I need help raising my Phenom II FSB/HTT

[SickBeast]

Hi Guys,

My Phenom II 905e seems to be stuck at around 300mhz FSB/HTT. I don't know if I'm held back by my CPU or my motherboard. It's a C3 stepping and I think it should be able to hit at least 4ghz. It seems held back by the FSB speed.

I'm running it at 12.5 x 300 for 3750mhz at 1.5v on high end air cooling.

My motherboard is an MSI 770-G45.

I'm willing to do what it takes to get my FSB faster. Do I need more cooling on my chipset? Should I try a little bit more voltage?

I tried overvolting the chipset a bit and it let me hit 304mhz but no more than that.

I have the CPU-NB also running at 1.5v and it's at 2400mhz.

If you guys can help it would be great.

 

[BD231]

Be happy you got 300, I have one of those boards and the typical limit is 250 with a c2 chip. 1.5v is way to high though, you'll degrade the chip quickly running that kind of voltage through four cores on air cooling (I've done it at only 1.475v with the exact same board you're using). You should be able to do 3.7ghz at 1.375v to 1.425 or so, that's what you should aim for. Also, your CPU NB should be at 1.2xxv for 240, and never any higher than 1.3v as you won't get anymore overclocking headroom out of it beyond that voltage.

Leave the HT as close to 2000mhz as possible.

Getting to 4ghz on the phenom takes a ridiculous amount of voltage in my experience, it's really not worth the extra 2 or 300 mhz.

 

[SickBeast]

I just tried lowering the multiplier to 7x and it's crashing out at around 310mhz FSB. I'm guessing that means I'm held back by my motherboard.

I will try for lower voltage and report back.

 

[SickBeast]

I tried 1.45v on the CPU and it crashed out.

I'm not worried about burning out the chip as I want a new CPU anyway. I didn't pay much for it to begin with; I'm viewing it as disposible and I enjoy the performance it gives me at 3.8ghz.

 

[pelov]

4ghz for a 905e is quite a goal. I'd be very happy with it at 3.8 considering it's at 2.5ghz default. Yes, that 1.5v is quite high but you're already aware of that

The Deneb chips don't handle FSB overclocks very well and certainly not as well as the Thubans. On my 955 I've only been able to get it up to 208 FSB while the Thubans have no trouble getting significantly higher.

 

[SickBeast]

It's just too bad that I'm held back by my motherboard. I appreciate the feedback. I guess I will settle for 3.8ghz.

 

[VirtualLarry]

300FSB is actually really good for an AMD board. That's the unfortunate limit of many boards.

 

[MegaWorks]

Do you see any significant increase in real world performance?

 

[SickBeast]

Do you see any significant increase in real world performance?

I think so. In games, definitely. Windows seems quicker as well, along with my apps.

 

[SickBeast]

Be happy you got 300, I have one of those boards and the typical limit is 250 with a c2 chip. 1.5v is way to high though, you'll degrade the chip quickly running that kind of voltage through four cores on air cooling (I've done it at only 1.475v with the exact same board you're using). You should be able to do 3.7ghz at 1.375v to 1.425 or so, that's what you should aim for. Also, your CPU NB should be at 1.2xxv for 240, and never any higher than 1.3v as you won't get anymore overclocking headroom out of it beyond that voltage.

Leave the HT as close to 2000mhz as possible.

Getting to 4ghz on the phenom takes a ridiculous amount of voltage in my experience, it's really not worth the extra 2 or 300 mhz.

Hey I just wanted to thank you for this post.

I'm running my chip at 3.6ghz at 1.375v now. It's much cooler and consumes probably 50w less power under load.

You're correct in stating that I was trying to push the chip too far. It's not worth it in the end.

 

[BD231]

Hey I just wanted to thank you for this post.

I'm running my chip at 3.6ghz at 1.375v now. It's much cooler and consumes probably 50w less power under load.

You're correct in stating that I was trying to push the chip too far. It's not worth it in the end.

No prob, glad you gave it a shot. Running a chip past it's max stable OC by way of forcing voltage has some major implications. Voltage throughout the entire chip gets magnified significantly because of the added leakage when you go past a chips max functional frequency. The higher you go the more inefficient it becomes, and it's definitely a fast track to degrading your chip. Overclocking is super safe if you don't pass this line, once you start having to poor on the juice just to get two or three hundred MHZ you start ruining chips within two or three years of ownership.

