M3A78-T and Phenom II

[dehx]

You guys think I can get a respectable overclock with this??:

M3A78-T

It has SB750.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131331

[DarkManX4lf]

The max that I could get with that board and a Phenom II was 3.6ghz stable. Others have had better results.

[dehx]

Here we go

[mattkosem]

Impressive. Mind sharing some of your bios settings (multipliers and voltages)? I just moved into one of these setups, and I've not quite got the swing of things. I've not touched anything but the core voltage, bus speed and multi so far. I'm running 16x225 and I don't see memory speeds anywhere near that! I'm assuming the bandwidth comes from the NB frequency, right? I tried adjusting the NB multiplier to 11 but couldn't post, so anything that could get me in the right direction would be helpful. Here's what I'm running now. It's prime stable and doesn't pass 45C, so I'm thinking I've got some room to go. CPU cooling is a TRUE with a noctua fan.

Sorry for the noobish questions. I've read as many phenom OC guides as I can and things don't seem to be quite what I've read. It sounded like adjusting the NB multi would be all that's needed as long as the HT freq is lower, but that was (evidently) not the case unless I have something else configured in a way that it shouldn't be.

--Matt

[gOtVoltage]

Impressive. Mind sharing some of your bios settings (multipliers and voltages)? I just moved into one of these setups, and I've not quite got the swing of things. I've not touched anything but the core voltage, bus speed and multi so far. I'm running 16x225 and I don't see memory speeds anywhere near that! I'm assuming the bandwidth comes from the NB frequency, right? I tried adjusting the NB multiplier to 11 but couldn't post, so anything that could get me in the right direction would be helpful. Here's what I'm running now. It's prime stable and doesn't pass 45C, so I'm thinking I've got some room to go. CPU cooling is a TRUE with a noctua fan.

Sorry for the noobish questions. I've read as many phenom OC guides as I can and things don't seem to be quite what I've read. It sounded like adjusting the NB multi would be all that's needed as long as the HT freq is lower, but that was (evidently) not the case unless I have something else configured in a way that it shouldn't be.

--Matt

Raise the NB speed to 2500-2600mhz ,,Keep HT the same and give the NB 1.4v for stability . You core temp will rise maybe 2c overall with higher NB speed . You will see Very Nice Gains trust me.

Your NB ATM is only 2030mhz ,, Thats your Problem.

[mattkosem]

Raise the NB speed to 2500-2600mhz ,,Keep HT the same and give the NB 1.4v for stability . You core temp will rise maybe 2c overall with higher NB speed . You will see Very Nice Gains trust me.

Your NB ATM is only 2030mhz ,, Thats your Problem.

I tried setting the NB multiplier to 10, which would get me a NB speed of 2250. Without any voltage changes, I get past the initial windows load screen but BSOD before the welcome screen. I tried bumping up the NB core/PCIe voltage (there appear to be 3 NB voltages, so please correct me if this was the wrong one) up from 1.30v(stock) to 1.40v. No improvement was made, Windows failed to load at the same point. I have CPU Tweak enabled, is this okay?

--Matt

[Maxxximum]

A body of mine are having major problems with high overclock on air with this board,when his ram speed is above 800 mhz(he's using kingston hyperX 1066). pvm is causin¨ him trouble as well.

[mattkosem]

A body of mine are having major problems with high overclock on air with this board,when his ram speed is above 800 mhz(he's using kingston hyperX 1066). pvm is causin¨ him trouble as well.

Are his dimms in like colored slots? The manual that was included with my board advised me to install the modules in different colored slots, and I was having a similar problem to what you describe (couldn't boot successfully with anything other than 800mhz).

--Matt

[mattkosem]

I tried setting the NB multiplier to 10, which would get me a NB speed of 2250. Without any voltage changes, I get past the initial windows load screen but BSOD before the welcome screen. I tried bumping up the NB core/PCIe voltage (there appear to be 3 NB voltages, so please correct me if this was the wrong one) up from 1.30v(stock) to 1.40v. No improvement was made, Windows failed to load at the same point. I have CPU Tweak enabled, is this okay?

--Matt

Anyone on this?

--Matt

[dehx]

Ok, I'm assuming you are running the 0802 BIOS for the board.

I can give you my settings, but your mileage may vary, you may need less or more voltage, or you may or may not be able to achieve certain multipliers, so just use these settings as a refrence, don't expect them to automatically work for you like magic just because our MOBO/CPU is the same.



First off, under Advanced / CPU Configuration, disable everything except the Prefetch feature.

Next, go into Jumper Free, and examine these settings (I have everything but these set to auto) :

Processor Frequency Multiplier : 19.00x
Processor-NB Multiplier : 13.00x
CPU NB HT Link Speed: Auto

Processor Voltage: 1.500
Processor - NB Voltage: 1.4500

Southbridge Voltage:Auto
DDR Voltage: (Please check the specs on your ram on what their rated voltage is, mine is 2.10, because they require that to run at 1066 DDR2)
Northbridge Voltage: Auto
CPU Tweak: Disabled (Be sure this is disabled for overclocking)
Mem Config: In here I have everything on auto, and I have Ganged Mode enabled, for the extra Mem B/W
DRAM Timing: I leave most of it to Auto, and just manually set the speed to 1067 or 1066, whichever it gives you

All 3 Spread spectrums (PPL1,PLL2, SB) I have disabled.

