Overclocking Phenom II x4 970

[OverKnocked]

Hello there,

First post here, and first overclock of my life; i have been reading so many guides(video tutorial as well on youtube), and so many topics in these days about overclocking Cpu similars as mine, but after reading a lot i couldn't find someone with exactly my same build, (only 1 guy in tomshw forum, but he was overclocking at 4.2 ghz with a water cooling system, and i'm with air cooling at the moment, but i have still tried 4.2 ghz and i got an instant bluescreen at the startup) so the first one i have tried to follow it was this:

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/processors/AMD_Phenom_II_X6_1075T_13.html

Settings that i tested are:

4.00 GHz / 1.450v
4.10 GHz / 1.500v = Max Stable OC


Since my goal it was going over 4 ghz , as a noob i have tried increasing gradually only of 1 time the multiplier with stock voltage, and seeing if i was getting some errors, until i reached 4.1 ghz with 1.5 volt (the rest was setted to auto), i played some games for days without errors (Far Cry 3 for example) and my cpu temperature wasn't surpassing 55 ,57 C° but after 2 or 3 days i got a bsod ( but i wasn't sure if it was a cpu related issue, cause i overclocked my gpu as well after seeing my computer stable for days (using programs like photoshop,lightroom, and watched some movies in 1080p) with stable temperatures, also my ram voltage was setted at 1.645, instead most of the people with my same ram was saying to put 1.65 voltage; the timings were 9 9 9 27 as they are now, so through bluescreen viewer i've been able to see the culprits:



i googled my error, and the first post was of course related to overclock problems, so someone was saying to stop the overclock and return to the stock settings; and since some other solved cases with this error were interesting the video drivers, i decreased gradually my gpu core clock from 999 mhz ( the maximum that i could reach with my Nvidia gtx 550 ti with these new drivers that limit the core clock cause they are made for kepler as i've been read, i was trying to reach 1025 mhz core clock, but while launching some tests with msi kombustor it was founding a throttling over 999 mhz, so i decreased it to 999,995,990 and then at 980 mhz as i'm using it now, and i'm not getting any artifacts and the highest temperature while gaming is around 55 C°, and i ran some benchmarking with Heaven DX11 Benchmark with these results:



i also tested it with 3dMark Vantage and didn't get any errors.


Now returning to the main topic, i'd like to overclock my cpu between 4 to 4.1 ghz if it's possible, these are my actual settings:










here the last test i did today with p95, after 1 hour my cpu was at a stable temperature of 55 to 56 C° but i got a stop error, not a bsod for luck at least.

My gpu settings:




and here the first try of overclock that i did days ago at 4.1 ghz 1.5 volts and cpu-nb and all the rest of bios cpu related settings setted to auto:



Ram 1600 mhz, timings were the same as i said (9 9 9 27), only the voltage it was lower than now, it was 1.64 volts instead of the actual 1.65 volts.

Here some pics of my Bios:
















One thing that i didn't understand after many research, and also after reading my motherboard manual, are these settings:




are they related to the motherboard components voltage? sorry for my ignorance, but while reading about cpu/nb i saw this, another nb voltage setting, so i made some confusion so i didn't touch them, the only logic thing that i could think, without having many knowledge about the motherboard's northbridge and the cpu northbridge, i guess they are two distinct northbridges, am i right? and about Cpu Load-Line Calibration , in some forums were suggesting to enable it, but all i got as options are: auto, 1/2, 1/4 shud i set it different from auto?

Probably i made a confusing post here, and i'm sorry as well for my poor english and my grammar mistakes; i hope you guys will help at doing my first stable overclock, i thank you so much in advance for any kind of help or advice that you will provide me.

