Phenom II OverClocking Essentials

Here are a set of guidelines on how you go about overclocking AMD Phenom II CPUs.

OverClocking Tutorials/Guides/Tips:

*www.techreaction.net/2009/05/28/phenom-ii-am3-overclocking-essentials/

*www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3771025&postcount=240

*www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/506756-phenom-ii-steppings-max-oc.html

Reviews:

Phenom II X4 955 BE *www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii955/

Misc:

5GHz on Dry Ice Cooling *www.youtube.com/watch?v=et-x2wygDAc

@All interested Digitians:
Post more guides if you can because this is a relatively new concept.

Great article. Sure does help AMDistas like myself. The most ive overclocked in my life(The only time), Ive taken my frnd's C2D 2.66 to 2.8 GHz just by upping some option from 266 to 280. I'll try overcocking my soon to arrive 940 BE and let u all knw. I need some luck! Can ne1 suggest any software to chk my CPU temp?

Try something from here:
*www.cpuid.com/

get speedfan. it can log the temps to a txt file and check the max in case of even BSODs

Roger that. Thanks a lot!

ocing is not over by increasing the speed of processor. You need to run stability test for atleast one night and see if the system doesn't reboot. If it reboots, you need to reduce the clock/multiplier.

updated post with few more links.

dOm1naTOr said:
get speedfan. it can log the temps to a txt file and check the max in case of even BSODs

RealTemp is better than dat for temp monitoring and benching tests.

RealTemp dun support most processors and mobos.
It supports none of AMDs.

o ic, I thought they supported Phenom II...they never work for older Intel proccys too.

Added another update. Now its good enough to help almost anybody with little or no experience overclock.

^^y can't u make this an overclocking thread for all CPUs instead of Phenom alone, or I will start if everyone is interested

j1n M@tt said:
^^y can't u make this an overclocking thread for all CPUs instead of Phenom alone, or I will start if everyone is interested

Thats because overclocking Core2 CPUs is a common knowledge since Intel overclocking is an old concept. And Core i7 is enthusiast-only so it won't make much of a difference whether I add its guide or not.

Phenom II on the other hand, is something new and has lots of untapped potential. It is quite weird because on stock voltage it crosses 4GHz mark when you take its temperature below 0C.

And as for making a general guide, you are welcome to add a post for that which I can merge into first post and change thread title.

Anyway, I and several others are pushing for an overclocking forum within the hardware troubleshooting section or within across the board section. Once that comes up, we can have seperate stickies for Intel Core2 overclocking, AMD Athlon 64 overclocking, AMD Phenom overclocking, AMD Phenom II and Athlon II overclocking, Intel Core i5/i7 overclocking, etc.

Anyway, due to this I would advice you to start off with a post here, which I can later convert into a sticky.

hmm..I'm waiting for the new O.C'ing section

btw Oc'ing C2 CPU is not as simple if u want to reach a remarkable point...one will hav to know his mobo tweakings like the back of his palm, and behaviors of the mobo and CPU like vdroop and all...which varies even from each piece among the same model itself.

j1n M@tt said:
hmm..I'm waiting for the new O.C'ing section

btw Oc'ing C2 CPU is not as simple if u want to reach a remarkable point...one will hav to know his mobo tweakings like the back of his palm, and behaviors of the mobo and CPU like vdroop and all...which varies even from each piece among the same model itself.

Then what are you waiting for ? Edit this post of yours into a total Intel OC guide :razz:

I will be more than happy to merge it into the main post.

I think its better to wait for the new section and for the new TDF server...In the new section we can create a thread for posting overclocking benchmarks and screenshots....which will be pathetic in this present situation in TDF.

j1n M@tt said:
I think its better to wait for the new section and for the new TDF server...In the new section we can create a thread for posting overclocking benchmarks and screenshots....which will be pathetic in this present situation in TDF.

Procrastination kills progress.
If you want weight for the new section, start NOW.
Otherwise it might not even arrive.

Overclocking at the begening of TDF was niche because Pentium 4's and Pentium III's were not overclocked often and nor were Athlon XPs. People used to pay a couple of thousands extra to get a CPU which was faster by 100MHz. Today things are different. CPUs have much headroom for overclocking than before. So unless ppl take interest to prove this, I doubt you will find an admin agreeing to start an overclocking section.

