Overclocking Phenom II X4 955 w/ ASUS M5A97 R2

[BeginnersLuck]

Hey, I'm trying to overclock my rig for the first time and I'm running into some issues.

Here are my specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
2x8 gb Corsair Vengence 1600 (although I think it may only be running at 1333 for some reason)
MSI GTX 550 Ti 1 Gb
500 Gb WD Caviar Blue
Ultra LSP650
Zalman CNPS9500A

I'm tring to use AMD Overdrive. I raise the multiplier .5 at a time and run stability tests. At 19x, 3.8 GHz, Overdrive crashes everytime. Up to that point I have not changed any voltages. CPU is at 1.4 and NB is at 1.1. I know the issue is not temperature related. I just installed a new Zalman CNPS9500A. At idle it runs 31-35c and on load 50-51c.

I then try to adjust the voltages slightly which is the next step, if I understand correctly, but Overdrive crashes everytime at that speed regardless.

Please let me know what I should do.

Also, I wanted to go ahead and make to changes in BIOS, but I could not figure out how to change it in UEFI Bios. I have the frequency setting but it has pre-set values and caps out only a few jumps above stock, so I guess I'm doing something wrong there as well.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RGone]

Fast and quick thread...since most of us would not 'touch' AOD.


I want to Overclock using AMD Overdrive

 

[TeknoBug]

I ran the X4 955 @ 3.8GHz and 4.0GHz, at 3.8 it should be able to run at 1.375-1.4v but at 4.0 I bumped it to 1.425 or 1.45 I forget.

 

[BeginnersLuck]

I ran the X4 955 @ 3.8GHz and 4.0GHz, at 3.8 it should be able to run at 1.375-1.4v but at 4.0 I bumped it to 1.425 or 1.45 I forget.

What is the highest voltage I can put the CPU at safely? And does adjusting the other voltage affect much?

 

[Hicksimus]

What is the highest voltage I can put the CPU at safely? And does adjusting the other voltage affect much?

Before that gets answered....I'll give you an idea what safe means. I can walk outside of my house in a middle class neighborhood and pretty well everybody would call that situation safe. But any number of bad luck things can happen to me and not all middle class neighborhoods are created equal.

Aim for a low 1.5V at the very most and you are in a "safe" zone so long as your temperatures stay at acceptable levels. Something like 70C CPU temp, 55C core temp maximum.

Other voltages are generally not touched with the exception of RAM voltage and CPU/NB voltage. If you are demanding more than factory specs from your RAM or you are upping the CPU/NB frequency then you can play around a bit with these. The forums have a really nice Phenom II OC guide though, you could look it up.

 

[BeginnersLuck]

Why is it that windows becomes unstable even though my temps are fine? Is it just from attempting to change frequencies while it's running? Do know of a nice guide for Those UEFI Bios? I'm sure the settings are right in front of me, but I can't find them for some reason....just being a noob, I guess. Haha

 

[Hicksimus]

Why is it that windows becomes unstable even though my temps are fine? Is it just from attempting to change frequencies while it's running? Do know of a nice guide for Those UEFI Bios? I'm sure the settings are right in front of me, but I can't find them for some reason....just being a noob, I guess. Haha

There can be all sorts of reasons. Ranging from not enough voltage to wrong memory frequency/timings to Turbo Core being on and even the motherboard's VRM temps being too high.

To get the settings you want in the BIOS click the exit/advanced button in the top right and select advanced mode. You'll find the overclocking options in the AI Tweaker tab, just set Ai Overclock Tuner to "Manual". Disable Turbo Core and from there you can set the options you want.

You'll notice that the CPU and CPU/NB voltage are in positive offset mode. This means that the value you key in adds on top of the factory voltage amount. On this board you can do it that way which leaves the green power saving functions on, or you can take it out of offset mode and set the voltage you want and the board will automatically turn the green stuff off.

If you stick to offset there then you can find the green settings under the advanced tab in CPU Configuration if you want to change them.

Edits:
Here are some pictures that may be a bit useful, or at least give you a bit of confidence with what you are doing in the BIOS. They are from my M5A97 with a 1045T.

