is this safe on a 4-pin?

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

so i overclocked my X4 955 (3.6ghz at 1.5v) and it's been stable.

 

however while discussing it in a Discord server someone pointed out that this is dangerous because my board only has one 4-pin and the connector could melt or something...

 

is this safe to do?

 

full specs:

Phenom X4 955

Asus M4A78T-E

GTX 690

GTX 1050

12GB DDR3

BitFenix Whisper 850W

[Sauron]

Hmm... I don't see why it would melt, the worst that can happen is that your CPU won't get enough power. I don't think you can draw more than 75W out of a 4pin, at least not if your motherboard respects ATX specifications. I could be wrong but from what I've read I think you're ok.

[Mira Yurizaki]

It depends on how much current the CPU draws from the 4-pin connector. From what I can gather on the interwebs, the 4-pin power should safely, if built properly, carry 8 amps per 12+V line, which means 96W between the two, or 192W total.

[FloRolf]

Should be okay but you shouldn't do some extreme OCs. 

What's up with this gpu config though? Lol. 

[Daniel Z.]

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

Should be okay but you shouldn't do some extreme OCs. 

What's up with this gpu config though? Lol. 

I’m guessing OP games on one of them and uses the other for NVENC or something. On newer titles the 1050 should be faster but on older titles or games with good SLi support the 690 would perform quite well.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Hmm... I don't see why it would melt, the worst that can happen is that your CPU won't get enough power. I don't think you can draw more than 75W out of a 4pin, at least not if your motherboard respects ATX specifications. I could be wrong but from what I've read I think you're ok.

the board supports 140W cpu's so...

 

 

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

It depends on how much current the CPU draws from the 4-pin connector. From what I can gather on the interwebs, the 4-pin power should safely, if built properly, carry 8 amps per 12+V line, which means 96W between the two, or 192W total.

i should be fine then considering stock TDP is 125W and stock voltage is 1.35... it's not that much higher than stock.

 

 

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

Should be okay but you shouldn't do some extreme OCs.

stock is 3.2 so it's not that extreme.

 

 

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

What's up with this gpu config though? Lol. 

GTX 690 runs my main screen and the 1050 runs my side displays. it's for 2 reasons. 1 to save vram ont he 690 and 2 because the 690 has limited outputs in SLI mode.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

I’m guessing OP games on one of them and uses the other for NVENC or something.

GTX 690 runs my main screen and the 1050 runs my side displays. it's for 2 reasons. 1 to save vram ont he 690 and 2 because the 690 has limited outputs in SLI mode.

[Sauron]

Just now, firelighter487 said:

the board supports 140W cpu's so...

That's the TDP, not the power draw. Also the CPU takes power through the 24pin connector too. The 4pin or 8pin is auxiliary.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

i should be fine then considering stock TDP is 125W and stock voltage is 1.35... it's not that much higher than stock.

If there isn't any warning on the motherboard that specifically says which CPUs not to use, then I don't imagine it shouldn't be a problem using the CPU and overclocking it a bit. Also remember that overclocking, at least if you're only changing clock speeds, is a linear increase in power. So if you bump up the clock speed by 5%, that bumps up the power by 5%.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

On newer titles the 1050 should be faster but on older titles or games with good SLi support the 690 would perform quite well.

nope. the 690 is 2 680's on one card, and even a 680 is faster than a 1050. in SLI supported games the 690 is a LOT faster.

[Stefan Payne]

Shouldn't be a Problem for CPU and VRM.

However the 4pin Connector it is.

 

With 6A its 144W, with 9A its 216W maximum. That is really really close. 

And I'd assume that the CPU might be around the 200W Ballpark, maybe even 250W...

 

The old Phenoms can deal with rather high voltages and 1,5V is something you see for example on a 1800X at Stock...

 

The Russians from IXBT Labs IIRC did a Review of that a long long time ago, sadly the Site went down and I don't have a Backup either. It was an awesome Article, even 10 Year later. And I really really loved to link it...

[Bananasplit_00]

Run some IBT or whatever for a bit and touch it? Should be fine though

 

*edit*

These and pretty much every other connector can go way over spec safely btw

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, Mira Yurizaki said:

If there isn't any warning on the motherboard that specifically says which CPUs not to use, then I don't imagine it shouldn't be a problem using the CPU and overclocking it a bit. Also remember that overclocking, at least if you're only changing clock speeds, is a linear increase in power. So if you bump up the clock speed by 5%, that bumps up the power by 5%.

i changed the multiplier so.... from 16 to 18. what does that equal to?

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i changed the multiplier so.... from 16 to 18. what does that equal to?

If you didn't change the base clock speed, that's 12.5%

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

3 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

If you didn't change the base clock speed, that's 12.5%

so assuming the 125W is correct then it's 140W now. that makes total sense because if i go any higher it turns off immediately when it tries to load Windows, and the board only supports up to 140W.

 

16 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

It depends on how much current the CPU draws from the 4-pin connector. From what I can gather on the interwebs, the 4-pin power should safely, if built properly, carry 8 amps per 12+V line, which means 96W between the two, or 192W total.

so if we go by 140W then according to this it should be safe then?

[Mira Yurizaki]

9 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

so if we go by 140W then according to this it should be safe then?

As far as current carrying capacity of the wires, yes. I'm not sure what else the rest of the system can handle.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

As far as current carrying capacity of the wires, yes.

that was my main issue. thanks!

 

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'm not sure what else the rest of the system can handle.

i'm not that concerned about it. if the board dies it's very cheap to replace. i was more worried about the wires melting.