what is max cpu voltage for phenom II's in your opinion for 24/7 overclock

[velozzity]

Well Im back again, I thought that my system was 100% stable and had ran through a slew of tests (occt and prime 24 hours) and my system gave no errors or blue screens. I used the system for online gaming for about 4 days and one day while my son was playing around in crysis I got an error that crysis had ended. I did'nt change anything and waited a few more days to see if it was some software glitch and no problem for 4 more days until lo and behold COD4 had suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, I started playing again and played the rest of the night without issue. This was at 3636 mhz 1.45vcore, nb and 2222 1.325 nbvdd and ht at 2020 with 1.2 ht voltage. I decided out of curiosity to run prime and It failed about 4 hours into the test. I tried it again and this time it failed 1 hour in. It had previously tested fine and all of a sudden it was failing. I ended up lowering the overclock .5 on the multi and raising reference clock to 203 to yield 3552. This remained stable for about 14 hours of testing. Being on who does'nt like to accept defeat, I tried lowering HT to 1800 range. Still failed. Memory is at stock timings and was at max overclocked 14 mhz. So I decided maybe PSU was giving wierd spikes that would cause me these issues, I went and bought what I thought was a mack daddy power supply (and one of the few that jonnyguru.com had ever given a 10 on performance to)
The Antec Signature 850. Tried prime blend run again and failed the same. I ended up raising VCore to 1.475 (shows 1.472 in cpu-z) and have so far been stable prime blending at 3654 (203 * 18)...Question is if this proves to be long term stable.....Is it a safe voltage for 24/7 usage and not just for benchmarks. Max temps using coolermaster v8 at about 60% fan speed is about 48c
This is with door to room closed off and ac vent closed as to let room temp rise above normal to simulate worst case scenario.

Edit: after looking at coretemp log it has been up to 50c but room is really hot I am at verge of breaking a sweat using computer but cant really say what ambient temp just that it is almost hot in here after running prime 2.5 hours with room closed off.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Bahaha, I run more than that 24/7. It is fine AS LONG AS YOU KEEP IT COOL ENOUGH. That is what most people on here will tell you. Amd chips LOVE voltage, but they also LOVE the cold. The world record run was done with 2 + volts for god sake.

 

[velozzity]

Thanks chance I just had seen some people with results in your range (above 3.7) using 1.4-1.45 volts and really wanted to stay in that range but was'nt sure about long term effects of this voltage (1.475). I am in no way interested in benching nor am I talking about short term under extreme cooling methods. Just dont want to significantly reduce life of processor.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Well technically, a processor will out live you (or anyone for that matter) under normal voltages. So I seriously doubt that + 1.5 volts will give you a significantly shorter lifespan of your processor, but I can see where you are coming from on wanting to keep the volts down.

 

[velozzity]

All I know Is i give UP, maybe I have hit that heat wall that dolk has been talking about, considering that I still failed prime at 3650 and 1.475 volts.....wierd is that if i back up to 3550 im good at 1.45 volts, seems more vcore does'nt help much and since im only increasing multi like .5 notch all other settings are the same........on a side note the previous 3636 and above were stable when I ran fan on v8 at 100%, but this thing seems to become louder and louder and I wanted some quietness, so I'll have to live with 3550 and peace of mind versus loud and 80-100mhz more...maybe I'll go to my local pc store and look for a new fan one that has good cfm but not so obnoxious.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

What kind of loaded temps do you see? I am wondering because that heatwall has kind of stayed away from me... I was 8 hours small ftt's stable at 3.75ghz with 1.5 volts at a max temp of 50*C. Most people say once you get over 45* on the PII's you cut your oc', but I am still well ahead of some others and my oc' is stable as all get out. Even UT3 is stable and I had to run my 5200+ @ 3ghz to keep it from freezing up.

 

[velozzity]

well after the room had really warmed up I ended up at max of 51c and I have tried upping vcore as stated earlier and also upping the nb-cpu all the way to 1.35, still no luck.

The only reason I am saying "heat wall" is the fact that I became annoyed with the sound of my cpu cooler and since I was getting load temps around 45c at max I turned it down to about 60% of fan output. Guess that I could put it back at 100% to retest and reverify stability at 3600+ but I dont really want my computer that loud and I ran a 3dmarkvantage at both settings and the 100+ mhz only made about 150 points difference (10,150 at 3552 and 10,300 at 3650) not sure if that would really translate to much in a game (that is like 1% difference in score so If it were fps it would be meaningless)

 

[velozzity]

I have noticed one thing which has gotten me alarmed......Sometimes when I start a stess test, my voltage jumps from 1.440 at idle to 1.456 when stressed (as read in CPU-Z), in other words it is overvolting when all cores are stressed, Is that something that could be causing problems with my overclocks, as in the motherboard is not properly regulating the vcore????

