Trouble overclocking Athlon II X4 630 on Asrock 880GMH/U3S3

[doveman007]

I'm having major troubles trying to overclock with this setup.

I've got 8GB Crucial 1600Mhz DDR3 1.5v but even at default settings, it only works reliably at 1333Mhz, although Asrock pointed me to this table which shows that officially Athlon II X4 630 on a 4-slot board with 2-slots populated only officially supports 1066Mhz RAM so perhaps that's not surprising http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...encyguide.aspx

Now overclocking, I've only had success using the CPU OC mode set to 20%, which sets FSB 240/3.36Ghz and I make sure NB and HT are set to 1920Mhz (and reduce the autoset CPU-NB from 1.25v to 1.175v as I'm not overclocking the NB). It autosets the RAM to 960Mhz and it boots to Windows but doesn't always pass the IntelBurnTest Standard (sometimes fails on the 2nd pass) even at 1.425v. If I try and adjust the timings from the auto-selected 5-5-5-15-2T (which are really more suitable for 800Mhz) to something that seems more appropriate, such as the 1066Mhz or 1333Mhz ones, it fails to POST.

If I reduce the FSB to 230, which autosets the RAM to 920Mhz and leave the timings on Auto, it fails to POST.

I've got Spread Spectrum, C1E, CnQ and Load Line Calibration all disabled.

Core temp when I've tested at 3.36Ghz with IBT and it's completed 5 runs only hits 48c, CPU 56c, MB 42c with my Xigmatek HDT-D1284 top-down cooler.

I'm starting to give up and look at undervolting instead but if anyone's got any bright ideas, I would like to work out what the problem is.

 

[ShadowVVL]

did you check to see if the memory is on the support list?


http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/880GMHU3S3/?cat=Memory

Maybe try different ram if you have any available.

sorry if my assumption is wrong on this,I don’t have any experience ocing these chips.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Athlon II CPUs, esp. the X4 series, were not known to be very overclockable, unlike their bigger brethren, the Phenom II X4 series. Call it binning, or whatever, but I don't think that you are going to get very far.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If I reduce the FSB to 230, which autosets the RAM to 920Mhz and leave the timings on Auto, it fails to POST.

You must manually set timings. "Auto" auto-sets timings according to the non-bus-overclocked speeds, according to the SPD. Since you are overclocking, you have to set them manually.

 

[doveman007]

You must manually set timings. "Auto" auto-sets timings according to the non-bus-overclocked speeds, according to the SPD. Since you are overclocking, you have to set them manually.

As I said, if I change the timings from the Autoset 960Mhz 5-5-5-15 when using FSB 240, even to looser 1066Mhz or 1333Mhz timings, it won't POST.

 

[doveman007]

did you check to see if the memory is on the support list?


http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/880GMHU3S3/?cat=Memory

Maybe try different ram if you have any available.

sorry if my assumption is wrong on this,I don’t have any experience ocing these chips.

Yeah, I never really care about the Memory support lists as they don't tend to be updated as new RAM comes out. As it works fine at 1333Mhz without overclocking, I think it's OK anyway.

 

[doveman007]

Athlon II CPUs, esp. the X4 series, were not known to be very overclockable, unlike their bigger brethren, the Phenom II X4 series. Call it binning, or whatever, but I don't think that you are going to get very far.

You might be right. I had it running at 3.22Ghz @1.456v on an old DDR2 Biostar board, so it might not go any further than that anyway and I'm not sure a 400Mhz overclock is worth bothering with, especially for that much voltage, so I guess I'll concentrate on undervolting it instead.

It seems to be stable at 800Mhz@1.0v (default 1.1v) and 1600Mhz@1.1v(default 1.2v) so I just need to find the minimum it will run at 2.8Ghz and then fine-tune.

 

[doveman007]

There seems to be something a bit dodgy about the NB (not CPU-NB) voltage setting on this board as well. At stock, in the BIOS it shows 1.19v but when overclocking, it shows 1.10v, even if I manually set it to 1.19v or even 1.30v.

I wasn't able to get it to POST properly though, even just setting the FSB to 240 (or 230), the CPU to 1.45v, NB to 1.25v, reducing the multipliers to keep the the CPU, NB and HTT at stock clocks, and manually setting the 1066Mhz timings with the RAM at 960 (or 920Mhz), so I think I give up!