Overclock or unlock? perhaps both?!

bravo delta

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Dec 5, 2010
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Hey fellow nerds,
Should i only overclock my amd phenom ii x3 740? or should i unlock 4th core? maybe i can do both, unlock then overclock? what do you think would yeild best performance. must be stable tho. ive already unlocked 4th core, so i know its there and it works. let me know! :D

p.s. all help will be greedily appreciated. kekeke
 
Solution


While you have it locked to just a triple core and the core temps are showing compare that to the CPUTIN and see if it stays the same as the cores are showing when you run something that stresses the CPU a bit and it will tell you whether that is indeed the correct one to watch ! but it sounds like that is the one !

etk

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Oct 23, 2010
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Depends on your applications. If they don't need 4 cores, don't unlock the 4th core, since it will generate more heat, and lower your max OC. If tour apps can use the 4th core, by all means go that direction.
 

simon12

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Try both see what you get I got 3.7GHz from my 550BE unlocked to a quad and could only get 3.8GHz as a dual, my brothers Athlon 440 could only run at 3GHz as a quad but got 3.7GHz as a triple. My brothers PC only had a cheap board that doesn't support processors over 95W though so its amazing it worked as a quad at all.
 

JDFan

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I've got my X3 720 unlocked and Oc'd to 3.3Ghz. for 24\7 usage and it has not had any problems -- really depends on the CPU you got -- some will OC better with the 4th core locked and others will run fine with both an unlock and OC -- so takes some testing to see what your chip handles best.

Mine would OC further as a triple core but I found for the uses I use it for the extra bit of OC was not as useful as the extra core so went with the combination of the 3.3 ghz. OC (from 2.8 stock) and the extra core.
 

bravo delta

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ill be doing mostly gaming, photoshop, illustrator, web/other littlethings on it.

its seems i can only come up with more questions, and not answers to all of this.

i recently quit smoking, and i cant take it anymore! help me out or i may start smoking again!! >:p

here is my parts im using, let me know if you have the same/similar setup and what you are running it at. perhaps i can copy you lol.

thanks again to everyone who already responded. ill keeping reading up, albeit at the risk of my sanity.

OS:
Windows Vista 32bit

MoBo:
ASRock M3A770DE

Proc:
AMD Phenom II X3 740 BE (Heka 3.0 GHz)

Heatsink:
Cooler Master Hyper 212+

Mem:
G.SKILL 4GB (2x2) Ripjaw Series DDR3/1600
(RAM has to manually set to 1600 in bios, i.e. dram frequency, timings, voltage)

Other:
Power and cooling will not be a problem.
 

JDFan

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Sounds like a pretty close system to what I have -- PII x3 720 @ 1.328v - Coolermaster TX3 cooler- Gigabyte 790GX MOBO - 4GB. DDR3 1333 RAM (7-7-7-21-1T) - Sapphire 5770 GPU - 22" ACER Monitor @1680x1050 res.

I found that for my uses running at 3.3 GHz. with the 4th core unlocked performs the best (OCing past 3.3 GHz. started to increase the CPU temps a bit more than I was comfortable with for every day usage for the added performance it gained ) - If I had a stronger GPU I might consider trying to up the OC a bit but for my system this seems to be the point that the CPU and GPU work together the best and the system runs at a good stable temp all around during heavy gaming usage etc. (seeing that I live in El Paso TX. and we get a lot of high temps in the summer heat is something that has to be watched)
 

bravo delta

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well, after many fiddling sessions with "winston" (comp referred to in this post) i have come to the conclusion that i can only do one or the other. yes i can unlock, but doing so disables me from seeing temps. ive tried many programs, AMD overclock, HWmonitor, everest, occt. you name it, ive tried it. so when ACC is on, i am unable to read temps. lame!

if any one has a solution to having ACC enabled and being able to read temps please let me know.

but for the time being im just going with overclocking the cpu as x3
 

JDFan

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You cannot read the core temps but the CPU temp remains correct in both CPU-Z's Hardware Monitor (on My Gigabyte board the CPU temp is TMPIN1 under temperatures ) and also in Gigabyte's Easy Tune 6 app reports the correct CPU temp as well --- AMD chips actually only have the 1 temp sensor anyway so the core temps always show the same temp --- On my system the cores always showed about 8-10 C below the reported CPU temp when locked to just a triple core but I use the reported CPU temp since it was always higher and also use that temp when the CPU is unlocked !

