Phenom II X6 1055T @ 3.8GHz...unstable

[AFCheech]

First off, I just wanna say hello and give mad props to all the techs on here that try to make it easy for n00bs like me to overclock our rigs!

So...I've been reading through this forum for a while trying to figure out how to overclock my 1055T and now that I've managed to get it to 3.8GHz one of the cores decided to give up on life, kinda. I've ran Prime95 for 11+hrs and the same core (#3) kept dying on me after about 30-45mins [Ran Prime95 a minute ago and it died after 16mins]. CoreTemp showed the highest temp reaching 57C. I've pretty much tried everything that I was able to understand from Dolk's OCing Guide and the little bit I gathered throughout this forum, but that friggin' core just hates me! The 11+hr Prime95 run was a Blend test. All cores were good except for #3 dying after ~45mins, giving me a "fatal error...something .5 something .4 blah blah". Before that, I had ran a 2hr small FFT test and core #3 seemed fine. Unfortunately, I've been messing with settings since that run and I can't manage to do any better. I'm totally new at this OCing thing and, I'm not sure who said it (probably read it in Dolk's Guide), it is truly addicting! Please help me if you can. Thanks!

My rig consists of the following:
NZXT Apollo Gaming Case w/3x120mm fans
1kW Gaming Series PSU (generic brand)
8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1333
Crosshair IV Formula 890FX (using 1304 Bios)
Phenom II X6 1055T
Asetek Low Cost Liquid Cooling
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit Service Pack 1

Current Bios settings:
Turbo Core - Disabled
Cool n Quiet - Disabled
C1E - Disabled
CPU Spread Spectrum - Disabled
FSB - 271 @3794MHz
DRAM - 1084MHz (I set the timings per the SPD in CPU-Z)
CPU/NB - 2186 (tried setting to 2400-2700 and it kept crashing)
HT Link - 2168
LLC - Auto (Windows wouldn't load if I set it to 0-50% calibration)
CPU Voltage - 1.4v (had it up to ~1.43v but core #3 kept failing)
CPU/NB Voltage - 1.2v
DRAM Voltage - 1.5125

 

[RGone]

It would seem...

but that friggin' core just hates me!

From all that you wrote it seems that particular core is not as good as the other 5 when overclocked. So with 5 other cores that work well at X amount of voltage, it is likely that core will not run much faster. IF it would you would have to increase the voltage to the whole cpu and run the other cores with more voltage than they really need to run with but that seems all that can be done when 1 of 6 is lesser than the other 5. About it as I understand the thuban. Well from most bioses anyway. You might be able to adjust the #3 core from within windows with software.

 

[trents]

The only other thing that occurs to me is to use ACC or whatever your bios calls the item that has come to be commonly known as the "core unlocker" to make adjustments to the individual cores. That was the original intent of ACC anyway. But if you enable that feature you will lose the ability to monitor core temps.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

Howdy. I run a 1055t/Gigabyte 890fx. It runs great at 3640MHz but I've had it stable 6 cores@4120Mhz on air with lots of volts! 4424MHz on 2 cores. I chose 3640MHz for daily use because it gives me good performance at low volts and good temps.

A couple things you could try: disable the bad core in bios and run 5 cores. I sometimes run at 3 cores to keep things mellow, and most software does not use 6 cores. Or,run 6 cores at lower speeds and volts, the core may stabilize with 100 less Mhz. Your HT, NB/CPU freq may be high, mine runs good at 2080Mhz. The CPU works harder at higher freqs because of IMC(integrated mem. controller). So, the HT, NB/CPU freqs can be too high with too little volts. I have been at >1.5v on the CPU but it ain't good. BTW, I noticed a voltage wall at 3800MHz anyway. Both Gigabyte 890GPA and 890FX seemed to need moar(!) volts after 3800MHz with the 1055t.

GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 Rev.2.1
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban (@3.64Ghz) @1.34v
2x2 AData DDR3 2000G @1732 MHz, 8x8x8x24 33 2T, 1.62v
BiosVersion = F5

FSB 260 MHz
Multi x 14.0
HT x8= 2080MHz
NB/CPU x8= 2080MHz
CPU = 3640 MHz) @1.34v
Some ss's.

 

[AFCheech]

Thanks for the advice! I'll probably try doing the Core Unlocker dealio and see how that goes. I've actually had it stable at 3.7GHz with all the cores working just fine, but that 3.8GHz was what I was shooting for. I'll probably play around with the CPU voltage a little bit with core unlocker enabled and see how that goes. I'm not really sure how I would make individual adjustments to the cores though...I've never played around with that feature. I keep reading that max voltage for day to day usage is safe around 1.45v...is this true? Would adding more voltage to the HT, NB, and/or CPU/NB help me out at all? Thanks again for the quick replies!

@trents, I've pretty much been following your posts regarding the 1055T and that's how I got this far, LOL.

 

[QuietIce]

...

 

[AFCheech]

to OCF!


If you're hitting a 57° load core temp than that is most likely the problem. Around 55° most Phenom's start to sputter so you've managed to beat the odds a little already. Sorry to break the news to you, and I'm surprised no one else mentioned it since we all know this, but without better cooling I wouldn't expect a whole lot more out of that machine.

Dang, I knew I was pushing it a little too far with those temps...hopefully I didn't damage the chip

I went ahead and set everything up to run at 3.7GHz, so I'm happy with that. The temps don't get as hot at that speed either. Thanks again for all the awesome advice!

 

[tonychang]

Dang, I knew I was pushing it a little too far with those temps...hopefully I didn't damage the chip

I went ahead and set everything up to run at 3.7GHz, so I'm happy with that. The temps don't get as hot at that speed either. Thanks again for all the awesome advice!

What are your current settings? You should be able to get your NB and HT-Link to 2400-3000MHz (this will really depend on your board and other components, everybody is different. My rig runs stable at 2600MHz, anything past that really becomes unstable).

 

[QuietIce]

...

 

[bjozac]

Hi,

Completely new to overclocking, loved Dolk's guid. Saves up a lot of google time!

This thread reminds of my problem all tough not entierly.

I have a
Tuban 1055T
gigabyte ga-870A-ud3
Corsair XMS3 4GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)

I ran Prime95 for ~5hours no problem. Then I played SC2 and the game crashed. And after that it seems that prime 95 has been causing one core to say "expected 0.5 got 0.4". And when i ran it over night, the computer blue-screened.

This morning i increased the voltage with 0.025 or what minimum step is.
Prime 95 has been for 1h20min running stable on all 6 cores.
Maximum core temp = 44C.
I tried setting manual ram settings, but that did not make a difference.

So my questions are

1) What is a reasonable core temp to get during load? I read somewhere <55C.
2) What can be causing the instability currently?
3) Can i increase the speed of my ram over the 1600mHz? Now they run in ~1350mHz, but next multiplier causes it to reach ~1750mHz.

 

[QuietIce]

...

 

[bjozac]

Thanks, I realized that the old thread was a bit misplaced.

I will try this out, and if it does not help I will start my own noob thread