Overclocking GA-880GM-D2H + Athlon II x2 235e

[Hohner420]

Hello Im new to the forum. Thanks for having me. I am just trying to get some tips and advice with my setup here. I hope Im doing everything rite. So here is a screen shot of what Ive come up with. Could I do a little better ? Or am I going to hard. I would appreciate any input. Thanks.

 

[keny]

Hey, welcome to OCF

There should be more to come from that cpu but only if your temps are in check....

Quick few questions

What cooling are you using?
What's your core temp under load? (use HWmonitor while running prime 95 to check)
Is it prime95 stable at those clocks?
Are you using only software to overclock?

 

[Hohner420]

Thanks !

Glad to hear that. I am not sure what model the HeatSink is but It looks like a Hyper Model of some sort. So its air Cooling and there is a bunch of fans on this case

Also I noticed the fan on the heatsink was not centered and I dont know if this makes a difference but I centered it.

I am also using the bios to over clock. A few times the bios has denied my changes after I saved and exited it would just pull the fsb back down to 200 and wouldnt let me go on with the clocks I chose. Alright so heres this.

This is a good thing rite ?

 

[dostov]

Looks like a CM Hyper TX3 or something? I only see 2 heatpipes though...

What RAM are you using? You may want to reduce the RAM multiplier as it may be holding you back.

 

[keny]

If you look at the screenshot of HWmonitor you will see that your core temps are reading 0c, this is usually caused by having the unlock cores feature turned on in your bios, if you go into your bios and dissable the core unlocker and then see if you can read the core temp when under load.

 

[Hohner420]

Thanks for the help. I really wasnt sure about that setting. Hopefully I chose the rite options.

Then I changed it to normal and auto

So now seems they are reading

I only have one stick of ram at the moment and it is some generic brand I guess

Also I looked underneath the heat sink and found the other two pipes. I will try backing off the memory divider and see if it will let me go ahead with that.

 

[keny]

In you're ACC menu (advance clock calibration) you need to make sure it is disabled, so they should be on, hybrid firmware on normal and ACC on disabled, then you should get your temp readings back.

 

[Hohner420]

Alright I just did that. Here is what HWMonitor reads now

I am trying to keep the HT link frequency as close to 2000 as I can I have heard that above that could reduce performance. I have read around that people are able to get like 3.2 out of these but I cant seem to be able to set it to 239. I know I have to drop a few things back to do it but even still I just get haulted at the the post and set back at 200.

alright thanks again for the input I appreciate the responses.

 

[dostov]

Your memory is rated for 1333Mhz. Drop that RAM multi a notch more to rule that out of the equation and see if you can boot. Don't forget to adjust the CPU volts as you get to higher frequencies and keep your temps in check.

 

[Hohner420]

Alright so I dropped the ram as far as I could and it booted then with the fsb at 239.

I am not really sure how much to go about raising the cpu volts. the ram seems kinda low now. and the HT kinda high. So should I worrie about keeping the HT around 2000 ?

 

[Hohner420]

So I backed off the the north bridge and ht frequency to 8 and now the ht link is at 1911. Here is a picture of the voltage options that I have in the Bios any suggestions please let me know.

 

[keny]

First things first, now you can see you're core temp on hwm (its the two readings under athlon 235) which is currently 18c idle, which is cool, it must be cool where you are. You need to run p95 for a few mins and take note of how high that temp goes, that will give us a indication of how far you can push the vcore, if you can run that and post the results that will help a lot. Don't worry about the other settings just yet, all in time

 

[dostov]

Looks like he's in Ohio so I really doubt his CPU is running that cool under a basic CM dual-heatpipes cooler. In a freezer maybe.

Speedfan reports 43C which is much more believable IMO.

 

[keny]

Looks like he's in Ohio so I really doubt his CPU is running that cool under a basic CM dual-heatpipes cooler. In a freezer maybe.

Speedfan reports 43C which is much more believable IMO.

The temp you're reading on speedfan is the socket temp(43c), the very bottom one is the CPU core temp (core)!which is the same as hwm, sometimes AMD's temp sensor is of at the low end but not too far off once you load them up. Those athlon "e" variants are also the energy efficient ones so should run cooler, but I do agree 18c is on the low side, unless its like 12c in his room.

 

[Hohner420]

Well I dont have the AC on lol. Im sorry to ask but what am Im trying to find here ? the max fsb ? is this where i am supose to drop the ram divider and the ht and nb frequency to its lowest and raise the fsb till it wont go into windows and when I find where it will THEN run P95 and watch the temps ?

 

[trents]

You want to run Prime95 for about 20 minutes to see where both your socket temps and your core temps settle under load. You want the socket temp not to exceed 65c and the core temps not to exceed 55-60c. If you are under those limits you have room to add CPU voltage in order to advance your overclock. Add CPU voltage in .025 increments. Currently you are at 1.225 which is quite low. You should be able to easily get that CPU to 3.5 ghz. I just overclocked the same chip on an Asus M5A970 motherboard to 3.5+ on only about 1.35 CPU volts.

 

[Hohner420]

Thats great information I think I can manage that. IF I could get the bios to allow me to do any of the settings that I am trying. Im just starting to think this bios is too picky to allow me to do much of anything. Ive overclocked some asus boards and a few msi boards but this is my first gigabyte and its just stupid.

 

[RGone]

Hohner420, you have enough posts to allow you to put up a signature with your complete system specs in it.

Put up Sig at OCF.

New Shortcut method for putting a Signature with your system information following your every post so people can know what is in the case that they are trying to assist with. You can use something like what is shown in my signature as a good template of needed information Thank you.

 

[Hohner420]

Okay I think I have all of this rite. Just gonna do a test post here to see if my signature shows up. Last night I was playing and had alot of issues like my gun disappeared, game shut down, system shut down and even bsod once. Backed the ram divider back one and that seemed to work again but seems kinda low now.

 

[RGone]

We cannot see because you did not give us screen captures of CPUz > CPU Tab, Memory Tab and SPD Tab.
RGone...