Overclocking Escapades: socket AM3 Sempron 145 Sargas (Regor)

[Tech Tweaker]

I'd been wanting to check out an AM3 Sempron for a while. Off and on I would look into getting a Sempron 140 or 145 (150 is harder to find), but never really seemed to find one in the price range I was looking in, or they would sell before I could buy or make an offer.

I've finally found one though, so it's time to see what one of these can do (this one in particular at least).

It's been a while since I've run a Sempron, my last one was a socket 754 Sempron 3000+ 1.8GHz.

I think I'll just start off by saying that at stock speed and voltage this thing runs really, really cool. With a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme on it with Cooler Master SickleFlow fans in push-pull it idles at 27-29°C with or without Cool 'N Quiet enabled (doesn't seem to matter with a TDP this low), and under load with Prime95 it is 29-33°C. So, really almost no temperature increase at all when under load. Ambient temp in the room is 70-80°F/21-27°C.

I thought I would start by trying to find the lowest stable voltage. So, I lowered the vCore from the stock 1.35V to 1.25V, and I ran Prime95 for 5 hours with no errors and no warnings. Then, I lowered it to 1.2V and ran Prime95 for another 5 hours still with no errors or warnings. I set it to run a couple hours before I went to sleep for the night, then when I woke up in the middle of the night to get something to drink I saw it was still running the test, so I shut it down, went into the BIOS and lowered the voltage and then started another test.

Then, this morning I lowered the voltage again, this time to 1.15V (though it actually shows 1.14V in CPUID Hardware Monitor and 1.136V in CPU-Z). It's been running the blend test for 3.5 hours now, and still shows no errors and no warnings.

Thus far I'm impressed, and I haven't even gotten to the overclocking stage yet. It seems this CPU is very tolerant of under-volting and can remain stable well below the rated stock voltage/VID. There is no noticeable reduction in idle or load temperatures, since they were so low already, but there probably is some reduction in power usage.

It's not a bad little CPU for being a Single Core, I was doing program uninstalls while it was running Prime95 blend last night and it didn't even skip a beat.

Socket AM3 Sempron 145 overclock settings
2.8GHz (stock): 1.09V (1.1V)
2.9GHz: 1.09V (1.1V)?-Didn't test this frequency, just guessing.
3GHz: 1.12V (1.125V)
3.1GHz: 1.17V (1.175V)
3.2GHz: 1.17V (1.175V) or 1.18-1.20V (1.20V) (not sure if lower is/was stable)
3.3GHz: 1.18-1.20V (1.20V)
3.4GHz: 1.22-1.23V (1.225V)
3.5GHz: 1.25V (1.25V)
3.6GHz: 1.26V (1.275V)
3.7GHz: 1.30V (1.3V)
3.8GHz: 1.34V (1.35V)
3.9GHz: 1.36-1.38V (1.375V)
4GHz: 1.39V (1.4V)
4.1GHz: 1.47V (1.475V)
4.2GHz: 1.5-1.52V (1.525V)*Still testing
4.3GHz: 1.57-1.58V (1.575V)

 

[ShrimpBrime]

These are neat fun Tech. Glad your sharing this. I've passively cooled these chips with a big success rate. Even without a fan, these processors stay pretty cool, well below the thermal threshold. At one point removed the heat sink and actively cooled the IHS plate with a fan. Probably somewhere under 2ghz and less than a volt. Was kind of scary at first, but the IHS plate wasn't anything but warm to the touch.

 

[xsuperbgx]

These are one of my favorite cpus to play with. I have 4 or 5 different boards that I got, just to run them- gigabytes, asrock, dfi, biostar. I have 140's, 145's and I even have a couple 150's (probably 15 or so cpu's total). I am actually messing around with them a bit today. I am getting o/s installed with hopes of finding the best cpu and board, so I can Ln2 them soon.

 

[chrisjames61]

I'd been wanting to check out an AM3 Sempron for a while. Off and on I would look into getting a Sempron 140 or 145 (150 is harder to find), but never really seemed to find one in the price range I was looking in, or they would sell before I could buy or make an offer.

I've finally found one though, so it's time to see what one of these can do (this one in particular at least).

It's been a while since I've run a Sempron, my last one was a socket 754 Sempron 3000+ 1.8GHz.

I think I'll just start off by saying that at stock speed and voltage this thing runs really, really cool. With a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme on it with Cooler Master SickleFlow fans in push-pull it idles at 27-29°C with or without Cool 'N Quiet enabled (doesn't seem to matter with a TDP this low), and under load with Prime95 it is 29-33°C. So, really almost no temperature increase at all when under load. Ambient temp in the room is 70-80°F/21-27°C.

I thought I would start by trying to find the lowest stable voltage. So, I lowered the vCore from the stock 1.35V to 1.25V, and I ran Prime95 for 5 hours with no errors and no warnings. Then, I lowered it to 1.2V and ran Prime95 for another 5 hours still with no errors or warnings. I set it to run a couple hours before I went to sleep for the night, then when I woke up in the middle of the night to get something to drink I saw it was still running the test, so I shut it down, went into the BIOS and lowered the voltage and then started another test.

Then, this morning I lowered the voltage again, this time to 1.15V (though it actually shows 1.14V in CPUID Hardware Monitor and 1.136V in CPU-Z). It's been running the blend test for 3.5 hours now, and still shows no errors and no warnings.

