How to overclock AMD Phenom II x3 715 BE

[j03h4gLund]

Can someone please help?

It's stock 3cores at 2.8ghz. I tried unlocking 4th core and it booted but was giving me graphical glitches across my desktop. Do I need to up my voltage a bit to see if that helps? CPUz recognized it as 4 core.

It runs fine on air at 3.2ghz with the auto overclock feature but I didnt change anything from there. I moved it to 3.4 and it ran good except I got a BSOD after about 15 minutes of gaming.

I see people talking about upping the voltage to 1.4 - 1.5v to help stabilize but I'm not sure what to look for in the bios. I know to take this one notch at a time when it comes to voltage and not go past 1.55 and realize I'd be doing this at my own risk.

I'd really like to get the 4th core running stable OR get my 3cores(if my 4th core is junk) to run stable at 3.4.

All the information on overclocking these has to do with the phenom II x3 720 or 710 - nothing on the 715.

Any idea? Here are some pictures for my bios :

I was playing around with these settings but didnt save anything - the pictures are just for reference so maybe someone can help me to which one I should + increase. Thanks!

 

[mfenn]

What you want to change is "CPU Over Voltage". Judging by the label, it is probably an absolute voltage instead of an offset, but that should be obvious when you look at the available values. Basically just unlock your 4th core, and creep the voltage up until one of three things happen:
1. You are stable.
2. The CPU is overheating.
3. You chicken out.

If you can get it stable under load but find that it crashes at idle, you may need to enable load line calibration.

 

[j03h4gLund]

I played around in the bios for a bit and could not get the 4 cores stable even at 2.8ghz w/ 1.5volts

i turned it back to 3cores and at 1.5v i was able to take it to 3.4ghz up from 3.2 and seemed stable for about 15 minutes while on ultra graphics with super sampling enabled in Rift.

Friend in rift has gtx 460 with an i7 960 and gets more than double my frames so I know Im CPU limited here.

So.... should I:

a) buy the fastest cpu for this am2+ mobo and if so, which is it? Ive heard the 1090t gets smoked by the phenom II x4 versions in terms of gaming.
or
b) part out the mobo/cpu and upgrade to new cpu/mobo and if so which route should i go if i choose amd or intel? should i also double my gtx 460 w/ a sli mobo? please do not turn this into amd vs intel flamewar.

Thanks!

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Glad to see you tried my suggestion. 3.4 is a pretty good OC on that CPU.

Cheapest route is a 965/970 be. Good stock speed, good match with single 460gtx, can OC around 4.- Should get you close to same frames as your bud.

Otherwise go all in on new setup around the 2500k. If you get an SLI board you can double up on the 460gtx and have a very capable rig.

 

[j03h4gLund]

Thanks for the suggestions - will probably go with one of those after I do a bit of reading.