Here are the green settings that will be left on if you use offset(and 1 other setting, no need to touch SVM). CoolnQuiet and C1E can be turned off if you choose.

Spoiler

Here is the first part of the AITweaker section. You have a black edition so you can take CPU Ratio off of Auto and play with that. You'll see that I've held my Memory around its 1600Mhz spec. You don't have to play with CPU/NB too much or HTLink but as you can see they are capable of being over the 2000MHz they start at.

Spoiler

Last up is a bit more of the AITweaker section. You'll notice that I've given a bit more voltage to my CPU/NB taking it to 1.2V(I'll likely need it a bit higher for the ~2700mhz you see in the last picture). As you adjust that level to say .050 as I have you'll notice it doesn't automatically change the effective CPU/NB voltage that it shows. No worries about that. Under this section there are a few more voltages, all can be auto, but if you are doing any memory overclocking then the DRAM Voltage can be changed. Also note that by leaving Load Line Calibration on Auto or On with this board can lead to moments where your CPU Voltage is a bit higher than requested so if you are getting close to maximum safe voltage it may push you over. You can also turn them off but then when your processor is under heavy load the voltage will fall a bit under what you specified.

Spoiler

F10 is the save settings and exit key. I'm not saying copy my settings, but those are most of the things you can change.

 

[trents]

BeginnersLuck, if you will commit to using only the bios to overclock you are much more likely to get help here. You also need to download and install these three standard tools that we use constantly here: CPU-z, HWMonitor and Prime95.

 

[BeginnersLuck]

There can be all sorts of reasons. Ranging from not enough voltage to wrong memory frequency/timings to Turbo Core being on and even the motherboard's VRM temps being too high.

To get the settings you want in the BIOS click the exit/advanced button in the top right and select advanced mode. You'll find the overclocking options in the AI Tweaker tab, just set Ai Overclock Tuner to "Manual". Disable Turbo Core and from there you can set the options you want.

You'll notice that the CPU and CPU/NB voltage are in positive offset mode. This means that the value you key in adds on top of the factory voltage amount. On this board you can do it that way which leaves the green power saving functions on, or you can take it out of offset mode and set the voltage you want and the board will automatically turn the green stuff off.

If you stick to offset there then you can find the green settings under the advanced tab in CPU Configuration if you want to change them.

Edits:
Here are some pictures that may be a bit useful, or at least give you a bit of confidence with what you are doing in the BIOS. They are from my M5A97 with a 1045T.

Here are the green settings that will be left on if you use offset(and 1 other setting, no need to touch SVM). CoolnQuiet and C1E can be turned off if you choose.

Spoiler

View attachment 121087

Here is the first part of the AITweaker section. You have a black edition so you can take CPU Ratio off of Auto and play with that. You'll see that I've held my Memory around its 1600Mhz spec. You don't have to play with CPU/NB too much or HTLink but as you can see they are capable of being over the 2000MHz they start at.

Spoiler

View attachment 121088

Last up is a bit more of the AITweaker section. You'll notice that I've given a bit more voltage to my CPU/NB taking it to 1.2V(I'll likely need it a bit higher for the ~2700mhz you see in the last picture). As you adjust that level to say .050 as I have you'll notice it doesn't automatically change the effective CPU/NB voltage that it shows. No worries about that. Under this section there are a few more voltages, all can be auto, but if you are doing any memory overclocking then the DRAM Voltage can be changed. Also note that by leaving Load Line Calibration on Auto or On with this board can lead to moments where your CPU Voltage is a bit higher than requested so if you are getting close to maximum safe voltage it may push you over. You can also turn them off but then when your processor is under heavy load the voltage will fall a bit under what you specified.

Spoiler

View attachment 121089

F10 is the save settings and exit key. I'm not saying copy my settings, but those are most of the things you can change.

Thanks! I really appreciate the details. I'm going to take another crack at it tonight, and I'll post my results.

 

[BeginnersLuck]

BeginnersLuck, if you will commit to using only the bios to overclock you are much more likely to get help here. You also need to download and install these three standard tools that we use constantly here: CPU-z, HWMonitor and Prime95.

I have Prime95 and CPU-z, I'll get HWMonitor as well. And I plan to use bios from now on because I did not like doing it from Windows.