AMD 185 Opteron

[Astro-AL]

Can anyone give me tips on voltages for overclocking AMD 185 Opteron?

 

[burninatortech4]

The AMD 185 Opteron (Socket 939) is not overclockable.

Source

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The AMD 185 Opteron (Socket 939) is not overclockable.

Source

are you saying its not overclockable in the sense that, @ 2.6GHz stock, its already close to its maximum potential clock rate and thus not worth the trouble for any extra gain, or are you suggesting that it simply cannot be overclocked whatsoever? Because it most certainly can be overclocked.

Heck, I'm typing this out on an overclocked Opteron 165 (just the lowest model Opteron in the same family as the 185) that I've been playing with lately...

As long as its being used in a motherboard that supports overclocking (nForce 4 based were the bee's knees back in those days), the OP should be good to go (also provided has capable cooling)

 

[Conroe]

I think my 165 did 3.0 ghz stable with 1.45v?

edit, found a screen shot of it running F@H

It was 1.525v set in BIOS with a freezer 64. I think some ran them at 1.6V+ on water.

 

[Yuriman]

I ran 2.7GHz on my 165 at about 1.4v. I too was using a Freezer64.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

The AMD 185 Opteron (Socket 939) is not overclockable.

Source

Yeah it is.

You can't overclock it by just changing the multiplier, like on the FX series; gotta manipulate the FSB.

Max recommended back in the day was 1.55v with a good air cooler. Some sites said 1.6v, but personally I'd only try that under water.

 

[Makaveli]

Wow didn't think someone would be asking about overclocking one of these so far past their prime.

I still have my Opteron 170 doing HTPC duty.

When it was in my desktop rig I was able to get it running at 3Ghz but I don't remember what voltage now. Also those chips only liked 2 dimms slots to be filled when all 4 were filled it would lower your overclocking headroom.

Also that guy saying the 185 is not overclockable is wrong!

 

[nwo]

Socket 939 Opterons certainly are overclockable. As already mentioned, you just have to do it via FSB since the multiplier is locked (you can only lower it, but not raise it). As long as you monitor your temps, you should be good to go to at least 1.4v even on mediocre cooling. Most 165s (1.8GHz stock) were capable of reaching 2.8-3GHz back in the day, so 3GHz probably be a joke for a 185 since they are already at 2.6GHz.

Keep in mind that these CPUs are not as temp tolerant as let's say Intel's Haswells which can easily run 24/7 stable in the upper 70s... Socket 939 Opterons like to stay under 60*C.

Also keep in mind that when you're OCing via the FSB, you are also overclocking you RAM. So if you have DDR400 RAM which runs at stock FSB of 200MHz, you either need to change the FSB:RAM multiplier, or adjust your RAM timings/voltage accordingly in order to achieve a high FSB overclock.

 

[lamedude]

It looks like you won't be going much higher on air cooling. Unless this is for fun I wouldn't bother and even then I would just wait for the 20th anniversary Pentium.

 

[nwo]

I guess 3GHz is the ceiling for most s939 CPUs, regardless of base clock speed.

 

[nemesismk2]

I owned a AMD 180 Opteron 2.4Ghz which was a great CPU

 

[toyota]

whats the point? the cpu is just as irrelevant with a small oc as it is at stock. its like worrying about overclocking an 8600gt.

 

[BUnit1701]

I have an Opteron 185 in an ASRock 790GX board for 939 and DDR1. I never attempted to max out the OC as I picked it up on Ebay to replace the 165 I had been running at 2.6Ghz, but I got 2.8Ghz out of it without any real effort.

EDIT : Ooops, memory fail, I got a 180 not 185. It is running pretty at 2.8Ghz though.

 

[BUnit1701]

Remembered I had a picture from an OC contest I was involved in over on the Tom's forums back in 2008. I never had the guts to go past 1.5V so couldn't ever get past 2.9Ghz on that old 165. I wanted 3.0Ghz so bad...

 

[NTMBK]

whats the point? the cpu is just as irrelevant with a small oc as it is at stock. its like worrying about overclocking an 8600gt.

Some people actually find overclocking fun in and of itself, you know. 😉

 

[nwo]

whats the point? the cpu is just as irrelevant with a small oc as it is at stock. its like worrying about overclocking an 8600gt.

Yeah going from 2.6 to 3GHz is pretty small but for an Opteron 165 coming from 1.8 to 2.8 or 3 is pretty huge. Back in the day, OCing used to mean a lot more than it does now. A 400MHz OC is measly for today's standards while back in the day it actually made a pretty big difference.