Overclock on AMD Phenom X2 555 BE

[IcePick88]

So this weekend I was bored and decided to see if I can overclock my CPU. Note that this is my very first attempt at this!

Unlocked to a X4, I was not very comfortable overclocking, so I dropped to stock x2 and decided it was time to up the multiplier that's unlocked in the Black Edition.

I eventually went up to 3.8GHz and it's stable. 3.9GHz proved unstable as the pc gave a overclock error at post. All this by just upping the multiplier and I did not touch the voltages and HT links and all that. I'm not that brave yet.

Ran Prime overnight and not blue screens or crashes.
I'm running a Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU cooler. I disabled the smart fan in the bios so that the fan runs at 100% all the time.
Idle temps are in the region of 37-39 and at load it goes to 50.

I haven't run any benchmarks or whatnot, just wanted to see if I can do it.

[-Prometheus-]

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[IcePick88]

Eish dude. I'm gonna give you the benifit of the doubt since you posted that at 03h58. You know, tired and all.
I said unlocked and I did not want to overclock with the unlocked cores. And I know it's not overclocking when you unlock cores.

I've unlocked and locked the cores many times before. That's why I said I went back to the stock x2 and overclocked that.

When the extra cores are unlocked, I can play for days and weeks with it. Stress the hell out of it for hours on end and it's stable. But some days I boot the pc and it went back to a normal dual core.

[KillerByte]

up the vcore a bit at a time. your chip should hit 4ghz.

[IcePick88]

up the vcore a bit at a time. your chip should hit 4ghz.

Thanks. First time dabbling in this, so still cautious.

But 3.8 is fine with me. I'll post a CPU-Z reading when I get home.

[KillerByte]

you might be able to get away with the four cores and a bit of an overclock. If you are playong games then I would suggest going with the x2 configuration but overclocked.

[IcePick88]

you might be able to get away with the four cores and a bit of an overclock. If you are playong games then I would suggest going with the x2 configuration but overclocked.

Thanks for the tip.

Yeah the unlocking of cores I just did for fun and to check if it's really true. But I didn't want to overclock on possible unstable cores and maybe bust the CPU.

So I decided (like you suggested ) to stick to the dual (as I play a lot of games) and clock the crap out of it.

[KillerByte]

What thermal compound are you using?

[IcePick88]

What thermal compound are you using?

I got this with my CM Hyper TX3:


Decided that the CM stuff looks a bit on the generic side so I used this Zalman thermal paste that I bought when I upgraded my pc last year:

[KillerByte]

Clever man. The CM stuff is *****. i built my cousin a little gaming rig using your cooler and swopped out the CM stuff with AS5.

Is there any chance you have a budget for a better cooler?

[IcePick88]

Clever man. The CM stuff is ****. i built my cousin a little gaming rig using your cooler and swopped out the CM stuff with AS5.

Is there any chance you have a budget for a better cooler?

Let's put it this way.
The budget is not a problem, it's where the money goes according to my "bank manager" that is the problem.

At the moment the little Hyper TX3 is doing a good job. When the ambient temps in my computer room drop to a reasonable temperature (it's been "holy crap" hot here the last few weeks) the idle temps on the CPU sits at 36 I saw last night and load is 48.

When the ambient temps are a bit higher, idle temps are in the region of 38-40 and load max's out at 50.
And this is with the 3.8GHz overclock and playing BFBC2 for around 3 hours. Playing games is my benchmark and that is where I measure my temps and results.

[KillerByte]

Okay now for another benchmark. How noisey is that fan? I would suggest upgrading the cooler to something like the Thermalright Ultra 120 or Venomous. Even a Cogage True Spirit would be a wise purchase. I will have to use my new found fanboyism to mention teh Noctua NH-D14 which comes with the quietest fans and the best thermal compound on the planet.

[IcePick88]

Okay now for another benchmark. How noisey is that fan? I would suggest upgrading the cooler to something like the Thermalright Ultra 120 or Venomous. Even a Cogage True Spirit would be a wise purchase. I will have to use my new found fanboyism to mention teh Noctua NH-D14 which comes with the quietest fans and the best thermal compound on the planet.

