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Overclocking Escapades: socket 939 Athlon 64 3400+ Venice (E3 & E6)

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Tech Tweaker

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Yes, once again it is time to overclock another socket 939 CPU.

This time up on the test bench is the AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice E3 stepping (ADA3400DAA4BZ).

Finding a board that would run the Athlon 64 3400+ Venice was a bit of a challenge, since it seems my normal preferred board the DFI SLI-DR Expert would not even recognize this CPU (in any stepping). I had recently managed to repair my broken Asus A8N-SLI Premium with the help of another computer technician, and since I had it on my test bench anyway I decided to see if it would run any of my 3400+ chips. Luckily enough it seemed to like both steppings of this CPU perfectly fine, despite not even listing this CPU on the compatibility list. This is with the 1009 bios that the board came to me with by the way, and I have not tried it with any other bios versions.

Initial results are encouraging so far, and it appears to perform similarly to the 3200+ Venice and 3800+ Venice which I have tested previously with relatively good results on air.

Cooling results seem to indicate that I am at the coolest it can run with this cooling setup (Thermalright Ultima-90 with a Coolermaster SickleFlow for a push fan and some random 90mm fan in pull). I chilled the room down from the regular 70-74°F (21-23.5°C) to 65°F (around 18.5°C) the other night, but CPU temp only went down by maybe a degree. Highest temperature I've hit under load at 74°F (23.5°C) ambient was 42-43°C, which is pretty darn good for a Venice core CPU.

I figured I would start slow, so I began by bumping up the core speed from the default 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz with the vCore at the stock 1.4V. This proved perfectly stable, so I moved on to 2.5GHz which I also found to be stable. Finally, I moved it up to 2.6GHz, which tends to be where the lower-clocked Venice cores start to get unstable without higher voltages (I found this out with my Athlon 64 3200+). This, too, seems to be completely stable thus far. I've run Super Pi 1m, UCBench 2011, and PiFast, and all the benchmarks completed without issue. I also started up a run of prime95, then proceeded to forget about it for an hour or so while I played some COD4:MW, and there were no errors or warnings. Then, I left it running overnight (okay, actually I fell asleep while it was running some benchmark), but I came back the next morning and it was still running and the computer was responsive when I moved the mouse.

I think this one may have potential for 2.8GHz or greater, because I am at a 400MHz overclock with stock voltage and no signs of instability.

Athlon 64 3400+ Venice E3, 2.6GHz.JPG

A8N-SLI Premium screen shot.JPG
 
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I'm up to 2.8GHz now. I set vCore to 1.55V (board's max) in the bios, seeing 1.57-1.63V in the OS via CPUID Hardware Monitor.
 
Those Venice cores are good for 3ghz+ CPUz on air,if you get a decent enough one, love the old skool hardware :thup:
 
Well, the E3 stepping Venice is maxed out at 2.8GHz on this board. It could probably run faster, but I'm out of voltage to give it.
 
Well, ran a bunch of benches on the E3 (CPU Frequency, PiFast, SuperPi 1m, wPrime 32m and 1024m).

Now I've swapped in an E6 stepping CPU. So, I'll see how that goes.

Have the E6 up to 2.6GHz so far with no real tweaking (stock CPU vCore).

I'll say one thing for the E6, it runs much cooler than the E3. At idle the E3 was 35-36°C and around 43°C at load (stock CPU speed and voltage), the E6 is at 28-30°C at idle and under 40°C at load.
 
TBH I hardly ever check the temps when running the old chips, as the decent coolers of today can cool them up to and above 1.6v pretty good so until I go above that I don't really bother, plus if it dies there cheap to replace :D
 
Afaik, the OEM s939 3400+'s weren't as OC friendly as the retail 3500+.
Good results anyway, TT!
I had a couple of 3400+, ran them at a moderate 2.6GHz for ages. Had to keep vcore close to stock due to temp issues. 56-60'C at full load, if no CnQ was in play.
 
TBH I hardly ever check the temps when running the old chips, as the decent coolers of today can cool them up to and above 1.6v pretty good so until I go above that I don't really bother, plus if it dies there cheap to replace :D

I really only check them for two reasons, one to make sure that I've got a good mount and am not overheating.

I also check it because usually the cooler-running ones tend to have a higher ceiling for overclocking.

Afaik, the OEM s939 3400+'s weren't as OC friendly as the retail 3500+.
Good results anyway, TT!
I had a couple of 3400+, ran them at a moderate 2.6GHz for ages. Had to keep vcore close to stock due to temp issues. 56-60'C at full load, if no CnQ was in play.

Yep, they're not too bad. I could probably reach 2.9-3GHz with more voltage, because temperatures are still reasonable at 2.8GHz.

I think I've got a 3500+ Venice around here somewhere, still need to get around to overclocking that one to see what it's capable of. Tried a 3500+ Clawhammer, it maxed out at 2.8GHz IIRC.

Edit: actually, I don't have a 3500+ Venice. Bought one like a year ago, but it was DOA. Thought I had another, but apparently I don't.
 
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Well, I'm benchmarking the E6 again. Got it running in one of my DFI boards (SLI-DR), so more voltage is now available.

More Volts to the rescue! But hopefully not to the destruction of this chip.

Let's see if she can go faster now... ;)
 
Well, got it to 3GHz. Not at all stable though.

Will run at 2.9GHz and is somewhat stable, but crashes if I run UCBench 2011 and errors out in prime95 within a minute or two. Completes SuperPi 1m runs even on realtime priority though, which is just plain odd since SuperPi usually crashes faster than prime95 does when the system is unstable. 1.7V isn't enough juice, but higher isn't safe with air cooling. Need more cold! Doesn't help that my ambient temp is currently 27°C/80°F.

Nice and stable at 2850MHz though.
 
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