Help: FX 8150 OC on M5A97 R2.0

[imran27]

Hi evry1

I have an
*FX8150 (Stock Cooler)
*M5A97 R2.0
*Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 ram CL10-10-10-27 (CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10)
*Cooler Master Thunder 500W PSU
*Sapphire AMD Radeon HD6670 1 GB GDDR5
*Cooler Master Elite 311 Cabinet

With the above setup I've been trying to acheive a stable OC of 4.2 GHz or if not at least 4.1
But every setting I tried failed..
It'd either freeze while booting at win8 logo or it'd freeze at the start screen.
I tried to overclock it to 4.1 on stock voltage which is 1.344V. This time boot up properly and I ran prime95 v29.9 for a minute..since itit'd really get hot after that..there were no errors. I played the game saints row 3 on ultra, it was perfect. But as soon as I started my web browser it just froze. I restarted used occt stress test and set it to stop at 75ºC there were no errors. So I let it cool down and started to play the game again it was good until I started IE10..it just freezes whenever I start any of the web browser..I'm unable to figure out the problem. I've tried increasing cpu/nb voltage, vdda, dram voltage 1.6V a.w.a 1.65V, nb voltage, ht voltage..non3 worked. I had to resort back to 3.9 GHz@1.26V which is the max stable oc I could find.
Anybody plzzZ help me out with this..I trued 4.2 GHz, though unstable it offered such a gr8 performance..therefore I badly wany to oc my proc to at least 4.2 GHz. .

While oc I used foll settings:
CnQ, C1E, HPC Mode disabled
C6 & SVM enabled
LLC ON
Turbo OFF
Spread Spectrum OFF

 

[JefferyD90]

Sounds like you have reached the max of your CPU. Seems like you just had a poorly binned product.

With that said I think your playing with the voltage a little too much. I don't usually start messing with the voltages until after about 15%-20% of a OC. Also that chip isn't meant to get that hot, so maybe using a better cooler or reseating the thermal paste.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-FX-Series%20FX-8150.html It says the Max operating temp is 61c

Also, I wouldn't disable all the stuff you did. Honestly the only thing I would disable would be the virtualization. Just set it to defaults and play with the multiplier without changing voltage. Then bump it (both clock speed and voltage) by 1% each time until you start seeing the temps get crazy. If it crosses 60c then I would back off from that point. But overall it seems like you have it figured out, just need to not think about I quite as much.

 

[imran27]

Why only SVM needs to be disabled, bcoz I've seen people disable each and every power saving feature found in the BIOS. Logically It shouldn't affect OC bcoz power saving features are meant to save power when not loaded i.e. when idle, while on load they mi8 not work. Does the SVM really affect OC?

I think the chip is good, the memory mi8 be the problem. The latest up to date memory-QVL of my board says that the 8 GB RAM stick that I have is not supported as a single DIMM, only 2 & 4 DIMM configurations are allowed.

Since the System freezes only when I start a web browser, else it works gr8, doesn't even freeze during prime95 (small fft, in-place large fft's & blend) and OCCT stress test (CPU stress test & LINPACK).

About cooler you are ri8 I'm already up deciding on which liquid cooler to buy. My case doesn't have 240mm rad mounts. I can only fit 120mm rad closed loop coolers. So I'm deciding on which 120mm CLC to go for, quite a lot of options available.

 

[JefferyD90]

Why only SVM needs to be disabled, bcoz I've seen people disable each and every power saving feature found in the BIOS. Logically It shouldn't affect OC bcoz power saving features are meant to save power when not loaded i.e. when idle, while on load they mi8 not work. Does the SVM really affect OC?

I think the chip is good, the memory mi8 be the problem. The latest up to date memory-QVL of my board says that the 8 GB RAM stick that I have is not supported as a single DIMM, only 2 & 4 DIMM configurations are allowed.

Since the System freezes only when I start a web browser, else it works gr8, doesn't even freeze during prime95 (small fft, in-place large fft's & blend) and OCCT stress test (CPU stress test & LINPACK).

About cooler you are ri8 I'm already up deciding on which liquid cooler to buy. My case doesn't have 240mm rad mounts. I can only fit 120mm rad closed loop coolers. So I'm deciding on which 120mm CLC to go for, quite a lot of options available.

Unless your going to get H100i don't do water cooling. You can get much better results at half the cost on air cooling.

