Can you use an OC Phenom II X4 965 on this motherboard?
Can you use an OC Phenom II X4 965 on this motherboard?
You're right, you can still overclock these boards.
These coolers—Gammaxx 400, Hyper 212 EVO, and Cryorig H7—are all decent options at a reasonable cost.
I need strong cooling to push the overclock. Right now I have around 12 fans connected to my system and I've observed a clear path for warm air under load – moving from the back to the front. At the front, I've added two more fans to draw this hot air out.
I'm using an Arctic Freezer Extreme, but I think it won't be enough to reach the highest possible overclock even with 160W TDP cooling. My CPU is 125W TDP, so I exceeded the specs but not significantly.
From what I've tried before, pushing to the absolute limit is what every overclocker aims for. Here are my reasons:
1) Eventually you'll need to upgrade your CPU again to something with higher TDP.
2) More cooling always helps.
3) You should aim for the maximum possible overclock.
4) This unit has 8 heatpipes, 3 towers, and 2 fans.
5) You can enhance the chassis/backplate cooling as needed.
6) A cheap cooling case with mesh vents works too – it lets the air escape properly so you don’t get overheated.
Otherwise, you’ll end up with a much slower rise in ambient temperature (more heat than a few bulbs), which could eventually cause your CPU to overheat if you can't maintain a steady cool environment.
I’ve reached a point where the case temperature is around 4°C during idle browsing or 45°C under load. At 4.7GHz with 45% load, it climbs to 60+ at 5GHz. That’s tricky because I want to keep the CPU around 40°C even at 5GHz.
So I’ll experiment with different setups in the future and see how consistent the temperatures stay. I don’t want to constantly tweak the CPU.
I have some room for error since I’m not using a very expensive CPU – it’s okay to adjust while learning, and it won’t be a disaster if I decide to replace it later. It’s not difficult to find another CPU for this purpose. My goal is just to achieve the best possible overclock. With the right configuration, good overclocks are achievable.
If you’re buying new, skip the small cooling solutions and opt for the largest heatsink available. It’s frustrating to constantly adjust settings and re-test. Go big.
I wouldn’t want to spend another £50 on a cooler when I’ve already spent £15 on an Arctic Freezer Extreme and destroyed an A11 for parts.
Don’t settle for half-measures – choose the best heatsink you can find. If you’re looking for a solid overclock, the V8 is definitely worth considering.
I run my Phenom x6 at 3.6ghz continuously, maintaining 85-100% load with temperatures staying below 54°C. This was achieved using two GTX 460 graphics cards at full capacity, which generated significant heat in their cases. With a GTX 650TI boosted to 50-51°C. My CPU cooler is the 212EVO. The H7 performs slightly better, and the Gammaxx 400 is comparable. According to CPUZ, my CPU usage is around 160 watts.
My son continues to enjoy gaming on my old PC, a Phenom II x4. It runs overclocked to 4GHz, with the northbridge at 2.7Ghz and memory at 1.8Ghz. According to AMD guidelines for Phenom II overclocking, the maximum is around 4.2Ghz. The cooling setup includes a Xigmatek Loki on the CPU, two 100mm fans behind the case drawing heat, and the power supply mounted at the top also helping to remove warmth. He's running a 7790 GPU.
At 4.7ghz my fx 4350 stays under 45c even with a full workload like Elite Dangerous or any of the dx11-12 games. However, when stressing it on prime95 at 4.8-4.5 with 1ghz, temperatures rise to 64c plus package temperature—even with a fan blowing and a heatsink glued with thermal epoxy. At normal voltage it operates between 0-20c. For better cooling, consider a larger heatsink; 160watts is right at the limit of your heatsink capacity. A bigger heatsink could bring temps down to 40c during that high overclock. With an FX processor you might be able to use it, and with a future FX model you could even apply it. As I monitor via Open Hardware Monitor, core 1-4 temperatures are currently 0-12c, max 34.6c under air cooling at 4731mhz. But pushing to 5ghz pushes temps beyond the safe range of 61.5c.
The issue is that your 965 is already running at 3.4Ghz, and many Phenom II CPUs won’t go beyond 4 Ghz. Spending a lot on fans and coolers might only give a small 10% boost...
Consider testing it. Try overclocking your system temporarily to see how it performs.
Keep the case side open to improve airflow and set the CPU voltage to its default level. Monitor the temperature closely—keep it under 65°C.
If you can achieve a stable overclock at stock voltages for a short time, investing in better cooling could be worthwhile.
