New to overclocking

[slowpoke101]

Hi to all that read this.

So anyways over the last few years I have been building standard PC's for friends family etc (probably well over a hundred PC's built in that time) but in all that time I have never really bothered to overclock a system. So I have just ordered the parts to build a new system with the intention of doing some besic overclocking. The relevent components are

AMD Phenom II 955
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM]

Asus Crosshair 3 Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-339-AS]

Stock XFX ATI 4890
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167969]

4gb Corsair 1600mhz XMS3 DHX Memory 9-9-9-24
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148818]

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply (not the greatest I know but budget was tight.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-032-OC]

Arctic Cooling (AC-FRZ-64P) Freezer64 Pro
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/101471]

This is going in a Antec 300 case that has an extra 120mm fan which will be going on the side panel.

So I know theres plenty of stickys with in depth guides, which I will probably look at later. What I was wondering at the moment was if anyone had any basic advice on where and how to start. I am not looking to push these components to their limits, more just some basic overclocking that will let me use the PC on a regular basis. The tower will be getting frequent use and 4-5 hour plus continuous sessions gaming wont be uncommon. Is it even worth overclocking at all etc.

Also if anyone has any good ideas for known safe overclocks that would be great (ie I have been told that the 955 will comfortably go to 3.6-3.8ghz.)

Any help and advice anyone may have is greatly appreciated.

 

[slowpoke101]

I am guessing from the lack of response that theres no one here who is using this particular combo, ahh well guess I will have to experiment a bit

 

[MaDMagik]

http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/499526-phenom-ii-x4-955-oc-thread.html

Theres a chart with many setups based on that CPU plus below that chart you have a link to Phenom2 Essentials Guide. Thats as much as i can help you because I dont deal with AMD

 

[505090]

read the stickies and come back with specific questions

 

[slowpoke101]

OK well the system is built now. Im currently installing Windows 7 as we speak. One of the nifty little items that comes with the board is a little LCD display that has temperatures on it and I Have a question. 2 of the temps that are reported are the North and Southbridge. The temps at the moment are

NB 71 degrees with 812v running through it
SB 81 degrees with 214v running through it

Is it me or is there something wrong here?

 

[jsc]

It's not you. The voltage readings do not make any sense.

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1. Your board would be fried if it's getting 812V. :lol:

@OP: Use SpeedFan to check NB temps. CoreTemp for CPU.

 

[slowpoke101]

OK managed to have another look at temps. The following temps are in degrees celcius.

CPU 36
Southbridge 38
Northbridge 37
Motherboard 25

These are idle temps at stock settings although for some reason I had to manually change the RAM to 1600mhz in the bios (it was defaulting to just over 1k mhz) From what I have read so far, although this is OK its a bit high for overclocking.

Did a futuremark06 run earlier and it came in at 16.65k score.

 

[505090]

most mb's default to 1066 anything over that is technically an overclock