Also like I said, I would set the motherboard to defaults and then ONLY change the multiplier until it becomes unstable. THEN and only then, start to increase the voltage! No need to change any of the CnQ, or other BIOS settings. Also you usually, when extreme OCing, you might lower your RAM timings. If its rated for 1866 then put it at 1600, if its rated for 1600 do 1333, and so on.

Another thing is your motherboard might not have the VRM to handle it. The CPU will OC itself on the fly if its only using 4 cores to 4.2 Ghz (which is your goal). So in theory your motherboard needs to be able to send this same power times 2 so all 8 cores can operate at that frequency.

My last point was about it being a below average binned CPU. And that is unfortunate thing but is highly likely. The concept is actually quite simple. If you bought 10 of the same CPU they will not all overclock the same. 1 of the 10 might be really good and break the 5 Ghz mark, another one might be really good and get 4.8Ghz, and then another one slightly above average at 4.6Ghz, then the majority being average and OCing anywhere from 4.4Ghz to 4.6Ghz. But even so there may be a few that simply don't even break the 4.0Ghz mark because they just aren't of that high quality as the others. This is not of your control, or anyone's control. AMD says it will operate at 3.6Ghz and it, in theory, may not even OC to 3.7Ghz.

Another thing I want you to know, you NEED to email Microsoft to get the hotfix for this CPU if you are still using Windows 7. If you have Windows 8 then there is nothing to worry about.

Also, please reframe from excessive abbreviations. I had to ask my kid what the hell mi8 stands for, I thought you was making a James Bond reference.

 

[JefferyD90]

Actually I take that back now, Microsoft has seemed to post the hotfixes finally. For the longest time you had to email them for it. These are the two you need.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2645594
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060

 

[imran27]

Thanx brother, and apology for the inconvenience I cause you by my abbreviations

I do know that high end air coolers perform nearly equal to the 120mm liquid coolers and are much quieter under load.
But the hot air that it blows is going to heat up other components on the board. My VRM & it's heat-sinks and the DRAM get quite hot. Moreover, they take up a lot of room.

Noise is no problem to me and I'm ready to invest a little extra for any 120mm liquid cooler if they give better performance, save a lot of room in my case and do not heat up other components. I'm planning to place the radiator in push-pul in place of the rear exhaust to pull the air out of the case and use two high air flow fans like Cooler Master XtraFlo or Corsair AF120 or something similar to intake cool air into the case.

And yes you're right, I may need to down-clock my DRAM to DDR3-1333 CL9-9-9-24, these are the default SPD settings which are written on its product page. Maybe after this I'll be able to achieve a stable OC.

I'll try and reset my thermal interface and see what the results are.

Hasn't anyone tried to OC FX-8150 on the board that I have?

 

[JefferyD90]

Well, Im here to tell you that board isn't a OCing champ. The 970 chipset wasn't really designed with overclocking in mind. Look at this:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/chipsets/9-series-integrated/Pages/9-series-integrated.aspx

It gives you the product stack of each chipset AMD offers at this moment. The 970 (yours) is on the bottom of the list, and this is what controls the overclocking capabilities. In MOST cases if you can get 4.0Ghz on a 970 chipset changing to the 990FX you might get 4.3-4.4Ghz. It is up for debate weather or not that has more to do with the chipset or the fact usually the boards are built better in general.

Also DO NOT FORGET THOSE HOTFIXES!!! If you install them you might not even want to OC it anymore, usually it yields a solid 10% or more improvement.

 

[imran27]

It's soo sad to know that my motherboard is holding me back

It's a pretty good amount if I go for a new motherboard.

Isn't there any way out.

I use Windows 8 PRO x64, so I think I don't need these patches!

 

[JefferyD90]

Correct if you have Windows 8 then the patches are built into the kernel. And the build quality of the motherboard REALLY makes a difference. Watch this video and you'll get some insight on it (This video is demoing a Intel platform but the general idea stays about the same)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BokYhP_ABqc

And if you really want to learn more about it, here is a whole playlist of videos that really ill show you what matters:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgYEU1QvJOL8aw8RtK0DeOux3Fa6a1Hzt

If I could make a suggestion this is my favorite motherboard. It offers the same overclocking headroom as the Crosshair's but a longer warranty:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947170&CatId=7246