Overclocking an AMD Phenom II 955

So basically I'm new to overclocking, & I don't know the first thing about AMD Overdrive. I know that when I adjust the speed of the processor, I have to change voltages or something? I never really understood voltages. Help would be appreciated, thank you in advance :)

Do you have an aftermarket cooler on your 955? If not, you're going to want one to be overclocking it. The best way to OC an AMD black edition CPU is to go into your BIOS when you turn on your PC, and increase the CPU multiplier. Most CPUs sold don't have an unlocked multiplier, so overclocking is much harder. The BE chips do. You will probably have to increase your voltage (don't go over 1.5 volts with a Phenom II, even with a good cooler) to get a good overclock, but an increase of a couple hundred MHz should be possible without increasing it.

If you're new to overclocking, don't touch any voltages. A bad overclock you can revert to stock settings from. Too much voltage is the only thing these days that can actually destroy your hardware. Overclocking these days is simple as hell. Most of it is easily accomplished just by raising the processor multiplier to get to the level you want to be at. No messing around with RAM ratios locking PCI-e clocks, or any of that stuff. It's all straightforward and rather easy. I'd do an 8-hour minimum burn-in on your overclock using a utility like Prime95 to ensure stability. A target speed of around 3.6GHz (x18 multi) should be doable on stock volts just to give you something of a goal.RayvinAzn

Do you have an aftermarket cooler on your 955? If not, you're going to want one to be overclocking it. The best way to OC an AMD black edition CPU is to go into your BIOS when you turn on your PC, and increase the CPU multiplier. Most CPUs sold don't have an unlocked multiplier, so overclocking is much harder. The BE chips do. You will probably have to increase your voltage (don't go over 1.5 volts with a Phenom II, even with a good cooler) to get a good overclock, but an increase of a couple hundred MHz should be possible without increasing it.

hartsickdiscipl

[QUOTE="RayvinAzn"]If you're new to overclocking, don't touch any voltages. A bad overclock you can revert to stock settings from. Too much voltage is the only thing these days that can actually destroy your hardware. Overclocking these days is simple as hell. Most of it is easily accomplished just by raising the processor multiplier to get to the level you want to be at. No messing around with RAM ratios locking PCI-e clocks, or any of that stuff. It's all straightforward and rather easy. I'd do an 8-hour minimum burn-in on your overclock using a utility like Prime95 to ensure stability. A target speed of around 3.6GHz (x18 multi) should be doable on stock volts just to give you something of a goal.Physorac

What's the make of your power supply? If it's anything half decent, it should be able to handle an overclock on both your video card and processor.

[QUOTE="Physorac"]

[QUOTE="RayvinAzn"]If you're new to overclocking, don't touch any voltages. A bad overclock you can revert to stock settings from. Too much voltage is the only thing these days that can actually destroy your hardware. Overclocking these days is simple as hell. Most of it is easily accomplished just by raising the processor multiplier to get to the level you want to be at. No messing around with RAM ratios locking PCI-e clocks, or any of that stuff. It's all straightforward and rather easy. I'd do an 8-hour minimum burn-in on your overclock using a utility like Prime95 to ensure stability. A target speed of around 3.6GHz (x18 multi) should be doable on stock volts just to give you something of a goal.GS550L

What's the make of your power supply? If it's anything half decent, it should be able to handle an overclock on both your video card and processor.

[QUOTE="GS550L"]

[QUOTE="Physorac"] I should have mentioned I only have a 650W psu, & on the box of my matrix gtx 580 it says minimum psu required 700w, & i'm already OCing my graphics card at the moment just a bit, so I don't want to be stressing my psu. Should I get a better psu before attempting anything further? Because money isn't really an issue at the moment.

Physorac

What's the make of your power supply? If it's anything half decent, it should be able to handle an overclock on both your video card and processor.