3.6 sounds about right though, the x6 and 960t are a bit different in that they add voltage to overall v-core every time they hit full load which keeps them closer to 1.475v giving them slightly more headroom. The non thuban series doesn't though, and for whatever reason doesn't handle voltage above 1.4v very well at all. I'm sure their are people running higher voltage's but IMO its not a smart move, AMD put a lot of time into the Phenom II and they've done what they could to max it out. If they could have released a 4ghz Phenom II they would have, but they stopped at 3.7ghz so it makes sense people hit a typical 3.6 to 3.8.

If you want to try for more within that same v-core range you can try loosening your ram timings or dropping your cpu north bridge speed. You're adding years to the overclock by being a tad conservative though, just remember your limit and tweak for every last mhz within reason. Enjoy the chip!

 

[RavenSEAL]

I'm very happy with my X6 at 3.8Ghz(1.375v/40C Load). The temp and votage increases do not justify a minimal performance gain compared vs 4.0Ghz (1.45v/55C+ Load [TJ max 62c])

 

[SickBeast]

I've been thinking about getting an X6 but I think I will wait and get Ivy Bridge or even Haswell instead.

I don't really feel the need for more power. An X6 would be a nice drop in upgrade for me though.

 

[MegaWorks]

I really want to try this, I have my cpu oc @ 4.2Ghz (200x21) = ram @ 1600Mhz and cpu-NB oc @ 2800Mhz. Now if I overclock to (267x16) @ 4.27Ghz = ram @ 2135Mhz I would get better result right?

 

[BD231]

I really want to try this, I have my cpu oc @ 4.2Ghz (200x21) = ram @ 1600Mhz and cpu-NB oc @ 2800Mhz. Now if I overclock to (267x16) @ 4.27Ghz = ram @ 2135Mhz I would get better result right?

Sending over 1.5 volts through four cores that run at 1.275v stock, not to bright but I'm guessing you don't care. Sweet overclock :thumbsup:.

You'll have to run your memory at 11-11-11 to get your memory clocked that high no? I'm sure you've tried. Not really worth it but potentially doable. When I went back to the 890 chipset from the 990 I couldn't get past 1600. DDR3 runs pretty damn hot at 2000mhz that was my only hurdle, I have some pretty nice mushkin 2133 sticks and they were overheating so I had to drop to 1800.

What voltage are you running your northbridge at??

 

[MegaWorks]

Sending over 1.5 volts through four cores that run at 1.275v stock, not to bright but I'm guessing you don't care. Sweet overclock :thumbsup:.

You'll have to run your memory at 11-11-11 to get your memory clocked that high no? I'm sure you've tried. Not really worth it but potentially doable. When I went back to the 890 chipset from the 990 I couldn't get past 1600. DDR3 runs pretty damn hot at 2000mhz that was my only hurdle, I have some pretty nice mushkin 2133 sticks and they were overheating so I had to drop to 1800.

What voltage are you running your northbridge at??

960t @ 4.2Ghz (200 x 21), Ram DDR3-2133 @ 1600 9-9-9-24 1T

Cpu voltage = 1.41v
Cpu/NB = 1.28v
Dram = 1.6v
VDDR = 1.2v
VDDA = 2.49v
NB HT = 1.2v
SB = 1.1v
NB 1.8v = 1.8v

 

[BD231]

960t @ 4.2Ghz (200 x 21), Ram DDR3-2133 @ 1600 9-9-9-24 1T

Cpu voltage = 1.41v
Cpu/NB = 1.28v
Dram = 1.6v
VDDR = 1.2v
VDDA = 2.49v
NB HT = 1.2v
SB = 1.1v
NB 1.8v = 1.8v

Low FSB helps stability at high speeds, probably better you don't switch things up. Unless you're on the 990 getting ddr3 2000 isn't very easy anyway.

 

[Edgemeal]

It's just too bad that I'm held back by my motherboard. I appreciate the feedback. I guess I will settle for 3.8ghz.

Well those MSI 770-x45s are only rated for 125W CPUs, with 4-phase power and no heatsinks on the Mosfets they really weren't made for high-end over clocking, I'd be more worried about frying the board then the CPU.

I've had a 770-C45 for little over 2.5 years, running a X2-550(C2) unlocked to a X4 @ 206x17, all default voltages (I'm not into all that tweaking), hopefully it will replace my old s939 4200+ X2 if I can upgrade to an IB this summer.