Overclocking Athlon x4 640 Asrock 970 Extreme3

[Toilet Pepper]

Hi! I need help with overclocking my CPU. Yeah I know its pretty odd that I have an athlon but I've been upgrading things one at a time and I didn't bother with Bulldozer as it was not a step better with Phenoms. I just need to squeeze a little more juice out of it until Piledriver comes out and the GUI of Asrocks BIOS confuses me. I don't even know where to start.

BTW is the RAM not compatible with my CPU?

Thanks in advance!




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MOBO > AsRock 970 Extreme3 bios ver 1.60
CPU & Cooler > Athlon x4 640 Cooler Master V8
MEMORY > Corsair Vengeance 4GB CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9
POWER SUPPLY > Cooler Master Silent Pro 500w 80plus
VIDEO CARD > Sapphire HD 6870 (stock clocks)
HDDs/Optical drives > Caviar Blue WD
SOUND DEVICE > Onboard
O/S > Windows 7 64 bit
Case > Cooler Master Storm Scout

 

[trents]

Hello and welcome!

Why do you ask if your ram is compatible with the CPU? Are you have problems?

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Hi! Sorry for the late reply. I kinda slept. Well its taking ages to boot up. When I turn my pc its just a big black screen with "9c" listed on the lower right of the page for like 10 secs then it goes to windows. Or maybe its just my old hdd.

 

[trents]

Are you using the ASRock Instant Boot technology? If so, I would disable it. It's problematic.

And no need to apologize for the Athlon II 640. It's a good CPU. I used to have the AII 630.

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Hi again! I just got back from work and cant post from there. To answer your question.. I'm not using the instantboot thinggie. Also, I think I read somewhere in the athlon specs that RAM has to be 1333mhz or something the one I have now is 1600mhz. It might be causing the slowdown or something. I don't know. Thanks again.

 

[MGF Derp]

The cpu is only spec'd to 1333 ram. That doesnt mean that it wont work with 1600 ram. And 1600 ram should not be causing your boot to be slow.

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Oh.. I guess it aint the RAM. I dont think its the HDD though I bought the HDD around 3 years ago its all happening with the bootup part of it (before Windows startup). I just get a black screen for like 10-15?? secs then I hear a beep then it goes to Windows.

 

[MGF Derp]

Might be board. My EVGA X58 Classified takes awhile to boot. Screen is black for awhile as it runs through preboot test (can see the codes on the lcd poster on the board) and then it beeps to signal all good and then it boots.

 

[trents]

Are you running the 1600 mhz ram at 1600 or at 1333. The CPU integrated memory controller (IMC) is rated for 1333 and it might not like 1600 mhz. Ram can always be run slower than its rating and on most DDR3 systems 1333 mhz is the default. Did you change the ram speed in bios?

 

[BeepBeep2]

Hi! Sorry for the late reply. I kinda slept. Well its taking ages to boot up. When I turn my pc its just a big black screen with "9c" listed on the lower right of the page for like 10 secs then it goes to windows. Or maybe its just my old hdd.

Can you take a picture of this screen?
DRAM Frequency should not cause this.
"9c" is the ONLY thing on the screen?
If there was a major problem, and it was the memory, you would see jumbled hex code all over the screen with random characters, kind of like how 8-bit video games get when they are corrupt, or all characters would be blocks in case of UEFI bios.

Usually, it takes a motherboard 5-10 seconds to go through self checking and then boots to windows. It is possible that you are seeing absolutely normal behavior.

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Been very busy for the past few weeks to reply. I've checked and the "9c" thinggie only appears when I boot my pc using HDMI. Otherwise, I see the normal POST screen then it goes to Windows. If 10-20 secs to get to the Windows logo screen is normal then I shouldn't be bothered by it. Thanks everyone. I even managed to OC the athlon to 3.3Ghz with cnc and at stock voltages because of this.

Now, I'm planning to do some upgrades in the near future. I'm thinking of upgrading to a Piledriver chip. Is 8350 any better than 8320 or 6300? I'm not gonna do any rendering or anything hardcore. It's just gonna be used for gaming at 1920 x 1080.

I'm also gonna upgrade my GPU. I'm thinking of getting a GTX660ti or a GTX670. Should I just hold my purchase and wait for the HD8000 series?

 

[trents]

Better check to make sure your motherboard is compatible with Piledriver.

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Yup! I checked Asrock's website and it is listed as supported. Is the gain pretty substantial or should I just hold off and buy a GTX 670?

 

[trents]

Make sure you have the correct bios version installed for Piledriver before you switch over.

 

[Toilet Pepper]

Got that. 1.60 revision here.