Okay, so ive begun OCing my 940BE. I'm on stock HSF, so I'm pretty jittery. All I did was to change the CPU Clock Freq from 200 to 201 MHz. The multiplier is set to 16. I considered going to 14 and upping the CPU Freq, but I thought I'd test this first. Can sm1 please guide me better? I'm also planning on getting an aftermarket HSF. Are the stock AMD ones good for a minor OC(3.2GHz)? At the most I may go to 3.4 or so... Nt sure.

ATM I'm @ 3216 MHz. Where hould I stop? I'm running Prime95 now before I sleep and I'll chk it 2mrw morning. BTW Ive kept the System Voltages to AUTO as I dont have much of a clue regarding them.

Here r some prime95 results. The electricity went in the night, but neways, I'm posting whatever was done!

[Sat Jun 06 00:26:53 2009]
Self-test 1024K passed!
Self-test 1024K passed!
Self-test 1024K passed!
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 00:43:17 2009]
Self-test 896K passed!
Self-test 896K passed!
Self-test 896K passed!
Self-test 896K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 00:59:35 2009]
Self-test 768K passed!
Self-test 768K passed!
Self-test 768K passed!
Self-test 768K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 01:15:18 2009]
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
Self-test 640K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 01:30:55 2009]
Self-test 512K passed!
Self-test 512K passed!
Self-test 512K passed!
Self-test 512K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 01:47:16 2009]
Self-test 448K passed!
Self-test 448K passed!
Self-test 448K passed!
Self-test 448K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 02:03:08 2009]
Self-test 384K passed!
Self-test 384K passed!
Self-test 384K passed!
Self-test 384K passed!
[Sat Jun 06 02:18:49 2009]
Self-test 320K passed!
Self-test 320K passed!
Self-test 320K passed!
Self-test 320K passed!

Speed fan says:

Temp1 45
Temp2 32
Temp3 48
HD0 39
HD1 36
Core 47

There's a tick mark in front of Core, Temp1 & Temp3, while there's a blue down arrow in front of HD0, HD1 and Temp2. Can ne1 explain?

Is this any good? C'mon guys! At least some1 reply!

SOme suggest Good CPU cooler for phenom 2 940 wid 2.5K budget

I saw the OCZ Vanquisher for 1.3k. My budget for the CPU HSF is 3k MAX! Plz suggest good coolers for my 940 BE!

Techalomaniac said:
I saw the OCZ Vanquisher for 1.3k. My budget for the CPU HSF is 3k MAX! Plz suggest good coolers for my 940 BE!

How abt

Cooler Master Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP CPU Cooler

gte the one with 120mm fan support and max cfm [if u dun care bout noise]. With 120mm fan support, u can buy additional CM 90cfm high performance fans to get max out of ur cooler. normal 120mm fans have avg of 40cfm airflow.

Okay, will keep that in mind, but can u suggest a brand? I was looking at the OCZ Vendetta 2 & i found out that it was only for Intel!

dOm1naTOr said:
gte the one with 120mm fan support and max cfm [if u dun care bout noise]. With 120mm fan support, u can buy additional CM 90cfm high performance fans to get max out of ur cooler. normal 120mm fans have avg of 40cfm airflow.

True. I bought Cooler master 120mm 90CFM fan today and fixed it to side panel of my cabinet and damn, from 43-50, temperatures came down to 34-42.

True VFM

I have the same one but with blue LED and its fixed in front of my HDDs and they never go above 39!

But Damn, fixing the Fan was a headache for sure. It took me about 3 hrs to get the screws to fit in the very tight slots of the fan!

How did u fix 'em?

desiibond said:
True. I bought Cooler master 120mm 90CFM fan today and fixed it to side panel of my cabinet and damn, from 43-50, temperatures came down to 34-42.

True VFM

Cost ???

MetalheadGautham said:
Cost ???

600 bucks.

it has LEDs too. but fins are not transperent.

I'm waiting to see how the Phenom II X4 925 launches. Its 95W TDP. A lot better overclocking support this means.

I'm getting Idle core temps of 48-52 and load temps of 62-66!!! I'm gonna get new thermal paste and I also added an 80mm fan which is 3 years old. Came with my old iBall Cabby!It doesnt seem to have much of an effect though! I'll get a CPU cooler and try to turn the 120mm back panel fan inward and c what happens... Will keep u posted ppl...

Techalomaniac said:
I'm getting Idle core temps of 48-52 and load temps of 62-66!!! I'm gonna get new thermal paste and I also added an 80mm fan which is 3 years old. Came with my old iBall Cabby!It doesnt seem to have much of an effect though! I'll get a CPU cooler and try to turn the 120mm back panel fan inward and c what happens... Will keep u posted ppl...

