Phenom 9500 w/ MSI K9A2 Platinum

[KTE]

Thank you very much all for the comments & feedback.

I will address all of you individually the post after this one.

Firstly, let me make it clear: if you are used to easy changing three numbers in BIOS, and booting up from 2GHz to 3.5GHz as with C2D then you can forget about overclocking this system. This is the hardest system to oc that I've ever seen since Pentium I 75MHz. So if you are impatient, used to Core 2 or new to overclocking, you will give up without a single MHz ad say "it doesn't OC at all!!!" I'm not kidding, I did it too.

It is VERY very very very bloody difficult, mind boggling, confusing and frustrating to figure it out -> what is happening.

*I cannot change a single value in OverDrive. It will freeze the system up there and then!

*BIOS is very bad. I cannot chnage ANY voltages or performance settings, it will fail POST 99% of the time.

Why do I say BIOS? Because it's definitely not the CPU itself.

*RAM settings cannot be changed so I have to leave it default how it boots. That's 1.9V and my RAM has trouble at those volts, so settings are VERY high.

*Single Channel only.

*1T works.

*I cannot change any multi. HT is default as I saw it.

*Hundreds of issues. I don't know whether it's the 790 chip or the board itself.

Overclocking killed my drive and I've had to reinstall WIndows again.

What did I get? Well, let's say if the issues of the board/BIOS chip can get resolved I am sure around 3.2GHz is possible on air.

Some screenshots so far: everything on stock settings and stock volts! apart from HT speed. HT set in BIOS and bootup.

1.232V VCore / 1.9V VDIMM

1T:




RAM auto 5-5-5-12:






Some CPU-Z validations:
2310MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275235
2398MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275236
2420MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275232
2486MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275233
2508MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275238
Max saved today: 2585MHz = http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275239

Franck, what in the world is this? http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=275234#

Beta.

That's all for now. Stock volts max bootup was 336x11 = 2596 but I was on a roll and rebooted before capturing and the system never booted up again.

-99% of the time the system will not boot even if HT or anything in BIOS is changed by one. No way.
-I could bench 2.6GHz easily if it boots up. Not a single BSOD yet. Problem is not CPU but BIOS/board not booting.
-2.5GHz is rock stable. I could bench anything at it. Stock 1300RPM CNPS9700 fan temps were 23C idle, 34C 5 min load.
-Power draw at 2.6GHz was 117W VAC idle and 201W VAC full load (however it was too unstable to get Prime95 past 3 minutes on core 2).

Power draw at 2585MHz (CNQ disabled)

Idle 98-101W (at 83% efficiency = ~83W DC



Load 199-200W (at 83% efficiency = ~166W DC



Didn't have other software installed to bench.

Cheers.