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(More customer reviews)I'm completely stable at 4.175GHz. Is it my final result? Probably not with my existing equipment, but I am extremely impressed with the result. My goal is still to get to 4.2GHz, but this is how I got here and the contributing factors.
AMD X6 Black Edition (3.2GHz)
Asus CrossHair IV Motherboard
16Gb of DDR3 1066 Ram
Corsair H50 CPU Cooler
Coolermaster HAF Full Tower
Asus 5870 1GB v2 Video Card
Step 1: Use TurboEvo software (included with Asus Crosshair)to auto overclock the CPU & Ram automatically in Windows 7. This is a good observational tool to find out which factors should be changed (Ratio/Multiplier, Bus, Voltage) and there respective limits. I used this tool with settings Extreme Overclock and Flexible Voltage Settings and got a 3.9GHz Result.
Step 2: Restart and Mod in Bios. The trick to overclocking is deciding whether to focus on increasing the bus or multiplier when reaching for that higher clock. This is answered in Step 1. The ram speed is the determining factor in this answer. My ram speed was 1333, and with my 4 sticks of 4gb (16 total) sucking up far more voltage than a single stick, increasing the cpu's bus speed would mean a higher memory speed requirement that my ram couldn't handle without a voltage increase.
So I left the cpu's bus at the default 200 setting and increased the multiplier, hoping to get a final clock speed of 4.3 or 4.4.After reading others overclocking experiences I decided not to set the voltage beyond 1.49. I also set my CPU/NB voltage at a 1.25. After numerous crashes and restarts, I ended up with a super stable clock of 4.1GHz that survived all of the highest settings of Heaven Benchmarks, 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage, Crysis (Directx 10), Alien vs Predator Benchmark (Directx 11), and the dreaded Furmark test (with my 5870 that I overclocked to a stable 961 core/1290 memory).
Step 3: Run Turbo Evo again. This program will push your overclock even higher, more stably than you ever could using your new settings as a starting point. Starting at my 4.1, Turbo Evo overclocked three more times in Windows, finally crashing above 4.2. It saved my final stable settings upon restart, and my cpu was automatically set to 4.175GHz. Point is the motherboard and memory speed do make a difference, not just cooling. Though my Cosair H50 handles this overclock at 40 degrees idle/50 load with ease. If your memory is faster, than you may get a slightly better result. In a few days, I may decide to try to set the voltage at 1.5 or 1.51 and see if temps are still good and see if I can reach that 4.2 or 4.3 using Turbo Evo only. My manual overclock is done.
If you have any questions, hit my up at coolbreeze70056@yahoo.com and I will try to help.
Update: Here are the necessary voltages for this processor. For each voltage, set it -.02 below the voltage that's given, as the voltage given is what it will be under a load.
3792MHz=1.35v (set voltage to 1.33) ; 4000MHz=1.42v (set to 1.39) ; 4100Mhz=1.44 (set to 1.41) ; 4200MHz=1.46 (set to 1.44).
*Cooling update* I upgraded from a H50 to H70, set it up with 2 included 2200 rpm fans @ 100% speed in push/pull exhaust configuration. Under a full load, my temps were 38 degrees idle/41 degrees during an hour long playtime of Metro 2033 at max settings/ 46 degrees max during an hour and 30 minute long movie encoding using Cyberlink's Power Director. Power Director is optimized to push all six cores in order to encode faster, and would easily crash the system if there's not enough voltage or crash if the program generates to much heat. None of the test went above 46 degrees at the 4GHz/1.39v settings. Remember that the highest temps that you would want the processor to reach on a 24 basis under a load is 55 degrees. It can go over by 1 or 2 degrees every now and then, but if you are reaching the breaking point of 62 degrees everytime the computer is under a load, then you have to lower the voltage and use a lower overclock.
Why haven't I run the normal stress test to push the system? Because I don't run prime95 or sisandra in my everyday computer usage. Power Director would effectively crash my previous overclocks when all of the other benchmarks had passed, so it became my new standard to strive for highest overclocks at lowest voltages/temps. I pass all of my hard work on to you.
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