How to push Phenom II X4 to the max?

[kiriki-kun]

Ok, VRM on 970A Krait is piece of ****. Is there MB with VRM capable of 4Ghz at Phenom II 955, which cost 100$? I found 3 interesting options, sadly, only one costs 100$:
http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990FXA-UD3-R5-rev-10#ov
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/
https://msi.com/Motherboard/970-GAMING.html#hero-overview

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Needs 990fx chipset and liquid cooling. Don't waste money on this old platform. With the money spent you only gain a couple hundred mhz. Not worth it. Put your money into a newer platform.

 

[kiriki-kun]

You are right, but i don't wont to spend 1000$ on new PC. I thought about buyiing new MB now, new Graphic Card in near future (GTX 960 or R9 380) and some FX in far future. I would like spent for each 100$.
I don't want awesome build, i'm interested in 1920x1080 (or 1650x1050), 30 FPS, and good details in Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 Now i have ~30 after maximum OC.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Is that a golden chip or are there chances for the unwashed masses to get that on air?


Edit : you pushing temp limits or is there headroom?

That was high end water on a Sabertooth 990FX board. Temps were hanging around 53c.

You will need at least this board.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/970-PRO-GAMING-AURA/

 

[kiriki-kun]

Ow my, that looks sweet! Exchenging the MB should be a good idea, this MB should allow nice OC of FX processors, right?

 

[Mr.Scott]

It's a solid board that has everything you'll need.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Two problems straight away, your HT Link and NB Frequencies are too high. That's probably the main reason you're having trouble maintaining stability. When I was last on a Phenom II X4 965 I had both around 2000MHz to maintain stability (and go for higher overclocks).

And as already mentioned your NB and SB voltages were too high (I don't even touch the SB voltage either).

When I'm overclocking AM3 processors exclusively (no AM3+/no FX) I stick to 790X and 790FX chipset boards. If you're looking to go to FX processors though, you'd probably want a 990FX board.

 

[kiriki-kun]

Now it's stable, i couldn't go any higher than 3.7Ghz even with 2000 Mhz NB, so it's better to OC NB for me.
I think buying better 970 board will be better, than worse 990 board. And Asus 970 pro gaming, can handle FX 9370 OC'ed to 5 Ghz, so....
I think it's the best, cheap option

 

[caddi daddi]

if you want to upgrade why look at fx processors?
as a rule a good 970 board will support a 1090T or 1100T that you can pick up for around $100 that will equal or surpass fx in some workloads.
I still have a couple of 1100T rigs and still can't really justify updating them but, with the release of ryzen, I will this summer, just....well.... because I am an amd fanbouy.

 

[kiriki-kun]

I just thought that FX will be better than older Phenom. I will look at them, when i will be buying new CPU

 

[knoober]

I haven't had a Thuban to test personally but from what Ive read I would rather have a 6core phenom II than a 6 core FX. Power consumption/temperature being the main reason, but I vaguely recall other good points as well, Im certain you will run across them when you look though. FX supports faster RAM is the only reason to get one that I can think of from the top of my head (aside from higher OC potential)

 

[kiriki-kun]

Yeah, i will pick few in my price range, and make a thread here I think i won't be buying anything from now on, without asking first

 

[kiriki-kun]

Ok, so i bought 5 year old Sabertooth R2.0. I know that buying used MB is a little risky, but it costed me a little less than 100$. If it will work for another 5 years, then I will be delighted.
So, in few days probably I will have few more questions about OC on Sabertooth

 

[caddi daddi]

a thuban will out perform a 63xx and will out perform an 83xx most of the time.
I'll take my 1100t'[email protected] over an 8350 below 4.5 anytime, they do give up a little to the 8350 in gaming here and there but overall it's thuban for me.
and if the sabertooth has not been abused it will be fine, many have been running since it's first release.

 

[kiriki-kun]

After few hours, i get stable 3800 Ghz with 55-56 degress on CPU. Shouldn't be too bad, because normally i don't stress test my CPU. Of course Sabertooth have tons of options, i don't even know what some of them do
Can you look at my settings, and check if they are correct? Any advice to get a little more perfomance?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Settings are fine.
You can bring that HT link speed up to 2000. That is stock speed.