[TheLastPriest]

Ok so I decided after sitting at 3.6ghz for a long time to start to push higher, my old CPU cooler wasn't quite up to the task to I picked up the Corsair H50 yesterday and got it installed, temps are great now but I cant get past 3.7ghz stable, I tried 3.8 and took the voltage incrementally to 1.5v and had a reboot (no bsod, just a black screen and reboot) at every stop along the way, I want 3.8ghz-4ghz but not fiery explosion bad.

Stats are in my sig, currently sitting at 3.7ghz @ 1.425v which I think is the lowest voltage I can go and keep 3.7 stable. Ambient temp is about 22°c, processor is idling at 32°c and hitting about 45°c at load on prime. Any expert tricks to push to the next level or have I reached a point that if voltage wont take me there nothing will?

Any knowledge you could pass my direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
TLP

 

[Rewindlabs]

I'm sure you can make it to 3.7Ghz but the voltage required for the clock increase may not be worth the added wear/temps and only minimal increase in real world performance

All you can do is test the waters and see what she'll do

Most likely you will just be better off sitting at 3.6Ghz as you are barking into the OC range on the 940BE where the voltage required for the clock just isn't worth it

 

[TheLastPriest]

Yeah, I had really high hopes to get further, though I shouldn't complain, I got lucky with this chip. I can hit 3.5ghz on stock voltage 3.6ghz at 1.4v and 3.7 at 1.425v. Seems like it would just be worth it to sit at 3.5 just so I could keep the longevity of running at stock voltage. Just not my nature though, gotta keep pushing.

 

[ketsjupelvis]

I agree with Rewindlabs. I had the same prosessor for about 6 months and I had the same problem, hiting 3,8Ghz required a whole lot of voltage. I tried about everything i could, but for a 24/7 OC 3,7Ghz was as far as I could push it. Hope it works better for u, although it seems u suffer the same voltage i did.

 

[Rewindlabs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ketsjupelvis I agree with Rewindlabs. I had the same prosessor for about 6 months and I had the same problem, hiting 3,8Ghz required a whole lot of voltage. I tried about everything i could, but for a 24/7 OC 3,7Ghz was as far as I could push it. Hope it works better for u, although it seems u suffer the same voltage i did.

Indeed

Hitting 3.8Ghz and beyond can get hot on C1/C2 CPU's...especially the 940BE's

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheLastPriest Yeah, I had really high hopes to get further, though I shouldn't complain, I got lucky with this chip. I can hit 3.5ghz on stock voltage 3.6ghz at 1.4v and 3.7 at 1.425v. Seems like it would just be worth it to sit at 3.5 just so I could keep the longevity of running at stock voltage. Just not my nature though, gotta keep pushing.

Very nice little 940 you have there by the way

 

[thejakeyl88]

What are you doing to push it that high, using the CPU multi or FSB?

I'm running mine right now 250x15.5 for 3875 Mhz @ 1.472v. I did a lot of tweaking with the motherboard and voltage settings there to get there, but see if you are able to run a higher FSB, so you can use a lower CPU multi, which somtimes can get you more stable.

Keep an eye on your HT Link and NB frequency. You might want to lower them to a 7-8x multi instead of the stock 9x. You may be pushing the memory controller on that phenom a little too high, lower the multi so you can run 1800-1900 mhz on the memory controller and still hit the higher speeds on the cpu. When raising the FSB lower the RAM speeds as well if you need too, memory usually goes first, especially pc1066.

 

[sosikwitit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thejakeyl88 What are you doing to push it that high, using the CPU multi or FSB? I'm running mine right now 250x15.5 for 3875 Mhz @ 1.472v. I did a lot of tweaking with the motherboard and voltage settings there to get there, but see if you are able to run a higher FSB, so you can use a lower CPU multi, which somtimes can get you more stable. Keep an eye on your HT Link and NB frequency. You might want to lower them to a 7-8x multi instead of the stock 9x. You may be pushing the memory controller on that phenom a little too high, lower the multi so you can run 1800-1900 mhz on the memory controller and still hit the higher speeds on the cpu. When raising the FSB lower the RAM speeds as well if you need too, memory usually goes first, especially pc1066.

Very useful post. +1

 

[Fallen Angel -X]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thejakeyl88 What are you doing to push it that high, using the CPU multi or FSB? I'm running mine right now 250x15.5 for 3875 Mhz @ 1.472v. I did a lot of tweaking with the motherboard and voltage settings there to get there, but see if you are able to run a higher FSB, so you can use a lower CPU multi, which somtimes can get you more stable. Keep an eye on your HT Link and NB frequency. You might want to lower them to a 7-8x multi instead of the stock 9x. You may be pushing the memory controller on that phenom a little too high, lower the multi so you can run 1800-1900 mhz on the memory controller and still hit the higher speeds on the cpu. When raising the FSB lower the RAM speeds as well if you need too, memory usually goes first, especially pc1066.

Ty

My chip also tops out at 3.7 via multi

Trying with FSB now

Ty

 

[TheLastPriest]

Yeah everything has been multi so far, I will look into your advice when I get home, thanks!

