Overclocking my 955 BE, bit of trouble getting past 3.9.

[Badzyy]

OK cool i'll give that a try then

Thanks.

 

[Badzyy]

I think that helped, seems to be running fine for now.

Thanks.

 

[Seebs]

Where did you read that? the consensus is no more than 1.55v, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023 it will go higher but its not recommended for the long term as it will shorten the life of the CPU, the BIOS should tell you that, mine goes yellow at 1.575 and red at the volts your talking about.

Since when is 1.65V RAM not good for Phenom II chips?

I have run 555BE, 720BE, 955BE, 965BE... All have been able to work fine with 1.65V RAM and at much higher speeds than the "claimed" 1333MHz max... My daily driver used to run 4GB of RAM at 1.65V (1800MHz 8-8-8 -- The ram was rated for 2000MHz 8-8-8) and I never had any issues... Nor have the hundreds/thousands of people that buy 1600MHz memory and set the 8x multi for it on their BIOS.

Please show me where, on that thread, it says that Phenom IIs are not capable of more than 1333MHz and need ram with voltages lower than 1.65V because I did not find it.

@ Badzy

- You have a Black Edition chip. There is no need to mess with your HTRef. Leave it at 200 and do your overclocks via multipliers; it'll make things at lot easier for you.

- If you can; please get coreTemp, run it and post a screenshot of it... You're looking for the field named "VID". That is the "default" voltage that your chip was found to need in order to run at stock clocks... This can be used in order to figure out an approximation of how much voltage increase you'll need in order to get to a certain clock speed.



As an example; the 955BE I had (incredibly good chip and I miss it very much) had a VID of 1.300V and with that chip I was able to get to 4GHz for daily use with just 1.39V to the VCore.

- I would suggest you do this:
-- Go back to stock speeds. Don't do AUTO settings.
--- HTRef: 200MHz
--- CPU Multiplier: 17x
--- HT Link Multiplier: 10x
--- CPU NB Multiplier: 10x
--- RAM Multiplier: 8x and set your main timings as per the RAM's rating.
--- VCore: Manually set this to whatever CoreTemp shows for VID
--- The rest of the Voltages you can leave on Auto for now.

-- Once you've done that; start Overclocking one thing at a time.
--- Raise your CPU Multiplier 1 tick, save and reboot.
--- If it goes into OS without issues; go back to BIOS and raise it one more tick... Keep repeating this until you find the multiplier where it won't go to OS or crash.
--- Go to BIOS and raise VCore to the next available level up.
--- Continue with the "Raise Multi/Save/Boot" routine until it crashes again.
--- You can continue to rinse/repeat the steps above until you reach the speed that you want, or voltages/temperatures become high enough to make you uncomfortable.

- Once you have your CPU dialed in, you then go and raise CPU NB a bit to optimize your overclock. The thread linked on the quote has a chart for suggested CPU NB speeds based on CPU speeds; find your speed range and set your CPU NB as close as you can to what's suggested on there. You will, most likely, need to raise your CPU NB Volts a bit to get there.

- Don't bother with HTLink overclocking... Phenom IIs prefer that to be at or around 2000MHz anyway.

- Don't worry about your Phenom II not being able to handle 1.65V RAM, or it not being able to run RAM at speeds higher than 1333MHz. I've had a number or Phenom II chips (Some weak, some very strong) and even the weakest chip (720BE C2 Stepping) was capable of running 1800MHz for 24/7 use for months on end.

Hope this helps

Sebas

 

[Badzyy]

Hey Sebas,

I appreciate the input, here's a pic of my CoreTemp.
I'll definitely give what you said a try, I never started overclocking like that.
I just basically used someones else's settings thinking it would be quick and easy
but I think I'm learning the hard way that's not how it works lol.

EDIT: At what point should I be using Prime95 to test stability? I'm guessing not every time I reboot

Thanks.

 

[Seebs]

No problem... Word of advise; never.... EVER... use someone else's settings to overclock your CPU. There are a multitude of factors that affect each overclock and no two computers will ever behave the same... Even if the settings you took where from a person with the same models of everything; each CPU is like a person (unique) and same goes for the motherboard and RAM... They are rated to fall within a specific range, but will behave very differently to settings changes.

I would start with stress testing once you're somewhere in the 3.7 - 3.8 GHz range and see if I can get it past that.

I can tell you this... If you look at my CoreTemp screenshot; my 1090T is also a 1.400V VID and I can't get it to 4GHz without it getting way too hot for my taste so I settled for 3.8GHz at a reasonable VCore. Your 955BE may have more headroom since it's only a quad core, but don't get your hopes to high... High VID means that you have less voltage headroom before things start getting too hot... That's the lottery we play with these chips, some are low VID and can typically give you a higher OC if you keep them cool and some others are higher VID and will need more extreme cooling if you want to overclock them very far.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Where did you read that? the consensus is no more than 1.55v, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023 it will go higher but its not recommended for the long term as it will shorten the life of the CPU, the BIOS should tell you that, mine goes yellow at 1.575 and red at the volts your talking about.

