Safe phenom voltage?

Hi, i am trying to overclock my phenom 9950BE and have raised it to 3.1 by the multiplier.

I have 260 GTX SLi and it isn't scaling that well in games (crysis benchmark gives a 30% increase), so am thinking of trying to add some voltage and get it stable at a higher clock speed.

Just wondering what is a safe Vcore for this processor?

I understand that it will reduce the life whatever i do, but i would probably upgrade between 6 months and a year and was wondering what would be a reasonable max voltage with that in mind.

I have a decent aftermarket cooler (coolermaster V8) and the temps underload are in there mid 40's so temperature isn't really a problem.

Thanks
Dave

I wouldn't go over 1.5V for a max oc run. I wouldn't go over 1.45 day to day. Didn't mention your cooling, so that will be a factor. Increased voltage means increased vibration which is interpreted as increased heat. If you are looking for a higher overclock, regardless of voltage you should have superior cooling, those phenoms get hot!

So I was not comfortable running my 9850BE very much above 1.4, maybe I was running it at 1.4125V and settled on a straight multi 3.1 Ghz day to day. Even with more voltage, you're not gonna get a lot more speed outta that thang, but you may gain some stability and smoothness in gameplay.

I recommend using the AOD software and try different voltages and settings and using the quick AOD benchmark to get an idea of what your ideal settings are. Too much voltage can hurt an overclock as much as too little.

Hi thanks for the info.

My phenom really doesn't like voltage, and i raised the vcore until it was peaking at 1.44 idle (but jumping between 1.4-1.44...and about 1.38 on load) and it still wasn't stable at 3.2...

Think i'm just gonna leave it at 3.1 at stock voltage, i don't really want to vcore to go above 1.45, especially for 0.1 more.

Cheers