Phenom 965 getting a little to good overclock?

[bigj1985]

Ok so this is my first post to the community as I always read reliable info from this site so I figured it was time to join. I just finished building a new semi budget gaming rig and I am getting incredible overclocks from my cpu using amd overdrive. In fact it seems so easy to overclock this particular chip that I am trying to see if these clocks are for real. My specs are as follows:

amd phenom 965 125w tdp be 3.4ghz processor
gigabyte mobo( not sure exact type) lol
4gb g skill ddr2 1066 ram
xfx radeon 4890 video card
500gb hard drive
i am also using the corsair h50 cpu cooler(awesome cooler btw)

neways I am fairly new to overclocking and this was my first build. I got the black edition so what the hell i figured i would oc the heck out of this thing. I use overdrive to oc. i know people say that bios is the way to go but from what i see amd has produced a software that is pretty darn accurate as i always keep CPU Z open right next to overdrive to confirm results of clockspeed. So here is the thing. I can open AMD overdrive and simply set my multiplier to 20 which gives me an overclock of 4ghz. I mean completely stable 4 hours prime 95 and the whole hour of amd stability test all cores 100% and never even reach over 50 celcius. Temps are awesome thanks to this cheap nifty little corsair hydro cooler. My main question is I hear people having trouble even getting to 3.8 with these chips on stock voltage and I dont even have to touch my voltages to get a 4 ghz clock. Do i just have a really good chip or what?? I thought ddr2 1066 would prevent me from even going this high. I dont know exactly how much memory effects overclocking but i know that you need to keep up with the front side bus. So do I just have a good one from the batch?? Should I up my voltage anyway?? Has anyone else seen these results? I would love to hear some responses from people whom have had this amount of OC excellency from these chips. Thanks guys!

 

[saaiello]

Looks like you got a good chip not all chips are the same some overclock better then others. The reason why your ram is not holding you back is because you are able to OC with the multiplier on the BE so you never mess with the base FSB frequency you memory is really only a real factor when you have a locked multi. If at all possible do the overclock from the bios when overclocking by software in the OS you run the risk of corrupting system files when you get to unstable at least when you do it in bios you set a bad number is just wont boot and you change it with no harm done to your OS so take that into consideration when using software to OC.

 

[ryman546]

thats amazing that its working on stock voltage at 4 ghz. i'm at 3.7 ghz right now. tried pushing it beyond but i need to increase voltage.

 

[ryman546]

have you tried OCCT? run for 8 hours *through the night*

 

[JDFan]

thats amazing that its working on stock voltage at 4 ghz. i'm at 3.7 ghz right now. tried pushing it beyond but i need to increase voltage.

IT may not be a stock voltages - Overdrive willl make adjustments to the voltage to try and make the OC stable so if it is set to auto it may be running a higher voltage than stock.

 

[bigj1985]

Ok thanks guys guys for all of the info. BTW i use advanced mode in amd overdrive and i only touch the multiplier. all i do is raise it to 20. As far as i know it wont mess with your voltages by itself unless you are in novice or beginning mode. And all of my voltage bars stay at the exact same number when i raise it to 20 as they are at stock 17. so i am pretty sure there is no voltage adjustment here. This is my second 965 since i bent the pins on my first one and it would blue screen at 4ghz with only multiplier set to 20. Thats y i figured I may have a good chip. Or maybe the corsair cooler. I dun no. I will take some screen shots or somethin maybe. Whats a good program to do that??

 

[ibemad]

The 3.8GHz wall that you've been hearing about is ONLY for 64-bit OSs. That's why the people who push these poor little chips to 6GHz run 32-bit

I know I can't get past 3.8GHz with this chip on windows 7 64-bit. At least not without a major voltage boost and something better than a Zalman CNPS9700 LED.

 

[bigj1985]

The 3.8GHz wall that you've been hearing about is ONLY for 64-bit OSs. That's why the people who push these poor little chips to 6GHz run 32-bit

I know I can't get past 3.8GHz with this chip on windows 7 64-bit. At least not without a major voltage boost and something better than a Zalman CNPS9700 LED.

