Phenom II 955 C3 Overclocked and Undervolted

[tRad23]

Hey guys I just got a Phenom II 955 c3 and I am slightly overclocking it right now. I got it up to 3.6ghz on stock cooling and stock voltage and running stable with 37C idle with temps at 60C prime95 for 30min. Now I really dont need 3.6ghz and I am looking to keep this cpu running as best as it can for as long as it can. So right now I have it set to 3.4ghz with stock voltage. However, there was a big differenace in temps when I reduced the voltage to 1.3, the differance was about 4-5C at both load and idle. Will undervolting from 1.4 (stock) to 1.3 affect this cpu in anyway in (short term or long term) while I have it slightly overclocked? Thanks for the help guys.

 

[simon12]

It will help the CPU last longer as long as the system is still stable. I think stock is 1.325V not 1.4V.

 

[tRad23]

Ok cool, cpu-z and my bios say 1.4 though. Whatever though, as long as it is stable then... Thanks.

 

[damric]

The C3's undervolt quite nicely. Using a program called PhenomMSRTweaker, I was able to create an low power "idle" setting of 2.6GHZ @0.9625v to go along with my 4GHZ high power "load" setting. It's nice having the 2.6ghz for when I'm just trolling the forums, ect. What's nice is that program is also compatible with the latest AMD Fusion software.

 

[kaitheus]

Between 1.312v and 1.325v (they slightly fluctuate) are the stock volts for a C3 955BE. I have mine at a stable 3.8GHz atm (26-29c Idle 33-39 Load) hoping to reach 4GHz stable later on. :O

 

[wolfram23]

Ok cool, cpu-z and my bios say 1.4 though. Whatever though, as long as it is stable then... Thanks.

As long as it's stable, yes, it's perfectly fine and in fact better. One of the intricacies of overclocking is getting the voltage as low as possible.

The question is, is it stable? How do you know?