overclocking athlon ii x4 620?

[cubeless]

READ THE THREAD , HE HAS A AFTER MARKET COOLER.

SOrry for caps

he say he owns a hyper212, not that it's installed on this chip...

u may cap some more now if u like... ;p

 

[happy medium]

he say he owns a hyper212, not that it's installed on this chip...

u may cap some more now if u like... ;p

He said his friend owns a hyper 212 and its his friends computer thats hes helping to overclock. :thumbsup:

 

[dpk33]

yes the hyper 212 is on the chip. also, he cant get the fsb past 250 without instability at 1.5 volts.

 

[happy medium]

yes the hyper 212 is on the chip. also, he cant get the fsb past 250 without instability at 1.5 volts.

250? Tell him to drop the HT link to 8x. 250x8 = 2000 , you wanna try to keep the HT at 2000.

from 2.6 to 3.3 is fairly good overclock.

Let me know if that don't work and mabe we will give the Northbridge a voltage bump along with the ram.

 

[cubeless]

that's actually a very good oc for one of those... lots of q6600's wouldn't do better than that without severe beating...

and the nb is already probably getting pretty hot... be sure u have some air blowing past/at it and your vrm's (your 212 may be blocking/reducing airflow to the area under it where the power section is on the mobo)...

the speed reading approach to oc'ing usually leaves out the trail of broken parts that got us to all this free mhz... leaving a couple potential mhz on the table is not a bad thing to ensure longevity of parts... i hate to see when all the joy turns to sorrow in the blink of an eye...

 

[dpk33]

250? Tell him to drop the HT link to 8x. 250x8 = 2000 , you wanna try to keep the HT at 2000.

from 2.6 to 3.3 is fairly good overclock.

Let me know if that don't work and mabe we will give the Northbridge a voltage bump along with the ram.

there's no 8x or 9x for the HT speeds. it just gives me a bunch of frequencies ranging from 1200 to 2000. and whichever oen i set it at, it's always higher. also, how far do i increase the voltage on the ram and the northbridge? forgive me if i sound noobish.

 

[cubeless]

you tick up voltage until you get stable at whatever clock you choose... all of the bits and pieces have their upper limit (like ddr3 ~1.65, etc...)... do some searching for your nb, etc...

don't know if that mobo locks the ht, it could be the base that you start from... does the bios show what the ht is running? maybe cpuz does?

 

[dpk33]

you tick up voltage until you get stable at whatever clock you choose... all of the bits and pieces have their upper limit (like ddr3 ~1.65, etc...)... do some searching for your nb, etc...

don't know if that mobo locks the ht, it could be the base that you start from... does the bios show what the ht is running? maybe cpuz does?

so is it just safe to put all of the voltages to their upper limit? and also, let's say i set the HT speed at 2000mhz in bios, it shows up as something higher in cpu z.

 

[cubeless]

ummm, no, i don't think i even slightly inferred that you can just push voltages up to the max... the reason oc'ing is ymmv is because the combination of components, environment, and karma on every system is different... a good rule is "don't get too greedy" until you either have a lot more experience or are ready to replace parts that you cook... you get to decreasing returns for the extra power you use and noise from cooling pretty fast on modern components...

and that cpuz says something higher seems to point to the setting in bios being the base that you start from... u can test this by dropping it in bios and see what cpuz then says...

 

[Vesku]

If it lists HT speeds as 1200-2000, divide by 200 for the multiplier. 2000 would be full 10x multiplier or 2500 with 250fsb, way too high. Note on OCing, you may try running the HT at ~1800 actual speed instead and find you can lower cpu voltage a bit, YMMV.

 

[dpk33]

so it doesnt matter what the HT speed is in bios, as long as cpu-z reads ~2000?

and also, to get higher than 3.2, i need to push to volts of the northbridge and ram? what are some safe voltages for these components?

 

[Vesku]

HT should read 2000 or below in CPU-Z, yes. I personally don't push my northbridge voltage beyond +0.25, the actual voltage rating depends on chipset with integrated graphics chips having higher default voltage.

 

[dpk33]

So what about the memory voltage? And also, how do i know what exactly +0.25 volts is, if it's set at auto?

 

[Vesku]

Auto = +0, switching to manual enables additional voltage choices. As for memory, if you are overclocking I find it best to run the RAM a bit under spec rather than over. For example if FSB is at 250, I would probably run DDR 1600 RAM at (x6) 1500. It is always a good idea to compare bios voltage of your RAM to your RAM's specifications, sometimes it is necessary to correct bios voltage settings. Same goes for RAM timings.

 

[dpk33]

i see.. so far, the only things that have been changed are the fsb speed, the ht speed, the ram frequency and the cpu voltage. and the fsb wont go past 250. what else needs to be changed? northbridge volts? ram volts?

