Overclocking Phenom 9950 BE on Crosshair II

[The Starfox]

Asus Crosshair II update with 8030 BIOS
8 GB OCZ Reaper PC2 8500
Phenom 9950 BE
1200 watt PC power and Cooling power supply

I must say this board has been extremely finiky. It took me several days to hand set the memory timings so that it would run without blue screening all the time. I have the system fully stable now running the ram at 1066.

So I decided to move on to trying to push the cpu, and it wont overclock a single bit. Cooling is absolutly not a problem here. Iv tried pumping up the voltage incrementaly to as high as 1.45, and it wont even overclock a mere 200mghz. It will POST, but the moment it tries to load Vista 64-bit, it blue screens.

I must say that as many options as the BIOS has for tweaking the ram and cpu, they are all in a cryptic abreviation or non descriptive name, with no explanation in the BIOS or the manual as to what they do.

Im guessing there is some other setting I need to play with besides the multiplyer for the cpu and the voltage. How far has other pushed their Phenom processors? What settings were used to get there? Are there any Deatailed explantions of the various settings in the BIOS, or of the overclocking settings others are using to get high overclocks?

 

[Idontcare]

You want to PM SlowSpyder and batmang.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I could be waaaay off here, but I'm pretty sure I've heard of a lot of problems with running ram at 1066MHz with the Phenoms. Even if they do support that speed, all I've heard is problems. I'd try and run the ram at 800MHz first, see if that changes anything.

http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=35649

That's just from searching Google now, I see more hits from Google not too different then that. Anyway, just something to try, good luck.

 

[The Starfox]

I guess I could try that, and if it works I would be happy with it. Nonetheless I shouldn't have to. Ive seen articles on Anandtech where they get their Phenoms to 3.5ghz on just air!

 

[Rhoxed]

I would definately say the ram is probably the biggest step.
Personally i would try overclocking with ram starting at 800Mhz

I have 2 pairs of G.skill 800 that hit 1066 *in some cases*

I have both a 9850BE and a 9550 (2.5 and 2.2)
I have MSI K9A2 Platinum for the 9850BE

Now, with the 9850BE, i cannot boot ram at 1066 for the life of me, no matter the voltage or timings
9550, ram boots at 1066 no problems (same board) stock volts and timings of 5-5-5-15 (rated for 800Mhz speed)

9850BE tops at 240HTT x12 (wont budge past 240 stable ram at ~960Mhz) 2.88Ghz
9550 tops at 260HTT x 11 (running ram at ~1040) 2.86Ghz

(now with the 9850BE straight multi change 200x14 (2.8Ghz) is very able to do, but increasing the NB speed over 2200Mhz (2000 stock) can net from 10%-15% gains)

All of this in the same K9A2 Platinum, same ram sticks, same HD's same everything.
Neither chip will OC past 2.88 in this MOBO, so i definitely think this would be a solution for the SB750 of the new boards.

All of these links have alot of info.

http://forums.extremeoverclock...howthread.php?t=298957

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=198336

http://forums.extremeoverclock...howthread.php?t=297148

As i said before, the biggest overclocks will be seen with motherboards and SB750, which i believe your board has SB600, which is also what mine has

I will be getting a board with SB750 soon and i will definitely write an in depth review of the OC abilities


Absolutely any questions you have feel free to ask, i know quite a bit about these finicky beasts

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I guess I could try that, and if it works I would be happy with it. Nonetheless I shouldn't have to. Ive seen articles on Anandtech where they get their Phenoms to 3.5ghz on just air!

Good luck with that expectation....Just from what I have seen, that is not realistic. Please read more forum threads, and ask slowspyder and the like. 2.8 seems to be it most of the time.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I guess I could try that, and if it works I would be happy with it. Nonetheless I shouldn't have to. Ive seen articles on Anandtech where they get their Phenoms to 3.5ghz on just air!

GL with that one.....

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I guess I could try that, and if it works I would be happy with it. Nonetheless I shouldn't have to. Ive seen articles on Anandtech where they get their Phenoms to 3.5ghz on just air!

3.5 is with the '750' southbridge chip. The motherboards with those chips are just starting to trickle out, I don't think I've seen an enthusiast board yet with that southbridge. ~3.0GHz should be doable (plus or minus a hundred MHz or so... more likely minus then plus I'd imagine ) on what you have.

The 1066 ram thing is certainly a goof on AMD's part. They say they are certified for that speed, yet almost everyone has problems running at that speed. The good news is I bet other then synthetic benches there isn't much difference in performance, but still, you should be able to run that speed. I've read that motherboard makers will update their BIOS'es to help with the issue, but seeing as the Phenom has the memory controller on board I don't know how much it'll really make a difference. Anyway, good luck.

