..How exactly do I overclock?

[saucy]

I'm currently running a Gigabyte 970A-UD3, and I watched Linus' guide on overclocking an FX 8150 CPU with an ASUS motherboard, but it did me no good.

I'm using a FX-4300 Vishera 3.8GHz Black Edition CPU, along with a CM Hyper 212+ Evo; with the capabilities that I have (with an idle temperature of 11.8 degrees Celsius believe or not) , I really I want to get that up to 4.8GHz. 

 

Yet, with AMD Overdrive, it only allows me to clock up to 3.9GHz with a max multiplier of 19x. 

Would anyone be so kind to guide me through Gigabyte's BIOS settings and how do I exactly reach those numbers, because when I went through the BIOS settings, it appeared that the timings for the CPU were locked.

 

Current Specs:

Gigabyte 970A-UD3 Motherboard

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM

Crossfiring two 5770s Sapphire Vapor X HD Radeon 1GDDR5

128GB Samsung Evo 840 SSD

250GB Seagate Barracuda Sata III

630W Raidmax PSU

CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212+ Evo

 

 

[SkilledRebuilds]

FYI - Your 11.8 *c is Delta Temp, this confusion happens a lot...meaning your Ambient temp of the room if for example is 22*c, and add your Delta 11.8*c on top, 33.8*c idle is your CPU temp

I'm sure someone more knowledgable on Overclocking FX chips will help you soon.

[LogicalDrm]

If only you were on Intel... I'm not sure how similliar settings are between the two in BIOS side.

[Froger96]

Time to live customs made and overclocking guide for LGA 1155, which you could se some parts of to help you, but others may be specific to AMD.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Have a read of this.

A guide to overclocking the AMD FX series. (And some info on OCing in general)

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/5103-a-guide-to-overclocking-the-amd-fx-series-and-some-info-on-ocing-in-generall/

 

 

You should be reading a few different ones altogether and making your own conclusions on what you want to aim for and how to do it, and with what you have...cooling and airflow wise...

 

Get to know the different bios's, because some label things differently to others, and knowing more = more better.

 

Multiple sources of information on Overclocking is a huge deal as results will ALWAYS vary.

Then....once you dialed in your overclock, google how to add side panel cutouts, fans and grills, accessories and funky items,... anything DIY/How-TO and go nuts making your dream PC

while keeping her cool for your overclock.

[saucy]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

After a compilation of watching OC videos; Jaystwocents and Linus (gave him a second chance <3), and the video posted above, I finally got to get my CPU to 4.5 GHz @ +.25V setting (Equivalent to ~1.45V). Temperatures range from 38C to a max of 43C. 

 

I'm currently using OCCT to run a benchmark on the stability of the system and so far no crashes. 

Any tips on what to avoid or what to do next?

Also, another question is that according to CPU-Z; when I start up my computer it displays 3.9GHz, but when I start the stress test it displays 4.5GHz (mild fluctuations. I'm guessing because of how the test works). Is this AMD's Cool n' Quiet? 

 

[saucy]

FYI - Your 11.8 *c is Delta Temp, this confusion happens a lot...meaning your Ambient temp of the room if for example is 22*c, and add your Delta 11.8*c on top, 33.8*c idle is your CPU temp

I'm sure someone more knowledgable on Overclocking FX chips will help you soon.

Thanks for the information! Although, I'm a bit curious on the physics of it. Wouldn't the air intakes from the front and side panel fans accelerate the air, which cool it? Therefore, wouldn't the air that is within the case be cooler than the ambient temperature outside of the case? Secondly, considering that my case has a negative air pressure, as more 'hot' air leaves the case, more cold or fresh air would try to enter the case?

I'm a Biology major, soooo I wouldn't be surprised if my hypothesis is wrong haha.

[LogicalDrm]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

After a compilation of watching OC videos; Jaystwocents and Linus (gave him a second chance <3), and the video posted above, I finally got to get my CPU to 4.5 GHz @ +.25V setting (Equivalent to ~1.45V). Temperatures range from 38C to a max of 43C. 