Yes; you'll be fine.

good guide to overclocking phenom ii

www.overclockers.com/step-guide-overclock-amd-phenom/.

yeah but you gotta play with voltage and NB Bus Speed if i recall what said Beefdog when he messed around a Phenom II X4 955 at 4.1Ghz Stable but i know at 3.8Ghz he should run it no problem as mention RayvinAzn but then if he want to venture into increasing voltage and MT / NB he could probabely get is to 4.0Ghz like you said

i put it to 3.6 and played some bf3 and had no errors, but i ran a prime95 test over night and it bllue screened.

Leave on stock voltage

Increase the multiplier by 0.5

Stress test

Repeat above until crash

Revert to last stable settings

Test more to check it's actually stable

Leave it there, or:

Increase voltage by the smallest amount possible

See if it can do the next setting up

Keep your voltage below 1.5v on phenom IIs and temps below 60.

Leave on stock voltage

Increase the multiplier by 0.5

Stress test

Repeat above until crash

Revert to last stable settings

Test more to check it's actually stable

Leave it there, or:

Increase voltage by the smallest amount possible

See if it can do the next setting up

Keep your voltage below 1.5v on phenom IIs and temps below 60.

kraken2109

[QUOTE="kraken2109"]

Leave on stock voltage

Increase the multiplier by 0.5

Stress test

Repeat above until crash

Revert to last stable settings

Test more to check it's actually stable

Leave it there, or:

Increase voltage by the smallest amount possible

See if it can do the next setting up

Keep your voltage below 1.5v on phenom IIs and temps below 60.

Physorac

Different processors have different operating voltages, PSUs have nothing to do with that.

What is the stepping of ur Phenom II X4 955 ? C2 or C3 ? also trying to find a overclock guide can be useful
Like this one show a C2 at 3.6Ghz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6_8f9qvizc
But the cpu voltage at 1.413V at 18X MT : if you got a C3 : you could probabely reach 3.8Ghz / 4.0Ghz Easier : use cpu-z to know ur CPU Revision (Stepping)

BTW if you're gonna mess with CPU voltage I'd suggest you disable LLC (load line calibration), or perhaps set it to 25% if you have that option. Normally (with LLC off), CPU voltage will drop during heavy CPU load. LLC counters that. Depending on the setting (and the motherboard) it will eather reduce the voltage drop, eliminate it, or cause the voltage to increase during heavy CPU load. So obviously with LLC disabled you need to set higher voltage in bios for the CPU to be stable, but that will only raise idle temps, and load temps might actually lower.

What is the stepping of ur Phenom II X4 955 ? C2 or C3 ? also trying to find a overclock guide can be useful
Like this one show a C2 at 3.6Ghz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6_8f9qvizc
But the cpu voltage at 1.413V at 18X MT : if you got a C3 : you could probabely reach 3.8Ghz / 4.0Ghz Easier : use cpu-z to know ur CPU Revision (Stepping)

marcthpro

Yup that is a Revision C3 If it Say 3 :) you could still post ur cpu-z validate if you make a email / username for it

Yup that is a Revision C3 If it Say 3 :) you could still post ur cpu-z validate if you make a email / username for it

marcthpro

[QUOTE="marcthpro"]

Yup that is a Revision C3 If it Say 3 :) you could still post ur cpu-z validate if you make a email / username for it

Physorac

That's 1600Mhz effectively. But it's probably better to run it at 1333MHz with lower timings.

The highest I've got mine is 4.2ghz stable but it was putting out way too much heat. Best you can do is 4.10ghz at 1.48v-1.50v by only moving the multiplier, I think its 21 or 20.5.

I've even oc my ram from 1333 to 1600 2.0v.

BTW if you're gonna mess with CPU voltage I'd suggest you disable LLC (load line calibration), or perhaps set it to 25% if you have that option. Normally (with LLC off), CPU voltage will drop during heavy CPU load. LLC counters that. Depending on the setting (and the motherboard) it will eather reduce the voltage drop, eliminate it, or cause the voltage to increase during heavy CPU load. So obviously with LLC disabled you need to set higher voltage in bios for the CPU to be stable, but that will only raise idle temps, and load temps might actually lower.

