New to overclocking: some questions (1090T)

[elivance]

I have never overclocked before, but I am trying it right now for the first time. I am using the AMD 1090T, Asus M4A89TD Pro motherboard, and a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU fan.

I've read and watched several tutorials, and I realize it isn't an exact science, but I'd like to get to know what I'm doing a little better.

1-Do I want to adjust the clock speed or the multiplier? I've been playing with both, but nothing crazy.

2-Is it safe to leave voltage on Auto? If I manually set it, will it force it on that voltage, or can it still fluctuate? I set the voltage to 1.45 and my temps went up too high, so now I left it on auto and they seem very reasonable. Is this ok to do?

3-Using CPUID Hardware Monitor, I'm getting some odd readings. The Core temperatures and the CPU temperatures are at least 10C apart all the time. Which do I trust? Right now I'm seeing 50C CPU temp and all 6 cores are at 39C.


I'm running Prime95 so my CPU is at load. Voltage on auto its running at 1.344V. My CPU temperature is 51C and all 6 cores are at 40C.
Its running at 3.7 GHZ (multiplier at 18x, Bus speed 206 - I had no idea how to pick, so I just bumped both up a bit. How do you pick this stuff?)

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give. I've been having fun playing around with it, but I just want to know if I'm on the right track, or if what I'm doing is safe. The discrepancy between Core/CPU temps concerns me also...

 

[175422561]

Hi, elivance,

As far as overclocking, I'd suggest you increase the multiplier as the whole point of a Black Edition is that you can change the multiplier. Also, changing this is easier than FSB(front bus speed) as it doesn't alter other settings(Ram and etc.) which sometimes would give you trouble.

For the voltage, leaving it on auto should be fine unless you want to overclock a LOT. you want the voltage to be as low as possible, and setting it at 1.45v seems too high in your case.

I'm not too sure about your temp readings cuz I never used a hexacore amd, but I think you have a nice cooler, and as long as it's installed properly, it should cool ur cpu pretty good. But I do think your reading of 40 at load and 39(idle, i assume) is kinda weird. Usually, temp at load should be much higher than idle. You can probably google it and find what reasonable temps are for you cpu.

 

[elivance]

Yeah, from what I've read, its considered unsafe for temps to be around 60C, and most people overclocking like to keep it under 55C. I want to be careful, so I'd really like to keep it under 55C, and I totally get that we want the voltage as low as is stable.

Right now, I set it to 1.35V and put the multiplier to 20, so I'm at 4GHz. I'm running prime95 and I see that the voltage is running now around 1.4V

It seems stable so far, and my temps might be okay. I have the core temps at 47C and the CPU temp at 57C on CPUID Hardware Monitor, and I still don't get what the difference is or which to trust...
Core Temp says 46C. Do you think these temps are safe, provided it continues to pass the stability test? I could try backing the voltage even lower if it passes this.

 

[EXT64]

DO NOT trust the core temp. Go with the CPU temp.

My rule of thumb is to always go with the higher temp, however, an easy way to check is this: Put the CPU back to stock (or have Cool n Quiet on so it downclocks). Does the core temp go below ambient? (On my 1055T it does) If so, ignore the Core temp. Also, note it is core temp, not temp(s), as there is only one Diode on the die (all six cores thus report identical temps except when the sample rate of HWMonitor hits the middle of the CPU sampling).

 

[elivance]

Ok, thanks a lot for the information. I'll see if it goes below ambient when I get home.

I'll try lowering the voltage a tad more to see if its still stable, and maybe I can get better temps that way?
What does manually adjusting the voltage even do if it can still change itself anyway?

 

[EXT64]

If you are referring to Cool n Quiet (and perhaps Turbo) changing the voltage increases or decreases all p-state voltages by the same amount. Note however, you can override these with a program like K10Stat (which I have done: in the bios my chip is at its ridiculous 1.4V+ default, however as soon as windows starts, it goes down to my p-state settings of 0.75-1.25V).

 

[elivance]

I've left on Turbo, but turned off Cool n Quiet. I set the voltage to 1.35, but in reality it goes up to 1.4V when its at full load. I'm assuming manually setting it just puts its "default" voltage to that value, but obviously as needed it can raise it a certain amount. Its very stable now, but I'll play around with lowering it to see if it is stable at any lower. However, I think these temps are acceptable. In reality, I probably won't hit the temps that Prime95 made me hit during actual use, and 57C is within bounds. (Whilst gaming, I haven't seen CPU temps above 49C)

Thanks for all the advice and tips!

 

[elivance]

Also, my core temps aren't below ambient. At idle, I'm sitting at 27C, and this room is probably 20-21C. But I really do want to keep my temps safe, and I think the advice to go with the bigger temp makes perfect sense.

 

[EXT64]

Yeah, it is hard to say, they may have fixed the problem or your board could be different. But if the highest temp reported is safe, you are usually ok.

I've found that this chip (or my 1055T) really benefits (in power consumption) from the low clock and my modded low voltage of the lowers p-state (in my case 800MHz and 0.74V) which might be why my core temp goes below ambient (sitting at 15C right now, or 60F, which is below ambient) and yous does not. Or it is certainly possible yours does not have this issue, I do not know if it affect some, all, or only mine.

 

[elivance]

That is extremely low voltage... isn't stock 1.325? I don't quite follow, what did you do? (I'm an overclocking noob haha)

 

[EXT64]

My stock was around 1.425-1.475V 0.74V is only when Cool n Quiet reduces the multiplier so that the core clock is at 800MHz. My other voltages are 1.25V for 2.8GHz and 1.35V for 3.3GHz turbo. I've changed my cool n quiet states with K10Stat.