Wondering if PSU was affecting my overclock

[rickpatbrown]

I just put an order into newegg for PC power and cooling silencer 750 PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009. My hopes are to squeeze out a little more from my Opteron 170. I have it at 2.88ghz right now with an Apevia 500watt PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027. When I picked it out the PSU a couple of years ago, I had no idea I'd be getting into all this stuff -overclocking and what not. I I notice on CPUz that the vcore flucuates. I figured that I will be rebuilding in a year or so (waiting to see if AMD gets there act together and quad cores are cheaper) so I wanted a new PSU anyway that can be used in the future.

Was this a good choice for $170.00? -I'm a sucker for a sale
Will this possibly allow me to overclock a little more? -I was thinking of lapping the cpu and hs also
Is this enough power if I end up with SLI video and watercooling in the future?

Now that I've written it, I guess that it should have gone in the PSU section, but I am mostly concerned with how the PSU influences an overclock.

Thanks,
Ricky

 

[nightscope]

It would help if you state the rest of your system's specs. I think that PSU is just overkill, you'll never need that much power unless you're running SLI/Crossfire with 10 harddrives... and even then you won't even need it. A good 500 WATT with good amps on the 12+ rails would have sufficed.

It doesn't state how many amps on the 12+ rails it has on that Apevia, and without knowing the rest of your system I can't guess if that's whats stopping you from the higher overclock. My guess is that it's not...but you never know.

 

[rickpatbrown]

I realize that it is overkill. I was wondering if a higher quality powersupply provides a more stable voltage, therefore a more stable overclock. My memory is corsair CMX1024-3200 (200mHz) running at 205.8mHz due to a /14 divider off the FSB. I tested stability with prime95 with emphasis on the cpu and not the memory. I was able to hit 2.9, but backed off because of temperature.
I am buying this power supply with the future in mind as well.

Thanks

 

[rickpatbrown]

I have one 74gig raptor, one 320gig and 500gig western dig HDs. 8800GTS 640MB.

 

[Thanatos421]

The voltage drop you see in CPU-z isn't caused by your PSU, but your motherboard. It's totally normal and shouldn't cause problems. However, there is a pencil mod I've heard about that stabilizes CPU voltage to what you set in BIOS and it won't budge. I didn't do that myself, I just raised voltage in BIOS until I got what I needed actually being fed to the CPU.

The PC PnC 750 is a GREAT power supply. They make some of the best units you can buy, and they aren't rediculously expensive.

 

[rickpatbrown]

What were the results of the pencil mod? Did you squeeze anymore out of your overclock?

 

[Thanatos421]

I didn't do the pencil mod. No sense in voiding the mobo warranty. I got 3.6GHz stable with the 6750, no mod needed.

 

[rickpatbrown]

Did you edit the previous post or am I blind?

I lapped my CPU and HS last night and temps dropped about 7C. I'm hoping that "breaking in period" with artic silver is true.

I am 44 min prime95 stable at 327x9- 2.94Ghz.
I'm testing 329x9 right now, but temps are at 59C. I am out of vcore too because of the 1.5 limit.

BTW I put in the new PSU and there were no noticible advantages in my overclock, just as you said. But, I have a nice PSU for my next rig.

I'm looking into vcore mods, but they might be a little over my head. I've never done anything constructive with a solder iron.