Should I even try OC/unlock cores?

[jcamel24]

Has anyone had luck unlocking/overclocking with a MSI 880GMA-E45 mobo? I ask because I had horrible luck with a Phenom II x6 1055T. Finally gave up and bought another mobo.

So now I have just purchased a Phenom II x2 545 and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this mobo/CPU combination. After 2 RMA'S on the board with the 1055T, I don't want to send it in again!

 

[jedi940]

If you have had that much trouble then perhaps not. Then again, depending on what the issue was, you might be able to unlock core without any problem.

 

[jcamel24]

I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was looking into selling this mobo on eBay about a week ago. This is what was posted in the listing:

"If you plan on using a six-core processor, DO NOT overclock it with this motherboard. This motherboard does not have enough power phases to support the power requirements of an overclocked six-core but at stock speeds it is perfectly fine. This board should, however, be perfectly fine when overclocking four-cores and below."

So I'm just not sure if the issue only is with the x6 processors, or if I could run into the same problems with anyone that I try to unlock or oc. You would think if it has Easy OC dip switches that it could support some kind of oc, although I would not use them and do it through the BIOS.

 

[jedi940]

Well if it just couldn't handle the power of the X6, then you should be fine unlocking a core or two from your X2. I would either pick overclocking it as a dual core, or unlocking the additional cores and not changing the speed. Technically you should be able to do both but with the problem's you have had, I would choose one or the other.

 

[jcamel24]

So I guess this kinda leads to another question. If the x6 is a 125w processor, why does HWMonitor show 141.6w under load? I rebooted my current system and removed the oc to see what it would run at stock, and it still says 141.6w while running Prime95. Is HWMonitor just reporting incorrect info?

 

[jedi940]

Not sure. Where do you get that figure. For some reason, my HWMonitor doesn't show wattage.

 

[jcamel24]

Down at the bottom under Processor when CNQ, etc. all enabled it shows 68 watts at idle and under load it shows 141.6.

Just thinking if it's a 125 watt processor what would cause it to report incorrectly? Especially when I set everything back to default?

 

[jedi940]

Actually, I see it now with my 1090t. I was originally looking at a core 2 duo e6600 and it doesn't show the wattage for that processor. My 1090t at 4 GHz shows 139 watts at load. When it throttles down to 900 MHz it only consumes 58 watts. That's weird that yours was always 141.6 even after down clocking it.

 

[jcamel24]

No, it doesn't always run at 141.6. When it throttles down, it runs at 68 watts. Just wondering if anyone knows why it shows more than 125 watts under load if it is rated for 125w.

 

[jedi940]

I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will jump in with an answer.

 

[jcamel24]

Best answer selected by jcamel24.