Thus far I'm impressed, and I haven't even gotten to the overclocking stage yet. It seems this CPU is very tolerant of under-volting and can remain stable well below the rated stock voltage/VID. There is no noticeable reduction in idle or load temperatures, since they were so low already, but there probably is some reduction in power usage.

It's not a bad little CPU for being a Single Core, I was doing program uninstalls while it was running Prime95 blend last night and it didn't even skip a beat.

Did you try unlocking the second core?

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Did you try unlocking the second core?

Nope, the motherboard I'm running it on (Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P) doesn't support unlocking.

Might look into that later, if I pull my Asus M4N98TD EVO out of storage and set it up. That one I know does support core unlocking.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nope, the motherboard I'm running it on (Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P) doesn't support unlocking.

Might look into that later, if I pull my Asus M4N98TD EVO out of storage and set it up. That one I know does support core unlocking.

Oh yes it does.
Advanced Clock Calibration, set EC Firmware from normal to hybrid, F10 and re-boot. If you have an unlocker you'll now see and be able to control the cores under the same ACC tab.
Bios F7 or better is required.

 

[xsuperbgx]

I can confirm that ud4p mobo will unlock, if cpu is able.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Oh yes it does.
Advanced Clock Calibration, set EC Firmware from normal to hybrid, F10 and re-boot. If you have an unlocker you'll now see and be able to control the cores under the same ACC tab.
Bios F7 or better is required.

Oh, is that what the EC Firmware setting is for? I looked at that tab but couldn't figure out what that setting actually did, so didn't really mess with it.

I don't know what ACC does either for that matter, but then I don't think AMD ever did reveal what ACC actually does for a system.

I'm running the F8 BIOS, so I guess the board shouldn't be a problem then.

Weird, the manufacturer's page doesn't say anything about core unlocking support.

 

[xsuperbgx]

just to clarify. I didn't notice that you had the ddr3 board. I have the ddr2 version, which does unlock. I havent tried the ddr3 version, but I would expect that it does unlock, but I withdraw my confirmation stated above, due to the fact that I am not 100% sure. (but I think it does)

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I don't know what ACC does either for that matter, but then I don't think AMD ever did reveal what ACC actually does for a system.

I believe that ACC was for Agena processors that carry the TLB errata, designed to help with overclocking.

 

[Bobnova]

Yeah they unlock, it just isn't labeled as such. Great motherboard, fun chips too. I have one that I need to ln2 sometime.

 

[trents]

ACC is the core unlocking tool in bios on older boards. Originally, it's purpose was to help stabilize AMD chips when overclocked but someone discovered it could also unlock cores and the rest is history.

 

[Mr.Scott]

just to clarify. I didn't notice that you had the ddr3 board. I have the ddr2 version, which does unlock. I havent tried the ddr3 version, but I would expect that it does unlock, but I withdraw my confirmation stated above, due to the fact that I am not 100% sure. (but I think it does)

I can confirm. I have 2 ddr2 boards and 2 ddr3 boards. All are unlock capable.

 

[chrisjames61]

Oh, is that what the EC Firmware setting is for? I looked at that tab but couldn't figure out what that setting actually did, so didn't really mess with it.

I don't know what ACC does either for that matter, but then I don't think AMD ever did reveal what ACC actually does for a system.

I'm running the F8 BIOS, so I guess the board shouldn't be a problem then.

Weird, the manufacturer's page doesn't say anything about core unlocking support.

I owned a few Sempron 145's. Besides overclocking a full GHz they all unlocked to a dual Core Athlon II 4450E iirc.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I owned a few Sempron 145's. Besides overclocking a full GHz they all unlocked to a dual Core Athlon II 4450E iirc.

I'm at about 50% on unlockers. Not just 145's though, pretty much anything that can be unlocked. It's luck of the draw. There is no gimme.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I'm at about 50% on unlockers. Not just 145's though, pretty much anything that can be unlocked. It's luck of the draw. There is no gimme.

Should also mention some boards that advertise unlocking aren't always going to unlock the cpu that is known to unlock on a different board too!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Should also mention some boards that advertise unlocking aren't always going to unlock the cpu that is known to unlock on a different board too!

QFT.
I have processors that will unlock on one board but won't on another.

 

[Dr. McCoy]

I'm running about 70% or so with chips that unlock, out of 5 Sempy's I've had three unlocked fine with two that didn't, gave one of those away and still have the other one - Kept it because it's actually a good clocker, the other was a total turd of a CPU in everyway.
As far as all else non-Sempy related, I've hit the jackpot with everything except my 720BE but it's a pretty good clocker in itself.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I'm running about 70% or so with chips that unlock, out of 5 Sempy's I've had three unlocked fine with two that didn't, gave one of those away and still have the other one - Kept it because it's actually a good clocker, the other was a total turd of a CPU in everyway.
As far as all else non-Sempy related, I've hit the jackpot with everything except my 720BE but it's a pretty good clocker in itself.

I think when they first came out, I didn't even know they unlocked and had already clocked one up and sent it on it's way without knowing it was possible to unlock. That and the board I had at the time didn't support unlocking

 

[Aldakoopa]

Why did I ever lose my Sempy 145!?!

I lost it when I swapped it for a Athlon 64 x2 a while back and when I found it all the pins were bent, now it's in a trash pile somewhere.