M2N78-LA - 9650 Black Or 9850 WJC 95W for overclocking?

[chris89]

*CORRECTION* 9600 BE not 9650

I wanna upgrade the cpu on my m2n78-la from the current Phenom X4 9500 because I can only achieve 2.4Ghz stable out of it. Using Nvidia Performance Tools it can handle 219Mhz FSB stable. It's cool also because the combo of 1gb sticks at ddr2-800 defaulted to ddr2-667 in bios so it allows overclocking over-head. Apparently these boards are strong enough to run stable at ddr2-800 @ ddr2-867. Supposedly the 9600BE and 9850 WCJ has a built-in 1066 memory controller. So I could even get ddr2-1100 at 2700Mhz X 4 might do pretty solid.

So I'd like to go higher and i'm torn between the 9600 BE or 9850 WCJ 95W.

9600 BE 2.3Ghz - 1800mhz HT 11.5 multi 1.15-1.25v
9850 WCJ 95W 2.5Ghz - 2000Mhz HT 12.5 multi 1.2-1.25v

So since I know the M2N78-LA is an HP board I can overclock with nvidia system tools on a non-black edition/ black edition or in the Advanced bios CTRL+F10 allows adjustment of the multiplier.

So my question is I'm sure I could see 2.7Ghz with the WCJ 9850 with a HT rate of like 2050-2100Mhz. The 9600 BE has a multi at 11.5 x 200 = 2300. Say I set the multi to 13.5 would it run stable? Or could it pull of 14-14.5 on stock volts?

I'm just wondering if the 9600BE can overclock better with the Multi alone or would the 9850 do better increase the FSB to 219Mhz x 12.5 = 2737Mhz?

Thanks

 

[Mr.Scott]

I think you're being extremely optimistic. All of those Agena core CPU's overclock about the same.....and horribly I might add.
2.7 is a stretch. Best I could do personally on a 9500, 9600, and a 9650 was right around 2.7, and that was on sub-ambient water on high end hardware. You won't get near that on an OEM board and air.

Best suggestion: get the fastest stock CPU that your board will support. Anything you get extra via overclock, consider a bonus.

 

[chris89]

Thanks because I thought it was cool I got .2Ghz from this HP board. From 2.2 to 2.4 not much HT coming close to 2000 as well.

I think the M2N78-LA pumps a slight bit more voltage which what may be helping it be stable at 2.4ghz. However anything beyond 219mhz is not possible.

So I'm wondering if I got the 9600 BE set the multi to 13 or beyond and successfully post and boot to windows?

I appreciate it though, I might wanna test them both and see which one can clock/ perform better...?

I'm guessing that even if I get the 9600 BE at the exact same overclock as the 9850 wcj, that the 9850 wcj may still perform better huh?

I'm just very interested in the BE because it'll keep the PCI ratio at 33.3mhz and not run into potential stability issues.

On the 9500 on a stock cooler at 2.4Ghz cores sit all exactly at 32C and under load literally only 38C so it's crazy, it could handle more voltage for sure. Feels like a lot of over-head.

PS - The board I bought has the SATA ports out so I am using a PCIe x1 sata card and its in IDE CPU mode. Just wondering how to flash the Marvell 88SE91XX Bios version 1.0.0.1029 because it's in Mode : CPU IDE.

I feel it's hogging too much cpu and causing a horrendous IO bottleneck.

I've seen some with 1.0.0.1027 i believe in Mode : Hardware AHCI which takes the load off the cpu and removes that bottleneck. I don't know where to find the marvell dos flash utility or anything on how or what to do. I do have the .bin though.

Would you happen to know much about this?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Temps and voltage are not the problem. The CPU architecture is. They just don't overclock well. A bump in FSB will help more than just a multi OC as it speeds up everything.
Can't really help you on your other questions. Sorry.