Highest overclockable cheapest AMD processor?

[Vic Vega]

My 965 has run at 4.0GHz since the first time I powered it on... well, that's not entirely true. A month or so ago I bumped it up to 4.1Ghz. 🙂

 

[happy medium]

edit: if I took the $95 I would spend on that processor and put it towards 8GB DDR3 ram and an AM3+ motherboard, I could put up with my current CPU shenanegans until a hot bulldozer chip comes out...this is tough...

If I were you I would just get the 945 overclock it to 3.9+ and hold out for the next AMD socket mid next year. I was going to invest in a Asrock extreme 4 970 AM3+ for under 100$ and a cheap cpu untill BD arrives , and then I found out AM3+ boards are a dead end sometime next summer when the second revision of BD arrives.
Now I just found out BF3 will run just fine on my quad and that sealed the deal , I'm waiting till some time next year to have a little longevity in the platform I invest in.

Just some food for thought.

 

[soccerballtux]

If I were you I would just get the 945 overclock it to 3.9+ and hold out for the next AMD socket mid next year. I was going to invest in a Asrock extreme 4 970 AM3+ for under 100$ and a cheap cpu untill BD arrives , and then I found out AM3+ boards are a dead end sometime next summer when the second revision of BD arrives.
Now I just found out BF3 will run just fine on my quad and that sealed the deal , I'm waiting till some time next year to have a little longevity in the platform I invest in.

Just some food for thought.

There won't be an AM4 that is backwards compatible with AM3+ sockets? 🙁

 

[happy medium]

There won't be an AM4 that is backwards compatible with AM3+ sockets? 🙁

Not that I know of. I hear they are switching to the FM2 socket mid way next year. 🙁 I feel your pain bro.

In short, if you buy a AM3+ now and a BD in Sept. your stuck with the first revision of BD and need to upgrade your cpu and board next time.
Your better off with a overclocked quad now (should be good till next year) and upgrade next to the FM2 socket and BD revision 2.

I'm just gonna raise my overclock and buy a gtx580/6970 performing card at the end of the year for the final upgrade for my system.
Should be good till next summer for gaming.

 

[Stuka87]

not really interested. Thanks though. Does it unlock?

I have not actually tried. Funny enough I updated my bios after I put in my 965, and at that time the option to unlock cores became available.

I would put it in to check it, but its a major pain to pull my heat sink. But being that its a later rev (bit over a year old), I would be willing to bet at least one would unlock.

 

[soccerballtux]

I have not actually tried. Funny enough I updated my bios after I put in my 965, and at that time the option to unlock cores became available.

I would put it in to check it, but its a major pain to pull my heat sink. But being that its a later rev (bit over a year old), I would be willing to bet at least one would unlock.

They've started binning the ones that unlock as 560's now I believe. So you might be in the window where it was good but not so good that they moved them to 560s.

 

[tweakboy]

You can OC a Athlon 64 bit or Pentium D ... hehe😉

 

[soccerballtux]

so I ran to microcenter and bought a 965 + AM3- mobo combo.
Running @ 4.2ghz @ 1.42v with 2.71ghz cpu-nb @ 1.3-4v (working on it).
I was able to get the bus up to 271mhz which I am very happy about. Makes browsing the web at "power save" mode feel like a full-speed-ahead experience.

What does it mean if the entire computer just _stops_? No BSOD, no prime95 error, just freezes? Not necessarily happening at high temps...can be at idle. Had that happen just a sec ago. Leaning towards 271mhz being a bit high for the mobo's northbridge since I've never seen my computer do this before-- if something was wrong, it would almost always BSOD.

At 4.2ghz I think I'm going to

 

[happy medium]

so I ran to microcenter and bought a 965 + AM3- mobo combo.
Running @ 4.2ghz @ 1.42v with 2.71ghz cpu-nb @ 1.3-4v (working on it).
I was able to get the bus up to 271mhz which I am very happy about. Makes browsing the web at "power save" mode feel like a full-speed-ahead experience.

What does it mean if the entire computer just _stops_? No BSOD, no prime95 error, just freezes? Not necessarily happening at high temps...can be at idle. Had that happen just a sec ago. Leaning towards 271mhz being a bit high for the mobo's northbridge since I've never seen my computer do this before-- if something was wrong, it would almost always BSOD.

At 4.2ghz I think I'm going to

Mosfet overvoltage control? If the board is cheap it might have overvoltage protection if your stressing it to much, instead of just blowing up 🙂. Is it a 4 phase or 8 phase?
What motherboard is it?

edit:could also be the memory

 

[soccerballtux]

its a solid mobo, still running my old one that's in the sig, and my ram is running at like...720mhz or something silly.
I upped both the cpu-nb voltages (p-state 0 and 1 in PhenomMSRTweaker) and have been good so far. Going to start inching back down on one then the other and see what happens.

at 4.2ghz this should be good for a nice while...maybe that's just psychological though (4.2ghz is a big number)