 

[ChanceCoats123]

I have noticed one thing which has gotten me alarmed......Sometimes when I start a stess test, my voltage jumps from 1.440 at idle to 1.456 when stressed (as read in CPU-Z), in other words it is overvolting when all cores are stressed, Is that something that could be causing problems with my overclocks, as in the motherboard is not properly regulating the vcore????

Basically everyone has that. Thing is the cores don't need all the voltage when they are just sitting there, but once you give them something to do the mobo feeds them more.

 

[QuietIce]

You are definitely running on the stability edge. A lot of CPUs will clock out very high in their first few weeks then require an adjustment after break-in. I doubt you're hitting the heat wall, my guess would be something else just isn't quite right and there's no easy way of tracking it down.

It's hard to know what will effect these CPUs long-term. The old K8s will run for years at 1.50 vCore and never blink, the newer ones who knows? At a guess I'd bet the Phenom IIs will take the voltage over time too. Unless you expect to run that rig for 4-5 years I wouldn't worry about anything under 1.50v.

If you really want quiet and good consistent cooling you'll have to break down and get into water cooling. A big investment (trust me, I know!) but if it's done right it's a very reliable cooling solution that can also be very quiet. In fact, a lot of early steps in WC were made to quiet things down without loosing cooling performance. Besides that, kids love it ...!

 

[velozzity]

Thanks Quiet I have actually taken my patriot memory back to the store where i have purchased it and they let me exchange it for a new kit....I am going to retest at 3636 and see if that makes a difference, after that if it fails I will probably up vdimm to 2.2 and see what happens, have read that some memory modules are rated for 1066 at 2.1v but really need 2.2 to maintain timings

Notice per my sig. I have upgraded my power supply too in the pursuit of MHZ....I think it was a little overkill but I wanted something for when the price of the 4870's and the gtx 285's come down.

by the way, I can successfully boot into vista 64 at approx 3.85mhz with same voltage but cant get 3636 stable, is this wierd or what, should'nt I not be able to boot that high If 3636 was'nt stable, or maybe im missing something thats keeping me from being 100% stable (sometimes wish I had just bought a Playstation 3 like I started to do all those months ago and just kept my plain ole pc for internet.

could it be time to RMA my motherboard????? Maybe It's giving me fits....I do know one thing, I currently have changed ram, psu, cooler, all to get higher clock, but has not worked, I have only left my CPU and Motherboard,should be one of those 2 causing the problem.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

I have not really heard how viper's do, but I have heard wonders about gskill and mushkin. I am actually looking into some mushkin cas 7@1600 ddr3 with a ud5p in the future. But that may change depending upon the board. To be truthful, I am sick of being hindered by my ram .

 

[Psykoikonov]

Notice per my sig. I have upgraded my power supply too in the pursuit of MHZ....I think it was a little overkill but I wanted something for when the price of the 4870's and the gtx 285's come down.

That is one nice PSU, maybe a bit overkill but that thing is probably rock solid for 5 years+ with basically anything you can throw at it.

by the way, I can successfully boot into vista 64 at approx 3.85mhz with same voltage but cant get 3636 stable, is this wierd or what, should'nt I not be able to boot that high If 3636 was'nt stable, or maybe im missing something thats keeping me from being 100% stable (sometimes wish I had just bought a Playstation 3 like I started to do all those months ago and just kept my plain ole pc for internet.

Same thing as mine I can boot into Vista 64 at 3.8Ghz on 1.35V (not stable at all but can boot), but have a heck of time trying to get stable at 3.65Ghz, no matter what voltage I pick it crashes in 3D stuff when the ambient goes up a bit.

could it be time to RMA my motherboard????? Maybe It's giving me fits....I do know one thing, I currently have changed ram, psu, cooler, all to get higher clock, but has not worked, I have only left my CPU and Motherboard,should be one of those 2 causing the problem.

Like Quiet said, I haved owned many CPUs that will do X Ghz for the first week or 3 on YV then won't do it anymore, in fact I don't think I've had one yet that didn't do this. Either takes more volts or better cooling or both, and it continues overtime but to a lesser degree. After a few months running full load 24/7 it won't overclock as far as it did after the first few weeks, etc.

 

[velozzity]

By the Way Psykoikonov, where are you at in MHZ right now stable???? Im currently retesting the 3636 with a replacement set of ram (same patriot viper 1066's just new set that I conned them out of at the store, wanted to rule out memory issues since I was always blue screening and hardly ever erroring out)

As per my statement about the PSU being overkill, I meant that I wanted this psu for when I buy a 4870 x 2 or a gtx 295, not sure where my brain was when I said "for a 4870 or a gtx 285" heck my card is equal to the 4870 and slightly below the 285.