TL;DR

My rig:

Asrock 870 Extreme 3 r2.0
AMD Phenom II x4 970 Black Edition 3.5 ghz stock core clock
x2 RAM DDR3 Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9AD3B1/2G 1600MHz 2GB CL9
Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 910 mhz stock core clock

Overclock Status:

Processor:

Cpu Frequency: 200 mhz
PCIE Frequency: 101 mhz
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
Asrock UCC: Disabled ( i even tried using this, cause after reading at the description of the motherboard official site, it should increase my cores from x4 to x6 if i didn't misunderstand, but after having it enabled Cpu-Z didn't recognize my cpu as x6)
Cpu Active Control: Disabled
Cpu Frequency Multiplier: x20.0 4000 mhz
Cpu Voltage: 1.4500v
NB Frequency: x12.0 2400 mhz
Cpu Nb Voltage: 1.2500v
HT Bus Speed: 2400 mhz (the maximum that i could set it from the Bios )
HT Bus Width : 16 bit
DRAM Frequency: DDR3 1600
DRAM Timings: 9 9 9 27 40 2t
Cool 'n 'Quiet: Enabled
Secure Virtual Machine: Enabled
Enhanched Halt State(C1E): Disabled
CPU Thermal Throttle: Auto


Conclusions:


I put the NB Frequency and the HT Bus Speed at the same mhz after having read the Dolk's Guide here:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

Where in his examples he said to put them like:

Overclock using Multiplier:
200 * 15 = 3000 MHz Core Speed
200 * 10 = 2000 MHz CPU-NB Speed
200 * 10 = 2000 MHz HTT Speed

and after reading to the charts in his guide, i tried to put the settings considering my cpu multiplier frequency and his voltage, i also tried to put 2600 mhz in CPU-NB speed but when i did it, i left the HTT Speed at the stock frequency of 2000 mhz ( as i said the maximum for my HTT Speed from the Bios it seems to be 2400 mhz )

I also have been reading to these pages:

http://www.overclock.net/t/777378/o...uban-overclocking-guide-with-too-many-smileys

http://www.overclock.net/t/1138395/oc-help-phenomii-x4-970-be

edit: i forgot to mention my air cooler: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cpu/473/freezer-a30.html

 

[OverKnocked]

What happened to my post? i was going to update it, but now it seems deleted? or it's just me?

 

[Automata]

OverKnocked, sorry for the confusion, but your post was caught up in our spam filter. Sometimes it is a bit overzealous. I was able to pull it out for you.

 

[trents]

I wondered about that. I was going to read it and maybe reply to it but there was no post text. Just a blank window.

 

[Automata]

Ok, I had to approve it a second time there. I have no idea why it didn't stick.

 

[trents]

DRAM Voltage is for the main memory voltage control: "Dynamic Random Access Memory".

CPU-Load Line Calibration is a supplemental voltage that compensates for VDROOP. It adds extra voltage to compensate for the natural CPU voltage fall-off under load. A good thing but it needs to be calibrated correctly. What choices besides Auto do you have for that?

NB Voltage refers to the motherboard chipset Northbridge. Shouldn't need to mess with it nor the ones after that in your red rectangle.

I would also suggest giving your DRAM voltage a small bump if you think it falls short of the 1.65 it's supposed to get.

Finally, have you considered overclocking using a combo of the FSB and the CPU multiplier? Many times that will give you a more efficient overclock such that you can use a lower CPU voltage.

 

[OverKnocked]

DRAM Voltage is for the main memory voltage control: "Dynamic Random Access Memory".

CPU-Load Line Calibration is a supplemental voltage that compensates for VDROOP. It adds extra voltage to compensate for the natural CPU voltage fall-off under load. A good thing but it needs to be calibrated correctly. What choices besides Auto do you have for that?

NB Voltage refers to the motherboard chipset Northbridge. Shouldn't need to mess with it nor the ones after that in your red rectangle.

I would also suggest giving your DRAM voltage a small bump if you think it falls short of the 1.65 it's supposed to get.