Now, a couple of notes:, the CPU-NB options you see (voltage and multiplier), directly affect the MEMORY CONTROLLER that is embedded INSIDE the CPU. The OTHER Northbridge settings (voltage, multi) and the HT LINK SPEED are for your 790FX/GX chipset on your MOTHERBOARD. These newer mobos allow you do change the voltage and multiplier that your mem controller is operating at, seperatly from your CPU frequency.

So you have your HT (HyperTransport) / Northbridge / Southbridge on the Mobo, Mem Controller (CPU-NB) on the CPU, and Processor freq. also on the CPU be sure to keep all of this in mind as you are tweaking.

ALSO: In my experience, on air cooling, try not to set your HT LINK multiplier above 2.0 Ghz (x10 multi), or leave it on Auto. I have set mine to 2.2 Ghz (11x multi) but had some sporadic stability issues, so I leave it at auto.

[mattkosem]

Awesome! Thanks dehx! It was CPU Tweak that was screwing it up. I appreciate it! Is 1.45 on the processor-NB safe for 24/7?

--Matt

Update: So far my NB speed doesn't seem to be stable much over 2500mhz or so. I'm priming at 225x16 with the multi at 11 right now. Everest shows a read speed of 9790, so I'm getting there. I'd like to push the bus speed up a bit further to get my ram up into the area where it performs the best (1250 or so), but it looks like I'll probably need to turn the HT link down a notch for it to work. Slow and steady performance improvements! :-) Can't quite rush into it like an intel chip. Thanks for your help!

[fizur2002]

going to give your settings a shot.

[mattkosem]

I decided to set some safe settings and run a prime test overnight. I ran with these settings:

Bus Speed: 200
HT Speed: 2000
NB Speed: 2400
Processor voltage: 1.50v
Processor-NB voltage: 1.40

All but one core made it 8 hours. The core that failed (core 4) failed after only 2 hours. Does this indicate that the Processor-NB needs to be increased further? Since this data (8k FFT, but under prime blend) fits in the cache, I would normally believe that it was vcore related. Does the fact that the memory controller is on the CPU bring it any more into the mix? I found that anything much over 2400 on the NB crashes after 30 minutes or so, whether it is set to 1.40v or 1.45v.

--Matt

[fizur2002]

just curios, are you running on water?

[mattkosem]

just curios, are you running on water?

Nope. I'm running a lapped TRUE with a Noctua NF-P12.

--Matt

[shaolin95]

Good to see this as I have been considering this mobo as well.

[dehx]

I run 1.45v on the CPU NB to get 2600 on the CPU-NB, its been prime stable and running 24/7 fine for the last week. Try 1.55v on your CPU if your running 3.5Ghz or higher. That seems to have done the trick for me,.

l post some screens of my BIOS soon

[mattkosem]

I run 1.45v on the CPU NB to get 2600 on the CPU-NB, its been prime stable and running 24/7 fine for the last week. Try 1.55v on your CPU if your running 3.5Ghz or higher. That seems to have done the trick for me,.

l post some screens of my BIOS soon

1.55 bios or actual? I see about .03v vdroop on this board

--Matt

[pershoot]

I run 1.45v on the CPU NB to get 2600 on the CPU-NB, its been prime stable and running 24/7 fine for the last week. Try 1.55v on your CPU if your running 3.5Ghz or higher. That seems to have done the trick for me,.

l post some screens of my BIOS soon

hmm thats seems like a high voltage for 2600. id think youd get up to 2800 with that. try it (if you haven't already)

[dehx]

Here is what comes out to prime stable for me.

[gOtVoltage]

KEEPING vOLTS THE sAME HAVE YOU TRIED 2800nb unganged. iT SHOULD WORK .

Oops caps was on sorry. 2800nb may give you better overall speed even though Unganged loses some latency Vs Ganged @ same speed.

Thus the 200mhz Xtra NB makes up for it ,, you can even run tighter timing and most likely gain the low latency back too . It will also be less stress on IMC in UNGANGED mode.

Dosnt hurt to try , just watch the temps.

[mattkosem]

Well, it turns out my cpu just wasn't stable at 3.6 with the voltage that I was running, but I think I may have figured out the OCing issue is. Turning the core voltage DOWN seems to have stabilized the clock. I'm a little confused. I've been running prime blend at 3.6Ghz at 1.4125v without any issues... It was prime small FFT stable for greater than 4 hours before, but now seems to be dealing a bit better with the blend. Does this make any sense at all? My temps are very reasonable at either voltage.

--Matt

[shaolin95]

I am pretty sure I am going to give this mobo a try.
I have been a DFI fan for a long time but after getting an Asus for my HTPC I also liked their features and build quality.
Since I have decided to go DDR3 then this mobo would help me save some money and hopefully I wont be missing something important that the higher end model may offer.
Regards

[dehx]

I am pretty sure I am going to give this mobo a try.
I have been a DFI fan for a long time but after getting an Asus for my HTPC I also liked their features and build quality.
Since I have decided to go DDR3 then this mobo would help me save some money and hopefully I wont be missing something important that the higher end model may offer.
Regards

If your wanting to go DDR3, then you need to get the AM3 Motherboard : ASUS M4A79T Deluxe , not the M3A78-T, which is a n AM2+ .. this thread is for the M3A78-T.

[shaolin95]

I was actually confusing it with the ASUS M4A78T-E that is listed at newegg.