Overclocking Escapades: socket 939 Athlon 64 FX-53 Clawhammer (CG)

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, finally got around to putting my Athlon 64 FX-53 Clawhammer CPU into the benching rig for some testing and tweaking.

First step was to find out how low I could set the voltage and have it run stable. After benching my Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer (CG), which is the same chip with the same ratings minus the unlocked multiplier I figured this one would be similar in its voltage requirements. Much to my delight I was correct, and managed to under-volt it to 1.36-1.38V and have it run totally stable (stock is 1.5V).

Temperatures are pretty good at stock speeds, idling at 33-36°C (91-97°F) in a room with an ambient temp of 25°C (around 76°F). I usually keep the room I do my testing in around 21-23°C (70-74°F), but it's a little warm here today, just not warm enough to justify turning on the air conditioning. I suppose if I had the A/C turned on full blast I could bring the CPU temps (and room temps) down another 3-4°C without too much trouble.

I'd say I dropped a degree or two off the idle temperature by lowering the voltage.

Load temperature is pretty reasonable too, staying around 38-44°C.

I'm kind of liking these Clawhammer cores for their temperature levels, they idle at relatively low temperatures and the heat levels tend not to increase too much when under full load (at least not from my experience). I've got a pretty big heatsink sitting on them with two fans in push-pull though, so your mileage may vary from my own results.

 

[jameseboy]

Once I get my current setup finished, im going to pull out my 939 system and bench it a bit. Ive got a 3800+ and 5000 anthlon. Should be good! haha

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, this one is looking pretty underwhelming in terms of overclocking potential.

I can't get it stable past 2.62GHz so far.

Tried for 2.7GHz, but it is requiring me to set the Vcore to 1.745V in the bios (which after the massive Vdrop on this board equates to around 1.68-1.7V) just get it to even attempt to load up the OS. Though it quickly blue-screens and shuts down once in reaches the desktop, or simply locks up or gets stuck in an infinite-loop while loading up the OS.

I might have gotten a lemon on this one, because my Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer performed much better and would run 2.7GHz at just 1.6V and was completely stable at around 1.65V. This one runs hotter too, even at the stock speed, which I don't like.

I'm going to keep trying to get to 2.7GHz, but the voltages are getting a bit ridiculous at this point. If I have to set anything higher than 1.75V after Vdrop (around 1.78-1.8V in bios) I'll probably call it quits on this one.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

I think I've hit the max on this one.

2.7GHz is definitely not possible on air with my chip. I went all the way up to around 1.75-1.77V after Vdrop and still couldn't make it to the desktop and have it not crash or blue-screen.

I'm maxed out at 2.65GHz at the moment, and it took 1.65V to get that stable (or just stable enough to run some benchmarks). I didn't actually dare run Prime95 at these settings since as it is I'm idling at 44-46°C, which is way hotter than I want to be at idle.

I don't really think I'm going to get the frequency up much higher on this chip, not safely anyway. I may have gotten one of the earlier chips, which may explain the low overclocking headroom, and why my A64 4000+ based on the same CPU ran so much better. At least I did get a few points out of this one.

I can't say I'm altogether surprised though, as almost all of the reviews I've read on this chip said it maxed out right around 2.58-2.65GHz.