Finally, have you considered overclocking using a combo of the FSB and the CPU multiplier? Many times that will give you a more efficient overclock such that you can use a lower CPU voltage.

First of all thanks for your reply, as many people were suggesting in some forums, about my Kingston Ram, i put my ram at 1.65, i could choose between 1.653 as it is now, or 1.645 ; should i increase of 1 time the voltage?

Notes: these screenshots are from my previous post, the NB Frequency it doesn't correspond to the actual NB Frequency ( 2000 mhz )

for the timings at the moment i'm with 9 9 9 27 1T (tRC is setted auto, 40 clocks) ; i took these settings from a "famous youtuber" , should i make a memory test with some tools? i used Prime95 to test my cpu in these days, but i heard that it can also test the memory?

About my FSB i didn't touched it , since i read in some forums that to overlocking a Black Edition Cpu, it's enough to change the multiplier, so i did my tries with the multiplier only at the moment, how much should i increase my FSB?


By the way , after many frustrating days while getting errors and bsod, i did 3 tests with intelburn test, the first and the third one have been suceeding, at the second one i had a stop error after 3 third cycle. The settings for the 1st and the 2nd were 10 times to run at Maximum, the third it was 15 times to run at Maximum.



Since i didn't get any errors, i was so satisfied after a long time while messing with the settings, but as you can see i reduced the clock at 3.9 ghz of the core speed, and for doing this, i resetted all to the stock settings, and i increased only the cpu multiplier and reduced the voltage from 1.47 v (of the stock settings apparently, but i read that it should be lower than that for my Cpu as stock voltage ) to 1.45 v

Full settings used for these tests:

Overclock Mode: Manual
Cpu Frequency : 200
PCIE: 100
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
ASRock UCC: Disabled
Cpu Active Control: Disabled
Multiplier Voltage Change: Manual
Cpu Frequency Multiplier: x19.5 3900 mhz
Cpu Voltage: 1.4500 v
NB Frequency Multiplier: 2000 mhz stock settings
NB Voltage: 1.1000 v stock settings
HT Bus Speed: 2000 mhz stock settings
HT Bus Width: 16 bit stock settings

DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1600

From Cpu-Z:

DRAM Frequency: 800 mhz
FSB : DRAM: 1:4

Timings:

9 CL
9 tRCD
9 tRP
27 tRAS
40 tRC ( setted to Auto )
1T CR


I will do some other tests with Prime95, how long should i run the blend mode? more than 1 hour?

And if i am really stable at the moment, i have any chances to get 4 or 4.1 ghz? should i increase a bit the Cpu-Nb and HT Bus Speed or not? i read that the Cpu-Nb frequency it matters as well, there is much difference in the performance ( for example while Gaming ) between 2000 to 2200,2400 mhz?

 

[trents]

Kingson memory seems often to not play well with AMD systems. I notice you now have your CR at 1T. I would be skeptical of that. Actually, I would encourage you to try running the ram at 1333 mhz. Very little if any performance is sacrificed by doing so.

When you post screenshots of CPU-z, please post these three together: CPU, Memory and SPD. I would also ask that you use HWMonitor as your temp/voltage reporting tool as it gives much more info than CoreTemp does. HWMonitor is a standard tool on this forum and I think it's important that we use the same tools when working together so that we are on the same page. HWMonitor gives both CPU (socket) temps and core temps (or package temps) both are important. It also reports max, min and current values for temps and voltages.

 

[OverKnocked]

Kingson memory seems often to not play well with AMD systems. I notice you now have your CR at 1T. I would be skeptical of that. Actually, I would encourage you to try running the ram at 1333 mhz. Very little if any performance is sacrificed by doing so.

When you post screenshots of CPU-z, please post these three together: CPU, Memory and SPD. I would also ask that you use HWMonitor as your temp/voltage reporting tool as it gives much more info than CoreTemp does. HWMonitor is a standard tool on this forum and I think it's important that we use the same tools when working together so that we are on the same page. HWMonitor gives both CPU (socket) temps and core temps (or package temps) both are important. It also reports max, min and current values for temps and voltages.

