Would appreciate any OverCLocking guidance!

[cctaylor88]

Well I honestly don't even know where to begin, as I have never even attempted to overclock before. The only thing that may be a problem is that I don't have any "aftermarket" cooling or heat sinks, but I don't want to do anything crazy as far as the overclocking goes. Just want to squeeze out whatever stable and safe performance I can!

Basically before I begin I want to know what I'm doing...

What software should I download, as I assume there will be a lot of trial and error involved with this

Ram: g.Skill Ripjaws 8gb

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2

Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD/USB3

Power: 600W

Case (to show fans/cooling): MidTower

Also.. I always notice that on start up when I see my BIOS screen I can press 4 to their "ASUS core unlocker" or whatever...

CPU-Z is saying that my CPU "Core Voltage" is sitting around 1.332 V
Also... the RAM I purchased states that it is a CL9 but CPU-Z is saying that the CAS Latency is at "11.0 clocks" why would this be?

 

[Vectronic]

No experience with the chip, so can't offer much advice... personally, I prefer to just look up the maximums (voltages/temps) for a CPU, RAM and Chipset, and play with it... once I've figured how my chips and board behave... go all bonkers and exceed maximums based on how much I trust them...lol... but this (3 second google-fu) might be helpful.

You should be able to OC your ram to the stated max (2000) pretty easy... and probably 3.8GHz area.

Motherboards aren't always very good at guessing values for RAM, you'll probably have to enter the timings manually.

 

[tweakboy]

That is ok

So whats the problem now ? What software do you want ?

 

[Smoove910]

since you have an unlocked multiplier on your CPU, the easiest way to overclock would be to raise your multiplier until you reached instability. Since you have a default mhz of 3200 (or 3.2ghz), your multi is 16

16 x 200 = 3200 mhz

So based on what you raise your multi to will result in the overall mhz:
example:

17.5 x 200 = 3500 mhz (3.5ghz) which should be doable on stock cooling and default voltage.

Multi should be found in the BIOS

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Actually it isn't a bad little chip. It would be useful to know if it is a C2 or C3 stepping to get a better idea of your upper bounds. You should be able to easily hit 3.6~3.7ghz with stock cooling/volts. Additionally, you'll see a nice little gain bumping up the NB. About 2.4 ghz would be fine there. Actually here's a nice guide

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

 

[cctaylor88]

Okay so you guys seem to think I can get a few extra ghz out of this thing with everything stock and leaving my volts alone completely? I mean how exactly do I go about this..you are saying its right in the BIOS an manually increase it..I should see something like the number 16 and I can just step that up a number or two to 17-18ish and be fine? How can I find out my stable temps to make sure I will not overheat?

Also I have no idea if it is a C2 or C3 stepping, Idk what that means. I know Im very new to all of this so bear with me..

 

[Smoove910]

download and install coretemp, or speedfan. They are both temp monitoring programs. You don't want the CPU to go above 60-65c while under 100% load.