• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

started oc on athlon II 640

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

aanti

Registered
Joined
May 23, 2007
here is a screen of 30 minutes prime95.
lzncg.png
the method was just to choose the 10% oc setting in the bios. its the asus m5a87 board. im wondering if 1.5 vcore on load is reasonable.
what about those high temps in speedfan ?
are those ram timings okay or should loosen/tighten them ?
do you think there is more headroom for higher clocks temperature-wise ?
system seems to be pretty stable, will check now how my 3dmark11 score compares to 3.0 ghz stock frequenzy..


any input is appreciated, since im not really experienced with overclocking, only did some light overclocking on unlocked amd's before..

edit: 3dmark 11
before / after
Graphics Score 3397 / 3411
Physics Score 2574 / 2858
 
Last edited:
no i put the arctic freezer pro 7 rev.2 on it
 
I would say 68c is a bit high try to reseat the cooler with some good thermal paste. I will day that I've used one of those coolers before with pretty disappointing result, you might try a CM 212.
 
1.5v is high for such a small oc ! If you take the automatic overclock setting in bios and turn it off , those things just pump high amounts of voltage into the CPU for no reason , you can manually oc a lot better than you're bios can. Your ht link should be bellow 2000 so drop the ht multi to x8 and also drop you're ram devider, as the more you raise the reference clock (fsb) the ram also rises with it causing it to oc also, leave the timings on auto for now, set you're CPU vcore to around 1.4v test for stability and see how that goes, lowering the vcore will significantly lower you're temps , but remember 55c is the sweet spot for temps, any higher is not good . Hope this helps you on you're way
 
i know that cooler isnt the best around there, it was an impulse buy.
i also have a XIGMATEK HDT-S963 lying around, would that one be a little better ?

amd overdrive, and coretemp report 52° / core, whats with that speedfan temp, is that a different sensor ?
running mprime in linux and reading temps with lmsensors i get this:
AM2TQ.png

any word on the voltage/ram-timings ?
 
1.5v is high for such a small oc ! If you take the automatic overclock setting in bios and turn it off , those things just pump high amounts of voltage into the CPU for no reason , you can manually oc a lot better than you're bios can. Your ht link should be bellow 2000 so drop the ht multi to x8 and also drop you're ram devider, as the more you raise the reference clock (fsb) the ram also rises with it causing it to oc also, leave the timings on auto for now, set you're CPU vcore to around 1.4v test for stability and see how that goes, lowering the vcore will significantly lower you're temps , but remember 55c is the sweet spot for temps, any higher is not good . Hope this helps you on you're way

thanks. will do this and propably also mount that xigmatech
 
thanks. will do this and propably also mount that xigmatech

Forgot to mention , set your reference clock(CPU clock) to 220 as per you're auto bios oc just incase you hadn't done so allready. Better cooling is always a good idea
 
Forgot to mention , set your reference clock(CPU clock) to 220 as per you're auto bios oc just incase you hadn't done so allready. Better cooling is always a good idea

yeah did that. with 1.4V vcore 1760 HT and 1760 NB @ 220 x 15 and all ram on auto it didnt boot. now i am back at stock to see how the new cooler works, it seems to be a little bit better, not sure tho
fBYQl.jpg

is there a good guide for overclocking that covers am3 cpus ?
oh i will check the stickies..
 
Don't lower you're nb just you're ht, let you're nb rise with the clock
 
Last edited:
When you attach pics of CPU-z please include the SPD tab. It will tell us a lot about your ram's capability and the manufacturer's recommended voltages and timings at different speeds. Is that 40 C from CoreTemp and idle or a load temp? We check load temps around here usually with 10-15 minutes of Prime95 stressing.
 
40°C on coretemp is on load.

ok i played around with the settings and came up with this config:
what do you think about temps / timings / frequencies ?
can i push it more ? shall i work on temperatures ? its in a more or less fully insulated case and i can remove some insulation to increase the amount of incoming air. i also can add some fans, there are around 8 3 pin fan connectors left ;)
also: ganged mode for ram ok ? i dont know how much multithreaded stuff is going on these days..

more or less idle:
tk2lV.jpg
10 minutes prime95:
INMu1.jpg
 
If you will use HWMonitor it will display core temps and CPU temps in the same interface, as well as many other temps and voltages. If you would limit your pics to CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" along with HWMonitor it would give us all the info we need and your post attachments would be less cluttered.

The main observation I have with regard to your settings has to do with memory frequency and timing. If you look at the CPU-z tab "Memory" you will see that your memory is rated for 667/1333 mhz (CPU-z expresses memory speed in bus frequency terms, which is half the DDR3 transfer rating). CPU-z tab "SPD" reveals that the memory will run up to 1600 mhz on higher voltages and relaxed timings (look at the "XMP" column. XMP represents the manufacturer's suggested voltages and timings when the memory is being overclocked).

On top of this you need to realize that AMD rates the integrated memory controller of this CPU at 1333 mhz so you are already exceeding both the normal frequency rating of the ram (1333) as well as the rating of the CPU's IMC since your ram frequency is now 733 mhz.

My suggestion is you scale back your starting memory speed from 1333 to 1066 and leave the memory timings on auto (that 1T Command Rate timing may be too agressive as well). This will ensure your ram speed is not the cause of instability as you overclock. I would recommend you put the ram voltage from 1.5 to 1.55 and the CPUNB voltage to 1.225 as well. Then start increasing your fsb in 5 mhz increments while you run Prime95 blend for 20 minutes after each increase to check for stability. Have HWMonitor open on the desktop at the start of each 20 minute stress test. When you encounter instability, bump your CPU voltage up a tad. Repeat this until your core temps reach about 55 degrees max. Then run at least a two hour stress test to cofirm stability. If it is unstable under the long test and your core temps won't allow you to add more CPU voltage then scale back your CPU multiplier .5x or your fsb frequency a little. See if you can get the ram to run at 1333 when all is said and done. If you start the ram at 1066 as I suggested, a fsb frequency of 250 would put the ram back at 1333.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. Lower you HT Link multiplier to 8x as it will not tolerate much overclocking at all. The CPUNB (NB) will take some overclocking, up to at least 2600 with a little voltage bump support as I mentioned above.

You should be able to get that CPU to 3.5 ghz at least though a bigger cooler would help.
 
Last edited:
thanks a lot for those detailed instructions, trent!
will do that later tonight or tomorrow.
 
Back