Actual Settings:




I tested my memory with Mem Test today and i had 0 errors after 127% of Coverage, is it a good tool for testing the ram ?



another test with intelburn:



it succeed after it failed 2 times in a row...i noticed that sometimes the test (with intelburn) fails (stop error, not bsod) when the cpu temp it reaches around 56, 57 C° , is it just a coincidence or is it something to prevent any damages and it stops at 57 C°? as i read on cpu-world.com , and also on the amd site, my cpu can afford maximum 62 C° so i think im in a safe zone until 60 C° am i right? i will do some tests with prime95 but i don't understand why the tests should fail if the ram is ok, and if the temperatures arrive at maximum 57 C° with these settings.


edit: the cpu voltage from hwmonitor and cpu-z it seems setted at 1.424 but i setted it at 1.45 from the Bios. (Loadline Calibration setted at 1/4 ; i can choose between: Auto, 1/2, 1/4, Disabled)

 

[trents]

Memtest is a good tool but not fool proof. I would also encourage you to run at least two hours of Prime95 blend. The blend test incorporates a lot of ram and simulates real life computing more than Memtest does.

 

[OverKnocked]

Memtest is a good tool but not fool proof. I would also encourage you to run at least two hours of Prime95 blend. The blend test incorporates a lot of ram and simulates real life computing more than Memtest does.

Ok then , i will do 2 hours prime95 test and update here.


This is my Ram: http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9AD3B1K2_4G.pdf

It seems to be stock at 1.65 v , it should be fine then 1.653 v? how can i exclude that the ram is not the problem of my try to overlock my cpu?

By the way before trying the overclock i always ran my ram with the same settings as now, probably i was just with 1.645 v if i remember correctly, and i never had any kind of problems when my cpu was at the stock settings.

 

[trents]

Yes, bumping the ram up to 1.653 will not hurt anything. Over time, components can degrade and require a little more voltage to keep them stable, especially if they were on the cusp of that before.

I still think you need more vcore and that may be the problem. But you are already on the cusp of max temps, core and CPUTIN. You could use better cooling and or ventilation. You never told us what CPU cooler you are using. Are we to presume you are using the stock air cooler that cam with the processor in the box or an aftermarket product. And if the latter, what make and model? What make and model case do you have? How many case fans? How big are the case fans and how are they positioned and oriented in the case as to push/pull effect?

 

[RGone]

How to put up Sig at OCF.

New Shortcut method for putting a Signature with your system information following your every post so people can know what is in the case that they are trying to assist with. You can use something like what is shown in my signature as a good template of needed information Thank you.

 

[OverKnocked]

Yes, bumping the ram up to 1.653 will not hurt anything. Over time, components can degrade and require a little more voltage to keep them stable, especially if they were on the cusp of that before.

I still think you need more vcore and that may be the problem. But you are already on the cusp of max temps, core and CPUTIN. You could use better cooling and or ventilation. You never told us what CPU cooler you are using. Are we to presume you are using the stock air cooler that cam with the processor in the box or an aftermarket product. And if the latter, what make and model? What make and model case do you have? How many case fans? How big are the case fans and how are they positioned and oriented in the case as to push/pull effect?

edit: i forgot to mention my air cooler: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cp...eezer-a30.html

The stock air cooler was so noisy, it was running like crazy while gaming, like 6000 rpm , so i bought this , i thought it was a good one, and i really like it, but probably is not the best for overclocking, i don't know.

