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AMD Phenom II X6 1090T first try overclocking

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Dameischdr

New Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2019
Hi everybody!

I'm completely new to the overclocking stuff and I'd like to get my AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor to more power since my games dont run as smoothly anymore.

I found this video from NCIX, but the specs used there dont work for me:

I'll be grateful for all of your advice on how to start and what I can maybe expect.

My specs are:
Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD Evo
Memory: Kingston 8 GB DDR3 1333 Mhz
Graphic card: AMD Radeon HD 7800 2GB
 
You don't have the same components that Linus used in the video. Even if you did, every CPU, even of the same model will have a different overclocking potential because of differences in silicon quality and variations in manufacturing processes.

What are you cooling the CPU with? Did you notice that Linus in the video is using a huge CPU cooler and it looks like he is overclocking on an open test bed. Both those factors will be an advantage in overclocking because they keep temps lower. AMD CPUs of that generation were very sensitive to temps.

Tell us about your CPU cooler, your PSU and your case and case fans please. Makes and models.

And have you checked out our "sticky" here on OCF for overclocking AMD CPUs in that generation.

We never, never recommend taking someone else's overclock values and plugging them into your bios in order to overclock - at least not with regard to the the higher end of the overclock range of what a system will likely achieve. We might give some vanilla, safe values to get you started that will probably work in the initial stages of the process.

You need to start low and progress in small incremental changes with voltages and frequencies while monitoring for temps and checking for stability with each change. You need a monitor tool like HWMonitor to check voltages and temps and you need a stress testing tool like Prime95 to test for stability. They are free software tools. Overclocking takes time and patience and it's very experimental in nature.

But for now, we need more information about your hardware.
 
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Looks like the OP hasn't checked back in as of late but will throw this out there anyway in case they come back later.

Do realize the chip (1090T) you have will tend to run hot, not alot you can do about that with the nature of the chip being what it is. You have six real cores stuffed under a lid that's the same physical size as the lesser/smaller chips of that socket. This means the contact/surface area of the chip to cooler is the same.
With more cores creating more heat it's not going to cool as well as, for example a Deneb or even a Regor core of that socket. Watercooling will help but can only do so much, again the contact area of the chip to cooler is a limiting factor to what cooling efficiency you get whether you run air or watercooling to it.

As stated above there are many things that will affect what you get, be sure to read the above post carefully and let it sink in because the info above is good and he knows of what he speaks of.
We can suggest using a given voltage for x amount of speed but that's it, there is no guarantee how your chip will respond due to these factors all being in play.

As a general expectation of what your chip may possibly do, 4.0GHz on air is about right under load for most any setup and do realize load temps, not temps seen at idle in the BIOS for example is the basis of how to correctly gauge how the chip is doing. Don't be suprised if for some reason it falls short, work with it based on what the chip can do, not on what you expect of it.
Tweaks should be small and deliberate so if it fails to boot or starts crashing you can easily reset things to make it work again. Unless you have experience OC'ing, rarely will you simply throw an arbitrary voltage value at the chip and have it work with stability so... Do it in slow, tiny, methodical steps because you are trying to figure out what your particular chip will/can do and it's all a process of experimentation anyway just to find out.

Give us your system spec's and we can go from there, without the specs it's much harder to almost impossible to make any suggestions of value to that end.
 
Agreed. Gaming will be held back by that GPU and the CPU (assuming you play at 1080p).

Hopefully the OP returns, lol.
 
Just wrote big reply, apparently It did not upload.
So in short: got the system running at three points 6 ghz with temps below 50°C under load. since the system is nine years old I don't know all the hard ware specifics anymore. The CPU has a raijintek Fan 14 cm. four Case Fans.

since I have to study hard until next summer, I have to put off overclocking / gaming
But I a very grateful for the advice! Will get back to the subject when I find the time.
 
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