Overclocking Noob using AMD Athlon II X3 455

[Puff3r]

Hello all;

 

I am new to overclocking. I have been building computers for years and have never really seen the need to overclock in the past. Now that I am older and wiser, I understand about getting more performance for the price paid for hardware. That said I built the following rig:

 

AMD Athlon II X3 455

ASUS M4N98TD Evo

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-730SS 730W

Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB x 2

PNY RVCGGTX470XXB GeForce GTX 470

4 x 120 mm Cooling fans

Win 7 Ultimate 32

 

My temps according to PC Wizard are at 43 c when idle and up to 57 c under heavy load. First, should I look at more cooling options? These fans are less than stellar as I can only get 3 to respond to speedfan. Of those 3, 1 spins around 2200 rpm with the other 2 maxing out at 950 rpm. Is there a way to speed these or should they just be replaced? One of the fans uses a molex connector instead of a 3/4 pin connection. Is this why speedfan doesn't recognize it?

 

My real question though is in overclocking the system. In reading on the web I have learned how to unlock the 4th core on the chip. It unlocked flawlessly and now reports in CPU-Z as Phenom II X4 B55. I have also learned that AMD Overdrive will not work on this system board and most users tend to lean away from Turbo V for overclocking. What BIOS settings should I be using? What do the different options in the BIOS actually mean and do?

[IVIYTH0S]

what temps are you getting unlocked as a quad??

 

(cpu temp, since the core sensors should be useless when ACC is enabled)

 

DEFINITELY get a cpu cooler before OC'n with how close you are to the max stock.

 

Check out the Coolermaster Hyper 212+, should do everything you need at a price your jaw will drop at

[Puff3r]

what temps are you getting unlocked as a quad??

 

(cpu temp, since the core sensors should be useless when ACC is enabled)

 

DEFINITELY get a cpu cooler before OC'n with how close you are to the max stock.

 

Check out the Coolermaster Hyper 212+, should do everything you need at a price your jaw will drop at

I am looking into getting the fan you posted, thanks for the link. As mentioned above, according to PC Wizard, I am at about 43 c for all 4 cores idle. I have not checked the temps with the 4th core not unlocked yet. I didn't plan on running with only 3 cores. Which brings up another question. Do I need the 4th core? I am playing some newer games but still love some classics. Most games are now designed for dual core with a few taking advantage of a fourth core and almost nothing written for three cores. Would I see better performance out of my system if I only ran the 3 cores?

[IVIYTH0S]

I am looking into getting the fan you posted, thanks for the link. As mentioned above, according to PC Wizard, I am at about 43 c for all 4 cores idle. I have not checked the temps with the 4th core not unlocked yet. I didn't plan on running with only 3 cores. Which brings up another question. Do I need the 4th core? I am playing some newer games but still love some classics. Most games are now designed for dual core with a few taking advantage of a fourth core and almost nothing written for three cores. Would I see better performance out of my system if I only ran the 3 cores?

well 3 will help more than 2 in most new games, you don't have to have 4 if the game is quad threaded. When you get the new cooler, see if the 4th core unlock prevents a healthy OC. Alot of cases of successful unlocks work fine at stock speeds but OC'd will require alot more voltage (aka more heat) so it's best to disable it back to the dual or triple core and OC it for the best experience.

 

what does the quad core run at load?

[Puff3r]

well 3 will help more than 2 in most new games, you don't have to have 4 if the game is quad threaded. When you get the new cooler, see if the 4th core unlock prevents a healthy OC. Alot of cases of successful unlocks work fine at stock speeds but OC'd will require alot more voltage (aka more heat) so it's best to disable it back to the dual or triple core and OC it for the best experience.

 

what does the quad core run at load?

Prime 95 had me running at 73 c last night in quad core mode. Dropped back to tri core and am running about 18 c under no load and Prime 95 pushes me to 41 c. A remarkable improvement to say the least.

[IVIYTH0S]

Prime 95 had me running at 73 c last night in quad core mode. Dropped back to tri core and am running about 18 c under no load and Prime 95 pushes me to 41 c. A remarkable improvement to say the least.

yeah see, the cooler may allow you to run it in quad core mode but the heat will assuredly kill a healthy overclock of it. (though I would take the time to find the max of both configurations when the cooler arrives so you know in the future when quad threaded apps are the norm)

[Puff3r]

yeah see, the cooler may allow you to run it in quad core mode but the heat will assuredly kill a healthy overclock of it. (though I would take the time to find the max of both configurations when the cooler arrives so you know in the future when quad threaded apps are the norm)

I have been running various tests all day and have pretty much convinced myself that tri core is the way to go for now. Thanks for all of the input. Now for overclocking the tri core. My temps are well within the range of overclocking the cpu but the main question of how to go about this remains. I have read several guides, but all seem to be based around 2005 and much has changed. Is there a good noob guide that anyone could point me to?

[IVIYTH0S]

This one helped me overclock my cousin's 620 quad: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

it's pretty much the same chip you have

[Puff3r]

This one helped me overclock my cousin's 620 quad: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

it's pretty much the same chip you have

Reading now. Thanks.