- Joined
- Dec 14, 2010
Yes, once again it is time to overclock another socket 939 CPU.
This time up on the test bench is the AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice E3 stepping (ADA3400DAA4BZ).
Finding a board that would run the Athlon 64 3400+ Venice was a bit of a challenge, since it seems my normal preferred board the DFI SLI-DR Expert would not even recognize this CPU (in any stepping). I had recently managed to repair my broken Asus A8N-SLI Premium with the help of another computer technician, and since I had it on my test bench anyway I decided to see if it would run any of my 3400+ chips. Luckily enough it seemed to like both steppings of this CPU perfectly fine, despite not even listing this CPU on the compatibility list. This is with the 1009 bios that the board came to me with by the way, and I have not tried it with any other bios versions.
Initial results are encouraging so far, and it appears to perform similarly to the 3200+ Venice and 3800+ Venice which I have tested previously with relatively good results on air.
Cooling results seem to indicate that I am at the coolest it can run with this cooling setup (Thermalright Ultima-90 with a Coolermaster SickleFlow for a push fan and some random 90mm fan in pull). I chilled the room down from the regular 70-74°F (21-23.5°C) to 65°F (around 18.5°C) the other night, but CPU temp only went down by maybe a degree. Highest temperature I've hit under load at 74°F (23.5°C) ambient was 42-43°C, which is pretty darn good for a Venice core CPU.
I figured I would start slow, so I began by bumping up the core speed from the default 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz with the vCore at the stock 1.4V. This proved perfectly stable, so I moved on to 2.5GHz which I also found to be stable. Finally, I moved it up to 2.6GHz, which tends to be where the lower-clocked Venice cores start to get unstable without higher voltages (I found this out with my Athlon 64 3200+). This, too, seems to be completely stable thus far. I've run Super Pi 1m, UCBench 2011, and PiFast, and all the benchmarks completed without issue. I also started up a run of prime95, then proceeded to forget about it for an hour or so while I played some COD4:MW, and there were no errors or warnings. Then, I left it running overnight (okay, actually I fell asleep while it was running some benchmark), but I came back the next morning and it was still running and the computer was responsive when I moved the mouse.
I think this one may have potential for 2.8GHz or greater, because I am at a 400MHz overclock with stock voltage and no signs of instability.
This time up on the test bench is the AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice E3 stepping (ADA3400DAA4BZ).
Finding a board that would run the Athlon 64 3400+ Venice was a bit of a challenge, since it seems my normal preferred board the DFI SLI-DR Expert would not even recognize this CPU (in any stepping). I had recently managed to repair my broken Asus A8N-SLI Premium with the help of another computer technician, and since I had it on my test bench anyway I decided to see if it would run any of my 3400+ chips. Luckily enough it seemed to like both steppings of this CPU perfectly fine, despite not even listing this CPU on the compatibility list. This is with the 1009 bios that the board came to me with by the way, and I have not tried it with any other bios versions.
Initial results are encouraging so far, and it appears to perform similarly to the 3200+ Venice and 3800+ Venice which I have tested previously with relatively good results on air.
Cooling results seem to indicate that I am at the coolest it can run with this cooling setup (Thermalright Ultima-90 with a Coolermaster SickleFlow for a push fan and some random 90mm fan in pull). I chilled the room down from the regular 70-74°F (21-23.5°C) to 65°F (around 18.5°C) the other night, but CPU temp only went down by maybe a degree. Highest temperature I've hit under load at 74°F (23.5°C) ambient was 42-43°C, which is pretty darn good for a Venice core CPU.
I figured I would start slow, so I began by bumping up the core speed from the default 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz with the vCore at the stock 1.4V. This proved perfectly stable, so I moved on to 2.5GHz which I also found to be stable. Finally, I moved it up to 2.6GHz, which tends to be where the lower-clocked Venice cores start to get unstable without higher voltages (I found this out with my Athlon 64 3200+). This, too, seems to be completely stable thus far. I've run Super Pi 1m, UCBench 2011, and PiFast, and all the benchmarks completed without issue. I also started up a run of prime95, then proceeded to forget about it for an hour or so while I played some COD4:MW, and there were no errors or warnings. Then, I left it running overnight (okay, actually I fell asleep while it was running some benchmark), but I came back the next morning and it was still running and the computer was responsive when I moved the mouse.
I think this one may have potential for 2.8GHz or greater, because I am at a 400MHz overclock with stock voltage and no signs of instability.
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