AMD Phenom II X4 980 will not run stable over 4gb

[ulao]

Hey I have a AMD Phenom II X4 980 and read this guide.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1603/14/

I dont want to water cool it, but I figure I could get 4.2 stable. So far I get BSOD with anything over 4.0. Would would be the best approach.


Any other slight clocking recommendations?

[DrGuns4Hands]

I only get 3.8 prime 95 stable if you get 4 I say you are blessed my son.

[ulao]

Wow my 3.2 555 x2 ran at 3.8.

[prudhomb]

on air 4.0 ghz is a good overclock for a phenom II, you might be able to go a little further on water, or more exotic cooling.
some of the really high overclocks you may have seen are at 1.5v, but you have to have the capacity to cool it.

you might be able to start squeezing a few more mhz out of it buy increasing the bus, but watch your ht/nb/ram freq when you do that.

[Mr.Scott]

Temps and PSU please.

[ulao]

I get 48/49 at 4.0 and 49/50 at 4.11 ( using a FSB of 205 ) too much more FSB and I'm unstable. I think the FSB was a good recommendation as it just bumps everyone up a tad. I have an OCX 900 watt or so with a peppy 12v rail for my video card. I think each 12v rail is around 40 amps.

[Mr.Scott]

OK then. I would say that's about as good an OC as you'll get without a better cooling solution.
Couple suggestions though
1) get those ram timings back down to spec. 1333 @ 9-9-9-24 @ 1.5v
Right now there overclocked (running 1600 ) but loose as a goose.
2) NB frequency can come up to at least 2400 on stock voltage. Try for 2600.
Those two things right there will make your rig feel much snappier.

[ulao]

Mr.Scott, can you explain to me why the down clock on ram? I was told corsair ram could run at 1600 happy as can be? Also your suggestion is to improve speed, yet your saying to down clock? I'm new at this please explain, thx

[prudhomb]

sometimes amd will like slower ram with faster timmings, Intel seems to like faster ram and looser timings. but ram speed is a combination of the two, so you can slow the ram down, speed up the timmings and have the same performance, it might help with the OC, at least in therory.

Mr. Scott does alot of benching, getting stable to the last mhz, little things like that may make a difference.

on the other hand Im a lazy overclocker, I just go for a ballpark oc that I can get prime stable in a couple of hours.

[ulao]

OK 2600 is not stable, 2400 works nicely. Last question ( well for now ). Would I be doing my self a favor by upping my FSB and lowering my clock? Targeting the same frequency but allowing the FSB to remain higher like 215?

[prudhomb]

its better to have your cpu faster than your NB or ram

[Mr.Scott]

Originally Posted by ulao

Mr.Scott, can you explain to me why the down clock on ram? I was told corsair ram could run at 1600 happy as can be? Also your suggestion is to improve speed, yet your saying to down clock? I'm new at this please explain, thx

There is no JEDEC for 1600 listed on your ram in CPU-Z. It says it's 1333 ram. If Corsair say it'll do 1600 that's great, but it will be with timings so loose it'll actually feel slow. AMD's prefer the native IMC clock of 1333, and the tightest timings you can make on them. Intel's prefer fast ram with whatever timings it takes to make it fast. I'd still go 1333 @ 9-9-9-24 over 1600 @ 11-11-11-29 any day.

[ShrimpBrime]

That Ram probably needs a volt bump to run any tighter cas than 11 at 800mhz. 1.65v minimum for cas 9.

So far I get BSOD with anything over 4.0. Would would be the best approach.

This is all Cpu related. It needs more voltage. Problem is trying to cool it. If you can't cool it, it'll bsod any ways.

Rock______________________________________ __________Hard Place.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

Also like to add that these 980's are hotter than a 140w 9950BE stepping B2 while over clocked. Strickly speaking by sheer clock speed, it generates the most heat of any quad.

Also another tid bit about the 980BE is that it uses the same start up voltage as a 6400+ AM2 Windsor at only 3.2ghz and the 980BE is only 500mhz faster.
Oh the VID is 1.4v ftw... 90nm vs 45nm

[ulao]

My cpu core temp is hitting 56 under load. I'm reading mixed reviews on this. Is this boarder line?

[DrGuns4Hands]

If it's stable no that isn't a problem going over 60 is bad over 53-55 most people run into stability issues.

[prudhomb]

the cooler you keep the cores, the further you can oc (at a given voltage) though I suspect its better to have slightly higher voltage at the expense of a few deg ot temp.

Low 50's is sort of a consensus of a good goal to shoot for.

[ulao]

Well what occurred was I removed a noisy fan. This was the fan drawing air out the front of my system. Next thing I noticed games would blue screen. So I checked the temp at idle and it was 55, then I dropped in a new fan and I'm back down to 49. I had no idea how much the fan really helped. The temp causing the blue screen is unknown to me. but monitoring my games I'm at 60 (stable) atm. Should I consider voltage? I dont think I can better cool it with air.

[prudhomb]

the fan could have been blowing cool air over the gpu and chipset as well. if they over heat they can cause bsod as well.

if case temp is 60, that should not be an issue, if the core temps are 60 that could be a problem.

[ulao]

The value that gets up to 60 are CPU and LOCAL, not sure what they represent.

[Mr.Scott]

You're at your limit for the type of cooling you have. More voltage isn't an option at this point.