Overclocking Help - Athlon II x4 620

[rarestg]

Hey guys, recently I've tried Overclocking my AMD Athlon II x4 620 CPU to get the most out of it, and I've encountered some problems.

First of all, my other components are:
Asus M4N78-Pro Motherboard
OCZ DDR2 1066mhz Gold Memory
CoolerMaster 500w Power Supply
Onboard Video 8300GS (Getting gtx 460 soon)
32-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate
Corsair A50 (soon)

After disabling Cool n' Quiet, C1E, Nvidia Core Calibration and other stuff like that, I had initially started with an overclock to 3.1MHz by boosting the fsb to 240, leaving multiplier at x13, and with a HT Link setting of 2400MHz. Seeing as this was stable, I started ramping it up some more.

Now, my Asus Bios has the following options under its Manual adjustment settings:
Multiplier: Default x13
CPU FSB - Default 200
PCIE Freq - Default 100
DRAM Freq - Default Auto
CPU/NB Freq - Default Auto
HT Link - Default Auto
CPU Volt - Default Auto
CPU/NB Volt - Default Auto
CPU VDDA Volt - Default Auto
DRAM Volt - Default Auto
HT Volt - Default Auto
NB Volt - Default Auto

I have tried raising the FSB to 260, Dram frequency of 933mhz, HT Link of 1600 (2100mhz in CPUz), CPU Voltage to 1.375V, and finally HT Voltage to 1.2V - But it is not stable in Prime 95

I'm sure some of you must have some OC experience with Athlon II x4's, and I would greatly appreciate some help or trusted settings to bring my fsb up around 270 or to achieve a quite possible overclock to 3.7GHz.

 

[bsnowman17]

up the fsb and manually lower the HT, DRAM, and NB to normal freqs, then increase the FSB in small increments and watch temps with HW monitor pro while stress testing. Also what kind of cooler are you using?

 

[rarestg]

I'm using a Corsair A50 cooler.

And those are my fully stable settings so far.
Do you see anything there that would prevent a higher overclock :?

 

[green300]

First thing I see is a nice low vcore! Good job getting +700 out of it. You'll need to give it more vcore to go further, max safe according to amd is 1.55v on air. Max cpu temp for the 620 according to amd is 71c: http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=597&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&f12= I wouldn't let it get up over 60, 65c max. What are your current load temps at 3.3 ?

Make sure you manually set your memory timing and voltage to specs. Can you give us a link to your specific modules ?

Curious, have you ever tried enabling nvidia's core calibration ? Some of the 620's are deneb cores and are able to unlock the L3.. just a thought. http://www.cpu-world.com/step_codes/C/CACYC%20AC.html

g/l

 

[rarestg]

My current load temps at 3.3ghz are ~35 Celcius. This is with my fan at 50% .
Other than that I'll have you guys know that my Mobo won't let me set a vCore higher than 1.5 and even at that my temps don't hit 50.

Here's a link to my Ram: http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_8500_gold_edition_4gb_dual_channel

And yes, I've tried Core Calibration but unfortunately my Cpu isn't hiding an L3 cache
Also, I've heard that keeping Core Calib. on auto keeps a more stable overclock, is this true?

Cheers.

 

[green300]

What are your current stable memory settings ? You can view the timings on the memory tab of cpu-z and get the current dram voltage from amd over drive. If they are not set to thee 5-6-6-18-2T@2.1v factory specs do so and see if it's still stable.

If you've gotten +700MHz @ 1.375 already, I not not sure there's a bunch more to get by going over 1.5v.

Core calibration was intended for the earlier phenoms to help stabilize overclocks, that's now suppose to be "built in" to the newer chips. I've played with acc quite a bit and have seen HOW it affects a cpu, but have never seen it stabilize an unstable oc. Leave it off if your not unlocking as it only prevent your core temps from showing in monitoring software..

See where your memory has been running stable at (timings and volts) so you know which way you might be able to go. Give it some more vcore if you haven't tried already.

Edit:
"..my Mobo won't let me set a vCore higher than 1.5 and even at that my temps don't hit 50."

sounds like you have tried raising vcore lets see where your memory is at first

 

[rarestg]

WOAH. Thanks a bunch for the advice on RAM settings. Turns out it was running at 5-5-5-15-2T@1.8v the whole time!

Looks like this could be a massive help for me, I'll update you guys if I can get a greater overclock with these settings tomorrow.

Edit: So far it looks like adjusting my Ram to default settings only helps me boot into Windows at over 3.5Ghz, which I haven't been able to do before. However I get a blue screen 8 minutes into Prime
I had increased my vCore to 1.42, NB voltage to 1.2 and left other settings within parameter but it just isn't stable.

 

[green300]

Those are recommended voltages of 1.8 shown in cpu-z, open AOD if you have it and see where your mb actually has it set at being on auto at the moment. It could be at 1.8 or already at 2.1, hopefully you will still have some room..

g/l

 

[rarestg]

Unfortunately AOD is not supported by my MB but I have determined that indeed my RAM was always running at 1.8v while on 'Auto'.

 

[green300]

oops, nvidia board, my bad.

g/l, let us know how you make out pressing on.

 

[rarestg]

Well, It looks like I've hit a wall.
I can boot into Windows with a max HTT of 274, but I get blue screens 3 minutes after launching Prime 95.
I've reduced my HTlink to 7x, CPU/NB frequency to around 2200, vCore of 1.4, RAM timings at what was recommended and 2.1v, and NB voltage of 1.2v.

I'm not sure if I should raise the CPU/NB voltage or maybe even the VDDA.
Is it possible that there are still some ram settings to tinker with?

Any pointers would be welcome.

 

[green300]

Well, It looks like I've hit a wall.

Could be.. You've gotten a very nice oc out of it already, especially at 1.4ish. I'm sure if there is anything left in thee ol'girl you'll need more vcore. At 274 where is your memory at 1096 or 912 ? Drop it down again to 912 if not.

Three minutes into prime is large fft and suggest memory or imc, drop memory back to 1066 or below, try increasing cpu-nb and nb voltages one notch at a time. cpu-nb volts should not exceed cpu volts ! Have you tried raising the nb frequency to 2740 or 2466 ? Try floating ht freq. around between 1800 and 2200.

Run prime on small fft's to stress the cpu and vcore more so than the memory and imc during large fft tests.

g/l

 

[damric]

AUTO is the enemy of overclock.

Lower those other multipliers and dividers. Also: http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/pdf/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

 

[rarestg]

Hey, Hey, Hey!

3.5GHz stable
Looks like I've accomplished my Goal. Btw, Cyberpower and some random guy from British Columbia send me a pair of Limited Edition Kingston RAM and a Special Edition GT 220 by ASUS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5YZG81gc0
Anybody Interested ?