Phenom 9500 w/ MSI K9A2 Platinum

[KTE]

Get ready for length.

KTE, do you know how to change HTT multiplier? I'm stuck at 5X, and I can't go any higher than 250Mhz.

It's stable at 250*13 1.4V, but a no go with 300*10 1.6V, not even post screen.
I'm running an F3, waiting for Phenom prices to drop.

Not tried yet. I just about managed bootup.

Multi was auto on mine from BIOS. I'll mess about with NB and HT tomorrow. What makes it unstable is the NB frequency IMO. Use the method tictac posted to change NB frequency, it might work and get you more stability.

Edit:
I can't run AMD Overdrive, it locks my system even at stock speeds.

Yep its very buggy. The ironic thing is when you change to "Advanced Mode" it says non-verbatim "changing to this mode may freeze your system or render it unusbale"

Excellent utility! But I just wish it worked.

Excellent power draw for that system. Have you had a chance to use the AMD overdrive feature to see what type of speeds can be reached from your chip?

See above. But yeah, chip power draw is very good, I'm impressed. However, once you increase volts it jumps very quickly. IIRC 1.48V VCore 2585MHz was iding 33C and power draw was around 122W-144W AC idle.

When these boards were tested in Tahoe, how is it that ppl tested these boards, including overclocking? Every board has bugs, no question there. It's just that I wonder why those bioses that worked then wouldn't be released to the consumer. It kinda sucks when someone buys something that won't even boot up. Heck, even the AM2 boards seemed to run more smoothly then this, all things being considered...

That's what I mean. They were all on a BETA BIOS that's for sure. Plus their chip was no better than mine.

Those latency numbers are nice though. If you can improve the ram settings, then the bandwidth should increase significantly.

Can get 7000MB/s read in EVEREST by just changing RAM timings, single channel (according to everything) at low speeds.

Yep... it's buggy... but I love it.
I like it more than my Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz / MSI Neo2 FR ;D

This is more of a challenge but those expecting ease and no issues won't like it. C2 is very easy to throw up to 4-4.2GHz if your board/chip can do the high FSB.

KTE,amazing work
Your review is very appreciated !
When you get to OC part,try raising (a bit) voltage for HT links and raising the PCI-e bus speed,some people i know reported that it helped them gain a few more Mhz from HTT.HTT limit on 9500 model hits hard in 240-250 range.We need a better BIOS versions for all 790 mobos.

Cheers mate. However even at stock everything, if I change the PCIe speed, it will not POST.

Yes, thanks for sharing your trials & tribulations

Hopefully my MSI 790FX will arrive next week so I can join
the fray Keep the updates comin!

EBL

Thanks. Just take it easy, and by that I mean 2MHz HT at a time.

Hi there KTE,

I notice that your HT Multi is at x5, and I was under the impression that the default HT Multi on the 790FX with Phenom was supposed to be x9, I'm sure I seen this elsewhere....

Hi. It should be faster than this AFAIK. BIOS problems. My ol uncle passed me this board/chip on 15th Nov but my first bootup had problems then and there's no change in that yet.

At the moment isnt it running at the old HT standard rather than the new HT 3.0....???

Yep.

I'm just curiuous,..... I'm stuck waiting on a BIOS fix for my M2N32SLI, which is stuck on a HT MUlti of x1 giving HT speed of 200MHz.... also having the RAM problems with the current BIOS as well.... it wont accept any changes to the RAM, to set it at 2.2v...

Same here. If your RAM needs high volts to boot up, you probably will never get past POST because BIOS is setting them at 1.9V. A lot of RAM won't pass that, luckily mine could do 560Mhz at those volts if I keep latencies high.

Did you have to update the BIOS to get it to change the RAM settings, or did the clean install sort it out...???.....

Nope, same shipped BIOS dated October. I'll send them my problems outlined today and see what they say. I'm just very busy with work and everything ATM. Thanks.

Yeah, it's all very strange. Just before AMDPhenom was banned, he managed to increase his NB clocks, but never got to post the results. It's odd that these results haven't been posted on any other forum around the net that I can see. Sounds like the fella has been around a while, and surely this isn't the only enthusiast forum he's aware of. It's almost as if these results are trying to be hidden. Although I see no logical reason for AMD to do such a thing, other than the obvious Osbourne affect. How would a powerhouse Phenom affect the sales of X2's? And would there be enough supply to meet the demand of such a chip...?

/conspiracy theory off...

If you want 100% in-lab stability, then you have to increase volts and that makes this chips TDP rise pretty quick. Compare my results: 19C idle at 1.232V and 33C idle at 1.48V.

Nice work. Looking forward to more info.

Cheers.

excuseme.
I don't understand. ( i'm speak english very little )

Have you overclock ?

if yes, what is your maximum frequency ?
can you increase the voltage by bios ?
i'm very interested to your CPU overclock's capacity.

Nope cannot increase any voltages (only once it worked). BIOS problems.

Thx for sharing your results, especially those affecting the wattage. Do you have a 89W and/or a 125W TDP AM2 CPU for idle comparison?
My 9500 will arrive tomorrow, M3A will arrive early in December, so ill play with M2A-VM HDMI first.

Have an E6750 I measured at different speeds/volts and also have a 5000+ BE I've not measured yet. Power draw so far is pretty good but I'm waiting to see what happens as you raise VCore/VNB/VHT. Good luck with your setup, you'll neeed it.

Thanks KTE, as usual your posts are greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to more results.

Thank you mate. Will post more when I get time. These are my first attempts at a very buggy BIOS, so they won't be final at all.

Nice info KTE!

So you couldnt get the 5000 BE working on that board?

Cheers. It worked fine. Booted up once to check but changed to 9500 straight after. Will test that soon.

look me your maximum overclock !

Max oc is not possible yet. Need many BIOS issues resolved first.

Just another "Thank you"... make sure to keep us posted.

Thank you too mate.

Wowwwzer ... massive amount of work and many thanks.

...

Did this occur because it locked up during boot, or did it not get to boot, freeze and then no partition table? This is a bit worrisome depending on how it happened.

Cheers Jack.

It happened when I set VCore to 1.485V, NB to 1.350V, HT to 1.25V and RAM 1:2 at 4-5-5-5-12 2.3V at 300HTx11...

It boots up but no picture (POST). But then when I restarted at default values it started up but all my files including Windows files, directories and saved pictures did not open up. Windows read "the system cannot find the specified file". I lost some pics and CPU-Z valids like that, but luckily some survived.

BTW I benched 2486MHz because at that time I was meant to leave on an errand and didn't expect any more. Now that I know it can go higher, I'll bench it at 2.5GHz and more if it allows changing HT again. Hours and hours of trial, reboots, no POST, lockups and BIOS value changing from default is needed though, it 'aint simple at all.