Phenom II 955 Black Edition - Voltage Tiers

[Razrback16]

At what points in your overclocking quest with this CPU have you had to increase voltage and what method of cooling were you using? I'm beginning to o/c mine and it will be helpful to have an idea of what to expect. Thanks. :)

[Razrback16]

No one remembers where they started bumping voltages?
So far I'm at 3.5GHz using only multiplier so far. If I leave my board at Auto it puts it on 1.30V and I'm told 1.35 is stock for the PHII so I manually put it on the closest thing to that voltage which is 1.37V on this board.
Hoping someone offers some additional info on their own results.....

[Tom128]

I also have a default voltage of 1.3v in AOD anyways if I leave the voltage on auto. However it seems the mobo applies 1.45v on auto. I heard 1.35v was stock so I manually select that in the bios and I am able to get to 3.6Ghz 24hr prime stable before I need to raise the voltage. Getting to 3.7Ghz requires 1.385v, 3.8Ghz requires 1.4625v and I have not been able to keep 3.9Ghz stable even at 1.55v however I believe my CPU runs a good 15-20c hotter than it should and I think that is what is holding it back from 3.9Ghz/4Ghz. I have been doing stock speed stability testing for 2 days now to make sure the chip itself is bug free and I think it is and will be lapping it to see if that helps with temps.

[Razrback16]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Tom -- what cooling are you using? Also what program are you using to grab temps (and what temps are you seeing)? I just installed Speedfan v1.38 -- I think Temp1 is my CPU because the K10 it reports shows 36*C idle which is 10*C higher than what the BIOS reports and generally my CPUs run cooler than my video cards and both vid cards are idling at 35*C and 33*C respectively. Thanks again.

[GeorgeStorm]

I think the Phenom IIs can get quite a long way on stock voltage.
As long as you keep the temps down you shouldnt have a problem with having to use too much voltage.
They are more resilient that intels counterparts voltage wise
Although, you have to keep the temps down far more with Phenoms,

[Tom128]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Tom -- what cooling are you using? Also what program are you using to grab temps (and what temps are you seeing)? I just installed Speedfan v1.38 -- I think Temp1 is my CPU because the K10 it reports shows 36*C idle which is 10*C higher than what the BIOS reports and generally my CPUs run cooler than my video cards and both vid cards are idling at 35*C and 33*C respectively. Thanks again.

I have a Dtek Fuzion v2 and it currently has a MCR320 and MCR120 all to itself in the loop. YET...my temps are upper 30's idle and lower 50's load at 3.7Ghz which is just a tiny bump in volts. I have redone the TIM three times with similar results. The last time I did it I did notice that there was a circular pattern in the paste making my theory that it needs lapped more plausable for me so I am just making sure its good before I void the warranty.

For temps I use HWMonitor, Coretemp, or AOD and all three list the same numbers.

[Razrback16]

Tom are you seeing different temps in the BIOS than in Windows? In my BIOS it shows my cpu in the 26-27*C range, in Speedfan it shows the K10 sensor in the mid 30's at idle but Temp1 shows ~26*C idle currently which is more consistent with the BIOS...I'm not sure which to trust...

[Razrback16]

Just an update on my progress in case anyone else is trying to gauge the same data --
As referenced in an earlier post in this thread, I was at 3.5GHz @ 1.37vcore previously -- once I got to 3.7GHz I got a lockup/crash in Crysis where the game crashed to desktop. It was a normally stable point in the game where I have never seen a crash occur before, so I rebooted, bumped the vcore to 1.41vcore and also brought the cpu up to 3.75GHz. Ran stable from this point on -- as of today I was still running 1.41vcore -- bumped the clocks up to 3.9GHz (was previously running @ 3.8GHz stable) -- rebooted during Windows bootup, so I increased vcore to 1.45vcore -- now booted into Windows as I'm typing this -- continuing stress testing from this point.
I have one side question for anyone who may know -- what is the recommended (from very experienced overclockers, not just every joe shmoe's point of view) max vcore when using standard watercooling with this cpu?

[gOtVoltage]

Just an update on my progress in case anyone else is trying to gauge the same data --
As referenced in an earlier post in this thread, I was at 3.5GHz @ 1.37vcore previously -- once I got to 3.7GHz I got a lockup/crash in Crysis where the game crashed to desktop. It was a normally stable point in the game where I have never seen a crash occur before, so I rebooted, bumped the vcore to 1.41vcore and also brought the cpu up to 3.75GHz. Ran stable from this point on -- as of today I was still running 1.41vcore -- bumped the clocks up to 3.9GHz (was previously running @ 3.8GHz stable) -- rebooted during Windows bootup, so I increased vcore to 1.45vcore -- now booted into Windows as I'm typing this -- continuing stress testing from this point.
I have one side question for anyone who may know -- what is the recommended (from very experienced overclockers, not just every joe shmoe's point of view) max vcore when using standard watercooling with this cpu?