 

[Fallen Angel -X]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheLastPriest Yeah everything has been multi so far, I will look into your advice when I get home, thanks!

Any success mate?

 

[TheLastPriest]

I havent even got a chance to try, I finally got my son down to bed last night after the fight of a lifetime, sat down to start messing with the computer and a half an hour later I got the familiar screams of a two year old waking up in pain. Apparently had an ear ache last night, so the wife and I were up every 10 minutes last night and today has been more observation than anything else but if he falls asleep tonight and stays that way I will give it a shot.

 

[Drdeath]

A large majority of 940's hit a wall around 3.7-3.75Ghz(stable). Anything above 3.75Ghz and you have a nice chip.

 

[thejakeyl88]

Sorry to hear about your son, hopes hes all well now! My parents love to tell me all the stories of how I used to keep them up as a baby. Anyway keep us updated! I'm always messing with my settings, generally after a few days of stability I get antsy and start messing around again. I wish I had more control over my RAM, 4x then 5.33x multiplier basically allows me low multiplier on CPU/HT/NB with 5.33x RAM multi, or 4x RAM multi with higher CPU/NB multi... Its fun, I finally reached my goal of 20,000 3dmarks in 06, which was 2000 more over stock settings for me, pushed some more and was stable and able to get 20,400 3dmarks in 06. Working on my GPU scores in Unigine Heaven benchmark, waiting for 10.3 cats to come out!

Have you ever applied AS5? Could help drop a degree or two, which can help, I've seen a few degrees help a lot with stability, especially when increasing voltage.

Increasing the NB frequency increases the Phenom's memory controller. On ours, the 940 its 1.8 Ghz, on the newer AM3 CPUs, its 2 Ghz. Overclocking this can give big performance gains, but so far I noticed on my 940, it can greatly increase instability. So while trying to find your stable max CPU OC, keep the NB frequency around 1800-1900. I'm working on increasing this right now, but increasing the voltage to the memory controller may be more damaging than when performance gain you'll get, but it will compliment a nice CPU clock OC, so I'll keep you updated with my results.

Good luck!

 

[AsAnAtheist]

I had to push my AMD Phenom II B50 (550 unlocked) to 1.525v on the motherboard (1.472 in CPU-Z) to get 3.8 ghz stable. It is ridiculous the amount of voltage to go past 3.7 ghz.

I suppose this is relevant because Phenom II 940 x4 is the next step from Phenom II 550 (if the 940 did not meet manufacturer settings it's locked/sold as a 550.) So you should be able to take it to 3.8 ghz with some seriously more voltage. Perhaps 1.45v-1.5v, however I am not sure how your H50 will perform. I am currently running Prime95 on the 3.8 ghz 1.52v overclock. Already at Test 10, not bad.
Update: Crashed on Test 11, around 13 minutes after Prime95. Definitely not stable at 3.8.

 

[thejakeyl88]

If you didn't say it was at test 10, the computer wouldn't have crashed to make you look bad

"Yes I'm finally ready to call it stable!" CRASH. "Damn my big mouth!"

Could you post all of your CPU stats? CPU Multi, NB Multi, HT Multi, FSB, DRAM multi, voltages for CPU, NB, PLL, SB/PCIE ect? I don't think its necessary but do you enable Advanced Clock Calibration? Theres voltages to the CPU core, CPU memory controller, NB core, NB PLL, CPU PLL, I'm trying to keep track of them all, but I'm not entirely sure all mobos have all these voltage options or not. But with all that voltage control, theres bound to be a nice combo to stay @ 3.8 or close stable. Especially if you made it that far already, but I'll have to wait on your answer to what your specs are set at.

 

[TheLastPriest]

So i finally got around to trying it, bumped the voltage up, dropped the speed on the ram, put the FSB to 205 and the thing crashed so hard I had to clear the bios, even then vista wouldnt boot right....had to end up reinstalling, I think 3.6-3.7 through multi is fine for me right now, between that crash and some other issues (mostly me being stupid while trying to install vista on a faster drive) I have had to reload vista 5 times this week, I think i will just hang out and enjoy a working computer for a bit. Although, in the end, it was still worth while, this drive is much faster and there is a noticeable difference

 

[stRodda]

with some chips, from what ive been told and experienced, need a lot of power to push them.

right now im at [email protected] and it NEEDS it to be stable. if i lower voltage at all, it crashes. if i bump the fsb anymore, it crashes. for the hell of it, i tried [email protected] but it failed prime after about 10min.

but with my push/pull+shroud h50, temps are hovering in the low 50's. not necessarily a low load temp, but given that im putting 1.6+v to the cpu, not too bad i would say.

on a sidenote. i used to run it at 3.6 on my old board, and it only needed 1.45v. so for a 200mhz bump, there is a big need for more power, for a minimal gain... i just dont care. by the time i fry this one, itll be time for a new one... "throw it in the gutter, and go buy another", as eazy would say

 

[purpleannex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drdeath A large majority of 940's hit a wall around 3.7-3.75Ghz(stable). Anything above 3.75Ghz and you have a nice chip.

Reading all these anectdotes, i must have a blinding chip!

....i thought it was rubbish. Can't wait to get a new CPU, but i want to see what the new ones will do.