My CPU Overclock, WOW, and why I'm not touching the RAM

[Cage]

I'm on my second Black Edition AMD CPU, a Phenom II X4 955. The first one, that I left at standard settings, is now happily running my HTPC.

Well that's what I call my old computer that I use for recording TV on. It is hooked up to my stereo system though.

Anyway, I thought that seeing that I had the potential to crank up the MHz on the 955, I decided to give it a whirl. I did the 'google' thing on the best way to go about it, but it actually turned out to be a pretty painless exercise.

Being a Black Edition, it came with an unlocked multiplier. With more than a little trepidation, I went from 16x/3.2MHz to 17x/3.4MHz, checked the temps, all normal, then 18x/3.6MHz, still no problems, but I decided to do a little stress testing at this stage and ran the IntelBurn Test. Passed with flying colours.

3.8MHz was about what I'd decided I'd be happy with and I'd achieved that without a murmur. I was pretty chuffed.

But then I fell victim to the 'What if' syndrome. Should I try for a bit higher? What the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound. (Yeah, I know, I'm showing my age here). So, I cranked the multiplier up to 19x/3.9MHz and crossed my fingers. Sweet as! Passed the stress test and temps about 45C.

Dare I? Well it will only shut down if you overstress it so I went for it. 20x/4.0MHZ. The temps went to 49C and it failed the stress test but hey, I don't think I'm ever going to be running any programs that have all four cores running at 100% load.

Well it's been running quite happily all week at 4.0MHZ and going about it's business as normal, with no noticeable increase in temps. W7 O/S loads faster, as do programs.

I'm a happy little camper, 3.2MHz to 4.0MHz for nada, zip, Sweet Fanny Adams. Chuffed, big time? You betcha.

Now about the RAM speed. My system is running 4 X 4GB sticks of RAM with a potential speed of 1600, @1333MHz unganged.
Should I try to max it out? Since I've become an O/C guru (in my dreams) I've been on an O/C forum and one of the helpful guys there gave me this link about the gains in PS processing with different RAM speeds.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/art...tion-182/page2

After having a look, it seems that the real gain, processing a 109MB image in CS6, is about .4/Sec over about 80secs, or around 0.005%. My RAM speed will stay where it is.

What I have found out with all my googlings is that a very stable PSU is critical to having a stable system, and even though I haven't had any noticeable issues with my el cheapo Cooler Master unit, all reporting media tell me that it is skating on thin ice with it's voltage control, particularly when you need it for overclocking. It's being replaced with a SeaSonic 80+ Gold unit.

[old dog]

sounds good Mr. Computer nerd... No wonder I havn`t seen you out on the street lately....

[ricktas]

I run mine at 5Ghz overclocked at about 25-30 degrees most time, sometimes it runs under 20 degrees if i am not stressing the CPU. Water cooled. Intel i7-990x

[MarkChap]

I have absolutely no understanding what so ever about all this, but sounds like you have got some good results

[Cage]

sounds good Mr. Computer nerd... No wonder I havn`t seen you out on the street lately....

Cheers Graeme.

Now that I have this sorted it's time to get back to taking some photos.

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I run mine at 5Ghz overclocked at about 25-30 degrees most time, sometimes it runs under 20 degrees if i am not stressing the CPU. Water cooled. Intel i7-990x

I think you posted a shot of your set-up somewhere Rick. Looked like the control room at NAASA.

I'm just envious.

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I have absolutely no understanding what so ever about all this, but sounds like you have got some good results

I didn't either a week or so back Mark, and I'll have probably forgotten most of it in another week or so.

[Cage]

I told a fib when I said I wasn't going to touch the RAM settings.

Well, it wasn't really about overclocking it, more about bypassing the Memory Controller on the 955 chip to utilise my RAM's rated 1600MHz.

Found a step-by-step tute on the G.Skill Tech Forum which involved setting the timings and voltage manually and decided to give it a whirl.

Whoops, major hiccup!! No BSOD but the system hung during the Windows boot.

OK, back into the BIOS, reset all timings to 'Auto' and, and..............why not try the inbuilt XMP profiler?

Set it to Profile 1, hit save 'n' exit and 'Viola', we now have DRAM frequency of 803.7 x2 = 1607.4MHz.

That's it for me in the barrier pushing department. My CPU is up from 3.2MHz to 4.0MHz, a 25% increase for 'Jack', and my RAM is now running at it's rated speed.

Now to get my Samyang 14mm filter holder sorted.