OC on Phenom II 965BE

[vandee560]

I have had my Phenom for awhile on a OC of 3.9Ghz at 1.43v. my idle temps are 28-29C and underload up to 56C. I am running a cheap heatsink from BestBuy right now. I just ordered a corsair H100i and am looking to see if I can push my OC higher. my question is that my FBS is at 200mhz my RAM is running at 1600 and that is all my board is able to handle if i push the FBS any higher it wont boot. is there anyway to get around this or am i stuck to only messing with the Multiplier?

I am relatively new to OC if there is anymore info you need to help me let me know and any pointers or advice ill be glad to hear it


Phenom II 965 BE 3.9Ghz (200mhz, 19.5X, 1.43v)
MSI 870A-G46 board

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Theres the black edition overclocking guide at the top of the section to get you started, I wouldn't hold much faith in the h100 giving you much better temps though, save your money
Moto

 

[socialfox]

+1^ your temperatures seem to be good for such an overclock on a "cheap" cooler, if you want to lower temperatures you could try trial and error for lowering the voltages to the lowest possible value while still maintaining stability. You ask me, an H100i is not worth it for that processor, I believe the H100i itself costs more than your processor :lol:

 

[vandee560]

well i got it nearly stable at 4.2ghz @ 1.48v i run prime and after a few minutes i got worker 3 and 4 error. some the research i have dont that means i am close to stable some say that i should just increase the volts until im stable and some say i need to increase CPU/NB. what should i do next? my CPU/NB is at 2000mhz right now on auto volts

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Try the Nb and Ht at 2200 on 1.2v
Whats your ram settings? Manually set I hope on default voltage
Moto

 

[vandee560]

Ram is set at 1.5v ill check that out and report back. Im getting some people saying that overclocking on my board is a no no beacuse of high VRM failure rating. some are saying if i try and overclock i could burn up the board?

Board is a MSI 870A-G46

 

[socialfox]

Well your board does not seem to have any VRM heatsinks and have a standard 4+1 power phase. Those heavy duty motherboards that can support overclocks quite well often have VRM heatsinks and/or power phases greater than 4+1.

You can overclock a bit, but it may not be the best for the board's lifespan...

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

I've OC'ed these on about five different model boards now... every one had a totally unique balance that had to be found between turning up the voltage of the CPU, CPU/NB, and NB. What voltage does it default to at 4.2ghz for the NB and CPU/NB if you leave them on auto and only set the CPU voltage manually?

BTW, overclocking RAM and overclocking the CPU are sort of conflicting goals. You can definitely do both, but it's important to get one figured out, then work on the other. It's much easier to get a stable CPU overclock if the RAM is set to factory specs (manually dialed in is best), or even with the timings a bit loose. For example, I when I had cheap 1333mhz memory, I was able to push an extra .2ghz out of the CPU by going to 9-10-9-27-2T latency from 9-9-9-24-1T default. In any event, I would just focus on the CPU now and go back to tinker with the RAM after things are all stable.

 

[vandee560]

well i was running at 4.2ghz @ 1.48v with NB at 2200mhz @ 1.2v also HT at 2200mhz had an error on worker 3 in prime about a minute in. restarted test and it ran for about 10mins holding at 56c before BSOD. not really sure where to go from here now that i have more than just CPU oced

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Try 2400 now, same voltage,
Should clear it up but look to improving that heatsink
Moto

 

[vandee560]

alright ill try it and ill let you know what happens, are the VRMs the little black cubes to the left of the cpu socket? if so those things are blazing hot when running prime way to hot to touch not sure if i should keep going to just back off to 3.9 @ 1.43v and just be content with that until i can get a new mobo

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

If you are willing to spend the time on trial and error, I would first see what happens if you run 4.2ghz @ 1.49v, 2200mhz NB @1.15v, 2000mhz HT. You shouldn't need to overvolt much to get to only 2200 NB, and the HT speed generally doesn't help performance all that much, and is fine to leave at 2000.

Also, not sure if there are separate NB/CPU & NB voltage settings on your board, but both are important. If they both default to 1.10v as I suspect, you want to dial up the NB/CPU first, but also click the actual NB up from to 1.15v or 1.2v. If there are stability issues with the starting point I listed above, I'd next try 4.1ghz @ 1.48v with the same suggested NB and HT. There is a point at which a given CPU will start to require a lot more work to stabilize- with our CPU, that point happens to be anywhere from 4.0-4.3ghz. So, just trying to scale back that .5x on the multiplier might make things totally fine. For example, in my case I can run 4.2ghz @ 1.475v all day long, but for 4.4ghz need to go all the way up to 1.525v to be fully stable.

You certainly could benefit from going to a newer board, but it's not a necessity. Having better power-phasing and more control in BIOS over individual settings will make overclocking easier and raise the maximum ceiling you could hope to reach, but is an investment you want to either commit to or hold off on- at minimum you'd have to spend around $150 for a 990-chipset board with a minimum of 6+2 power-phasing for it to be enough difference from your current platform. The Asus M5A99X-Evo R2.0 or Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 are probably what I'd consider the entry-point, with the Asus Crosshair-V Formula-Z probably the top of the line.