Where to go from here?

[liquidfire]

Ok you'll have to excuse me I'm a complete beginner with this overclocking world.

I have read a fair few guides and Ive achieved what id consider good results (coming from nothing)

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise on where to go from here? I figure the temps are still low enough to warrant pushing some more from the CPU?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated I'm here to try to learn everything you have to teach.



This is my CPU-Z to give some indication of what I'm running at the moment.



This is my CPU and fan speed at idle they can get a bit lower my misses is insisting on running the heating full blast haha.

And this is my CPU under load after running Prime95 for an hour and a half.




If anyone can point me in the right direction id appreciate it

I look forward to reading your abuse/knowledge

 

[bassnut]

Welcome to Overclockers liquid fire. Nice OC there not many people can get 4GHZ on thier first go. Its been a long time since I played with the PII 955's and I will let someone more in tune with them point you in the right direction .... I have to ask are these temps under full load or are they more or less at Idle. If that is under load you must have some good cooling on it ..... a real nice OC.

 

[liquidfire]

The 35°C is under semi-idle i was only running a few minor things in the background so maybe 5% CPU usage didn't think it would bump it up much.

and the 45°C maxed one is after running Prime95 blend test for an hour and a half

Its a custom water cooling kit looks like death but I'm more about performance for now ill make it look pretty some other time haha.

Thank you for the welcome

 

[bassnut]

Nice system and OC then ..... congrats

 

[liquidfire]

Thank you. I was looking at getting an FX4170 but it doesn't seem to be worth the effort at the moment im waiting to see what AMD do next

 

[rescuetoaster]

Thank you. I was looking at getting an FX4170 but it doesn't seem to be worth the effort at the moment im waiting to see what AMD do next

Hell, an FX would be a downgrade. Those temps are good, what voltage are you running at? I say keep going and see where she stops.

 

[trents]

What's even more impressive is that the CPU is the C2 stepping version of the 955 rather than the C3. Looks like from your CPU-z validate link that you are using 1.52 vcore. That's getting up there but with those temps it would probably be safe to push it little more as long as your motherboard VRMs are sinked well. If I were you I'd work more on bumping up the CPUNB frequency since that will probably give you more performance increase than another .1 ghz of CPU frequency. You should be able to get the CPUNB frequency up to around 2600 mhz with a voltage increase on the CPUNB itself. Try 1.25v. Ramping up the CPUNB frequency really improves memory performance.

 

[liquidfire]

I've just pushed to 4.1ghz but I'm having a few stability issues now its still at 1.5v and temps are still 40degrees c idle and 49 for load but I can't get it to run for more than 15mins

I'm going to try raising the north board voltage and multiplier see if this will stop the bsod

 

[trents]

Liquidfire, please create a "Sig" with your system info. Go to Quick Links at the top of the page and Edit Signature. Check out some of our Sigs for guidance. We don't know much at all about your system at this point except you have a PII 965 and custom water.

 

[liquidfire]

Brilliant trents thanks for the info I was just going on guesswork until I read your reply

 

[liquidfire]

I believe the sig is set up now. Sorry didn't think about it.

I'm really struggling to get CPUNB to stay stable. Ill keep having a go at it

 

[liquidfire]

small update managed

4.1ghz @ 1.488v
CPU NB 2200mhz @ 1.35v

Prime still running 25mins later ill test for an hour then try and push the CPU NB to 2400mhz @ 1.35 v

 

[trents]

Thanks for the Sig.

Let's take a look at where your settings are now. Please attach pics of CPU-z tabs: CPU, Memory and SPD.

Please use the built in forum tool for attaching pics. It's easier for us to help you. First, crop and save the individual images. Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories works great for this.

Then click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window. When the Advanced post window pops up, click on the little paperclip icon at the top. This will load the file browser/up link tool and the rest is obvious.

Don't confuse the CPUNB with the chipset NB. The former has to do with the integrated memory controller on the CPU die. The latter has to do with controlling the PCI-e bus. Both may be labeled "NB" and it can be confusing.

What do you have your CPUNB voltage set to now?

 

[liquidfire]

there is all my tabs as requested.

i currently have managed to get CPUNB at 2600mhz stable @1.45v however i had to reduce the CPU multiplier by .5 and drop the voltage a bit.

What do you suggest now?

Push the CPU multiplier back to 20.5?
or try and increase the CPU NB to 2800mhz?

Temps are still 35degree c at idle and under load they jumped to 45 degrees c

 

[trents]

If its Prime95 blend stable for at least 2 hrs. on those settings I would call that good. That's a nice balanced overclock.

 

[trents]

You know, on second thought that CPUNB voltage is pretty high and I'm afraid you will degrade that component over time with that much juice. I think I'd drop it back to 2500 mhz by manipulating the FSB and the CPU multiplier to come up with the right combo of CPU frequency and CPUNB frequency. That way you may be able to get away with less CPUNB voltage. I would try to keep it from exceeding 1.35. Or it would be simpler just to drop it back to 2400 mzh and that way you can leave the FSB alone. The C2 stepping probably had a weaker IMC than the C3 stepping.

 

[liquidfire]

prime was running for 5 hours with no errors last night

Ive brought my DDR3 to its recommended settings at 1600mhz CL9 it seems a lot more stable with loser timings.

And by doing that my temps have dropped to 41 under load at 30mins of testing.

Is there a large chance if i continue to push this it will just blow?


thank you for all the advise Ive almost doubled my novabench score haha

 

[trents]

My main issue is with the CPUNB voltage being so high, not going for a little higher CPU speed. And beware that synthetic benchmark improvement often does not translate well into real life application performance improvement. Relaxing ram timings to get more bandwidth may or may not give better real life performance. Generally, the Deneb core CPUs are happier with the ram at 1333 mhz. But you do see exceptions.

 

[liquidfire]

Thank you for the advise. Looking at other c2 stepping overclocks I feel I should be more than happy achieving 4ghz.

I have dropped the ram back down to 1333mhz with cl8 latency.

I have also decreased the CPU NB to 2400mhz @1.3v for some reason it's unstable at 1.325 or even 1.35 v.

Is that normal to expect it not to be stable at higher volts?

At full load running prime and superpi together it appears to be stable @ 45 degrees c

Side note: I'm considering getting a sabertooth 990fx do you believe it would help me achieve higher CPUNB frequency?

 

[trents]

Thank you for the advise. Looking at other c2 stepping overclocks I feel I should be more than happy achieving 4ghz.

I have dropped the ram back down to 1333mhz with cl8 latency.

I have also decreased the CPU NB to 2400mhz @1.3v for some reason it's unstable at 1.325 or even 1.35 v.

Is that normal to expect it not to be stable at higher volts?

I have experienced that very same thing. There seems to be a sweet spot there.

At full load running prime and superpi together it appears to be stable @ 45 degrees c

Side note: I'm considering getting a sabertooth 990fx do you believe it would help me achieve higher CPUNB frequency?

Possibly, but the vigor of the CPUNB is pretty processor family related. The Thubans, for instance do fine with 1600 mhz ram and the Bulldozers do fine with 1866 and have native CPUNB frequency of 2200 mhz.