The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

I've been drooling about the 955BE for a couple weeks now LOL! It's at the VERY top of my list I have noticed that the C3 stepping is the latest revision. I was reading reviews on newegg not long ago. Looks like the sweet spot I'm extremely tempted to let my current debt go through judgement, and let them garnish my wages. Since I work part time, they can't take much. I heard roughly 20%, which ain't $h!t LOL! Since I make money on the side, doing "odds n' end" tasks, it really doesn't bother me too much. Perhaps this is what I need to step up my "Building" game, and start building for select few people

 

Oman7,
I'll give you a few helpful tips. Don't sell overclocked computers! For one, it leaves you liable for damages if something blows up while you are doing it, and the time it takes will have you working for Coolie Wages! I've sold one overclocked computer in 20 years. That was my E6750, and I had so much faith in the way it ran, I didn't even bother to set it back to stock. It's been running 24/7 ever since I sold it at 3.55GHz.

If a customer doesn't have his own OS, there are several versions around that will work for 90 to 120 days, so they really need to get their own OS. Microsoft has made it so much harder to get a working copy anymore. I put in a copy of the Student Edition of XP-Pro w/SP-2 that still works, and turn off Automatic Updates. I also give them a copy of the WMA Removal Tool. That will buy them some more time! I usually install some free utilities like MalwareBytes and a few others. I also install the latest version of AVG 9! That's it! Already to go! Be very careful who you share any programs with. If they download and install programs on their own that's one thing, just don't get caught giving copyrighted or licensed programs away!

One last thing! Keep records of all the serial numbers of the components you use or install. Name, date, Invoice number. This way if you have a problem with something you can get it taken care of faster. Remember that Newegg and others have made the "Return for Exchange or refund" policy, 30 days on most items, so be sure to explain that you will take care of handling any problems under warranty, but they will have to pay the shipping to send the defective product back to the manufacturer after 30 days! The manufacturer will pay to ship the replacement back to you!

Mostly all common sense!

Russ

 

Yes, overall that concurs with what I read as well. Unganged mode is slightly slower.

 

Sam,
It is faster at SuperPie. I get a 23.735s 1M. I never had a sub 24 second SuperPi before on an AMD. Not even at 3.6GHz I put it back to ganged mode, and it does 24.632s. Back to the un-ganged mode, back to the 23 second bracket. I want to see if that translates out to some useful performance somewhere. The speed difference is very slight by the numbers, and so far nothing is really any different than it was before. I haven't done any encoding with it yet, but I will.

Russ

 

Umm weird because at 3.7 I get 18.625 seconds :S

On my X2 7750BE I was able to break below 25 at 3.2GHz.

Something is wrong with your settings maybe?

 

I assume this must have been from my 3.9Ghz overclock, but my stored superpi is 11.860s.
At my current 3.4 I get 14.152s, though that is with 15 browser tabs and a dozen or so other small programs open.
Given that at 3.4Ghz my Q9550 should really be quite similar to Jeff's 3.7Ghz 940, maybe slightly ahead, I assume that SuperPi is rather intel-biased. It will be interesting to see what an i5 will achieve though. Hopefully, in a little over a week's time I will find out. One of my friends recently received his 750 and aside from the 4.1Ghz wall that all 750s are vulnerable to, he didn't give the impression that speed was difficult to reach, and on top of that, he's using two graphics card as well, so that negates some of the anxiety I have about the impact of loading both the PCI express slots.

 

20.378sec. I've seen better, probably when my FSB was slightly higher. I know it was in the 19sec range. I'm sure the 955BE, will be considerably better I'll know in a few weeks It'll be better, because I plan on pushing it harder LOL! Since I'll have 2 Quads, there will be less risk of losing computing potential

LOL! I have a few things running in the background...

 

Wow, two quad cores, if you hurry up you'll beat me to it!

 

My tax return is scheduled to arrive 02/05/10. Perhaps sooner. So i'll more than likely be buying within this week I've decided to be patient and wait on SSD. It's extremely tempting, but my velociraptor is still performing well enough for my needs. I sure wouldn't mind seeing apps and OS's open up rapidly though LOL! My buddies wife has a mac and running photoshop. He says she can simultaneously load multiple images highly rapidly. Sorta like how "data" can shuffle decks of cards super rapidly LOL!
I've read about people having them quit or slow down too quickly. I'd like to give the technology a little bit more time. I hear windows 7 can handle them quite nicely. In fact, I heard it's fully automatic. De-fragmenting is automatically disabled, and windows 7 has the best TRIM support. I sure hope most of the bugs are gone in the retail edition. I've been experiencing curious bugs with the Indexing/Monitoring system. Just yesterday for instance, I renamed a file, and it didn't APPEAR to change. I chuckled. I closed the window reopened it, and it was all better. Like it never happened. I imagine this could drive a non expert nuts. Not that I'm an expert by any means. I simply pay extremely close attention to what Programs, and the OS do. Not everyone does that They simply expect it to work...

 

Hah, I'm using a Caviar Black for my OS and even I'm holding off. With a Velociraptor you've every reason to wait.
My i5-enabling income should arrive on the 8th. If it does, with luck I'll have one setup by the 9th or 10th.
As for your rename, did you think to refresh the folder by pressing F5?

