Overclocking Athlon II X4 420 On Budget Motherboard?

[mishimaBeef]

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible for me to overclock an Athlon II X4 2.6 GHz up to 3.2 GHz on stock cooling using a motherboard with the following chipset: 770/SB710. The motherboard model is Asus M4A77TD.

Thanks in advance. I am trying to decide on what to do with my first build and this seems like a good and fun idea .

 

[simon12]

Its possible the cooling will most likely be the thing that decides so make sure you keep an eye on the temps.

 

[green300]

Overclocking any cpu on the stock cooler will limit how far you go very quickly. I would say getting an extra 300 to 400mhz on stock cooling is possible if your ambient temps aren't too high. If you can save up $30 to $50 down the road, a decent aftermarket cooler would be well worth it. Provided your case can accommodate a large cooler !!!

With that said, I have the M4A77TD and a x3 435, it is a very capable motherboard for overclocking. If by x4 420 you mean the x4 620, yes it's possible to reach 3.2 maaaybe more with a good cooler. At $82, I would recommend the newer C3 x3 445: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872&cm_re=19-103-_-19-103-872-_-Product Paired with some decent 1333, A/M cooler and a good psu, it would be possible to reach at least 3.5,3.6 easy, possibly more. (There also is the slight chance you could unlock it to a x4 with that MB...)

Here is a comparison between the 3.0 x3 440, (not 3.1 x3 445) and the x4 620 at stock clocks: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/119?vs=106

Couple of reviews
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1353/1/

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=520&Itemid=63

 

[TheRockMonsi]

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible for me to overclock an Athlon II X4 2.6 GHz up to 3.2 GHz on stock cooling using a motherboard with the following chipset: 770/SB710. The motherboard model is Asus M4A77TD.

Thanks in advance. I am trying to decide on what to do with my first build and this seems like a good and fun idea .

mishima, I have the same CPU as you do currently (if you meant to say 620) and with my ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO (785 chipset) I was able to get a 3.25GHz overclock with the following:

FSB: 250
CPU Voltage: 1.3v
NB Voltage: 1.25v (I think)
CPU Multiplier: 13x
RAM Timings: 9-9-9-24 (or 27 - can't remember, but it was at stock settings)

This was done with the stock heatsink; however, when I ran Prime95 temps went up to 63 degrees Celsius during an hour of doing that (61 degrees average), then I quit it because I'm not crazy about the idea of heating my room up while this test runs overnight lol.

Sorry that I didn't answer your question directly, but maybe it might help?