can't get any stable o c on my FX-55??

[dodgenath]

Been trying to overclock my cpu for a while now, been using the quick guide for A64 oc and every time i run prime95 it fails within one minute with any over the stock 2.6ghz?
But i can run all my games at 2.8ghz with no issues at all! The highest temp i have seen is 60C on the cpu on a warm day n my previous xp3000 idled at higher than that!
What can i do to pass prime95 because im guessing that its not stable on these settings. Although i haven't seen any artifacts or crashing, i really don't want to fry my FX-55 or do any damage to anything else.

Thanks for the help.

nathan

 

[DrMrLordX]

Since you have an FX-55, you should be able to bump your mutliplier upwards. That would let you OC without changing your HTT or memory speeds at all, and would let you isolate the CPU as a possible source of problems.

Are you overclocking by increasing the FID/CPU multiplier, or are you raising HTT?

 

[sparxx]

im gonna try and oc my fx-55 soon.

 

[dodgenath]

Ive got it running at a lower multiplyer and higher fsb 224*12.5. I have tried leaving the fsb at 200 and upping the multiplyer and i get the same results.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Okay, sounds like it's your CPU then. What kind of cooling are you using, and how hot is the CPU? Also, have you tried raising vcore?

 

[Leper Messiah]

well, it is an fx-55. They're infamous for not OCing all that well, esp. on stock cooling. If you're OCing on air, I would recomend an XP-120 and a Panflo fan, or maybe the xp-90C (haven't heard too much about that one, IDK if its even out yet). 60C load is the upper limit I would run an A64 at, and don't use more than 1.6vcore. on air, the best you're probably going to get is about 27.-2.8. You can lower your multi and run your RAM oc'd though.

 

[dodgenath]

My cooling is the silenx skt 939 cooler, basically the same as the biggest zalman cooler (circular one with the copper fins around the outside), but with the quieter fan that pushes more air. My Vcore is running at 1.635v is that too high? I'll try lowering it and see what happens, it just seems weird that Prime95 fails at anything over 2.6ghz.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Have you run prime at stock 2.6ghz?

Which prime test are you running? Small files? Blend? Max Heat?
The blend tests use a lot of ram.

I use memtest to test ram, and SuperPI and Prime small files to test the CPU

I would recommend using these programs at stock speed first to make sure your CPU and RAM are ok. Then use them again as you try and overclock to pinpoint which component is limiting your overclock

Ram timings and voltage?
Power Supply?

*edit*
I see you are using the same board that I have.

Here are a few things I've found about overclocking this board

1. The 1006 and both 1007 beta bios's are terrible for overclocking
2. The 1004, 1003.005 and 1003.006 are the best so far for O/C (I,m using 1004)
3. The PCI lock setting on the Jumperfree page has never worked on my board with any
bios, but you can lock the PCI clock by setting HTT to 201 or higher in bios. If you boot up at stock and overclock in windows your PCI bus is not locked
4. This board sets the default volts to low for some ram. If your Corsair is the TCCD version you should give it at least 2.75v and if your overclocking the ram it can require as much as 2.85-2.95
5. nTune and AI booster both SUCK, use them only for monitoring unless you like to crash and burn. If you want to O/C in window use Clockgen NF4, and even then I would just use it to increase HTT. Make all your other adjustments: multis, voltages, ram timings, etc... in bios
6. Don't let ram limit your O/C, CPU speed is much more important on A64 systems. The memory dividers work well on this board. Almost all of the best A64 overclocks are acheived with a divider.

Good luck! I think you should be able to squeeze some more out of it! I've worked with 3 people overclocking their FX55 recently, one of them got 2.85ghz, another got 3.18!!, and the last guy I worked with has gotten just over 2.9ghz. And the one that got 3.18 was on the A8N-SLI

 

[gobucks]

well, the FXs never have been very good OCers, because they are always at the top bin of the current process. 2.6GHz is pretty much the max for the 130nm process, with strained silicon allowing some chips to hit 2.8GHz. Ironically, the FX has all kinds of OCing options, but unless you opt for watercooling, there isn't much headroom to take advantage of them.

 

[dodgenath]

My PSU is thermaltake 480W silent with a max of 550W. i have my ram timings at 2.5 3 3 7 @2.7V. I can run prime95 at stock using the small FFT torture test.
For some reason leaving CPU volts on auto lets me get up to 2.69MHz but anything over that crashes imidiately. Im running bios 1006 so im just downloading 1004 to give that a go. I know ntune a ai booster suck, tried them when i first started out and couldn't believe how bad they were!
Were all those overclocks you mentioned on water cooling or air GuitarDaddy?
Just flashed my bios so ill give it a go and get back to you.
Thanks

EDIT: Just tried with the bios 1004 and i got slightly higher getting 201*13.5 (2.713GHz).
So obviously its not the ram holding me back. Im just out of ideas to get the cpu faster.
Any other help is appreciated.
Ran it a second time at 235*11.5 (2.7) for 17mins with no worries (temp was 61C, room@29)