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Overclock AMD 960T (mobo= GA-78LMT-S2P)

JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
just bought this combo from microcenter @$90 total.

just put it together barebones and unlocked to 6cores easy. havent tested with Prime yet.

i want to o/c but heard warnings about v4.0 of this mobo being 3+1 VRM. v3.1 of the board was 4+1 VRM.

my board is v5 but i cant find any documentation on VRM. i see the VRM bank behind the onboard video. it says DQ10, 20,21,22.

does that mean vrm = 4+1?

And how far to o/c this combo w/o killing it (stock hsf)?


edit:
mobo specs say it can handle 125W cpu.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0366104

also, my ps is a corsair 430W which blow air directly down onto the mobo. i guess it also cools the VRMs?

and how much power does unlocking to 6cores (w/o any overclock) take up?
 
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Yeah that board is not going to help you out much, you would be able to do much more with a 970, 990 or even 880 or 890 board.

Stalk Newegg for open box boards, I have had good luck with the 2 Asus and gigabyte boards I got open box.
 
I can tell you exactly. The reason turbo is disabled on your motherboard is because the 960T goes to 3.4GHz under load. When i run mine at 4-Core and 3.4GHz, HWMonitor shows it at 118Watts.

And unfortunately even that is too much for that motherboard to handle. Over time it will eventually more than likely fry the board.

But i will tell you that even at stock speeds of 3GHz that is a very fast chip. Has all the enhancements of a Thuban cpu but runs very cool at stock speed.

For the price of the combo, you scored a great deal.
 
daveybrat said:
I can tell you exactly. The reason turbo is disabled on your motherboard is because the 960T goes to 3.4GHz under load. When i run mine at 4-Core and 3.4GHz, HWMonitor shows it at 118Watts.

And unfortunately even that is too much for that motherboard to handle. Over time it will eventually more than likely fry the board.

But i will tell you that even at stock speeds of 3GHz that is a very fast chip. Has all the enhancements of a Thuban cpu but runs very cool at stock speed.

For the price of the combo, you scored a great deal.
Click to expand...


so Turbo CPB allows the cpu to go from 3ghz to 3.4ghz?

then whats the purpose of "Core Performance Boost" enable/disable option??
(Turbo CPB is 1 level below that option.)
 
JEDI said:
so Turbo CPB allows the cpu to go from 3ghz to 3.4ghz?

then whats the purpose of "Core Performance Boost" enable/disable option??
(Turbo CPB is 1 level below that option.)
Click to expand...

Yes, the turbo core takes it to 3.4GHz. However it is quite useless on a motherboard that only supports up to 95W cpu's. Not even sure why they included it.

The higher the clockspeeds, the higher the TDP, i.e why mine runs at 118W at 3.4GHz. And don't even think of unlocking the extra 2 cores, then even at 3GHz, you'll jump up to 125W.
 
Hard to say, no real way of knowing why AMD turned off two cores and sold it for less.

Often they're defective, however for various reasons.
 
RavenSEAL said:
You're looking at 125w~.

If you wanna play with 6 cores, if you wanna push 4 cores to 4.0ghz, get at least a 970 with a 4+2 PP.
Click to expand...

ugg.. $50 more than the GA-78LMT bundle. Might as well get the i2100 and h61M-p23 combo for $120.
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/expired/0414BUNDLEpromo.html
nevermind.. expired 🙁

hm.. how about the Asus M5A78L? 960T combo is $100.

and the M5a78L is rated for 125W, which means i can unlock all 6 cores plus overclock?
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0379475
only downside is that it doesnt have DVI for my 2nd monitor. 🙁
 
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JEDI said:
ugg.. $50 more than the GA-78LMT bundle. Might as well get the i2100 and h61M-p23 combo for $120.
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/expired/0414BUNDLEpromo.html
nevermind.. expired 🙁

hm.. how about the Asus M5A78L? 960T combo is $100.

and the M5a78L is rated for 125W, which means i can unlock all 6 cores plus overclock?
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0379475
only downside is that it doesnt have DVI for my 2nd monitor. 🙁
Click to expand...

