AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE OC

Assuming it's stable (which you'll need to do more testing to determine), you should lower the voltage if anything, assuming you're happy with the clock speed. Keep lowering the voltage until it becomes unstable, and then bump it back up to the last known stable configuration.

how long should i run the tests to make sure it's stable? is AMD Overdrive's stress test good enough, or is there some other tests I should run?

Thanks

 

AMD overdrive test is not great run Prime95 different people have opinions on how long to run it for, I would say at least 2 hours some people say 6-12 or more.

I also have some questions on overclocking this. Namely:

What is the MAX voltage I should feel safe setting it to (I've read everything from 1.4 to 1.5v)

At that voltage, what should I feel safe letting the temp get to? (Again, from 55C to 65C load of course)

I've read that the best way to OC is to raise the freq. to the max that will boot, then torture test it. Then keep raising the voltage / lowering multiplier until stable. Is this the best way? There are 100MHz intervals using this method, should I go into manual clock set and start raising that until I find the MAX I can run it at?

Edit: Also, can updating BIOS help the OC'd system run stable, or could it destabilize it, or not really do anything?

To find your max over clock use a voltage of 1.5 but after you reach your limit lower it as far as you can still stable (Its quicker to find your limit than raising it as you need to). As for maximum temp it depends how extreme you want the overclock, I wouldn't let it go over 70C ever and you really want the finished overclock to run at under 60C in Prime95. As for using the frequency and multiplier you will most likely get the best result from increasing a bit of both.

The 955 has a max. rated CPU temp. of 62C (not core temp.) according to AMD spec. Vcore is rated up to 1.5v to stay within the parameters of warranty spec. Without having an upper tier CPU cooler (air or water) you most likely won't be able to go above the 1.5v recommendation of AMD and keep it cool enough.

PS: up-dating the BIOS may or may "not" help, you could actually loose some of what you already have and open up the possibility for other problems.