Help me overclock an AMD FX-8320 (stock cooler)!

C4nary

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Nov 19, 2014
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Please help me oc an fx 8320. I have the stock cooler, and have no intention of buying an aftermarket cooler. My first time ocing a cpu, and I don't really know what to do. What is the highest I can oc it to with the stock cooler? Motherboard is here. Thank you all :).
 
Solution
bycicle_repair_man;
His motherboard does support 125W CPUs, and it officially supports the FX-8320/50/70:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LM_LX_PLUS/HelpDesk_CPU/

However C4nary:
- The VRMs on your motherboard are not cooled or heatsinked, which means overclocking is not recommended on this board. If you want to overclock, you have to either provide cooling for it, or replace the motherboard completely. The latter is recommended, since your power phase design is a mere 3+1 and any overclock will be unstable. I'm surprised the FX-8320 is even stable on stock speeds with that.
- Overclocking with stock coolers is not recommended. If you want to overclock, get at least a hyper evo 212 as CPU cooler. It's only $30.
- If you still...
Besides the fact that you're missing an aftermarket cooler, your motherboard only supports CPUs up to 95W. At stock speed, the 8320 is already running at 125W, so you've gone beyond the thermal limit of your motherboard before you even start to overclock.

If you want to overclock you need to replace the motherboard and buy a good aftermarket cooler. If you carry on with the 8320, even at stock speed, you'll just end up replacing the motherboard anyway, because it will die.
 
bycicle_repair_man;
His motherboard does support 125W CPUs, and it officially supports the FX-8320/50/70:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LM_LX_PLUS/HelpDesk_CPU/

However C4nary:
- The VRMs on your motherboard are not cooled or heatsinked, which means overclocking is not recommended on this board. If you want to overclock, you have to either provide cooling for it, or replace the motherboard completely. The latter is recommended, since your power phase design is a mere 3+1 and any overclock will be unstable. I'm surprised the FX-8320 is even stable on stock speeds with that.
- Overclocking with stock coolers is not recommended. If you want to overclock, get at least a hyper evo 212 as CPU cooler. It's only $30.
- If you still want to risk an overclock with the stock cooler (you WILL fry your motherboard...), run Prime95 with smallFFT test on stock speeds, and look which temperatures you'll reach and whether you experience any throttling. This will tell you if you have any headroom or not.
- What is your power supply, brand + model + wattage. It's one of the first things to take into account before even attempting an overclock.

I think you need to do some homework before you start overclocking. You've missed some very basic things, and you can easily fry your system this way.
 
Solution

LLCamara

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Nov 25, 2014
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I ran 8320 @ 4.0ghz with stock cooler for over two months (20x multiplier; disabled TurboBoost, APM and Cool n Quiet; fixed NB and HT frequencies on default values instead of auto; no change in voltage; ASUS M5A97 REV2.0 MoBo).

Very stable, prime95 producing temperatures of 61C / 142F (core) and 63C / 145F (socket) most of the time, with a couple of peaks at 65C / 149F. Handled an entire playthrough of Far Cry 4 at ultra settings with this rig. The fan is very noisy when the CPU is under stress (it can get over 6k rpm), but gets the job done.

You can try with the above configuration, stress test and check the temperatures. As long as the core temp never goes above 70C / 158F after 20-30 minutes of stress test, you're good to go.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have 3x 120mm fans in my rig (2 intakes @ front and side; 1 out @ back), so keep an eye on the socket temperature and make sure its below 72C.