Overclocking Llano A4-3400?

[mildgamer001]

My friend wanted me to build him a budget light gaming pc, i picked a dual core Llano for the cpu because the cheap prices of the higher end motherboards for that socket, the posibility of upgrading to an A8 and radeon 6570 in the futur for more performance, and reviews said ti si easily overclocked. I didnt post here to get trolled for picking a dual core Llano, im here to see about overclocking it to get a little more bang for buck.

Are these easily overclocked? do i need an aftermarket cooler like the hyper 212? or the packaged heatsink? how much clock speed can i get out of it wile still being stable? and how much should it shorten the life span of the cpu?

if anyoen can answer any of these questions it would be great, thanks. and im not dead set on OCing, if it isnt a safe reliable overclocker i am still getting it, im just exploring overclock possibilities.

 

[nforce4max]

Overclocking is very much limited on the desktop Llano unlike the unlocked mobiles but any is better than nothing. The problem is the gpu also overclocks when you raise the base clock and quickly maxes out. The cpu side however since amd nukes the voltages from the git go you might get over 3ghz on this build but heat limits these 32nm stars cores badly. Poor bin quality is the problem for most. If you are lucky to have gotten a good sample you might be able to get a decent overclock on less than stock voltage but don't count on it sadly :s

 

[mildgamer001]

not looking for crazy overclock, just a bit to get a little more oomf for him until he needs me to upgrade it to an A8 & new grapics card etc.

 

[nforce4max]

Just give it a try and what he manages to get that is what he will have.

 

[mildgamer001]

yea, also i been looking at my own personal 500$ build and i think ill end up getting a phenom2, since from wht ive heard they perform a little better the only problem is heat and some other stuff that ill have to do to save money, ill deffinitly overclock that when i get it though. of course, it takes me so long to save money that by the time i get the 500, it will be even MORE outdated than they already are. lol

 

[nforce4max]

Heat isn't a problem with phenom 2 unless you put a very low grade cooler on it but $20-30 for a cheap cooler and there won't be any problems. Ram is dirt cheap unless it isn't DDR3. The part that will suck buying is the hard drive.

 

[kinggraves]

yea, also i been looking at my own personal 500$ build and i think ill end up getting a phenom2, since from wht ive heard they perform a little better the only problem is heat and some other stuff that ill have to do to save money, ill deffinitly overclock that when i get it though. of course, it takes me so long to save money that by the time i get the 500, it will be even MORE outdated than they already are. lol

Actually Athlon II/Phenom II are about equal to Llano at the same clock speeds and use less watts. But with Llano you're also paying for the integrated graphics. Unless you plan on using the integrated graphics, the same amount of money can get you a higher clocked PII.

 

[mildgamer001]

the Llano was for my friend he was gun use integrated until he needed more power. the phenom II was for me if i ever get around to it. also when you wrote PII i immediatly though of a pentium 2 and i was like lol i have one of those still! then i remembered they had like 440mhz clockspeed and realised u meant phenom 2..