Cpu Overclocking help.

So I'm trying to Overclock my cpu and it's giving me issues. First of all my rig.

Amd Fx 6300 black ediition

Moobo: Asus M5A97

Psu (not sure of brand) 650w.

I'm using a stock cooler which I know is a big no no, but I'm waiting until i can see if i can even get it to oc before i spend money on a cooler.

So my knowledge of oc cpu is sorta a limited, but one guide i have been reading says to up the cpu multiplier and run prime 95 until one or more of your cores fail, or your pc crashes. Then you start to bump up your volts until everything is running fine. My problem is I get to about 4.0ghz then my pc crashes or one of my cores will fail in prime. Once I restart (if my pc crashed) I up my volts and as soon as I confirm my volts pc freezes and I have to restart.

In the bios I have disabled all power save features and everything all the guides say to disable or enable for ocing. I know the limit is 1.5v. Stock is 1.2 so If i try to bump my volts from 1.2 to 1.21 it crashes. Like I said my knowledge is limited and I'm trying to figure it out. The stock speed is 3.5gz and I have successfully gotten to 4.0gz before my cores fail in prime or my pc crashes. I am using the overclocking program that came with my motherboard. I was doing it through the bios, but if I got the system to the point where it would crash I had to wait like 15 mins before I could turn it on and hopefully get to the bios screen and reset to default before it crashed again. At 4.0ghz I was running at about 50 degrees C under full load in prime95.

Like I said the heat doesn't concern me at the moment because I will get a new cooler if I can get it to oc and be stable, but I do have adequate cooling I'm using the stock fan on the cpu and then I'm using another cpu fan on the back of the mobo to draw heat from there and another large fan on the back as well. Thanks in advance.

@bluesunmerc:

Its the stock cooler that's holding you back, a 500Mhz increase is pretty good with a stock cooler.

Ok, I shall now put my foot in my mouth and listen to the experts. So I figured I have amd overdrive I'll try it out and I also used a different temp program for the cpu. With the asus program at full load at 4.1 It would barely reach 60 degrees. I looked at my other app and I was at 70 degrees both running at the same time. Need less to say it looks as if a new cpu cooler will be in the mail soon.

Sorry for double posting and I dont want to make a new thread to ask this question. What is a good cpu cooler thats not overly expensive.

hyper 212 evo

This one is great!

Thats what I was thinking it seems to get alot of good reviews. I have also learned my lesson Once I was able to push my cpu to 4.2 adn I was able to do it again a minute age and not two minutes into prime my cpu was at 80 degrees which I ceased prime and downclocked.

80C wow you're lucky it still works. FX's should never go above 70C for socket, or 62C for the cores. I have the same CPU and motherboard and Hyper 212 Evo and I keep it at 4.2GHz. I could push it some more but I don't like the temps. With the stock cooler I kept it at 3.6 with auto voltage and LLC off. Never raise voltage or turn on LLC if you're using the stock cooler!

Yea, Once I saw it get that hot I turned the test off and reverted back to to about 4.1 even though on a prime test at 4.1 it stays at about 60 stressed so Ill just have to wait and oc once I get some cash.

What they said

On the build that, I built for my parents, I pushed FX-8120 to 4.3GHz with Asus M5A97, 8GB 1600mhz (on stock cooler). Keep in mind that the mobo under $100 limits you. But going from 3.1GHz to 4.3GHz on a stock cooler is nice OC. Get at least a EVO Hyper 212 and it will help quiet a bit. It's a nice mobo for that price that it is. I have ASRock 970 Extreme4 (secondary build) and I got it to 4.3GHz without even trying. AMD OCing seems to be quiet easy. Just make sure you get the voltage to where it should be.

For the past few days I thought ocing was just the hardest thing ever. I was using what ever ocing program came with the mobo. You know I figured it came with it, it must work good... right ..... right. Nothing but crashes and failing cores. I used amd overdrive every test has been stable and only had to bump up the voltage one tick and it runs like a dream. I took a few of my old heat sinks and fans apart and replaced the heat sink that came with the fx6300 with an old phenom quad core heat sink leftover bigger fan and bigger heat sink. I went from idles of about 25 degrees to about 15 degrees. I also took the back panel off of my pc and put a fan on the back of the mobo. All that and coupled with the temp of my room In skyrim and bf3 I'm running at about 40 or so degrees. Of course thats not to say that Ai suite 2 is a terrible program it does have some decent functions but for ocing i'd pass. I dont see how using one program or the other could make a difference but it did.

@bluesunmerc: I forgot to mention bios is the best way to OC. With FX's it's easy, no need to change FSB or whatever it's called now, only multiplier. If you use offset mode for voltage you can keep cool and quiet on. It will downclock CPU when it's idling.

What?

It's true, FX-6300 draws a lot of power when pushed hard. It can fry a 4 phase VRM if you go too far.

@PfizersaurusRex: Yea, until i get a better understanding of oc ill just stick with amd overdrive. Reason being is I tried ocing though the bios and it just seems to be more of a pain than anything else. That and with overdrive you can save your profile so if im not doing gaming it wont run at the oc. I played some games last night after reaching 4.3 oc and it ran at 45 degrees reaching a max of 50 in high cpu areas.