So you just need to figure out which of the TMPIN variables reports your CPU temp and you can use HWmonitor to track the CPU temp after unlocking ! -- Also in Everest the temp reported under CPU is correct it just always shows 0 for the individual cores but the overall CPU temp is correct.
 

bravo delta

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ok so i think i am going to unlock now lol.
soo......
cpu temp would be which one?

readings from HWmonitor, under the mobo temp section:
SYSTIN 28
CPUTIN 29
AUXTIN 36

im assuming that CPUTIN is the cpu temp, but i want to make sure/rule out other temps. note: these are stock/idle temps. only using to understand everything.

p.s. thanks jdfan, youre shaping up to get the "selected as best answer award" ;P
 

JDFan

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While you have it locked to just a triple core and the core temps are showing compare that to the CPUTIN and see if it stays the same as the cores are showing when you run something that stresses the CPU a bit and it will tell you whether that is indeed the correct one to watch ! but it sounds like that is the one !
 
Solution

bravo delta

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Dec 5, 2010
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well with the help of the AMD Black Edition Overclocking guide, JDFan, and all others i think i may have figured this stuff out. running OCCT(1 hour/auto) right now, almost half way done, no other overclock would make it past 5min mark. so i am on the right track. if this works out, ill be running at phenom2 x4 3.6GHz WOOT!

suppose OCCT finishes 100% with no errors. wouild i need to do any more stability testing? i assume if it passes OCCT on auto/1 hour it will be good enough for at least daily use. but as far as gaming/photoshopping/everything else would go, am i alright?

p.s. temps thus far. idle=32 load=47 are these good?

lol shucks as i write this is BSOD on me hahaha OH GAWD THIS IS FUN!
 

Wisecracker

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Jan 15, 2007
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Load temps look great --- you need to bump the vCore 0.125v if you are within spec voltage.

Sometimes you hit a ceiling or hole with the CPU multiplier - try 18.5x as an example.

Another poster has a motherboard similar to yours -- if you want to try an OC with the system clock see if any of this looks familiar ...

Enter the *OC Tweaker* menu
AsRock-770-OCTweaker.jpg


Change *Overclock Mode* from 'Auto' to 'Optimized'
Set *CPU Frequency* to 240MHz and PCIe to 100MHz
Set *Multiplier/Voltage Change* to 'Manual'
Set the *CPU Frequency Multiplier* to 15x
Set the *CPU Voltage* to 1.375v
Set the *NB Frequency Multiplier* to 10x
Set the *NB Voltage* to 1.1875
Set the *HT Bus Speed* to 8x
Set the*Memory Clock* to [667MHz DDR3_1333]
F10 - Save & Exit

Specs: Voltages_0.85-1.4v__Max Temps-75c

Should be quite cool & snappy at 15x240MHz and 1.375v'ish (maybe even lower). Your RAMs will be running spec 1600MHz (6.667x240) and the IMC/NB at 2400MHz.

15.5x240 at 1.375-1.4v would not be a surprise. Good luck with 16x !!


edit: AMD may spec the x3 740BE as the B75 HDXB75WFK3DGI with Voltages - 0.80-1.425v and
Max Temps at 73c.

Give 'er some volts, Capt'n
:lol:
 

bravo delta

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well i finally got a stable OC at the following specs...

x17.5 @ 1.4000v max temp: 48ish

so my phenomII x3 @3.0GHz is now at phenomII x4 @ 3.5GHz
i only messed with multiplier and vcore.
i didnt think i really needed to mess with other settings.
but, should i? i am looking for a STABLE overclock, nothing overkill.
 

JDFan

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With the AMD Black Editions the OCing using the multiplier is all that is really needed - the reason people use the other settings is that many CPUs will have limited settings to choose from for the multiplier so the have to resort to other setting changes instead once they reach the MAX multiplier the chip supports. So in your case just using the multiplier and small voltage increaes is fine and much easier.