Where did I read that? I've lived it, and so have a lot of other people!
2v DDR is perfectly safe for those with Micron D9 chips, and it is perfectly safe for the CPUs and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing...

People should not be so silly and throw out random numbers like 1.55v. 1.75v is safe on most ram and I promise is most definitely safe on the CPU.

2.4v!!!

Good way to burn the modules!

BTW, OP, the issue comes from your RAM latency I guess: on the cpu-z tab, it's 7,7,7,21,27.
Set it in the BIOS to 9,9,9,24,34 and 1.5v

Not when you have D9GTR modules

 

[BeepBeep2]

EDIT: Apologies for the double post

I can tell you this... If you look at my CoreTemp screenshot; my 1090T is also a 1.400V VID and I can't get it to 4GHz without it getting way too hot for my taste so I settled for 3.8GHz at a reasonable VCore. Your 955BE may have more headroom since it's only a quad core, but don't get your hopes to high... High VID means that you have less voltage headroom before things start getting too hot... That's the lottery we play with these chips, some are low VID and can typically give you a higher OC if you keep them cool and some others are higher VID and will need more extreme cooling if you want to overclock them very far.

Phenom II X6 is a little different of an animal than X4. If you have a 1.4v VID 1090T, I apologize as most of them are in the 1.3-1.35v range.

Also, higher VID chips are usually cooler running, lower leakage chips. Low VID are higher leakage and are better suited for cold. (LN2) ...usually high leakage chips aren't worth even trying on LN2 unless you have super low expectations.

Speaking of 1.4v VID chips:

 

[Seebs]

@ BeepBeep2

LOL... I understand the relationship between high/low VID chips... I've been on both ends of the spectrum. I had a 1.3 VID 955BE that I was able to get to 4.8GHz on air and bench it there; the chip was a workhorse, but for daily use it just got a bit too hot once you gave it any serious volts... The 4.8GHz runs were for no more than 10 minutes at a time and I had the equivalent of two leaf blowers moving air all over the heatsink and motherboard. That chip scaled to almost 6GHz for me once I put it under DICE... I never got it higher than that as I don't have access to LN2. Chip is now sold to a team mate and hopefully one day he'll freeze it and get it past the 7GHz mark; I know that chip has the potential.

The rest of my chips have all been from "run of the mill" 1.350 VID to "not-so-good" 1.400 VID; oh well... You are right though; higher VID chips will run cooler than lower VID chips.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Therefore higher VID chips can be good for guys on air.

....4.8 on one core or all four?
My 1.4v VID 955 does 5+ GHz on air for CPU-Z validations.

Anyway, it has a lot to do with luck as far as temperatures go. As you can see, my 955 (1212 PGT, 1115 last # SN) does 4.3+ stable on air (Corsair H70) but with voltages I wouldn't exactly recommend to guys with inexperience/trying to OC 24/7 rigs.

 

[Seebs]

4.8 on one core or all four?
My 1.4v VID 955 does 5+ GHz on air for CPU-Z validations.

Anyway, it has a lot to do with luck as far as temperatures go. As you can see, my 955 (1212 PGT, 1115 last # SN) does 4.3+ stable on air (Corsair H70) but with voltages I wouldn't exactly recommend to guys with inexperience/trying to OC 24/7 rigs.

Give me a couple mins... I'll get you some screenshots.

CPUz: 4837MHz - 1 Core - 1.568V: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1855846










These last two are for the fastest/tightest I was able to get my "good benching" RAM before my UD5P decided to die and take them with it while I was benching the 1090T under DICE. One amazing set of hypers gone and no chance of getting them replaced.

 

[BeepBeep2]

Nice ram, scaled with 6-7-6. Mine sure don't, but they bench up around 1870 (SuperPi 32M) 6-6-6-18 with 1.8v.

Nice 955, needed more vcore

4x 1st place AMD Phenom II air:
http://hwbot.org/submission/2278062_beepbeep2_cpu_frequency_phenom_ii_x4_955_be_5141.41_mhz
http://hwbot.org/submission/2278070_beepbeep2_superpi_phenom_ii_x4_955_be_13sec_953ms
http://hwbot.org/submission/2278077_beepbeep2_wprime_32m_phenom_ii_x4_955_be_7sec_749ms
http://hwbot.org/submission/2278087_beepbeep2_pifast_phenom_ii_x4_955_be_21.98_sec

 

[Frakk]

Wow.... xXSebaSXx and BeepBeep2 relax you two there is no pissing contest. Were all here just trying help others, not to look like coming out on top with overclocking interlect

Its what i was told here and its what i have seen repeated over and over again in here.