Like Quiet said, I haved owned many CPUs that will do X Ghz for the first week or 3 on YV then won't do it anymore, in fact I don't think I've had one yet that didn't do this. Either takes more volts or better cooling or both, and it continues overtime but to a lesser degree. After a few months running full load 24/7 it won't overclock as far as it did after the first few weeks, etc.

by the way, when you are having almost always reboots and BSOD under stress (prime blend) but hardly ever erroring out, is'nt that a good sign of problems with memory or memory subsystem or bad hard drive?????

 

[Psykoikonov]

By the Way Psykoikonov, where are you at in MHZ right now stable???? Im currently retesting the 3636 with a replacement set of ram (same patriot viper 1066's just new set that I conned them out of at the store, wanted to rule out memory issues since I was always blue screening and hardly ever erroring out)

I run 24/7 at 230x15=3.45Ghz NBx10 on stock voltage cause summer is here and I'm not crunchin any projects atm. I can run at 228x16=3.648 NBx11 @ 1.40V CPU and 1.40V NB and be fully stable when the ambient is 20C or less (that I have tested), summer is nearly here and ambient is going up by the day. My Ram is OCz and runs a bit differnet from the majority here. My ram tops out at 960Mhz 5-5-5-15-20-1T @ 2.1V (fails), highest stable I have had it is 940Mhz.

As per my statement about the PSU being overkill, I meant that I wanted this psu for when I buy a 4870 x 2 or a gtx 295, not sure where my brain was when I said "for a 4870 or a gtx 285" heck my card is equal to the 4870 and slightly below the 285.

A very nice power supply and really skimping on PSU is never a good idea especially when overclocking.

by the way, when you are having almost always reboots and BSOD under stress (prime blend) but hardly ever erroring out, is'nt that a good sign of problems with memory or memory subsystem or bad hard drive?????

Could be ram, could be cpu, could be mobo, could be psu, bit doubtful it's hard drive but could be that too I suppose. I gave up on Prime with the Phenom II simply because my system fails at 3.4Ghz no matter what volatge I choose instantly on core 1 which I know is not right cause the same system just validated a few hundred results in both SETI and Einstein with a wingman at 3.565Ghz without a single error, and will run OCCT, Linpack, 3DMark, ect without flinching.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

By the Way Psykoikonov, where are you at in MHZ right now stable???? Im currently retesting the 3636 with a replacement set of ram (same patriot viper 1066's just new set that I conned them out of at the store, wanted to rule out memory issues since I was always blue screening and hardly ever erroring out)

As per my statement about the PSU being overkill, I meant that I wanted this psu for when I buy a 4870 x 2 or a gtx 295, not sure where my brain was when I said "for a 4870 or a gtx 285" heck my card is equal to the 4870 and slightly below the 285.



by the way, when you are having almost always reboots and BSOD under stress (prime blend) but hardly ever erroring out, is'nt that a good sign of problems with memory or memory subsystem or bad hard drive?????

The hard drive plays absolutely no part in any stress tests, but it will point out a ram error. That is why I run small ftt's for CPU stability and memtest 86 for MEMORY stability. I no longer even run blend tests.

 

[velozzity]

You know whats really odd, about a week and a half ago I was aceing the prime tests and failing occt, so I played around with it and ended up finding out that the occt would only fail when windows screen saver came on, so I disabled it, no more probs......about a week went by, no blue screens or restarts, only crysis single player gave "this program has stopped running" error when my son was playing it, so I decided to ignore it thinking o well it's vista, another few days went by, and I decided to play some cod4, I crashed after about 4 hours of online gaming (but i had played it the previous week almost every day without problems) and I thought just for safety let me check the system with prime before I go to bed....It errored out....I tried bumping voltages with no luck, this time blue screens, so I'm at wits end about why it would pass 24 hour stable on OCCT and a week later fail, guess like quiet said overclocks degrade slightly with time....but the odd thing is I have changed ram and reset all settings to what failed in prime blend at the one hour mark, and now its been running for about 3 hours fine...who knows, maybe I want tooo much (cant have your cake and eat it too)

On a side note I almost pulled the trigger on a 940, thinking maybe they overclocked better than the 720 and would be better for my gaming over the long haul.

 

[Psykoikonov]

The hard drive plays absolutely no part in any stress tests, but it will point out a ram error. That is why I run small ftt's for CPU stability and memtest 86 for MEMORY stability. I no longer even run blend tests.

When you run blend Prime uses the page file...

 

[velozzity]

not trying to move this thread further off topic than it already is...Hahahaha, but does memtest also test chipset and nb-cpu considering they are in memory chain too?????? and would failing it also indicate a problem with one of those?

 

[Psykoikonov]

Northbridge for sure, it has to go through there to get to ram from cpu or vice versa. Southbridge not at all except if it writing/reading to or from HDD but it is very minimal.