How to overclock Athlon II X2?

[hans030390]

I've never overclocked a CPU before, but figured I'd give it a shot with my Athlon II X2 240 (stock 2.8ghz). For some reason, my motherboard BIOS has no effect on my CPU when I up the HT ref. clock. However, AMD Overdrive works, so that's what I have to use. Everything else in the BIOS seems to do what it's supposed to, as far as I know.

So, first off, I tried increasing the HT ref. clock (and nothing else). Most people can get these CPUs up to 3.4ghz, so I started off with 3ghz. Did some quick stability testing...seemed to be OK. Next up, figured I'd do a jump up to 3.2ghz. Ran the stability tests for a bit, crashed pretty quickly.

I did some research and decided my next step was to raise the voltage from 1.375v to 1.425v. Temperatures and everything are still within normal values. So, once again, I tried 3.2ghz. It went through stability tests longer than before, so I decided to try out Shattered Horizons. A few minutes into the game, my computer crashes. Still, it got further than it did the first time.

Right now I'm sitting at 3.08ghz, and it seems to be stable. I'm aware that some people just get CPUs that don't OC well, but I think this is a strangely low OC.

Now, onto the main part of this post. I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to OCing. I can't raise the multiplier (locked in these CPUs), so my only option is the HT ref. clock speed. I've raised the voltage a bit. But one thing I haven't tried is tweaking the memory speeds/settings. Most people mention doing so when OCing, but I don't have the first clue where to start there.

So, what should I try next? Are there any good guides to look at (that are easy to understand)?

Here's my specs:
Athlon II X2 240 (2.8Ghz stock)
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066, 5-6-6-18 timing
Radeon 5770, slightly overclocked
HDD and DVD burner
500 watt Rosewill PSU:
+3.3V@24A, +5V@20A, +12V1@19A, +12V2@18A,
-12V@0.5A, +5VSB@2.5A

 

[hans030390]

Nevermind. Something about this computer just doesn't like overclocking! It's not even stable at 3ghz, so it's not worth the effort. I blame it on the ECS motherboard. It works great if you're not overclocking, but that's about it. Budgets suck.

 

[jvroig]

I blame it on the ECS motherboard

I personally dislike ECS motherboards. My friends as well as my officemates in the company I work for (we're all IT people) generally loathe ECS as an undependable brand of mobos. As if that weren't enough, my older brother made the mistake of using it for his last build, and it barely lasted for two years before the mobo failed.

It's all anecdotal evidence. All of us simply had very bad experiences with ECS, so none of us trust those boards anymore. It's quite possible that a lot of people would have the opposite experience, so more power to them if so.

 

[hans030390]

I personally dislike ECS motherboards. My friends as well as my officemates in the company I work for (we're all IT people) generally loathe ECS as an undependable brand of mobos. As if that weren't enough, my older brother made the mistake of using it for his last build, and it barely lasted for two years before the mobo failed.

It's all anecdotal evidence. All of us simply had very bad experiences with ECS, so none of us trust those boards anymore. It's quite possible that a lot of people would have the opposite experience, so more power to them if so.

Yeah. The motherboard, so far, seems to be very stable and built very well, especially given that it was rather cheap. I think the main problem is that it was made for AM2+ CPUs first and just recently was made to work with AM3. I can tell that most functionality, however, relies on having something like an AM2+ Phenom.

Either way, it's solid when I don't want to OC. I was on such a tight budget, though. I'm sure that down the road I'll swap it out for something better.

 

[Hyperlite]

exactly which ECS is it?

 

[hans030390]

a780gm-a ultra (black edition)