need some help with UNLOCKED athlon II X3 445

[maxima88]

I just put this rig together last night:

Biostar TA790 GXB3
Athlon II x3 445 3.1ghz with a "AC" stepping
4gbs of g/skill ddr 3 RAM
650w thermaltake psu
zalman 9500a cpu cooler.

Booted up just fine but I never heard any post beeps. (??)
Loaded win xp and SPs.
Set ACC to auto and set HT Link to 1600

Rebooted and saw that I now have a X4 B45 cpu.

CPU temp in the bios is at 26 degrees.

My question now is that there is no option in the bios to change the multiplier and on AMD overdrive I can't go over the default 15.5x multi. I thought that the AC stepping means that it is a deneb.

As you can see in my sig, my overclocking experience is kinda outdated.

Any help you guys can give to bring me up to speed would be greatly appreciated.

 

[EarthDog]

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645425

Im not an AMD expert with the new stuff, so I will leave you with that link (specifically check out Dolk's guide) and the experts will get in here to help eventually. Good luck.

 

[coonmanx]

If you are going to OC, then you want to do it through the BIOS. Make sure that the unlocked CPU is stable first. Run Prime95 and watch your temps very carefully. Keep them below about 60C and if they go higher shut down Prime95.

You have the same board as I do and now you probably also have the same CPU. I had to bump my CPU-NB voltage up to 1.22 (overvolt +0.1) to make everything stable. I was originally getting reboots while going into Windows so I upped it 0.05 and then I was still getting random BSODs so I gave it another 0.1. Every chip is different so you may not have that issue.

Anyway, if everything is stable you want to set the ram speed down one notch and then start raising the clock from 200. Best to start at 210 and then test. If that works you start working your way up by 5s. Watch temps and test for stability after each bump. Generally a one hour run of Prime95 in between bumps is sufficient.

I have the clock at 225, so my CPU is now at 3.37. That is where I will stay because it works for me. I could probably go higher with better cooling. This is a process. If and when you need more help post screenshots of CPU-Z and the main page, memory page and SPD page. So if you have 1600 ram, first set it to 1333 and get to work.

 

[maxima88]

I already am running at 210FSB and haven't had any problems yet. Haven't touched any voltages or changed any other settings. I did run prime95 for 3 hours while I slept and was still running when I woke up (yeah, I only got 3 hours of sleep lol). I really need to learn these new terminology. Seems a lot more complicated to o/c now then it was 5 years ago.

 

[coonmanx]

You just want to set the ram speed down first because it will go up as you raise the clock. Keep an eye on temps.

 

[maxima88]

You just want to set the ram speed down first because it will go up as you raise the clock. Keep an eye on temps.

I'm kinda lost here. Isn't the only way I can overclock is by increasing the FSB since my multiplier is locked?

 

[trents]

My question now is that there is no option in the bios to change the multiplier and on AMD overdrive I can't go over the default 15.5x multi. I thought that the AC stepping means that it is a deneb.

Not all Denebs have unlocked CPU clock multipliers. Only the Black Editions do. "Unlocking" with ACC refers to unlocking disabled cores, not the CPU clock multiplier. If it wasn't a Black Edition before you unlocked the fourth core it won't be one after.

 

[coonmanx]

It's not really called FSB with AMD systems. It can be called CPU clock or CPU frequency. I don't really use the term FSB because it's not accurate with AMD.

 

[QuietIce]

I'm kinda lost here. Isn't the only way I can overclock is by increasing the FSB since my multiplier is locked?

The FSB went out the window with the s939 CPUs (K8) because of their (on-die) integrated memory controller (IMC). Unfortunately the term is still in use but it's wrong. The HTRef replaced the FSB and is only a reference clock (I often call it "the clock"). The HTRef does not transport data of any kind.

The K10 CPU's (AM2+/AM3) have pushed the rest of the NB onto the die as well, the cpuNB - not to be confused with the NB chipset - is where the IMC is now located and it also includes L3 cache for CPUs that have it (yours doesn't). Your CPU is part of the Athlon II series, which has the same basic core as the Phenom II (Deneb's) but has no L3 cache.

The HyperTransport Link is how the CPU communicates with the rest of the system, except for RAM. AMD also calls the HT Link the "system bus" but, again, there is no memory data of any kind running on it.

I hope that didn't add to the confusion ...

 

[maxima88]

WOW. So many new terms to learn, so little time. lol

thanks for the crash course.

 

[maxima88]

.

The K10 CPU's (AM2+/AM3) have pushed the rest of the NB onto the die as well, the cpuNB - not to be confused with the NB chipset - is where the IMC is now located and it also includes L3 cache for CPUs that have it (yours doesn't). Your CPU is part of the Athlon II series, which has the same basic core as the Phenom II (Deneb's) but has no L3 cache.

I'm at work right now so I can't post a cpu-z screenie showing that I do have a deneb w/ L3 cache after I unlocked it. It is reporting incorrectly?

 

[trents]

I take you have been an Intel man until now.

If CPU-z shows L3 cache then you do have a deneb. We have had sporadic reports of people successfully unlocking the L3 on Athlon IIs. So, at least with some of them the L3 was not omitted in the manufacturing process. Whether or not you can get all these unlocked components to function in a stable way is the next question. Maybe they were locked because of defect and not a marketing strategy. AMD seems to have done it for both reasons at times.

 

[maxima88]

I take you have been an Intel man until now.

If CPU-z shows L3 cache then you do have a deneb. We have had sporadic reports of people successfully unlocking the L3 on Athlon IIs. So, at least with some of them the L3 was not omitted in the manufacturing process. Whether or not you can get all these unlocked components to function in a stable way is the next question. Maybe they were locked because of defect and not a marketing strategy. AMD seems to have done it for both reasons at times.

No, I'm a AMD guy but as you can see in my sig but it's been over 5years since I last built a pc and then kinda dropped out of the scene.

I did run Prime95 last night for over 5 hours at 215 x 15.5 multi and had 0 errors. So it's kinda safe to assume that it's stable. Also want to add that this was done at default voltages.

 

[trents]

Looks like you're home!

 

[ChanceCoats123]

If you would kindly check the link in my sig, you will see that there are infact quite a few deneb's that don't have an unlocked multiplier. On top of that, just because the cores unlock doesn't mean the multiplier is unlocked.

 

[QuietIce]

I was having trouble uploading the other day. I had intended to post these then to give you some visuals for your crash course.

This is the older AM2+ layout but aside from "AM3" in the CPU box and DDR3-1600 for the RAM it's the same. The K10 layout hasn't changed at all. Everything below the L2 cache, which is part of each core, is cpuNB (L3, SRQ, XBar, HT Link node, and IMC).

The "Performance Cache" you see off the NB chipset is also called "Sideport Memory" and is for integrated graphics only ...