Phenom II X4 945 (95W) Overclocking

[bernardv]

Hey,
I've been playing around with my Ph II 945 and it seems to bee a quite good overclocker. I've come up to here, just a notch above stock voltage:

I'm using MSI K9A2 Platinum board (790FX/SB600/DDR2), got the fsb up to 250 and the CPU multi down a bit to 14. Can't do more because I'm still using the stock cooler. I'm getting a better one and I'm wondering how far up I'll be able to go. I've read someone getting it to 3,7. Did anybody go higher than that using such a CPU?

 

[saint19]

You need modify the Vcore...look mi signature.

 

[godless]

more volts. for that you will need better cooloing. Mugen 2 is a great fan if you got the room for it in the case

 

[bernardv]

I'm getting a Zalman 9300 today. I know you can go higher with higher volts but I'm not out to set a new world record, I want a reasonable overclock (you know, "Save the planet ...").

How high do you think I could go if I stay bellow 1.4V? I guess we'll see pretty soon.

 

[saint19]

With the K9A2 you only can raise the volts to 1.5V...so 1.4V is perfect for the OC.

 

[bernardv]

OK, so installed the cooler and I'm at 3625 with 1.416 volts. It seems fine but I have to do some stress testing to see how stable it really is.

@saint; I can go above 1,5V with this board. Values above 1,5 are just painted red as a warning that the CPU could get damaged.

Not sure what to do with HT link speed (and HT voltage). Almost everybody writes HT link should remain at 2000MHz but I see some performance gains if I let it rise to 2500 along with the FSB. I got a serious cooler on both 790FX and SB600, connected with heatpipes, gues it should be put to some use.

 

[dirtmountain]

I don't know if you've read this excellent article by Mr. Henningsen, but in case you haven't it has some great info.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-cpu-overclock,2396.html

 

[saint19]

The problem of our mobo, is that the SB600 don't permit rise the volt more that 1.5 without alert for a damage. For rise to more that 1.5V we need a SB750.

 

[kaifudin1985]

I OC my 945 to 3.7 GHz, cpu cooler is Noctua NH-U12P with 2 fans. I think Volt is 1.421 but not sure about it, I am completely noob when it comes to OC, Volt etc.. But I can tell you one thing, running @ 3.7 full load my CPU temp is max 45c.
Before with the custom fan without oc the temp @ full load was something like 64-65c.
I know this cpu can handle more, I just dont know what to do with those volts in BIOS.

System info

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 945 3.0 GHz
Motherboard: MSI 770-C45
RAM: G.Skill 4GB DDR3 1333
HDDL not exacly sure I think 7200RPM 6400GB.
Supply 700 Watt
Graphics card: Radeon XFX HD 4850 1GB DDR3-5 not sure


After OC CPU to 3.7 GHz I run some test AMD Overdrive 1 Hour All test passed full load temp 44c
and played Counter-Strike Source all night long xD without any errors.

I hope someone is able to help us, please dont let this topic die!

Thank you, and yea I am sry for my poor English

regards,

AJ

 

[kaifudin1985]

screen



So what do you think ? Not bad for a beginner huh?

 

[Wisecracker]

As long as your HT speed is faster than you memory speed you are fine --- so you may easily drop the HT multiplier to x9 or x8.

The NB/IMC is a whole different animal. For each 10% increase in NB/IMC speed, memory bandwidth is increased 3-4% and latency is reduced 3-4%. This more than makes up the difference in speed between dual- and single-channel RAMs.

I don't want to burst yer bubbles - you guys are doing great - but your NB/IMC speeds are at best, average. 2700-2800MHz is good --- the guys at XS have pushed beyond 3000MHz so that gives you an idea of the work ahead.

The issue on the MSI 790FX is you may not be able to tweak the NB voltage (at least on mine). In my BIOS version it can't be adjusted and with AOD it just won't stick. Not sure about the MSI 770 NB voltage settings. At a minimum see what you can do with the x11 multiplier.

Here are the results found by Anand in upping the NB speed in Far Cry (not really a good game for AMD). With a Phenom 720BE at 3.8GHz / NB 2.8GHz he was within shouting distance from a Q9550 OC'ed to 4.25GHz.

The 95w Phenom 945 is a sweet chip - enjoy and keep up the good work.

 

[kaifudin1985]

Just to let you know, i killed my mobo (msi 770-C45) this mobo has a max 261 FSB, I recommend you
DO NOT go above 250 FSB, or you will end up like me.

Anyway, I bought new mobo (Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P), I def. think this one has more FSB than the older one (MSI).

This time I was able to clock @ 3.6 GHz at the same time having my HT Link lower than before, and my ram is lot faster

Core Voltage: 1.35x
FSB: 240
HT multiplier x9 ( Thanks wisecracker )

System is very stable.

 

[kaifudin1985]

@ 3.8 GHz stable



FSB 254
CPU NB x9
HT Link Fre. x8
Mem. Clock 5.33
CPU Core Coltage 1.4500

 

[zotokan]

what is your ram model ? i have same mobo and cpu like you but i cant open windows it freezes because of rams i think .
ihave 6 gb special ops... ocz

 

[kaifudin1985]

G.skill 4 gb 1600. I don't think it is because of ram, maybe you are doing something wrong. Try to set Memory to manual set your cycles, for example I have 9-9-9-24, you will find these numbers on your ram stick. Also Disable C1e and Amd Cool and Quiet...

 

[zotokan]

ok i did it like you same 3,8 ghz stable but i can use my memory at 1066 ghz... when i make it up it freezes. its so funny.. by the way did you give voltage to northbrigde?

 

[doron]

Kaifudin1985 - What makes you think you killed your mobo?? ....

Did you try clearing cmos?

 

[natej14120]

Hey everyone i have a ? There is something thats really bothering me that happens when i overclock my system. If the cpu load goes over 22% the cpu FSB will drop but the core volt dosent, and the other thing is it wont go over 45-50c-( 3.75GHz @ 22c room temp) under a stress test or benchmark but if i run prime it will crash in about 3sec. This will happen if i overclock higher than 3.2ghz. This is really odd to me any thoughts?


Specs PhenomII 945@3.75Ghz 2500HT 2500NB cpu core 1.39v
Asus M3a32MVP Deluxe
Ocz DDR2 1150Mhz @1000Mhz 5-5-5-18 T1 1.92v
XFX 5870xxx
2-320Gb spinpoints Raid-0
Ultra x3 1000W
North+South Bridge coolers
Watercooled CPU