Never the less its good to know i can safely run my RAM at 1600Mhz + and ignore the voltage warnings in the Motherboard, so thanks for that

But if something burns out i will be sending you the bill

 

[Seebs]

LOL... I think what I needed for that chip was a better motherboard... The UD5P was a "mule" of a board... Very strong and beefy, but it lacked the horsepower that a Crosshair IV or Crosshair V would have had... Kind of like comparing a SL55AMG to a Ferrari 458... Both have lots of torque and horsepower, but the 458 has that little extra that makes it magnitudes better.

Wow.... xXSebaSXx and BeepBeep2 relax you two there is no pissing contest. Were all here just trying help others, not to look like coming out on top with overclocking interlect

Its what i was told here and its what i have seen repeated over and over again in here.

Never the less its good to know i can safely run my RAM at 1600Mhz + and ignore the voltage warnings in the Motherboard, so thanks for that

But if something burns out i will be sending you the bill

No pissing contest man... Just showing what these chips can do. It is really strange that your motherboard is giving you voltage warnings when you try to set VRAM to 1.65V... I've never seen an Asus board do that, granted I've only had two of them and they were for Intel CPUs. Still; I set my voltages on them muuuuch higher than 1.65V and I never got warnings. I know that on Asus boards the voltages change colors until you get to RED as you raise the volts, but for my DDR3 board from Asus (Rampage Extreme) that RED only came when I got to 1.900V not at 1.650V

 

[BeepBeep2]

LOL... I think what I needed for that chip was a better motherboard... The UD5P was a "mule" of a board... Very strong and beefy, but it lacked the horsepower that a Crosshair IV or Crosshair V would have had... Kind of like comparing a SL55AMG to a Ferrari 458... Both have lots of torque and horsepower, but the 458 has that little extra that makes it magnitudes better.






No pissing contest man... Just showing what these chips can do. It is really strange that your motherboard is giving you voltage warnings when you try to set VRAM to 1.65V... I've never seen an Asus board do that, granted I've only had two of them and they were for Intel CPUs. Still; I set my voltages on them muuuuch higher than 1.65V and I never got warnings. I know that on Asus boards the voltages change colors until you get to RED as you raise the volts, but for my DDR3 board from Asus (Rampage Extreme) that RED only came when I got to 1.900V not at 1.650V

You really don't want a Crosshair V for benching Phenom II I have to use an old beta bios from the early days around board release, and the bios doesn't support BD. Bench efficiency drops too compared to 890FX.

That UD5P is great for Phenom II X4, very efficient and clocks well. Used to be the only board chew* used back in the day

I believe ASUS AMD boards get "yellow" around 1.7v+, red at 1.9v. I've only done that once, to get 2000+ 6-6-6 for a competition

 

[Frakk]

LOL... I think what I needed for that chip was a better motherboard... The UD5P was a "mule" of a board... Very strong and beefy, but it lacked the horsepower that a Crosshair IV or Crosshair V would have had... Kind of like comparing a SL55AMG to a Ferrari 458... Both have lots of torque and horsepower, but the 458 has that little extra that makes it magnitudes better.






No pissing contest man... Just showing what these chips can do. It is really strange that your motherboard is giving you voltage warnings when you try to set VRAM to 1.65V... I've never seen an Asus board do that, granted I've only had two of them and they were for Intel CPUs. Still; I set my voltages on them muuuuch higher than 1.65V and I never got warnings. I know that on Asus boards the voltages change colors until you get to RED as you raise the volts, but for my DDR3 board from Asus (Rampage Extreme) that RED only came when I got to 1.900V not at 1.650V

Oh its a good chip... I'm just not sure how long i'm going to have it, probably a long while if AMD don't make some IPC improvements by the time Piledriver comes around, i'm certainly not replacing it with something that is less powerful or the same.
I don't want it to burnout before then and Intel's latest offering (while just as good as SB) is a little to warm for my liking.

I'm going to try for 1600Mhz @ 8-8-8-20-t1 tomorrow. wish me luck...

 

[Seebs]

Well my UD5P was a beast, until it decided to kill itself and take my hypers with it... The only thing I did not like about it was the RAM speed limitation; I was never able to get more than 1900MHz out of it.

 

[Badzyy]

I've tried a few things today and I think it could be my ram that is causing
the instability...for whatever reason the 2 sets (2x2gb each) aren't exactly the same.
They both say 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 on the label but one says 1.65v and
the other is 1.8v, any of you guys know much about this?

Thanks for the help so far by the way

 

[manu2b]

You could try to run both @1333/9.9.9.24/1.65v.

 

[Seebs]

Or you could get a set of matched RAM so that you don't have those issues.

 

[Badzyy]

Yeh I hear ya, I bought them a couple years ago and didn't really know much.

I have it working OK now though, 4.0ghz at 1.55v - 2600mhz NB 1.25v - 1333mhz RAM
at 1.65v haven't tested with Prime95 or anything for long
but for gaming while frapsing it's working fine and temps don't go above 52c so far.

So yeh appreciate all the help gunna leave it like this

Thanks.