Your Max Vcore is going to be dependant on (How GOOD your system cools)

I wouldnt exced 55c on any chip with all four cores LOADED . Thier is a Lower temp cieling on PH!! vs PH!. Even though with a 720 ive aready pushed 1.7v on water, I dont advise going over 1.55v with very good Water cooling. I use Two Tripples and a third tripple for Pushing the Tin:D

Keeping an eye on your temps and with a single tripple ,1.45-1.5v is all id try to push if its 24/7 rig. You can add more volts only if your under your Max Lod Heat Range for the CPU> Even then i would drop volts ahair lower just to be safe @ 24/7speeds.

With being a 955 1.40v should get ya 3.8/3.9 when propperly set up even with stock NBvolts. Ive already seens some guys here do 3.8ghz+ on 955 with stock CpuVcore. If your Raising the NB this will add heat and possiable you may even use slightly more volts for that too.

In all the Volts go hand in Hand with your Max temperature. 50c fully loaded Priming is ideal and even then you can Be unstable . Good thing these New Chips have thermal protection.

In the End Its all about the Temps . Bump the Volts slow only if you need it.;)

So far i push my 720 @ 3.9mhz with 1.63v and NB 2700+ @ 1.5v.. Your 955 wont even need anywher near that for the same clocks.

I like to See what my stuff can do (Because i Can). I do not remended you do the Same. keep it below 1.5v for your setup for 24/7

Note:
Sometimes you can bump the NBvolts a hair, Allowing you to use Less vcore @ the Same clocks.
955 NB is 1.20v stock . stock to 1.3v usually does the trick for running High NB. Rember that the NB ADDS heat too. If you want to lower temps and are running High NB , Just lower the NB some or keep it stock.

gOtVolTage

[Razrback16]

Thanks for the very informative reply. Just as you said, I believe I've found the max of this cpu. At 3.9GHz I was not able to boot into Windows until 1.45vcore -- (1.41 is the next lowest and it wouldn't make it into Windows before rebooting) -- at 1.45vcore it was unstable while gaming (rebooted within ~3-5 mins). I tried bringing it up one more voltage notch to see if it would help (the next notch was 1.49vcore) -- this then prevented it from getting into Windows so my guess is that it didn't like the voltage. Running stock NB volts, and so far have just been o/cing w/ the multi just to test cpu stability. I've since backed the multi down to the 3.8GHz multi and brought the NB frequency up just a tad to bring the cpu to 3.85GHz. Just got out of about a 45 min gaming session and it was stable with 1.41vcore -- need to stress it more with these settings to verify stability. I was really hoping for 4.0GHz. :(

[generics_user]

my 955 needs 1.5v (1.48 load) for 3.9ghz 4 hour primestable

4ghz is a different story, had to go up to 1.56v and temps went from 50 to 57°C under load (4.0 not primestable)

i may have to add the second rad to pu:banana::banana::banana::banana: further and use a more powerful fan setup (right now i have 3y s-flex @1000 rpm...)

[lopri]

Highest I can do with stock everything (except the heatsink, I used Scythe Samurai) is 3.60GHz core and 2.25GHz NB. Stable for everything I've thrown at.

[imamage]

My 955BE @ M3A79-T DELUXE
1.3875 @ 3.6GHz , HT 2GHz , NB 2.6GHz
I can't get it go higher than 2.6GHz even with higher NB voltage

[gOtVoltage]

My 955BE @ M3A79-T DELUXE
1.3875 @ 3.6GHz , HT 2GHz , NB 2.6GHz
I can't get it go higher than 2.6GHz even with higher NB voltage


Have you tried using 10x 260,, 2600ht/2600Nb 10x 270,, 2700ht/270nb and moving the HTT up and CPU divider down. Even a hair lower higher on Ram:D

[Razrback16]

Well since this thread has served as my overclocking "notes" thread, I thought I'd post the final results. Max overclock is 3.75GHz stable so far (several days straight with various gaming stress-testing). I was hoping 3.8GHz would be stable, but on Saturday when it got pretty warm in my house (~73-75*F) I think my loop got a little too warm with 2 full coverage 4870s in the loop so I think it just got too hot as it rebooted twice at that speed (but was stable previously in the ~65*F weather that's more the norm), then when I backed it down to 3.75GHz it was perfectly stable, even with the heat, so that was good. Hopefully, barring any other unforeseen instabilities, this will be my final overclock for this CPU. Thanks for your help everyone.