But if overclocking is limited on stock settings, you likely won’t see significant gains from higher voltages or cooling.
If you torture your cpu in prime95 it will reveal any weaknesses in your hardware by simply freezing up.
It will tell you that when the load on your system gets higher say when a new game is released that gobbles up all your system resources, that your pc won't handle it.
I haven't quite figured out the fire triangle myself on my chip whether it's deformed, low binned or not enough voltage or too much temperature;
The temp. gets too high to unsafe levels before I can get the voltage up.
So the only thing I can do now is get a bigger heatsink and try it out and if the problem is a combination of the chip quality, voltage and temperature, and where it's tolerances lie, well then after that I'll just buy a higher binned chip because at the end of the day overclocking does add a nice touch of polish to most of the games in your inventory.
I will give you some advance warning tho- before you prime95 make sure that you do have a few extra fans huffing on it
because a torture test will stress your cpu beyond anything else you will run on your system
if you're running at 54c you can be practically guaranteed to rise beyond safe temps. on a torture test and your cpu might shut itself down and the system might freeze. It just means you have got problems with coolng to address that are not revealed at your ordinary workload.
As time goes on the demands of software increase on the system. When that happens that will be the point where your pc starts to go a bit wonky anyway, and you may not necessarily realise it's because it has underlying weaknesses that have not been uncovered until that moment.
I easily passed a torture at stock levels and voltages and stayed at 35c.
at 4.7ghz on the multiplier 23.5x200 I passed a torture test on it at 45c.
But at 4.7ghz using both the multiplier and the fsb to clock it up the temp. creeps up ever so slowly to that unsafe level of 61.5c
and I have a 160w cooler supplemented by a backplate cooler and a dozen fans huffing into the case and now I have a thermaltake case and the window is open in the cool evening air.
The only thing left I can attempt is more direct contact heatpipes such as those offered on the v8.
The temperature gradually creeps up in the room the pc is situated in. My central heating is off but the air inside is significantly warmer than the air outside even with the window open.
The other problem is the duty cycle. The temp range of my cpu operating on this system is 0c on the package to 55c right now as I am writing and torturing on prime95 4 threads.
The chip contracts and expands between those extremes. Insufficient cooling will shorten it's life if it's not kept at a more uniform average. temperature most of the time.
I just went out for 15minutes as I feel safeish at 4731mhz and it's still going but that will take another 1hr45mins to pass the amd club and if I up the vCore from 1.392max to 1.4016 or 1.428 or 1.44 or 1.452 it's very likely these will reach unsafe temps.
That's with a heatsink 35watts greater tdp than the rating of the cpu. 125watts cpu on 160watt heatsink. Plus a few other mods jury rigged on it.
The point I'm making is that a medium heatsink like the 160watts isn't good enough to reach a high overclock.
To get the max. overclock that you want you have to go large on your heatsink!
Also when you are torturing it at 100% your cpu is not strictly running at the exact clock speed and voltage you set it to. It's ~approx with a +/-margin of error so you could be getting spikes where you're ok at say 4.8 but when it spikes to 4.85 it just won't take any more.
So you just have to test it at every level and try to figure out what it can handle. If you don't have the equipment to do that to start with, such as the massive heatsink, how can you find out out?
Other people will just say something like 'every chip is different what worked for me won't work for you'.
And don't forget the most extreme overclockers who get over 8ghz with insane cooling like liquid nitrogen.
Your cpu can probably do a lot more but it's not standardized or rated to do it because there are problems at higher clocks such as power consumption increases and temp. is a huge problem where it runs pretty ok at stock levels it's rated to at room temp. with smaller power&heat requirements. That's why the manufacturer doesn't endorse overclocking. You have to do it on your own recognisance and be prepared for the problems, the bills, the heat, and if you're happy with it, then that's ok.
There are options to increase performance with your setup.
Cryorig H7
Gammaxx 400
Hyper 212 EVO
All three provide solid cooling at affordable costs.
Unolocogringo :
I own a Phenom x6 @3.6ghz running nonstop 24/7/365, with temperatures staying under 54°C. That was during heavy load with two GTX 460s at full capacity, which generated significant heat in the case. With the GTX 650TI boost, temperatures dropped to around 50-51°C.
My CPU cooler is the 212EVO.
The H7 performs slightly better.
The Gammaxx 400 is comparable.
According to CPUZ, I’m currently at 160 watts on the CPU.
Thanks for your advice, but the coolers you suggested seem either too large for my case or unavailable in my country. I found a TX3 EVO and wondered if it would work. Also, my case supports a 150mm CPU cooler.