NOOB CPU Overclock Question......

[tesjes]

I built my first computer last month and absoutely love it!! Always wanted to build my own and I was tired of my old Dell 8300 and the lack of things you could upgrade on the "brand" computers...well to the point. Here are my build/specs...

Athlon II X3 450, 4th core unlocked, 3.5 ghz, 1.4125v
Rosewill RCX-ZAIO-92 Cooler
ASRock M3A770DE
Sapphire Radeon 5670
G.Skill DDR3 1333 2 X 2GB (stock)
WD 500GB X2 (Raid 0)
Corsair Enthusiast 650w
Cooler Master HAF 912 w/2 x 200mm fans
ASUS CD Burner
ACER G235H 23" Monitor
Win 7 Home 64 bit

I have the 4th core unlocked and it is stable. I have the FSB set to 250 with a 14 multiplier for 3500 mhz. When I try and go up to about 3.6 ghz and run Prime95 one of the cores stops running and says there is a rounding error. I even tried upping the voltage a little but this didn't help. My temps at 3.5 ghz are 21 idle and CPUTIN 47/CORE 39 at full load (HWMonitor). Tried overclocking my memory a little but it didn't like it. Had some booting issues and I don't want to fry my memory.

My question is do you think that the FSB/Multiplier is good or should it be something else to get to the 3.5 ghz? Higher FSB lower multiplier different voltage or maybe this is all the unlocked core will go........I just feel like I can get a little more with such great temps....
The other question is any other tweaks that will make this thing any faster??? Just curious...

Thanks in advance....

 

[natefostersr]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/05/11/overclocking-amd-s-phenom-ii-x3-720-be/1

try readign up on this for the x4
http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/04/22/overclocking-101-with-the-amd-phenom-ii-x4-955-black-edition-processor/

 

[simon12]

All looks good you could try lower multiplier and higher FSB, I found the same maximum regardless on my unlocked 550BE system but other people seem to find higher using different methods. If the temps allow it you could try up to 1.5V on the CPU.

 

[henydiah]

check the memory settings, may not be strong at high frequency, or lossen timing to 9-11-11-24 or voltage is less for up to1.65v DDR3. FSB frequency is increased, the ram was also up too, try lowering your ram ratio to 1066 (3:8) and test. for a quick test using intelburn test, Ram sets the maximum at 20 loops, maybe just 20 minutes. for a longtime use prime95

 

[tesjes]

All looks good you could try lower multiplier and higher FSB, I found the same maximum regardless on my unlocked 550BE system but other people seem to find higher using different methods. If the temps allow it you could try up to 1.5V on the CPU.

I have also tried different speeds/miltipliers and seem to be stuck at the 3.5. I guess that is all this chip will do. Oh well I am glad I got a 4 core for the price of 3!!

Memory is set at 1333 (factory) now so 1066 would be underclocking wouldn't it? It is stable at 1333 but when i go up to around 2000 then the system wont boot. I had to manually set the timing to factory spec cause "auto" was not putting it at 8-8-8-24 which is recommended for the specific ram I have.

Thanks for the input. I love this site by the way....