Don't bother with the Asus. Even though it claims 125W support, it is also a 3+1 power phase board. Probably won't get to high with that either.

And to be honest, i'd rather have the 960T even at stock over the i3 processor bundle that expired. As long as you get a decent graphics card you really won't be limited by any games with a 3GHz Quad-Core chip.
 
ok, so i need to accept the fact that i cant unlock to 6cores with either of the microcenters 2 cheap mobos because they are 95W max.

should i even try overclocking? or not worth the little increase to even waste my time on? (not even turn on Turbo CPB???)
 
JEDI said:
ok, so i need to accept the fact that i cant unlock to 6cores with either of the microcenters 2 cheap mobos because they are 95W max.

should i even try overclocking? or not worth the little increase to even waste my time on? (not even turn on Turbo CPB???)
Click to expand...

Nah, it's not worth it. And even if you decided to overclock, that anemic stock cooler will do you little good. I for instance use the CM Hyper 212+, but would not use the stock cooler unless running it at stock.

Again, i've ran the chip at stock and also with 6-Cores, overclocked to 3.5GHz and still saw no tangible increase in speed. Of course i don't play the latest games, but you'd be smarter to put the money you saved towards a nicer GPU.

The biggest and fastest upgrade i noticed was from the Crucial M4 SSD i bought. Made my system faster than anything i've ever used before. Money well spent!
 
daveybrat said:
Nah, it's not worth it. And even if you decided to overclock, that anemic stock cooler will do you little good. I for instance use the CM Hyper 212+, but would not use the stock cooler unless running it at stock.

Again, i've ran the chip at stock and also with 6-Cores, overclocked to 3.5GHz and still saw no tangible increase in speed. Of course i don't play the latest games, but you'd be smarter to put the money you saved towards a nicer GPU.

The biggest and fastest upgrade i noticed was from the Crucial M4 SSD i bought. Made my system faster than anything i've ever used before. Money well spent!
Click to expand...


i plan to have a 32gig ssd as my c: for Win7, and all programs/data on my 1TB d: drive.

win 7 w/sp1 installed is 12gigs before any updates?!
 
The ga-970a-ud3 is a great board for only $50 more. 8+2 vrm and lots of nice over clock features.
Oh and my 960t from mc was only able to unlock one extra core.
 
Uppsala9496 said:
The ga-970a-ud3 is a great board for only $50 more. 8+2 vrm and lots of nice over clock features.
Oh and my 960t from mc was only able to unlock one extra core.
Click to expand...

yeah, but doesnt have dvi/vga for my extra monitors.

i cant understand why MC offered such a great overclocking cpu w/a non-OC board combo (3+1 VRM boards)?!
 
JEDI said:
yeah, but doesnt have dvi/vga for my extra monitors.

i cant understand why MC offered such a great overclocking cpu w/a non-OC board combo (3+1 VRM boards)?!
Click to expand...

I've wondered that too, but it's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth. They lose money everytime someone comes in and buys these combo's without picking up extra stuff like cases, ram, hard drive, vid, etc.

I'm just happy they have these bundles so i can build cheap gaming rigs for friends and family that don't want to spend a lot. They are all happy with the AMD systems i've built.
 
You just have to face it (and its something you should have realized shortly after the thread started), you got a good CPU for $90 that has been going for at least $125 everywhere else. They tossed in a budget board for free on top of that. You got an excellent deal even if the board can only lightly overclock (either by unlocking the two cores or OCing with four). Save some money for a better board now.
 
unlocked cores = system unstable in Win7 🙁
heck, unlock cores but turned off cores 5+6 = still unstable?!?! 😱

not worth tying to o/c for so little, especiallty since Turbp CBP pushes it to 3.4ghz. (albeit shutting down 2 of my 4 cores when turbo kicks in.)

yeah, i have resigned myself to stock settings.
hopefully in 2yrs i can pick up a cheap/free board to unlock to 6cores AND o/c to 4ghz 😛
 
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