Overclock Assistance/Advice...

[Moontrash]

got a phenom 9950 back in February and thought i might wanna mess around with it a bit here shortly....learn how to overclock it and i thought i'd ask what my options are...should i use amd overdrive or the mobo settings to overclock? what works best etc...this case i have has 7 120mm fans and is running the stock cpu cooler...the temp stays around 34/38 c...if the days hotter it gets up 39/41 c...i have no clue on how to do it within the bios and thought maybe amd overdrive is a simpler option for sum1 who's not well acquainted with voltages and changing this and that...or if the frontside has to be done also and the RAM and whats a safe voltage/ghz to set it to etc...i'm clueless lol...if there's a tutorial somewhere for a layman...post a link and i'll give it a try

the mobo i have is a....

Gigabyte MA78G-DS3HP

thanx

[budz]

Go to overclock.net and do some reading on overclocking.

http://www.overclock.net/

[John]

Like budz says you need to read up on this, I had the same processor, from what ive read you really need to OC from the bios its just easier than software. with the black you only really need to increase the multiplyer, with what i read you increase the multiplyer one step at a time then when you can go no further IE BSOD then you start increasing voltage ect. increasing voltage you need to keep an eye on the temps ect. I have a water cooled system the temps where ok but i still couldnt OC above 3000 mhz. just my motherboard I guess. Or the chip. some chips are better than others. I didnt see a big increase in video conversion ect whilst OC. maybe an extra minute or two quicker, increasing the fsb, has its advantages to, seemed snappier. but again I burnt a couple of memory sticks, just dont know if it was related. Hope this helps.

[redwudz]

If you are a newcomer to overclocking, I would leave most of the voltages alone, as you can easily damage the CPU and RAM if you use the wrong settings. With AMD CPUs, just try raising the FSB (Front Side Bus) settings. The stock FSB is 200Mhz. Try setting it at 230Mhz in BIOS and see if it can boot and run. If you get a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), then pull the BIOS battery to reset the BIOS and try again at a lower FSB. It takes a lot of 'fiddling' to get the optimum setup. And if your RAM (Read Only Memory) is not up to the increased FSB, you will have problems. Some 'Black' versions of CPU's will let you change the CPU multiplier, most regular CPUs won't. But the FSB settings are almost always availiable. Intel CPUs are similar, but the FSB may be higher or different. It's easy to figure out. The FSB times the multiplier are what frequency the CPU runs at.

Check your RAM to make sure it's running at the manufacturers recommended voltage. Most MBs default to 1.8VDC. If your RAM is made to run at 2.1VDC, raise the voltage to that. You shouldn't have to change any other voltage in BIOS unless you are really pushing the CPU to the max, which I wouldn't recommend.

I've OC'd both a Intel Q9300 and a AMD Phenom 920 to 3.3Ghz just by raising the FSB and making sure the RAM voltage was correct with no problems. And got greatly improved performance. But I do have good CPU coolers on both and good case fans to keep them cool.

[Moontrash]

thanx for the insight guys...seems kinda iffy for me to try...i tend to get a bit nervous messing around with this thing...i'll do my new radeon 4870 card with CCC...sorta simple but this loox like it has many variables...spooks me a bit

here's the RAM i have....4gb

Mushkin HP2-6400

[redwudz]

I have charred a couple of less expensive CPUs in the past, so I usually urge caution with changing some BIOS settings if you aren't sure what you are doing. You are safe enough just raising the FSB because if you go too high, the PC won't boot and no permanent damage. Some newer motherboards like the one in my Q9300 box will reset the BIOS if you set the FSB too high, otherwise you may have to reset it manually. I've had to do that quite a few times to get a stable overclock with some systems.

Your RAM is 1.8VDC, so you should be fine. That's usually the default voltage the motherboard uses. Most of the higher performance RAM is rated at 2.1VDC or thereabouts and will function quite a bit better than at 1.8VDC.

If you are thinking about OCing, spend lots of time reading first. Every motherboard and every CPU and RAM have different settings for OCing, so it pays to find out all the necessary information first. I was able to deal with the extra heat in my OC'd PC, but I also have a fairly large CPU cooler and three 120mm case fans. The stock CPU cooler just wasn't up to the task. I was able to get a stable 800Mhz OC on the Q9300, But 20Mhz more and it was unstable. 30Mhz more and it wouldn't boot.