The thing is is that I do have a 64 bit OS. I think I know whats up though since my processor is brand new I looked into CPU Z and realized that I have the C3 revision of the chip. I did some research and supposedly these little ah heck's seem to OC much better than their C2 brothren. However I have heard that it is much much easier to OC your chip on a 32 bit os and get crazy results like the one you have mentioned. But yep as we speak im running at 4 ghz Oced via bio's this time and I am 100% stable idling at a whopping 30 celcius with absolutely no voltage jump at all. However something with my mobo whenever I overclock to even 3.6 ghz it decides the chip needs a huge voltage increase which causes alot of heat. I just went into bios Oced to 4 ghz and set the voltage from auto to manual; brought this sucker back down to stock voltage and here I am. overnight stable for 5 hours prime 95 cause that about all the sleep I get. Just got done gaming for 2 hours and never skipped a beat. BTW get yourself an H50 you will love it I got mine for 70 bones and I couldnt be happier. This thing is an awesome cooler and it's priced basically the same as good aircoolers and costs less than the big expensive ones. I absolutely love the performance! It's one hell of a newbie watercooling system. Also it's not huge and obscene looking like some air coolers.

 

[JofaMang]

Please post your motherboard (should be identified in the Mainboard tab of of CPU-Z) as I am gathering some infoz on motherboards for a near future upgrade.

I was only able to get about 45mins out of P95 with my c3 965 at 3.8ghz/1.34v (-.025 in the bios) and need a huge voltage jump to stabilize 4ghz. I have come to blame my mobo, as my 710 was similar... would OC very well with low volts up to a point, then boom, massive voltage increases for small increments after that (3.4 was my daily sweetspot).

 

[bigj1985]

Please post your motherboard (should be identified in the Mainboard tab of of CPU-Z) as I am gathering some infoz on motherboards for a near future upgrade.

I was only able to get about 45mins out of P95 with my c3 965 at 3.8ghz/1.34v (-.025 in the bios) and need a huge voltage jump to stabilize 4ghz. I have come to blame my mobo, as my 710 was similar... would OC very well with low volts up to a point, then boom, massive voltage increases for small increments after that (3.4 was my daily sweetspot).

Ok my motherboard is Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H. I think it is still like 85 bones on newegg. Ya like I said the motherboard itself tried to make dramatic voltage increases when it was set to auto. I had to disable the whole auto thing and tune it myself. It is a nice mobo although I dont think it is top o the line Neway within the next 2 weeks or so maybe sooner I am gonna make the jump to ddr3 so I will b selling my current board with the 4 gigs of ram for a very reasonable price. Shoot me a line if u wanna talk biz

 

[JofaMang]

I am using the 780g version of that mobo (GA-MA780g-UD3h). Interesting, will have to look into any other upgrades they may have made to the unit aside from the HD4200 IGP.

I realise it may all be for naught, as by the time I actually get a new motherboard, it will probably be an 890x or the like, but I am intrigued nonetheless.

 

[bigj1985]

I am using the 780g version of that mobo (GA-MA780g-UD3h). Interesting, will have to look into any other upgrades they may have made to the unit aside from the HD4200 IGP.

I realise it may all be for naught, as by the time I actually get a new motherboard, it will probably be an 890x or the like, but I am intrigued nonetheless.

Ya u know what this was my first actual build so I cannot attest exactly how other boards OC. I did look at some reviews online though that said this particular board is pretty good at overclocking. I just hope that when I make the switch to ddr3 that the next board will be just as good to me. I will probably stick with Gigabyte as they usually as I see it offer the best motherboards for the cheapest price.

 

[JofaMang]

I love Gigabyte boards. I have owned this one, and have been OCing with it for almost a year now, and only last week when trying to break 4.2ghz on my new CPU did I need to clear the CMOS from a locked up bios. Was hard to find (under the videocard dammit) but I figure it's a good deal going that long with just the Dual-Bios function to back me up, heh.

 

[andrew149]

ive been overclocking the 965 for awhile now and im at 4.2 cant get really higher ddr3 memory

 

[JofaMang]

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1088416

I am able to boot, and even benchmark a few things at this speed, but was only able to do that when I had a -20c wind coming in the window. Spring has Sprung here in winnipeg, so it will be a waiting game for a new mobo before I try to get that high (or higher) again.

 

[andrew149]

man did you get lucky i have all the latest stuff in my computer heres my list

-Motherboard-Msi-790Fx-GD70
-Memory-Corsair Dominator 8g DDR3 1333
-Case-Cooler master-HAF 932 AMD Limited Edition
-Power Supply-Ultra x4 500w modular
-Hdd-2x-1tb-Wd caviar black sata raid 0
-XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB
-Amd Phenom 2 x4 965 Black 3.4 stock OC 4.2 20x
-Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit
-Atapi light scribe dvd burner
-Cpu cooler- Thermaltake CL-W0121 Water Cooling System
Fsb-210