 

I'm currently using OCCT to run a benchmark on the stability of the system and so far no crashes. 

Any tips on what to avoid or what to do next?

Also, another question is that according to CPU-Z; when I start up my computer it displays 3.9GHz, but when I start the stress test it displays 4.5GHz (mild fluctuations. I'm guessing because of how the test works). Is this AMD's Cool n' Quiet? 

 

 

You could run OCCT about 3h (TTL has said it should be enought to see if system is stable) and run Prime95 for 24h+. About fluctuation, my 4770K has pretty much same where all cores are at ~1GHz when system idles and go up to 4GHz when on load (OCing in progress).

[saucy]

You could run OCCT about 3h (TTL has said it should be enought to see if system is stable) and run Prime95 for 24h+. About fluctuation, my 4770K has pretty much same where all cores are at ~1GHz when system idles and go up to 4GHz when on load (OCing in progress).

Yes, thank you for all your help sir! I'm not quite sure, but I think I may have a bit more head room to overclock my CPU timing and vcore voltage.

 

But, I'm a bit confused. CPU-Z and OCCT reads that my voltage on my CPU is currently at 1.440; but AMD's Overdrive reports a 1.375 reading at 4.52GHz. Which reading is more accurate?

[LogicalDrm]

I'd say cpu-z and OCCT are more accurate in that point. Have you set volts so they don't fluctuate under stress?

[saucy]

I'd say cpu-z and OCCT are more accurate in that point. Have you set volts so they don't fluctuate under stress?

 

They fluctuate at load to ~1.475V at most. Any more room for upgrade or should I stop myself? I'm going to run OCCT for about 3-5 hours as I go to class, but so far the 30 minute interval tests (tested 3 times) have not failed. 

[LogicalDrm]

Optimal situation would be stable volts. Try to find setting in Advanced voltage control in BIOS which has something like "Vcore Loadline Calibration" and set it to highest setting. Like Extreme if there's such.

 

I can't really comment on volts since I got Haswell chip. My max is around 1.28V, but your might be higher.

[saucy]

Optimal situation would be stable volts. Try to find setting in Advanced voltage control in BIOS which has something like "Vcore Loadline Calibration" and set it to highest setting. Like Extreme if there's such.

 

I can't really comment on volts since I got Haswell chip. My max is around 1.28V, but your might be higher

My BIOS for the LLC is actually already at Extreme .

 

Just OC'd to 4.6 GHz, and about to see if it runs stable. Another thing is that my computer actually takes 2 tries to boot up fully. The first try only takes a split second from on to off, then a few seconds later it turns on. From what other forums and google said, it's just a cold start?

**Update: Current voltage for 4.6GHz at load only fluctuates to about ~1.45V constant. (Minimum of 1.42, to maxiumum of 1.45).

[CthulDude]

1.475v is getting up there. The highest i ever took my FX6300 was 1.45v, but i set up very cautious 24/7 OC's. If you set LLC to a higher state first try lowering your voltage a little. There should be a clock speed that your CPU will hit with ease,  and then it will hit a brick wall and take considerably more voltage to achieve +100Mhz. I usually stay around that wall..GL

[LogicalDrm]

@saucy, cold start is when you start from complete shutdown. It might be mobo/psu which is doing that but I wouldn't worry over it. My previous mobo did it as well.

[saucy]

1.475v is getting up there. The highest i ever took my FX6300 was 1.45v, but i set up very cautious 24/7 OC's. If you set LLC to a higher state first try lowering your voltage a little. There should be a clock speed that your CPU will hit with ease,  and then it will hit a brick wall and take considerably more voltage to achieve +100Mhz. I usually stay around that wall..GL

 

Ah, I took your advice. I tried running OCCT with 4.5GHz at 1.45V, but it failed at the 2 hour mark.

I dropped the clock to 4.4GHz and back to stock voltage of 1.4V, and the CPU seems to like it. It's current running OCCT happily, and I'll get back to you on the results of the four hour test. Although, since I dropped the timing, would there be anyway to achieve the goal of getting to >4.5GHz by OCing the NB? 

