AMD phenom II 940 overclocking questions.

Well in my personal experience with a similar CPU I got to a golden wall of 3.7GHz at stock volts. At 1.4, you can get to 3.9, and 1.5 brings you 4.2 max. But that is really high, and it is not worth the pain and a possible system failure. So, the first thing you need to do is find the section for CPU tweaking options on in the BIOS. Then, you have two options. Increase the multiplier or the CPU/NB frequency. I always suggest increasing the frequency by a little bit because it's performance increase over just bumping the multiplier is a lot larger. So, if your CPU works on like 200x16 (example), I'd suggest doing what I did. Increasing the frequency to 210 (also an important thing to note is that you shouldn't touch the PCIE frequency) and the multiplier to 16.5. That would be a nice boost and would increase your CPU speed noticeably. But really, don't try to get in 4.0GHz area with these CPUs as it is reserved for experts and a better water cooling. 3.9 is possible, but first try to get it working at about 3.4.

well what heatsink do yall recommend someone said the thermaltake 120 ultra but newegg says its discontinued so now im back to square one

Similar results as loneninja, too hot past 3.7GHz with stock cooler.

230x16=3.680GHz, 2 x HD4850 in Crossfire (vcore +6 increments, I'd have to check the volts)
3DMark06 18,346
SM2.0 7,247
SM3.0 8,475
CPU 5,329

Found it ran cooler at 200x17.5=3.500GHz (stock volts)
3DMark06 18,494
SM2.0 7,230
SM3.0 8,769
CPU 5,186

While the cpu score is down, which is expect at a slower clock, heat was much reduced, SM2.0 and SM3.0 were up a little, resulting in a better overall score.

All with stock cooler. Heat is always the enemy. Just because the clock is higher, if you can't get rid of the heat, results may not be any better (or even worse) than a lower clock speed.

If you're going beyond 3.5GHz then an after market cooler is probably best. I use Artic Cooer Freezer Xtreme. Not the best, but not the worst.

Hm... I found the stock pretty sufficient for 3.7, 3.8 though required a bit better cooling. Strange how only guys at Tom's have this experience Maybe you worry too much about temps? I got 60 average with stock cooler on 3.7 and I didn't worry .