Tips on OCing PHII 940?

[Peter Trend]

I have a Phenom II X4 940 with a very, very small overclock. I'm keen to improve this but I'm not sure where I am going wrong.

I have tried every feasible thing I could think of in BIOS, but while I can POST at 3.8GHz, I can't get Windows to load at anything above 3.3GHz. I can reach 3.3 at stock voltages, but I have tried increasing CPU VID and NB VID and am unable to get any further.

The strangest thing is that I recently gave AMD Over Drive a try, and using their auto-tune, was able to reach 3.8GHz in windows with a relatively modest boost of CPU VID to 1.45V (1.35V is stock). So I copied down all of the voltage settings from AOD and tried putting these in BIOS as I have read in many places that a BIOS OC is much more reliable and generally good practise.

AOD didn't increase FSB beyond 208MHz, but instead moved the multiplier from 15 to 18.5. Using AOD I am unable to increase the multiplier of my unlocked CPU without running auto tune, and while I am able to increase the multiplier in BIOS, I can't seem to get it stable above 16.5, even if I set Vcore to 1.45 and change nothing else!

Any ideas where to go from here? Does anybody with a well overclocked PH II 940 have any voltages and BIOS settings they could share with me?

Cooling is not a problem... I have 13 fans and two radiators! LOL

 

[Markfw]

I sold my 940's, but I had both @ 3.6 (I couldn't get 3.8 stable).

I think I just increased vcore to 1.5, and multi to 18. I ran the memory at a lower than rated speed (always seems the case for me)

 

[Rifter]

my 940 kinda sucked for OCing as well, could only get to 3.6 stable and also needed 1.5v.

 

[Rhoxed]

its a simple chip to OC, just doesn't OC like the newer AMDs.

Mine, 3.8 was stable, CPU 1.52V NB at 2.6Ghz 1.35V ram at 1066 5-5-5-15 2.1V(?)

could bench for hours at 3.9ghz, but it would never pass 12hrs prime.

 

[fffblackmage]

I think this is the case for many C2 stepping Phenom IIs. I'm only able to get 3.6GHz with my unlocked 550BE. If I run it locked as a dual core, I actually got to 3.8GHz, but I still can't hit that magical 4GHz.

 

[Peter Trend]

Thanks, at least this confirms what I was thinking that Ph II X4 is not the best range of CPUs to overclock, and I'm not doing anything silly wrong! I think I must have also got a fairly poor sample as I've seen others do far better with the 940.

I've decided it's not really worth the effort and will be best relegated to folding only.
It's tempting to chuck a 1055T in, but if Im doing that I may as well do the board as well, and if I'm swapping the board there's no need to stick to AMD only!

I'm thinking keep it simple and get an i7 of some description. Can anyone recommend a stable, reliable X58 board under £200 to migrate into my water-cooled box? This is my recording machine so rock-solid stability is key...but if I can still overclock it without frying my NB/SB, so much the better!

 

[Peter Trend]

I've managed to reach 3.6 GHz in BIOS without increasing the FSB. I have increased VID to 1.55V and NB VID to 1.45V. Multiplier is 18. I also turned cpu tweak OFF. I was helped by the discussion I found here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=218438

If it seems stable tomorrow I will increase FSB too.