Phenom II x4 965 BE, stock voltage a bit high?

[Mandrake4565]

"You do not need extra cooling when the FET is soldered to a large ground plane / cooling surface and spread the heat across the motherboard. If you're gonna overclock it extremely you may want to get an extra cooler though".

It all depends on what the person considers "extreme" overclocking.

You should post a pic of hwmonitor under prime95 "blend torture test" for 20 minutes so we can see what your temps are. When you say 55c on the cpu is that the socket temp or the cores?

 

[shadowdr]

Cool. I always appreciate the help I get.
I got one last question though; In your opinion, should I even bother overclock with my motherboard? I mean, running 3400 or 3800 doesn't make that big of a difference and will only reduce the life time of my cpu/motherboard.

So yeah, in your opinion; Is it worth it?

Edit: The only chipset cooler I could find on the sites I order from in Sweden is Akasa AK-210 Chipset cooler

You are probably around the max for that 965 on that mobo. It will should be fine to run it at 3.8 at that voltage, it probably does need that voltage to run that high. You are nearing the top envelope of the heat range for that CPU and that is probably why it won't go any higher without BSOD. It might be possible to get 3.9 but really 3.8 at that temp is what I would run it 24/7. I had a 955 and 965 before my current CPU and neither would do 4.0 as I recall with a core dropping and BSOD really quickly. Before getting the H100i cooler I would only run this CPU at 4.0 as it would prime at 66c, even with the H100i it will bsod at 4.2 regardless of voltage.

 

[balyn]

Cool.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[TeknoBug]

The 955 and 965 should be running @ 1.375v if I remember correctly, 1.475 is pretty high for stock but that voltage will let you get to 4.0-4.2GHz.

 

[Mandrake4565]

The 955 and 965 should be running @ 1.375v if I remember correctly, 1.475 is pretty high for stock but that voltage will let you get to 4.0-4.2GHz.

Every chip is different, but I do agree that 1.475 seems a bit high for the clock speed. I believe part of the problem is the board isn't providing clean power to the chip.

 

[Belexandor]

1.38v for me running at 4.09Ghz

 

[balyn]

Every chip is different, but I do agree that 1.475 seems a bit high for the clock speed. I believe part of the problem is the board isn't providing clean power to the chip.

With my old board It was the same. In my "can't get over 3.6Ghz" thread I was using another board.
This was my board, M5A78L-M/USB3

From my old thread: "My current Core Voltage at 3600 MHz are currently at 1,464 which I think is a bit high, but then - It's the standard one for me since I haven't changed it."

 

[a c i d.f l y]

Stick to multiplier and leave the bus at 200 MHz. No need to change that on an unlocked chip. I'm running at 4.0 GHz at 1.425 V.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Balyn, it is possible that your chip isn't all that good for overclocking. Also both boards you used to overclock it are low end boards. Both are 4+1 power phase counts and neither have heatsinks on the VRM section. Have a look through this post, it is about the VRM section on AMD motherboards. I pulled these from that page.
760GM-E51 (FX) 4+1 No 140W Avoid for OC Yes None
M5A78L-M/USB3 4+1 No 140W OC with cooling Yes
You should post a screen shot of the following tabs in Cpu-Z, cpu, spd and memory.