 

LOL! I suppose refreshing works too. If you wanna do things the easy way

One of my WD1001FALS ran an OS quite nicely too. Photoshop opened up almost as quickly as the Veloci. I guess I just get overly excited about new technologies. SSD is certainly an impressive one...

 

Estuansis,
So was I with my 7750BE, but it's memory was running at 1066MHz, while mine using the 630, is stuck at 866MHz. I can set it to 1040MHz by setting the memory at at the 4.00 multiplier, but it crashes on boot-up. The memory has no difficulty running at 1066 with an unlocked multiplier CPU, and it is on the approved list from GigaByte for my MA790X-UD4H! I've tried various lower CPU multipliers, and so far the best it runs is at a host frequency of 260 using a 13.5 multiplier for 3.510GHz. With any of the unlocked cpus, it has no problem running at 3.552GHz, which puts the memory squarely at 1066MHz with the 5.33 multiplier. That's why I plan on a C3 stepping 955BE in the near future, with the Propus 630 going in Oxi-II for Russell. I'll either do a new build with the Athlon x2 7750BE from Oxi-II, or sell the chip!

Russ

 

I assume perhaps that has something to do with the performance of the memory controller in the Athlons versus the Phenoms?

 

Sam,
The interesting thing is that you are right, it does perform better in un-ganged mode. I just encoded Wall.E, and it took 22 minutes, compared to 27 minutes when I did it in Ganged mode. I think the problem is the relationship between the CPU Host Frequency and the memory multiplier. It can't tolerate more then 275MHz for the host frequency, but it will run at 3.850GHz, but run flaky as hell doing it! There are a few odd Black Holes too, depending on the CPU Host frequency and the CPU multiplier used. Using an un-locked CPU, the memory is always at the right setting using the 5.33 multiplier, regardless of what the CPU multiplier is set at. I also note that it doesn't have this problem with an AM3 motherboard with DDR3 memory either. Perhaps a future bios flash would help that situation too!

Russ

 

It could be any number of factors.

I'm not sure if RAM would have much of a difference. Have you tweaked your timings? Try lowering your latencies a bit to match the clockspeed the sticks are running at right now. You might just be surprised to find your lost performance right there.

 

Estuansis,
I've already tried that by lowering the timings, and it won't boot. I tried a borrowed Phenom II 940BE in it and I'm able to set the multiplier to 19. It runs at 3.80GHz, and the memory is right at 1066 at 5-5-5-15, using the 5.33 multiplier. Simple as that!

I want a Phenom II 955BE w/C3 stepping, but I may well have to settle for a Phenom II x3 720BE OEM for $104 w/free shipping. I want a BE in it so I can stop all this fooling around that's getting me nowhere. What I have runs good, and it will run real well in Oxi-II. Who knows, I may even be able to unlock the 4th core with my motherboard! LOL!!

Russ

 

X3 720 from the X4 620 doesn't sound like much of an upgrade...
Unless you've got issues, it seems worth it to try and save up for the 955 instead. Just a thought. Though of course, you could be lucky and get the 4th core on the X3, it can have impacts on the overclocking performance, which seems to be the main reason for the upgrade. The X3 unlock route's a bit of a gamble, whereas the X4 955 is a sure thing, and a faster sure thing at that.
Sorry, I'll stop now, keep spending other people's money for them!

 

Sam,
No, you're right. Just me getting impatient! Saving up for the C3 stepping 955BE would be the smarter thing to do.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808
The price difference is under $60, so I'll figure a way to get it done! It also looks like $161.99 is the regular price, as it isn't on sale. Oddly, the C2 stepping version is $4 more. You can tell by the part number. The C3's all end in GMBOX, while the C2's end in GIBOX. I can come up with the parts to build a nice Athlon2x2 7750.

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

RAIDMAX Tornado ATX-238WRP Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Raidmax RX-450K 450W Power Supply

AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX240OCK23GQ - OEM

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive, and a DVD burner

LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50 - OEM

The motherboard and Hard drive are excellent, as is the memory. The PSU is a little weak, but It will sell for less than $500, and shouldn't be stressed on this system. Regardless of which CPU I use, I still come away with a salable CPU and a $10 MIR

It all comes to $279.21, with the $10 MIR and the extra Dual core is a bonus I can sell as well! Should be a nice starter computer for someone, and it's HDMI and HD Graphics too!

My total cost would be $263.24. I have the 7750 and a stock cooler!

Russ

 

I agree with Sam that a 955 or 945/940 would be your best plan of action(doesnt matter much same chip). But an X3 720 BE will still see you with better per-clock and per-core performance than your current chip, regardless of whether or not it unlocks.

Depending on what you do though, a quad core will see you in a far better position. Relying on an X3 to unlock AND OC decently is a bit of a gamble, but the 720BE is also by far your best bet to try with. I've seen one unlock and still OC to 3.4GHz. Without unlocking, you have a better chance of hitting higher clocks though. 3.6-3.8 looks about average for the 720 with a decent board.


Also, even with a system of that low power I would never trust a Raidmax PSU. They are proven deathtraps. An EarthWatts 380 is the minimum PSU any system should use.

Choose your poison @_@