CPU Just achieved a very moderate undervolt/overclock on my Phenom II X4

Moving house soon to a place where the electric is metered, so every penny saved is worthwhile.

I successfully lowered my 955 BE's vcore from 1.4 to 1.28 and pushed the clock from 3.2 to 3.3GHz at the same time.

HWMonitor is reporting CPU temp drops of 10 degrees C, though I don't trust its accuracy. I know it's not the greatest achievement in the world of clocks and voltages, but it's my first CPU tweak and I'm proud of it

 

wohoo! Congratulations!

 

While the o/c isn't much the undervolt is a fair chunk, should help bills a bit but I think it might start to splutter if pushed. Nice job regardless though

 

Try running Intel Burn test (IBT) to test for stability. Report back With CPU-Z and IBT screens shots.

 

To add on to that, run IBT on Maximum stress setting.

 

maximum is the only real way to test it

a test which separates the men from the boys

 

Sad news, the undervolt is lovely but is not sustainable with my music work, which pushes into the red a little quickly.

Will post screenshots when I've reached something sonically stable.

 

I managed 1.15V @ 3.4 on my FX 8120 before my board blew. Didn't seem to care in the slightest. I do wonder if I have an 8150 that was only ever so slightly out of spec.

Anyway; Back ontopic; that's a ridiculous reduction. I've heard stories of 955s and the like doing 3.8 on stock voltage, but never 3.4 on that little!

 

Before I continue I just want to mention that for the purpose of general web browsing and office duties, my initial 1.28V/3.3GHz tweak was functionally stable, and I'd have no worry going with that when the time comes to relegate this CPU/mobo to family or fileserving duties. Obviously it's no good for extreme activity.

Here's a screenshot of my PC playing back a heavy orchestral arrangement at low voltage with no difficulty, probably the highest my real-world usage will go:



BIOS setting = 1.35V

Here's a screenshot of the standard IBT result, showing the nominal stable voltage in CPUZ. Interestingly, HWMonitor notes a lowest voltage of 0.96, and that's because it throttled back one or two times in the test.



BIOS setting = 1.365V

I tried running the test on maximum, but after seeing CPUZ show the multiplier drop to 4x every few seconds I decided my cooling wasn't up to this kind of testing, so I stopped it before I broke something.

Should I keep it at 1.365V BIOS setting or go back to my "work stable" 1.35V?

 

Keep it at 1.365. Just because it's currently work stable at less doesn't mean it will stay that way. If it isn't completely stable it could blue screen at any time.

 

That Gigaflops report must be a little off, no?

That or bulldozer really really doesn't like that test. I only got 12 Gflops when I ran it. Consequently; I don't bother with it. Extreme takes over half a day to complete.

 

Ha yes, I chose to ignore the time and gigaflops results!

Fine, I shall stick with the current standard-stable setting. Thanks