[Solved] Mild OC settings question

Hello everybody,

I'm experimenting with mild overclocking of my Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition.

My system is as below:
Phenom II X4 960T Processor
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 Motherboard
Seagate SATA 6Gb/s 1TB Hard Disk
2 x 4GB Corsair DDR3 1333 Value RAM
Sapphire HD 6790 Graphic Card
Cooler Master Elite 311 Case
Lite-On 24x DVD Writer
Silverstone 500W Strider Essential Power Supply

I have raised the multiplier so that the CPU runs at 3.6Ghz (200 x 18). I set the memory timings manually on the motherboard. However, I let the motherboard control the voltage for the CPU, memory, NB & HT. I also put the NB & HT speed on Auto.

I ran the Prime 95 torture test (Blended) for about 5 hours and everything was fine. My question is should I leave the voltage settings on auto or should I manually set it? Also should I manually set the NB & HT speed or leave it at auto? Currently NB & HT speed is at 2Ghz (200 x 10), since the CPU multiplier is raised should I also raise the NB & HT multiplier and to what figure?

I'm still trying to learn more about overclocking so I'm just doing mild overclocking first. Hope you guys can help me. Thanks in advance.

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

If your only changing the multiplier you're generally safe to leave most settings on auto. If you choose to change FSB speeds then I would manually set voltages and speeds, to ensure you have full control of all your settings.

Message edited by Rage33 on 02-14-2012 at 05:25:44 AM

Reply to Rage33

^^ This.

I overclocked mine to 3.8 GHz on 6 cores before I needed to mess with any voltages. You should only mess with the voltages yourself if you are messing with FSB speed, or if your OC is unstable and you want to increase voltages to push your OC farther.

I wound up needing 1.48V to get 4 GHz stable on 6 cores with my 960T.

There's almost no risk in overclocking if you just change CPU multiplier and leave voltages alone.

When I OC to 3.8Ghz one core failed the Prime95 test, when I OC to 4.0Ghz Windows 7 BSOD, that means I have to increase the voltage right?

If I raise the NB & HT multipliers do I have to increase the NB voltage too?

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

Best answer

jabbrun wrote :

When I OC to 3.8Ghz one core failed the Prime95 test, when I OC to 4.0Ghz Windows 7 BSOD, that means I have to increase the voltage right?

If I raise the NB & HT multipliers do I have to increase the NB voltage too?

Yup that most likely means that you're gonna need to increase voltages. You should leave the NB & HT multipliers the same (ie take them off "auto" and set them to x10) while you are changing your CPU multiplier - if you change multiple things at once there's no way to tell for sure which thing becomes unstable.

There's never any benefit to increasing HT multiplier, so don't worry about that - always just leave it set to x10.

Once you get your CPU clock OC'd and stable, though, you should OC your CPU-NB and try to hit x13 (2.6 GHz) - x15 (3.0 GHz) on it. You'll probably need to increase voltages on that then too. I wound up with 2.8 GHz (200x14) CPU-NB with 1.28 vcpu-nb stable.

When you're increasing voltages, just do it slowwwwwwwwly once you get near or above 1.40 vcore (like 10 mV at a time) and keep a close eye on your temps under load - voltage increases are where the real heat can get generated.

-edit- I should mention that overclocking is a very slow process and the closer you want to get to your max OC, the longer it's gonna take. It took me about 2 weeks of playing around and testing to figure out how to get my setup stable (granted, not doing this full time), and it probably would have taken 2 more weeks if I wanted to play around with my FSB. I didn't care about the extra 100 MHz I might get from that, so I was happy at 4.0 GHz and just stopped there

Message edited by BigMack70 on 02-14-2012 at 06:07:31 AM

jabbrun wrote :

When I OC to 3.8Ghz one core failed the Prime95 test, when I OC to 4.0Ghz Windows 7 BSOD, that means I have to increase the voltage right?

If I raise the NB & HT multipliers do I have to increase the NB voltage too?

Also don't forget to adjust you're LLC (load line calibration) to high, extreme, or ultra. this could be why the 3.8GHz test failed.

And also everything BigMack70 stated.

Reply to Rage33

Where do I adjust the LLC? I can't find it on my motherboard's BIOS.
One more thing, what is the max voltage that the Phenom II can safely take before it generate too much heat or act weird or blow up?

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

Every bios is a little different but LLC is usually in your "ai tweaker" or "advanced OC" section, its kinda hard to say and if you have an older motherboard it may not be an option. But I would think you're Gigabyte board would have an option. Don't take you're CPU past 1.5v maybe 1.55v max recommended

Reply to Rage33

I'll have to check about the LLC on my Gigabyte motherboard..is it a profile setting or something?
Should the NB & HT be the same figure or they are independant of each other? How do I know what the NB figure for my motherboard should be? I can't seem to find it in the manual.

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

your stock NB/HT should be 2200Mhz @ 1.0 or 1.1v most likely, I could be wrong but that sound about right. You might want to try going to gigabytes website and see the specs of you're board. the LLC should be a setting not a profile, check your power settings in the bios.

Reply to Rage33

Some mobos don't have LLC. Mine doesn't, for example (MSI 890FXA-GD65). So you may not have to worry about LLC at all.

Stock NB / HT is 2000 MHz (200x10). They don't need to be the same, but I believe that HT link speed cannot be faster than CPU-NB speed. You can increase the CPU-NB multiplier without increasing HT multiplier, but not the other way around.

If memory serves, the default CPU-NB voltage for that chip is 1.170V and the default CPU Vcore voltage is 1.350V.

I was advised not to go over 1.50V on the vcore and 1.4v cpu-nb. I wasn't even comfortable going over 1.3v cpu-nb personally, however.

+1^

Reply to Rage33

If I raise the CPU-NB multiplier and it becomes unstable will it have the same effect like when the CPU was unstable (ie cannot load Windows or BSOD or failing the Prime test)? What symptoms should I look out for?

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

Yes, the symptoms of an unstable CPU-NB multiplier are basically the same as an unstable CPU core multiplier.

Some people say that it can generate more BSODs with memory related errors, but basically you're looking at the same class of potential problems if it's unstable - freeze ups, BSODs, errors, failures to boot, etc...

I just noticed that my BIOS have voltage setting for NB Voltage and CPU NB VID..which voltage should I increase if I raise the NB multiplier to make it more stable?

------------------------------ Hidup mesti sabar.
Reply to jabbrun

Pretty sure you want CPU-NB voltage, not NB voltage. That's how it was on my mobo anyways. I left NB voltage on auto and increased CPU-NB voltage.

I managed to take my CPU to 4Ghz (200 x 20) with 1.45V. Ran Prime95 for about 7 hours with no errors (max temp 42C). My CPU NB remains at 2Ghz (200 x 10) with voltage set at Normal. I set the RAM as per stock specification as its just Corsair Value Select RAM and I didn't want to push it too hard. Maybe next time when I get better RAM I'll push my OC further. I want to thank BigMack70 and Rage33 for talking me through my experiment. Peace.

Message edited by jabbrun on 02-17-2012 at 04:29:41 AM

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Reply to jabbrun

Best answer selected by jabbrun.

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Reply to jabbrun

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