Any tips for that, fine tuning, and performance improvement would be appreciated.

 

@saucy, cold start is when you start from complete shutdown. It might be mobo/psu which is doing that but I wouldn't worry over it. My previous mobo did it as well.

 

Ah I see. It just was unsettling for me to see the PC doing that. Do you know anything that might resolve this "problem", as it kinda made my boot times a little longer than usual . 

[saucy]

**Update: 

 

 

Test failed @ 4.4GHz running OCCT at nearly 4 hours. In all reality, would I even call this stable? I don't think I'd ever run a program that demands 4 hours worth of 100% CPU usage. 

So when does exactly an OC reach the definition of 'Stable'?

[CthulDude]

**Update: 

 

 

 

Test failed @ 4.4GHz running OCCT at nearly 4 hours. In all reality, would I even call this stable? I don't think I'd ever run a program that demands 4 hours worth of 100% CPU usage. 

So when does exactly an OC reach the definition of 'Stable'?

There's gonna be people that will disagree with me, but I feel "stability" is situational. I.E.- A rig setup for hardcore rendering should be able to make 24hr passes with multiple stress test's before deemed stable. Try doing all the things you normally do and see if you BSOD. If not, seems like you're good to go. But, if you do it's back to the drawing board. Sometimes it can take weeks for me to find what overclock I prefer. Take a break and run it at your current settings and see how it goes.

[LogicalDrm]

I agree with CthulDude on that. OCCT is really worst case scenario. You might not get any issues in normal use or OCCT might pass and then you could have crash while gaming or doing some other high stress thing. So if you have to leave pc running for over 4h and having it do something cpu stressing like video encoding, it might either crash or throttle/reset clocks.

[saucy]

I agree with CthulDude on that. OCCT is really worst case scenario. You might not get any issues in normal use or OCCT might pass and then you could have crash while gaming or doing some other high stress thing. So if you have to leave pc running for over 4h and having it do something cpu stressing like video encoding, it might either crash or throttle/reset clocks.

Yeah, so far no BSOD. Even yesterday when I was running at 4.5GHz for about 3 hours of CS:GO, there was none. For now I'm going to take a break from all this overclocking, as it's really time-demanding. Although, I think I'm going to try to fix how to system tries to post two times.

According to this thread from another forum, I should enable a 'Power by PCIe' option in my BIOS to fix it. Should I listen to their advice?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1161672/computer-boots-twice-normal

[CthulDude]

Yeah, so far no BSOD. Even yesterday when I was running at 4.5GHz for about 3 hours of CS:GO, there was none. For now I'm going to take a break from all this overclocking, as it's really time-demanding. Although, I think I'm going to try to fix how to system tries to post two times.

According to this thread from another forum, I should enable a 'Power by PCIe' option in my BIOS to fix it. Should I listen to their advice?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1161672/computer-boots-twice-normal

I usually only get the double post's when the computer loses all power or I make a major change to the BIOS. Not sure about the "power on by PCIe", but it does sound like it will make it default to your discrete graphics card before attempting to use onboard graphics. Your 970A UD3 doesn't have onboard, though. I could be totally wrong about the function of "power on by PCIe", so maybe someone else can chime in.

[saucy]

*UPDATE:

 

I've been running this FX4300 @ 4.5GHz for about a month with no type of BSOD, random shutting down, etc. I played games for 4+ hours straight occasionally, left my computer running for maybe 12+ hours. Throughout the month that the CPU was overclocked, there never was a random shut down.

 

Although, today I experienced my first random shut down. It's winter, but I'm not sure if it plays a part in this random shut down. Although I'm going to guess that my main culprit is my PSU, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152035).

 

I'm a bit paranoid, could there be any type of damage that would be caused by any more random shut downs? 

FYI: My CPU and System Temps are very ambient, barely go over ~35C or even ~40C under load (A typical gaming session. Previously used OCCT, and the overclock was stable for 6 hours).