965BE C3 overclock with Crosshair Formula IV

Hello all, new to the forum but not new to computers. Been building them for years now and wanting to overclock my latest. I've got a Phenom II 965BE C3 on the ASUS Crosshair Formula IV and I really can't seem to get stable overclocks. I have had it up to 3.8Ghz which seemed stable in almost everything. And i've got it to post and boot on 4.0Ghz. The problem is I can't get it 100% stable.

Heat is not a problem, I have a coolermaster V8 and enough fans to keep the sun cool! So i'm guessing the problem lays somewhere else. RAM is OCZ AMD Black Edition DDR3-1600 but I haven't been overclocking that, infact I down clocked it to 1333 to try and help with stability but still no luck.

Would like to be able to achieve at least 3.8Ghz stable though so anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Nathan.

if possible could you give me your voltage readings, i have my 965 to 4.55 on air with voltages at 1.56, and i am 100% stable. voltages could be a problem for you.

Hello! I think I had my cpu at 1.5v, the cpu/nb was at 2600mhz with 3.25v, I didnt change the bus speed, just the multiplier if that makes any difference.

try to get your CPU Voltage up near 1.55-1.6 with a good cooler you wont have to worry about the heat and try to bring your nb speed to around 2500 you really wont see much of a differences in speed with a lower nb speed IMO. Just make sure the under full load your CPU stays around 55C but no higher.

Ok i'll try that. As I said temp is not a problem with my cooling. When I had it running at 4.0ghz it didnt really go much over 50 degrees with prime 95 running. Just couldn't keep it stable. Should LLC settings be changed? Or anything like that. Wondering if its some of my other bios options not helping.

no not really, the voltage is pretty much the most important thing i could not get mine at 4.0 with 1.52 voltage, so i would just put yours at 1.56 to start out with and keep your multi and fsb the same for now then just go look at the temps to see if everything is good, i know you keep saying heat is not a problem but i just dont want a blown CPU :D but yeah try this to see if it is wokring put the FSB to 220 and you multi at 19.5 that should be around 4.3 and your cpu voltage at 1.56 you should be stable and leave your NB ratio to auto or multi cant remember what is says now lol but you know what i mean. just give that a try. Oh and somtimes your memory freq could be to high as well.

Yeah I did think memory could be a big part of the problem as that doesn't seem to overclock at all. Whether I just got bad sticks or they are all like that I don't know. Might see if I can try different RAM if I still can't get it stable. Prime95 doesn't even usually get as far as telling me the errors. It just BSOD usually. Will try those settings now though :D cheers!

memory is not hat bad i have the same set and i am running 920 mhz which is not bad, just try to keep the stock settings with a little bump and you will be a-ok :D

if your going to purchase different ram, I would like to recommend the G.Skill "ECO" series ram! I have this running in both of our AMD machines here, and perform flawlessly! DDR1700 @ 1.38v 7-8-8-24 1T timings... Ram NEVER even gets warm....

Well my RAM wont go near that for some reason :/ at 1.65V maybe I need to up it a bit? Anyway will test those voltages and settings and keep you posted. Thank you for the help :up:

yes the ocz blacks need to be at 1.65v mine is at 1.68 please dont try 1.38 :shocked:

Ok, just to report back, tried those settings you gave me and It still isn't stable at 4.0ghz :/ somethings making it crash. It was stable for ages but then finally BSOD. But it is perfectly stable at 3.8ghz on those settings. Is there anything else maybe I should change? I've read some people have turned Load Line Calibration down or even off. Is this maybe something to consider?

I think I've now given up! Seems very hard to get anything overclocked to be 100% prime 95 stable, even 3.4 to 3.5 Ghz is unstable. Maybe I have a bad component somewhere, whether its RAM, CPU or Motherboard I will have to try investigate when my enthusiasm is back.

What kind of PSU do you have? This could be an issue with power fluctuation and the psu not being able to provide enough power for the OC you are going for.

I thought that asus boards don't support most ocz ram, you could check to see if your kit is on the compatibility list