Where to overclock from here??

[Brennan Price]

Ok so, I bought a new CPU cooler recently which is the Enermax ETS-T40-TB and it is a great air cooler. I decided to overclock my Athlon 860K and have got to 4.5GHz stable with no problems. I tried to get to 4.6GHz stable and it just is not happening even at 1.5V. Should I lower the voltage or go higher than 1.5V but I have seen on other forums etc that going above 1.5V is not recommened because of heat. My 4.5GHz overclock meanwhile is at 1.45250V and is fine but why is 4.6GHz so hard to get with a decent amount of voltage to use before I hit 1.5V? I am getting normal temps with 4.5GHz.

 

Please help me, I have just been using the multiplier and the voltage so far to get the results I want. Is there any other way??

 

Thanks, Brennan Price.

[iRileyx]

Don't go higher than 1.5.  You may have hit your chips limits which at 4.5 sounds about right. 

[Brennan Price]

1 minute ago, RKRiley said:

Don't go higher than 1.5, I'd honestly say that's too high already. 

Right ok haha, shall move it down a bit then... and keep at 4.5GHz until I can figure out how to go higher

[iRileyx]

Just now, Brennan_Price said:

Right ok haha, shall move it down a bit then... and keep at 4.5GHz until I can figure out how to go higher

I edited my post, you're probably at your chips max. 

[Brennan Price]

37 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

I edited my post, you're probably at your chips max. 

Oh right ok thats makes sense. I have had 4.6Ghz but it was unstable. Then 4.7Ghz just crashes my system so yeah, shall keep it to 4.5GHz

[Brennan Price]

3 hours ago, RKRiley said:

I edited my post, you're probably at your chips max. 

Update, It is not my chips max. I now have 4.6GHz stable as well. I just put the voltage down to 1.425 and it seems to have done magic as windows boots in super quick time, temps aren't sky high and games have a decent FPS boost too. Might try for 4.7GHz or possibly 4.8GHz but I may get a CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error/BSOD on boot up.

[Morgan Everett]

2 hours ago, Brennan_Price said:

Update, It is not my chips max. I now have 4.6GHz stable as well. I just put the voltage down to 1.425 and it seems to have done magic as windows boots in super quick time, temps aren't sky high and games have a decent FPS boost too. Might try for 4.7GHz or possibly 4.8GHz but I may get a CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error/BSOD on boot up.

I don't see how an additional 100 MHz would have that effect.

[Brennan Price]

3 hours ago, Morgan Everett said:

I don't see how an additional 100 MHz would have that effect.

Would affect what?

[Morgan Everett]

6 minutes ago, Brennan_Price said:

Would affect what?

The effect you referred to in the post I replied to.

[Brennan Price]

Just now, Morgan Everett said:

The effect you referred to in the post I replied to.

Which one? BSOD or Voltage for CPU?

[Morgan Everett]

1 minute ago, Brennan_Price said:

Which one? BSOD or Voltage for CPU?

"it seems to have done magic as windows boots in super quick time...and games have a decent FPS boost too"

[Brennan Price]

2 minutes ago, Morgan Everett said:

"it seems to have done magic as windows boots in super quick time...and games have a decent FPS boost too"

Oh no, I meant compared to stock speeds mate. I thought I made that clear enough but oh well. But compared to other unstable speeds, windows booted in really slow and I got it just right so it boots at pretty much normal speeds or a bit faster.

[Brennan Price]

1 minute ago, Strike105X said:

Have you tried FSB overclocking ? You might have to experiment a bit though, even decrease multiplier to a certain level then take it up with FSB. That's how i got my FX4300 to even 5 Ghz, otherwise 4.4 was the limit with just multiplier.

Oh right, no I haven't tried that yet. Is there a guide on this forum or on internet somewhere?

[Brennan Price]

3 minutes ago, Strike105X said:

Dunno honestly, FX is mostly the area i'm most familiar, found this guide while searching: http://www.ocinside.de/workshop_en/amd_fm2_overclock/

Cheers, there is an awful lot of text there so I shall read it another time haha. I am happy atm with 4.6GHz because I dont think I will need any more power until I go water cooled and get more items for my PC. But that will come in usefull in the future I am sure.

[Brennan Price]

1 minute ago, Strike105X said:

Going above 4.6 might be pointless though, at least that's what two users here that have gotten above stated, that after 4.6 they didn't see any gains.

Ok right, that is fair enough. I will still perhaps try for 4.7 or 4.8 but that is highly unlikely as like you said, the performance to heat ratio isn't worth it