I won't lie. I can hear the fan, but it does not bother me much.
With all the other fans (3 x 140mm and 1 x 120mm), there is a bit of noise.
The pc has it's own room, so it's not a big issue for me at the moment.

But yes, I want to upgrade to a bigger cooler when the time is right. I read the review of that Noctua NH-D14 in a previous issue of PCF and that thing looks the bizniz. But it's HUGE!

[KillerByte]

It might be big but big is beautiful

[IcePick88]

It might be big but big is beautiful

That it is.

[senile]

Get the Thermaltake Frio, best cooler on the planet at the moment according to Bit-Tech. I got mine for R550 and my PhenomX4 955 is idling under 20C for the first time ever

[-Prometheus-]

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[IcePick88]

Get the Thermaltake Frio, best cooler on the planet at the moment according to Bit-Tech. I got mine for R550 and my PhenomX4 955 is idling under 20C for the first time ever

Yowza! Below 20! Is your pc in a air conditioned room?

Had a look at the cooler. Very nice.

Eish dude. I'm gonna give you the benifit of the doubt since you posted that at 03h58. You know, tired and all.
I said unlocked and I did not want to overclock with the unlocked cores. And I know it's not overclocking when you unlock cores.

My bad. As it was in the same sentence I took it to mean you saw unlocking as overclocking but I see now what you meant.

I've unlocked and locked the cores many times before. That's why I said I went back to the stock x2 and overclocked that.

When the extra cores are unlocked, I can play for days and weeks with it. Stress the hell out of it for hours on end and it's stable. But some days I boot the pc and it went back to a normal dual core.

Don't know if you know this but sometimes they disable one or two cores on a Phenom II X4 to make up for a shortfall of the X2 or X3. Sounds like you may have one of these.

Could be that your BIOS is losing the setting, update may help, or one of the cores may not boot up all the time at the higher speed so it reverts to the stock setting of 2 cores. Ironically this could also be one of the 2 normal cores that's unstable.

I would still prefer extra cores over a bit of extra speed and use the FSB setting to get it at a stable overclock.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps my bios is losing the setting or something, because when I have it unlocked, I can do things to that chip that makes it cry, but it won't crash or bluescreen. I'll look into it. Maybe there is a update or something for the bios like you said.

I don't want to play too much with the voltages atm, because my PSU is suspect, so only when I get a new one will I tinker with that. So for now I'll leave it a dually and crank it up.

[KillerByte]

My AMD Phenom II X6 1090T idles at 24C and that is with the fans only spinning at 900RPM. I can't hear them at all.

I am actually planning to swap out all my fans for Noctua ones. People might say they look ugly but the performance and low noise are what get me excited.

[IcePick88]

My AMD Phenom II X6 1090T idles at 24C and that is with the fans only spinning at 900RPM. I can't hear them at all.

I am actually planning to swap out all my fans for Noctua ones. People might say they look ugly but the performance and low noise are what get me excited.

Where do you buy these coolers?

[KillerByte]

Evetech.co.za

[IcePick88]

Evetech.co.za

Looking at the sheer size of this thing (160 x 140 x 158mm) makes me think it will not fit with my mobo and case. And I don't want to buy it and then it does not fit.

The TX3 fits nicely. Just ordered a second fan for it for a push/pull setup. Will see if that helps.

[IcePick88]

As promised, here is a CPU-Z screenshot of it.
Multiplier at x19. I have Cool 'n Quite activated, so had to do a cpu test to get the core speed up.

[DGui]

I have a question for you, my 555 is clocked at 4.0GHz with the stock cooler, it is stable, but I want to unlock the other two cores, I have tried, but to no avail, probably being faulty so I want to know if you can tell me how to just unlock a third core? Thanks in advance...

[IcePick88]

I have a question for you, my 555 is clocked at 4.0GHz with the stock cooler, it is stable, but I want to unlock the other two cores, I have tried, but to no avail, probably being faulty so I want to know if you can tell me how to just unlock a third core? Thanks in advance...

I will be lying to you if I try to answer. Was a while since I unlocked my cores, so I will check tonight and post again.