PfizersaurusRex

I'm not sure about that; I would've thought the load temperature would be the same considering that you'd have to raise the CPU voltage to compensate for the vdroop.

[QUOTE="PfizersaurusRex"]

BTW if you're gonna mess with CPU voltage I'd suggest you disable LLC (load line calibration), or perhaps set it to 25% if you have that option. Normally (with LLC off), CPU voltage will drop during heavy CPU load. LLC counters that. Depending on the setting (and the motherboard) it will eather reduce the voltage drop, eliminate it, or cause the voltage to increase during heavy CPU load. So obviously with LLC disabled you need to set higher voltage in bios for the CPU to be stable, but that will only raise idle temps, and load temps might actually lower.

GS550L

I'm not sure about that; I would've thought the load temperature would be the same considering that you'd have to raise the CPU voltage to compensate for the vdroop.

HeyGS550L what kind of cooling did you use to reach that speed?

[QUOTE="GS550L"]

[QUOTE="PfizersaurusRex"]

BTW if you're gonna mess with CPU voltage I'd suggest you disable LLC (load line calibration), or perhaps set it to 25% if you have that option. Normally (with LLC off), CPU voltage will drop during heavy CPU load. LLC counters that. Depending on the setting (and the motherboard) it will eather reduce the voltage drop, eliminate it, or cause the voltage to increase during heavy CPU load. So obviously with LLC disabled you need to set higher voltage in bios for the CPU to be stable, but that will only raise idle temps, and load temps might actually lower.

zaku101

I'm not sure about that; I would've thought the load temperature would be the same considering that you'd have to raise the CPU voltage to compensate for the vdroop.

HeyGS550L what kind of cooling did you use to reach that speed?

Custom water loop. It's nothing special by todays standards though.

--EDIT-- By nothing special, I mean that it's pretty old and I haven't put much maintenance into it for a while. I've noticed that my waterblock gets filled up with this nasty goo after a few months (still don't know why!) which really hurts it's cooling performance. I imagine a high-end air cooler could get the same temperatures I'm seeing right now.

he will have to set the ram CAS latency to the box of ram he got cause it not suposse to be 11-11-11-28 from what i know of G-Skill 1600MHZ First Generation DDR3 even my ram timing was similar on a i5 2500K with G-skill 1600MHZ C9 1.5V DDR3 so i ad to use Manual timing to get it 9-9-9-24

at least you got ur atm at 3.5Ghz According CPU-Z but it a C3 Stepping but if i recall he said he have the Havik 140 : Which is my cooler : and however i don't own amd : i belief he should be able to get is to 4.0Ghz Following guide if he really applied thermal paste correctly : if is C3 is not a bad batch :P

he will have to set the ram CAS latency to the box of ram he got cause it not suposse to be 11-11-11-28 from what i know of G-Skill 1600MHZ First Generation DDR3 even my ram timing was similar on a i5 2500K with G-skill 1600MHZ C9 1.5V DDR3 so i ad to use Manual timing to get it 9-9-9-24

at least you got ur atm at 3.5Ghz According CPU-Z but it a C3 Stepping but if i recall he said he have the Havik 140 : Which is my cooler : and however i don't own amd : i belief he should be able to get is to 4.0Ghz Following guide if he really applied thermal paste correctly : if is C3 is not a bad batch :P

marcthpro

Yeah, those timings are pretty loose for 1600MHz.

My phenom II won't pass 3.6ghz :(

[QUOTE="zaku101"]

[QUOTE="GS550L"]

I'm not sure about that; I would've thought the load temperature would be the same considering that you'd have to raise the CPU voltage to compensate for the vdroop.

GS550L

HeyGS550L what kind of cooling did you use to reach that speed?

Custom water loop. It's nothing special by todays standards though.

