Stuck OCing a 955BE

[cls33]

I've had my Athlon 955BE for almost 2 yrs now and have been running it at a mild overclock of 3.4ghz, but recently I've been trying to see how far I could push the chip.

I'm able to achieve a 100% stable 18.5x multiplier, giving me 3.7ghz on stock voltages with no issues. Temps are in the low 30's at idle and mid-high 50's deep into Prime95.

However, when I go for 3.8ghz, I'm running into serious issues. I get BSOD almost immediately on stock voltage. Increasing the voltage allows me to boot into Windows, however running a Prime95 results in a BSOD within a minute or two. I've attempted a voltage as high as 1.45v

I realize several people with this CPUs have to increase the voltages beyond 1.45v to achieve a stable 3.8ghz overclock, but it seems odd to me that my I would have to increase the voltage so much over stock, when stock is fine at 3.7ghz.

Is that as unusual as I think it is? Is there something else I should be looking at? Or is 3.7ghz just the logical place for my particular CPU to end up?

 

[Guest]

Firstly, what are you running for cooling and what are the resulting temperatures?

My 965 will boot at 4ghz but crash if it goes above 57 C (core temps) under any kind of stress testing. I can run 3.8ghz stable @ 1.38 volts with my $17 Rosewill heatsink!

Are you keeping everything else default? (NB, HT, RAM, etc?) How about their voltages?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

you need a better cooler than the stock one. The best value for money cooler that should get you to 4ghz is the coolermaster hyper 212+.

 

[cls33]

I'm running a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 for cooling (purchased 2 years ago with the CPU)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

Temps are in the low 30's at idle and mid-high 50's deep into Prime95. I've seen this chip run as >60 without issues when I've had airflow problems previously.

I haven't touched the frequencies or voltages of anything else... I'm not even sure where I'd start there.

 

[Guest]

I would keep an eye on the temps and see if it crashes at the same temp multiple times. Some of these chips just don't run well overvolted past a certain temp. Mine has shown me that many times. I've settled on 3.8ghz as the best OC with my cheap/quiet heatsink.

I can run the NB @ 2.6ghz and 1.25volts with the cores at 3.8ghz and 1.38volts. The HT doesn't like going above 2.2ghz even with increased voltage. This is on a 890fx mobo with good VRM (very little vdroop, if any).

 

[cls33]

It didn't seem to be temp related. I observed it BSOD anywhere from the high 40's to the high 50's.

 

[Guest]

Maybe you got a "dud" cpu. I happens to the best of us...