I got an AMD Ph II 965 a few weeks ago, and wanted to see what the max I could overclock it to would be. Here's my combo:
MSI K9A2 Platinum V.1 AM2+
850-watt Antec PSU
AMD Phenom II 965 BE stock 3.4 GHz C-3 stepping
"Transformer 4"x HSF (2 big ol' fans, 1 puller, 1 pusher)
8GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 MHz (stock, raised with CPU freq)
ATi RADEON 4870 512 MB GDDR5 @ full throttle w/CCC

So I spent a few days tweaking and changing values in BIOS, and got this:

CPU freq 4.07 GHz @ 1.6V (220 MHz FSB * 18.5 Multiplier) 36*-39*, never any hotter.
H/T link @ 2200 MHz 1.350V
NB freq @ 2420 MHz 1.300V
RAM @ 880 MHz 2.10V and 4-4-4-12
Chipset at BIOS max recommended Voltage
Disabled Spread Spectrum and Unused PCI slots to minimize EM interference

This is the best I can do with it I think, and wonder if anyone else has done this combination differently for better results? I'm at a point of diminishing returns for what I've got, I think.
I've been reading up on others, having the same combo, but there aren't too many others running the same equipment I got anymore, I don't think.
Any ideas/suggestions for maybe a little better performance, or is this "as good as it gets" for this guy? It seems rather stable this way, been running Hyper Pi and Super Pi while typing this, but haven't tried 3D mark or anything like that yet. Help/ideas/suggestions gladly accepted and appreciated.

Jeeze... got some good specs man. Just your CPU life will be cut a lot shorter lol

N. Chapman wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2010 at 1:52pm:


Yeah, I didn't like that too much, either. I did hesitate to run the volts that high, but it seems that this was the only way to get stability out of the thing with it cranked up that high.

So, I have an announcement to make:

I did it.

I bought this new hardware, because I'm a feind, and an addict! I think there was too much room for refinement in my old setup, so I decided to step up into the DDR3 club. I put my Phenom 2, HDDs, and video card on this rig...

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/cases/Cooler_Master_HAF_932/images/haf932-ca...

http://www.pureoverclock.com/images/news/asus_crosshair3.jpg

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/windowslivewriterkings...

So, now it goes like this...

Antec 850W PSU
Cooler Master HAF case (black)
Phenom II 965 3.4 GHz stock (but who leaves it there?)
Transformer 4 HSF with dual fans
8 GB Kingston DDR3 1600 MHz @ 8-8-8-20
ATi 4870 HD 512 MB GDDR5

So far, with as much stability as I can see, I've got the thing @ 4.01 GHz with just the multiplier @ 20x, and auto voltage. There's a bunch of indicator LED's ALL OVER this board, set to indicate voltage condition, and I'm happy to say that they're ALL GREEN. I've tried a few different voltage and FSB tweaking options, and nothing seems to work as well as just using the MP: However, I've only had the thing for a few days, and there is still a lot of things to see on this new board. Also, there was a handy li'l option I could never really use before. It's for OC'ing the PCI-e slots. On the old board I used, no ammount of messing ever got the thing to be stable at any setting but stock, which was 100 MHz. I got this thing to 120 MHz for FSX single-player, but it did crash it's first time in a Multi-player session today after cranking it up to 125. Just to be on the safe-side, I'll leave it at 110.

Anyone out there that is still wanting to use AMD processors, this is the board to get. There are SOOO many BIOS options to help a gamer/OCer get the most out of their CPU, HDD, VC, etc. I need to do a LOT more research to even understand what some of these options really do!

For Intel users, there's the Rampage II, which looks just as good. I'm sure it ROX. I hope none of you get one, at least for a while, only because I want to be the only one with it for at least a week (unless it's already too late )...

I was hesitant to upgrade to DDR3 because of the latency differences- (DDR2 @ 4-4-4-12, while DDR3 @ 8-8-8-20). I figured that if it takes it 2x as long to strobe, charge, read/write, etc, then it runing at 2x the MHz didn't seem to leave much room for gains. A couple of the reviews I read in its early days seemed to say this, and it turns out that it just isn't so. It definitely performs better than the stuff I was using. It was good, but this is definitely higher-performance stuff. ZOOOOOMM!!