 

[Vesku]

Well, with overclocking it's best to gradually work up to your maximum FSB at a desirable cpu voltage. Example, try 220 FSB does it boot up fine and run OCCT or another CPU stresser for at least a few mins? If yes, try 230 FSB, same? If no, add some CPU voltage and test? Still no, increase northbridge by a tad? Still no, increase the CPU voltage if not at your maximum. Just that kind of process.

This is a good guide though is a bit involved:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

 

[dpk33]

so basically, the entire thing goes as follows:
1. Increase CPU voltage to 1.5ish.
2. Lower DRAM frequency to lowest setting.
3. Keep HT speeds around 2000.
4. Increase the fsb until unstable.
5. Increase Northbridge volts until stable.
6. Stop at 270 fsb (my desired speed)

sounds reasonable?

 

[Vesku]

It's taking shortcuts but yes, except step 1) Increase CPU voltage to 1.45 and don't go beyond 1.5 while following these steps.

If you're going this route you might as well set your northbridge voltage no higher than .1 from the default unless you love risk.

 

[dpk33]

It's taking shortcuts but yes, except step 1) Increase CPU voltage to 1.45 and don't go beyond 1.5 while following these steps.

If you're going this route you might as well set your northbridge voltage no higher than .1 from the default unless you love risk.

So revised:
1. Increase CPU voltage to 1.45ish and increase Northbridge voltage by 0.1.
2. Lower DRAM frequency to lowest setting.
3. Keep HT speeds around 2000.
4. Increase the fsb until unstable.
5. Stop at 270 fsb (my desired speed) or lower if it get's unstable before then.

Are there any other voltages/frequencies/settings that i need to be changing, or are those the only things i need to change? Do i need to change RAM timings/voltages or anything like that?

 

[Vesku]

I think tweaking other voltages is going into voodoo expert territory. Your list looks good, keep in mind if you aren't quite reaching your target FSB you can set raise CPU voltage within your upper limit and you can run your HT at 1600 or 1800 actual speed.

Edit: Noticed one thing missing, try to run your NB around 2400 actual speed. Just tweak that last so you can correctly judge stability. Final note - run a stability test for a decent amount of time, at least as long as you expect to have the computer on at any single stretch or 24/48 hours if it's a 24/7 computer.

 

[dpk33]

I think tweaking other voltages is going into voodoo expert territory. Your list looks good, keep in mind if you aren't quite reaching your target FSB you can set raise CPU voltage within your upper limit and you can run your HT at 1600 or 1800 actual speed.

Edit: Noticed one thing missing, try to run your NB around 2400 actual speed. Just tweak that last so you can correctly judge stability. Final note - run a stability test for a decent amount of time, at least as long as you expect to have the computer on at any single stretch or 24/48 hours if it's a 24/7 computer.

The CPU is already running at 1.45 volts. It can't get any higher than 250 fsb without instability. And how do I check the speed of my northbridge? is it there a multiplier for that?

Also, there are 3 settings for voltages. One is called CPU voltage, one is called CPU/NB voltage, and the other is NB voltage. Which one(s) should i change? And then there's HT voltage and DRAM voltage, should I worry about those at all?

 

[Vesku]

I don't have personal experience with that chipset so will have to refer to this forum post I found regarding voltages:

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=173971

"CPU @3.6GHz (x18 x 200) using CPU VDD Voltage @1.4625 and NB @2.6GHz (x13 x 200) using CPU-NB VDD VOltage @1.275, CPU-NB Voltage @1.329, and NB Voltage @1.221 with CPU temps 50C Load"

Seems like you need to set CPU voltage to 1.46 or 1.47, their listed NB Voltage seems reasonable 1.221. Not sure on 24/7 safety for CPU-NB Voltage but doesn't seem extreme. If it's still unstable you may just have hit max sane stability at 250.

My personal experience with AMD chipsets has been I either can't go very high (230-240) regardless of extra voltage or it will handle 270ish FSB with moderate voltage. This being a NVIDIA chipset, YMMV.

 

[Vesku]

CPU/NB Frequency would be controlling the NB speed, btw, after checking out that mobo manual. Shows up with AI Overclocking on manual, they unhelpfully only show the Auto screen in the manual.

 

[dpk33]

So basically keep HT speeds around 2000 and NB speeds around 2400? And up the volts a bit on each? What about the DRAM volts?

 

[Vesku]

Just make sure the RAM voltage is correct for your DIMMS. For example my G-Skill DDR3 is rated for 1.5V operation.

Keep HT at or below 2000, reported speed by CPU-Z or similar. By running it at 1600 or 1800 you are reducing the HT link as a cause of instability.

The previous AM3 overclock guide I linked actually has a NB table based on OC frequency, but 2400 is a good speed that all my motherboards and CPUs have been able to handle.