Over Clock Help with old system

[cane1314]

So I have a system i a built about 4 years ago and its played everything on Ultra settings sense. But now i can tell it is getting just a little aged and im wondering if someone can send me in the right direction to overclock my system.

CPU- AMD Phenom II X6 1050T
Motherboard- M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3
Memory- 12 Gigs of ripjaw ddr3 cant remember the frequency or exact name
Video card- Radeon HD 5850

Any help in advance is much much appreciated and would be extremely glad to provide any extra info needed.

[901-Memphis]

First off those things can put out some heat, so if you are on stock cooling you will need a massive upgrade, otherwise let us know what aftermarket cooler you are using so we can get an idea of what you might be able to reach.

Also please list your power supply model to make sure it can handle the extra wattage overclocking requires.

Heres some information too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a7AxZJ7tWc

[cane1314]

I have a TX 750w corsair psu and been using a ninja 3 Scythe cpu cooler and thank you. I can provide any additional temperature info you might need too

[901-Memphis]

Fire up Intel burn test and check max temps when running very high settings after a pass or two it should max.

Use core temp program for checking temperatures.

Report back your idle and load temperature.

[cane1314]

Alright i idle at 17C and hit a max of 49c after two runs on stress level very high. Haha so doc what do the numbers mean

[bravotsx]

it means you can OC the snot out of your chip without fear~ your power supply will not blow up, and your CPU will not catch on fire

have you already used the AMD Overdrive utility on your graphics card? you can find it in the system tray and it will allow you to overclock your graphics card.

[CountMike]

Originally Posted by cane1314

Alright i idle at 17C and hit a max of 49c after two runs on stress level very high. Haha so doc what do the numbers mean

To me, it looks like you are in Alaska with an open window. It's pretty difficult to achieve temperatures lover then room temperature on any air cooling. Somebody is lying to you, either BIOS or test program. Secondly, do not pay to much attention to temperatures on idle, max temps are important. Those big phenoms need a lot of power and stock cooler is adequate only at normal operation. If you want to be sure of the temperatures better use few different test programs and to be on a safe side use the highest readings. Best investments in a computer are good PSU and cooling.
One example, My Athlon II X2 270 at 4.1 GhZ draws 61.5 watts at idle under the same cooler (the stock one was garbage) and at idle is about 5 to 10 C above room temperature. New one, a CM Hyper 212 EVO shows only a little lover temps at idle but under a full load doesn't go over 55 C. and the stock one like yours was hitting 62C and was shutting it down.
So, do yourself a favor and get some serious cooler before you start any OC.

[901-Memphis]

I believe the op already stated he had a Ninja 3, which is a very decent cooler. There are better ones out there, but it should handle the job.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185147


You should be able to drop your RAM multiplier and start cranking up the speed a little at at time until its unstable, then we can back it down and stability test it using Intel Burn Test. 5-10 Passes of IBT is a pretty good indication of basic stability if using on very high or above.

[cane1314]

I did forget to mention that i had used the TurboV EVO auto tune to do a quick OC and performed all my tests with that too.
So i went into BIOS to the Ai Tweaker and my Target Cpu frequency is 3248MHz
and my target DRAM frequency is 1237 MHz

But when i look at TurboV EVO it says my cpu frequency is 232 MHz which confuses me a little.

And since im very new to this im not really sure what the ram multiplier is and how much i should lower it and how much to raise the cpu speed at the same time so know any nice threads i can look at for that?

Edit" Oh yea and it is winter and i have my tower sitting right beside my window. I can always feel the cold air seeping in so it does affect the ambient temp

[901-Memphis]

The video i linked in post #2 should answer some of your questions if you missed it.

The speed your seeing that is 232 mhz is your CPU BUS frequency and it is multiplied by the multiplier on the processor to get your final speed. Your processor has a built in multi of up to 14, so multiply 14x232 and you get your processor sped of 3248 mhz.

That is why having unlocked mulitplier chips are so easy because you can keep the bus speed at 200 and just turn the multiplier up.

As far as the RAM goes, you will need to use memtest to see if its stable at that speed if its higher than stock speeds. If it is stable then great, you get more processor mhz and more RAM speed.

Also overclocking in the BIOS is typically the way its done around here. You should be able to set the bus speed to 232 manually so it stays there all the time even if you have trouble with your auto tune program.

[cane1314]

Alright so ive been messing around with speed for a while and i was able to get it upto 3.612 MHz. I ran IBT for 10 passes on very high and hit a max temp of 56C. So it seems like its doing pretty good right?

The only things i changed was my bus speed from 232 to 258.

While my system seems pretty stable now if i go any higher i get random crashes during IBT even though when i was watching it i only saw a max temp of 54C during the 3rd pass.

So im thinking it likely has to do with the voltage but im not too sure exactly how much to change that so any advice?

[bravotsx]

if you're stable at 3.612 that's good. see if your game performance got better.
post a CPU-Z screen shot of the CPU and Memory pages

[cane1314]

Alright theres a pic of the memory and cpu page

and will have to play some games little more to really tell.

[901-Memphis]

What does the SPD tab on cpu-z say your RAM speed should be >

[cane1314]

Alright posted a pic of all 4 slots in the SPD hope it helps

[901-Memphis]

Looks like your RAM is underclocked. It can run up to 800 mhz at cas-9 but you're only running it at 696 mhz. This will give you more room to push the processor until you get the RAM closer to 800 mhz.

[cane1314]

Oh i see what your saying so i tweak the ram frequency in bios? should i up the voltage too or just leave it?

Edit" because when i look in my bios it reads that my dram frequency is at 1067?

[901-Memphis]

1067 is the divider which is keeping the RAM at a lower speed. If you have your bus speed at 200 while your divider is at 1067 your RAM will be 1067, but since your overclocking your bus speed the RAM is moving up.

Also i wouldn't toy with the voltage for right now since it looks like you have plenty of room to move the processor speed up and still be within stock ratings of 800 mhz. Plus the RAM might go a tad higher than 800 mhz with no voltage bump.

[cane1314]

Alright so i think i figured out why my ram was kind of weird. Was set at 1067 for some reason when it needed to be at 1333 so this is what my spd and memory pages look like now.



Edit" though i changed that i still could not get my ssystem to not crash after moving past 3700 MHz

[901-Memphis]

Put your ram back at 1067 until you find your processor sweet spot. You don't want to overclock both at the same time or else you can't pinpoint your crash.


As far as going beyond 3700 mhz you need more voltage. I suggest starting somewhere around 1.425 and see of you can hit 4 ghz with that much . Sometimes people need 1.45v for 4 ghz.

What is your goal?