Which cabinet in iball are u using ??

Then do u apply thermal paste over thermal sticker in the Stock cooler ??

Techalomaniac said:
I'm getting Idle core temps of 48-52 and load temps of 62-66!!! I'm gonna get new thermal paste and I also added an 80mm fan which is 3 years old. Came with my old iBall Cabby!It doesnt seem to have much of an effect though! I'll get a CPU cooler and try to turn the 120mm back panel fan inward and c what happens... Will keep u posted ppl...

hey
keep that 120mm on the side panel of cabinet. in my pc, the temps came down by nearly 10degrees after installing CM 120mm fan

Techalomaniac said:
I'm getting Idle core temps of 48-52 and load temps of 62-66!!! I'm gonna get new thermal paste and I also added an 80mm fan which is 3 years old. Came with my old iBall Cabby!It doesnt seem to have much of an effect though! I'll get a CPU cooler and try to turn the 120mm back panel fan inward and c what happens... Will keep u posted ppl...

I got the solution : in the BIOS the Vcore watts is 1.39 something Set it to 1.35 then the Temperature will be less , with 1.39 u can OC to 3.3Ghz to 3.5Ghz

Actual Vcore watts is 1.25 for normal Phenom 2 940 3ghz , with good CPU cooler put the Vcore to 1.45 & OC to 3.8Ghz to 4Ghz

wow. that's a great piece of info. Let me try to push it to 3.5GHz. first time that I am seeing that decreasing vcore voltage is resulting in better overclock

^^ i dint find that by self , i just searching about the mobo info i found in some forums :lol:

damngoodman999 said:
I got the solution : in the BIOS the Vcore watts is 1.39 something Set it to 1.35 then the Temperature will be less , with 1.39 u can OC to 3.3Ghz to 3.5Ghz

Actual Vcore watts is 1.25 for normal Phenom 2 940 3ghz , with good CPU cooler put the Vcore to 1.45 & OC to 3.8Ghz to 4Ghz

I'll try nw that u told me! I'll try 1.25V 1st. Got DUAL BIOS so no need to reset CMOS every time I fail! GIGABYTE rocks!

Techalomaniac said:
I'll try nw that u told me! I'll try 1.25V 1st. Got DUAL BIOS so no need to reset CMOS every time I fail! GIGABYTE rocks!

Ur motherboard is wonderful board especially for phenom 2 , Get F1 bios ,,

damngoodman999 said:
Which cabinet in iball are u using ??

Then do u apply thermal paste over thermal sticker in the Stock cooler ??

Ur motherboard is wonderful board especially for phenom 2 , Get F1 bios ,,

I have CM Elite 334. Old one was iBall Grabit. I dint put any thermal paste yet. M gonna buy that before the CPU cooler. Is it great if I remove the Thermal sticker pad or whatever that was stock and apply only the Thermal Paste? Btw, The inversion of the stock cabby fan made a change of 2-3 degs.

I suppose I'll update the BIOS too. I thank topgear for mobo selection. He recommended it to me. The best thing is that 4 SATA2 ports are at right angles and 2 are vertical, which isnt the case in GA-MA790GP-DS4H.

Okay... So I already have F1 bios. I'm updating to F2 as F3 is still beta (F3A). Then I'll lower the vcore to 1.25 and i'll report.

Techalomaniac said:
I'll try nw that u told me! I'll try 1.25V 1st. Got DUAL BIOS so no need to reset CMOS every time I fail! GIGABYTE rocks!

True. When one OC failed on my dual bios gigabyte board, the backup got copied to the primary BIOS and the system was up and running as if nothing had happened. No need to reset BIOS manually and no need to remove battery

Techalomaniac said:
I have CM Elite 334. Old one was iBall Grabit. I dint put any thermal paste yet. M gonna buy that before the CPU cooler. Is it great if I remove the Thermal sticker pad or whatever that was stock and apply only the Thermal Paste? Btw, The inversion of the stock cabby fan made a change of 2-3 degs.

I suppose I'll update the BIOS too. I thank topgear for mobo selection. He recommended it to me. The best thing is that 4 SATA2 ports are at right angles and 2 are vertical, which isnt the case in GA-MA790GP-DS4H.

Better remove that Thermal sticker and clean both processor and heat sink. Then apply thermal paste.

^^^ Okay... I'll buy thermal paste 2mrw.

Idle core temp came down to 43/44 @ 1.25V. Its 46 nw, but my comp has been running for almost a day n a half nw.