SOLVED New to overclocking Issues with stable vcore setting...among other things.

[faxi]

Hey guys faxi here,

As the tittle says I'm new to OC'ing. I've done very minimal amounts before, but I really didn't learn much I just lucked out by adjusting the multiplier and not having to screw with the voltage or fsb.
I'm trying to OC my AMD phenom 9950 BE to around 3.0 ghz.
I've read this should be easily obtainable. But there are several screwy things that happen when i try to do it.
First I started by slowly upping the fsb until it crashed then went back down until i found a stable spot then i raised the multiplier and voltage (i read a guide on this forum). The process of how it should work, I understand. What I don't get is once I have a spot where it seems like it could be stable I check the cpu voltage and it is completely off of what i set it too in bios ( i use Cpu-Id and HW monitor). For example i set the fsb at 230 with a vcore of 1.35v and a multiplier of 13x when i got into windows and looked the voltage was at 1.31 also when i began to stress test it (with prime95) the voltage began to drop! it went down to 1.28v and the temps were quickly rising to 60c. i quickly turned off prime95 and went and cried in the corner for a second before going back to this evil box called a computer.

Another strange thing was the default voltage before I started messing with settings what around 1.31v but now when i set everything back to auto it runs at 1.36-1.37v. weird.
The last thing I should probably mention is that i set the Rams voltage to 2.135 like the site suggest (just to get it to fix the timings itself). I don't know if thats important of not but I figure since ram is directly related to processing, I might as well.
so to summarize it these are my questions:
1. Is there a setting that would be causing this confusing problem? If not why the hell would this be happening.
2. Should I be messing with cpu NB and NB voltage at all?
3. How on earth can I tell the difference between the 140w version of the
9950 and the 125w (i know i should have a receipt but I don't)
heres my system specs:

_________________________________
OS: Win7 64 bit
Mobo: Asus 750a m3n72-d
Processor: Amd 9950 BE unsure of what wattage
Cooler: Zalman 9700 NT
Ram: OCZ "sli ready" pc2-6400 4 gigs
Hard Drives: 2 WD 500gig drives in raid 1
Video Card: 2 EVGA 9800gtx's in SLI
PSU: Cooler Master 850w
______________________________________

-i have the current bios for the mother board and drivers for all the devices.

 

[QuietIce]

to the Forums!


1a. If you're talking about the difference between your BIOS setting and the actual vCore that is commonly known as vDrop. It's usually caused by a board with a weak power system design. Note that many boards are like this. I consider ±0.00-0.01v to be good, ±0.02-0.04 to be fair, and anything more than ±0.04v to be unacceptable. vDrop can be corrected easily by simply using the actual vCore instead of the BIOS as your limit.

1b. If you're talking about the difference between idle vCore and loaded vCore that's called vDroop and is typical for any board. In fact I've only seen ONE that ever kept the same vCore at both idle and load and not all of them would do it. Anything that's less than 0.01v per core for vDroop (so 0.04v for your quad) is acceptable and normal. vDroop cannot be easily corrected for most systems. Systems like mine that run a 24/7 load are not as much of a problem (I treat it as in 1a) but most people don't run their system 24/7 and it becomes an issue of stability at that point.

1c. If you're talking about the difference in what [Auto] does don't worry about it and don't use it. Auto is for non-OC'ed systems and when not OC'ing it doesn't matter. When OC'ing you should always use manual vCore control.


2. Yes, at some point you'll probably have to adjust the cpuNB speed and voltage to get a good OC. The thread linked below won't help you out with the cpuNB but it's good for everything else. HT Link for your 9950BE is 2000 MHz, not 1000 MHz, and I suggest you use a 1200-1600 MHz HT Link speed until you have a stable OC.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=555058


3. You'll have to look at the top line (of three) on your CPU:
140W: HD995ZXAJ4BGH
125W: HD995ZFAJ4BGH


If you have any more questions while testing or reading just post back, we'll be here ...

 

[faxi]

wow that answered... everything. Thanks a bunch man