with stock cooling 3.5ghz was tops i got a zalman cooler and was able to get 3.7 out of it. dont know for sure but u should get arond the same 3.5 on stock cooler and 3.7-3.8 on aftermarket coolet and 4ghx+ on water on ur 960T!

 

[Niku-Sama]

just a heads up if you do unlock you'll lose the ability to read the thermal diode thats on chip but theres usually a socket temp sensor and from what i gather as a rule of thumb add 10C to what ever the socket temp says and thats close to your core temp.

it seems to me like OP is just after speed. considering the setup its for games mainly so the extra cores wont be a big help.

i would just stick to the usual overclocking guide (should be a sticky some where) and remember that you can go one of 2 ways to overclock this one.

One is by the multiplier since its unlocked on this processor and another way is with the bus speed (bus speed * core multiplier = clock speed)

Overclocking with the bus is trickier, requires alot more fine tuning and you need to make sure the PCI bus is locked and you will need to keep an eye on your ram speed and timings and adjust the ram divider if it becomes more than your ram can handle.

i notice faster load times overclocking with the bus than i do with just the multiplier at the same speed. Overclocking with just the multiplier is more overall power so i notice better frame rates in games and higher scores in benchmarks.

some times its just not stable one way or another so you'll either use a combination of multiplier and bus speed or possibly just multiplier or just the bus. Too many factors to say whats the best way untill you try it and know for your specific setup.

be concervative with voltages and watch the temps, i always think old school when it comes to temps and any thing much above 50C under load would be cause to change a fan set up, get a different cooler, re apply thermal paste, a through dusting of the system or just trying a lower clock speed.

considering turbo speed is 3400Mhz (kind of like a max stock clock speed) i would try for any where between 3800Mhz - 4000Mhz and see how it acts, if its stable. dont jump directly to any of those speeds. work your way to them incriments at a time.

and remember....

Memtest if your friend!

 

[Nax Rydan]

I have a 960T in an Asus M5A99x Evo. i had it a 3.75ghz for a long time but though a LOT of tinkering i finally hit 4.0 stable. wasnt able to unlock any cores, no sweat(4cores at 4Ghz!) for cooling i have a Roswill $20 heat sink with a 136CFM squirrel cage fan on it.

MY SETTINGS:
Core= 4013.6Mhz @ 1.404 (LLC set to extreme) Idle +26c Full Load is 48c prime stable
FSB= 250Mhz @ 1.35
multi= X 16
HT = 2000mhz
NB = 3010Mhz

 

[trents]

I am running the 960T at 4.1 ghz on an Asus M5A97 non evo board. I have a top notch air cooler, though, the Corsair A70 and good case ventilation.

 

[keny]

I made a video a while back on how to unlock and overclock this processor, it really is simple and there probably the best bang for buck CPU out there right now IMO

Take a look at my vid, it should help you out a bit