I think the main culprit for the temperatures could be my cheap case:

http://www.coolermaster.it/product.php?product_id=30


This is how it's assembled:





I have 1 fan 120 mm on the front panel that pushes air into the case, and 2 more fans of 120 mm, 1 on the side panel ( same as front panel, it pushes air in) and 1 in the rear panel that it pulls out the air from my case.
The Cpu Air cooler has 1 fan that it pushes air to the left (viewing it from the picture) , should i need 1 more fan on the cpu air cooler the it pulls the air on the left side? and do you think is it possible to do it with this Air Cooler? i don't know much yet about Push/Pull System, so if you can give me a better idea i will be so happy to learn from it.


So , probably i'm stupid at even trying an oveclock while using this case, don't hate me but when i assembled my pc (first time), i couldn't afford a better one; one of my big mistake it was that i didn't know about the difference that can make a case with a power supply slot positioned on the bottom rear with a vent fan, instead of being positioned to the top as it's in my case; cause at the moment i think my psu it takes too much hot air produced by the gpu and the cpu as well.

Thanks a lot for helping me , and by the way i'm going to do the tests that you suggested me, i increased of 1 time the vcore ( from the bios it's 1.463 v ), now hwmonitor shows 1.440 v , much more close i guess from the 1.45 that i saw in a overclock stable example for my cpu; wish me luck, i guess i really need it.

 

[trents]

A second fan on the cooler may bring temps down 1-2c, typically not as much help as most folks think. Now,it could bring temps down more than that if the existing fan is pretty weak.

What model cooler is it? That link you embedded just takes me to the Coolermaster product web site but in includes everything they make. I think your case ventilation is pretty adequated, again, unless those fans in the case are pretty weak. Try setting a household fan to blow into the open side of the case to test this. It temps drop during a Prime95 blend stress test from what they were then you could use better ventilation.

 

[OverKnocked]

Sorry my bad, probably the Quote messed up the link:


http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cpu/473/freezer-a30.html

 

[trents]

Yeah, that's not the best bang for the buck but not a bad cooler either. The fan has a max RPM rating of 1350 rpm so not a real powerful fan. You might get 2-4c temp drop with a second fan on the cooler.

 

[OverKnocked]

Yeah, that's not the best bang for the buck but not a bad cooler either. The fan has a max RPM rating of 1350 rpm so not a real powerful fan. You might get 2-4c temp drop with a second fan on the cooler.

I'm thinking about these fans:

http://www.corsair.com/cpu-cooling-...rformance-edition-high-airflow-120mm-fan.html

in the chart it says 1650 rpm / 1100 rpm this means the maximum and the minimum speed of the fan?

Do you think they will fit in my cooler since they are 120 mm? and how could i fix my second fan in the heatsink? i mean my cpu air cooler as something like an interlocking cover that fits the fan, should i need another cover plus the fan? or could i fix the 2nd fan just with some screws?

 

[trents]

Is your link to the Corsair fans for the case or for the CPU cooler. I would stay with the stock fan if for the cooler so that it will fit into the plastic fan holder clip.

 

[OverKnocked]

Is your link to the Corsair fans for the case or for the CPU cooler. I would stay with the stock fan if for the cooler so that it will fit into the plastic fan holder clip.

Ok so i'll try to buy the same fans asap, so today i did the tests that you suggested me Trents with prime 95 for almost 3 hours, i had 0 errors that now my cpu voltage is 1 time higher than before , hwmonitor it says 1.440 v, and the temps didn't surpass 55 c°






also i did 1 test with intelburn of 10 cycles at maximum and it succeed, i hope that now i found the stability at 3.9 ghz, i guess i should wait the new fans to try 4 ghz; after reading many guides about overlclocking cpus, i read that it's useful to increase also Cpu-Nb frequency and HT, now that it seems stable (i hope) they are both at 2000 mhz, should i give a try and increase them to 2200? from 2000 to 2200 mhz there's much difference in the performance?


edit: i noticed something while watching hwmonitor, my cpufanin was going from 1430 rpm max, to 1416, and sometimes randomly was going at 0 rpm for like 1 second, should i worry about it? i also checked speedfan and it was showing the same.