--EDIT-- By nothing special, I mean that it's pretty old and I haven't put much maintenance into it for a while. I've noticed that my waterblock gets filled up with this nasty goo after a few months (still don't know why!) which really hurts it's cooling performance. I imagine a high-end air cooler could get the same temperatures I'm seeing right now.

Well I can hit 4.2ghz with my H50 55-60c under load 1.55v. However if I try going over 4.2ghz my cpu keeps downclocking within the first few seconds of stress testing. No idea why, I mean the temp isn't even high. I did notice however downclocking my ram from 1600 to 800 made my temp drop by 5-7C on the cpu. So at 4.2ghz 1600 1.55v I was getting max 62c under load. Down clocked the ram to 800 and I was getting 55c-58 under load. Meaning downclocking the ram on these cpus will give you lower temps.

My phenom II won't pass 3.6ghz :(

kraken2109

How much voltage u feeding it? For 4.0-4.10ghz need like 1.5v, leave everything stock and only OC with the MP.

[QUOTE="GS550L"]

[QUOTE="zaku101"]

HeyGS550L what kind of cooling did you use to reach that speed?

zaku101

Custom water loop. It's nothing special by todays standards though.

--EDIT-- By nothing special, I mean that it's pretty old and I haven't put much maintenance into it for a while. I've noticed that my waterblock gets filled up with this nasty goo after a few months (still don't know why!) which really hurts it's cooling performance. I imagine a high-end air cooler could get the same temperatures I'm seeing right now.

Well I can hit 4.2ghz with my H50 55-60c under load 1.55v. However if I try going over 4.2ghz my cpu keeps downclocking within the first few seconds of stress testing. No idea why, I mean the temp isn't even high. I did notice however downclocking my ram from 1600 to 800 made my temp drop by 5-7C on the cpu. So at 4.2ghz 1600 1.55v I was getting max 62c under load. Down clocked the ram to 800 and I was getting 55c-58 under load. Meaning downclocking the ram on these cpus will give you lower temps.

Thanks for the advice!. I'm hitting about 55C at load right now. I'll play around with the RAM timings and speeds when I have the time; maybe I'll be able to hit 4.7GHz on this sucker :P

[QUOTE="kraken2109"]

My phenom II won't pass 3.6ghz :(

zaku101

How much voltage u feeding it? For 4.0-4.10ghz need like 1.5v, leave everything stock and only OC with the MP.

[QUOTE="zaku101"]

[QUOTE="kraken2109"]

My phenom II won't pass 3.6ghz :(

kraken2109

How much voltage u feeding it? For 4.0-4.10ghz need like 1.5v, leave everything stock and only OC with the MP.

I've ran mine at 1.55v for over a year so I am sure it's safe but it's up 2 you. The max safe listed for this cpu is 1.5v from AMD on air.

Kraken? is it a C3 or C2 ? from what i know C2 Hardly pass 3.8Ghz and Beefdog ad both C2 and temrpaory a C3 ? if I recall he got is first at 3.5ghz then 3.94Ghz for the same cpu C2 Stepping and i know C3 Stepping is just Better for overclocking according bunch of thread and test from reviewer but i don't know how far you can oc ur lol but i don't think there a huge difference from 3.8 to 4.0Ghz for most of game

but from what i know is now with a i7 920 still and at 4.5ghz :P A D0 Stepping With H100 hardly know people who got there i7 920 pass 3.8Ghz

Kraken? is it a C3 or C2 ? from what i know C2 Hardly pass 3.8Ghz and Beefdog ad both C2 and temrpaory a C3 ? if I recall he got is first at 3.5ghz then 3.94Ghz for the same cpu C2 Stepping and i know C3 Stepping is just Better for overclocking according bunch of thread and test from reviewer but i don't know how far you can oc ur lol but i don't think there a huge difference from 3.8 to 4.0Ghz for most of game

but from what i know is now with a i7 920 still and at 4.5ghz :P A D0 Stepping With H100 hardly know people who got there i7 920 pass 3.8Ghz

marcthpro