Phenom II 965 Overclocking

[jahn6]

hey guys I am pretty new to overclocking,
I have a phenom ii 965, I set the multiplier to 18 and running at 3.6 ghz.
Ran prime95 and temperature is stable at 54 degrees with stock cooler.
So I have a few questions to the experts....

1. What temperature is best for this processor to be running at?
2. Can I stay at 3.6ghz with the stock cooler keeping at 54 degrees?
3. How much can this overclock to? I don't want to push it but want to overclock it where its 100% stable. I know it depends on every processor and you need to get lucky, but I want to know what the general trend is.
4. If I buy a cooler for this cpu, what should it be? Do I need to also get a thermal paste?

Thank you!!

 

[isamuelson]

You really need to get a better cooler. The stock cooler is not efficient when overclocking.

54 degrees is not deadly, but it's not the optimum temperature you want. Most people's temperatures idle are around 25-30 and under full load it's in the 40's.

I'm user the Cooler Master Hyper 212+. It's only $30 and it does an excellent job with overclocked CPUs.

 

[jahn6]

Best answer selected by jahn6.