 

[Rhoxed]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I guess I could try that, and if it works I would be happy with it. Nonetheless I shouldn't have to. Ive seen articles on Anandtech where they get their Phenoms to 3.5ghz on just air!

3.5 is with the '750' southbridge chip. The motherboards with those chips are just starting to trickle out, I don't think I've seen an enthusiast board yet with that southbridge. ~3.0GHz should be doable (plus or minus a hundred MHz or so... more likely minus then plus I'd imagine ) on what you have.

The 1066 ram thing is certainly a goof on AMD's part. They say they are certified for that speed, yet almost everyone has problems running at that speed. The good news is I bet other then synthetic benches there isn't much difference in performance, but still, you should be able to run that speed. I've read that motherboard makers will update their BIOS'es to help with the issue, but seeing as the Phenom has the memory controller on board I don't know how much it'll really make a difference. Anyway, good luck.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186149

first 790FX with SB750.. a bit expensive though

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...cription=sb750&x=0&y=0

all the other SB750 boards (all with 2x pci-e)

 

[The Starfox]

Ive set the memory back down to 800 mhz, and up the cpu multiplier to 14 for a total of 2.8ghz, and the system still bluescreens. I kept the timing lose on the memory and left it at 1.9 volts. Id like to know how those review sites are getting theirs all over 3ghz.

The board I have has the 780a chipset from nvidia.

 

[The Starfox]

I just noticed that CPU-Z states the voltage of my CPU at 1.232 volts, even though I had set the CPU in the BIOS to be at 1.4 volts.

I know this board has problems displaying the actual memory timings in the BIOS, any chance that the board is not actually increasing the voltage to the CPU, as CPU-Z reports? The voltage monitors in the BIOS shows the voltage I set for the CPU correctly. Yet non matter what voltage I set for the CPU in the BIOS, the CPU-Z voltage remains the same, only slightly fluctuating as the pc sits there.

 

[Rhoxed]

i would also try prog like Everest, Speed fan etc. just to make sure vcore is putting out, if not you might need a BIOS update

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I just noticed that CPU-Z states the voltage of my CPU at 1.232 volts, even though I had set the CPU in the BIOS to be at 1.4 volts.

I know this board has problems displaying the actual memory timings in the BIOS, any chance that the board is not actually increasing the voltage to the CPU, as CPU-Z reports? The voltage monitors in the BIOS shows the voltage I set for the CPU correctly. Yet non matter what voltage I set for the CPU in the BIOS, the CPU-Z voltage remains the same, only slightly fluctuating as the pc sits there.

vDroop. Stress the CPU some and the voltage will climb back up (or get lower; forgot how that went again).

 

[The Starfox]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver

Originally posted by: The Starfox
I just noticed that CPU-Z states the voltage of my CPU at 1.232 volts, even though I had set the CPU in the BIOS to be at 1.4 volts.

I know this board has problems displaying the actual memory timings in the BIOS, any chance that the board is not actually increasing the voltage to the CPU, as CPU-Z reports? The voltage monitors in the BIOS shows the voltage I set for the CPU correctly. Yet non matter what voltage I set for the CPU in the BIOS, the CPU-Z voltage remains the same, only slightly fluctuating as the pc sits there.

vDroop. Stress the CPU some and the voltage will climb back up (or get lower; forgot how that went again).

I tried stressing it with CPU-Z running and according to CPU-Z the voltage didn't go up it stayed at 1.232.

Interestingly enough I went back to the BIOS and changed the Vcore from 1.4 to AUTO, and the CPU multiplier to x14, and was able to boot to windows. The system however wasn't stable. I was able to load up CPU-Z and it showed the Vcore had gone up to 1.3.

I just don't get it. No matter if I raise the voltage to 1.45, or to AUTO; no matter if I run the ram at 800, or 1066, the system just will not boot the slightest overclock.

 

[Rhoxed]

as i said before, check for a bios update. I havent used a phenom that couldnt OC 300+ mhz yet.

 

[The Starfox]

I did, I have the latest BIOS.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
You want to PM SlowSpyder and batmang.

I unfortunately have no information on the crosshair ii, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[MegaWorks]

Guys the Crosshair II is an nForce 780a SLI chipset motherboard.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: batmang

Originally posted by: Idontcare
You want to PM SlowSpyder and batmang.

I unfortunately have no information on the crosshair ii, but thanks for the suggestion.

This one is from 5 months ago.