Overclocking Phenom II x4 960T, Mild O/C Results

This is a basic, quick and, by no means a comprehensive review of the Black Edition Phenom II x4 960T's (3.0 Ghz) mild overclocking ability, as well as the effectivness the Gelid Tranquillo cpu cooler in general and compared with the stock Phenom cooler. With specific emphasis on:

• Stock Phenom cooler and its ability to stay cool @ 100% load for 10 mins, with 200Mhz increments
  
• Gelid Tranquillo Vs Stock Phenom cooler @ 100% load for 10 mins (3.4Ghz)
  
• Gelid Tranquillo and its ability to stay cool @ 100% load for 1hr, with 200Mhz increase (3.6Ghz)

Ambient Room Temp: Approximate 22c

Software Analysis:

• OCCT V4 (Stability)
• CPU-Z (Detailed CPU reading)
• Core Temp (Consistency reading only)
• Speccy (Consistency reading only)
• HWMonitor (Fan Speeds & VCore Reading)

Set up:

• Sharkoon T9 (x3 120mm Fans: 2 front, 1 rear)
• AMD Phenom II x4 960T Black Edition @ 3.0/3.2/3.4Ghz w/Stock Cooler
• AMD Phenom II x4 960T Black Edition @ 3.4/3.6Ghz w/Gelid Tranquillo
• Gigabyte GA 990XA UD3 (Latest BIOS)
• Corsair 1x4GB XMS3 1333Mhz
• PNY GTX 550 TI
• Corsair CX 500

Tests w/Cool & Quiet enabled

1) CPU with stock cooler @ 3.0ghz for 10 mins with 100% load and stock Vcore @ 1.280v (yesterday/no graphs)

2) Overclocked CPU w/stock cooler, x16 multipler and stock Vcore @ 1.280v (yesterday/no graphs)

3)Overclocked CPU w/stock cooler, x17 multipler and stock Vcore @ 1.280v (yesterday/no graphs)

4)Comparison of Gelid Tranquillo Vs Stock Phenom cooler @ 3.4Ghz, stock stock Vcore @ 1.280v 100% load for 10 mins

5)Overclocked CPU w/Gelid Tranquillo, x18 multipler @ 3.6Ghz, close to stock Vcore @ 1.280v on CPU-Z but varies to 1.312v

Results

Test 1: After 1hr @ 100% load, the CPU at stock 3.0Ghz and stock cooler,with no increases in Vcore was found to be stable. Starting Temps were 22c, ending temps were approximately 38c.

Test 2/3: After 1hr each@ 100% load, the CPU was overclocked to 3.2/3.4Ghz w/ stock cooler,with no increases in Vcore and was found to be stable. Starting temps were 23c, ending temps were approximately 39.1c.

Test 4: At 3.4Ghz, no increases in Vcore and the same load/room conditions, the CPU temps using the stock cooler and Gelid Tranquillo were approximately 39.1c and 27.5c respectively. System was found to be stable.




Test 5: After 1 hr @ 100% load, the CPU was overclocked to 3.6Ghz w/Gelid Tranquillo, with only a modest automated increase in Vcore @ 1.312v. System was found to be stable. Starting temps were 22c, ending temps were approximately 29c.




Conclusion:

Being a 1st time overclocker/novice, its of my opinion that the Phenom II x4 960T is an excellent chip for first time overclockers. Although I did not clock it to 3.6Ghz using the stock cooler, I am of no doubt that this chip could have achieved it and without any adjustments in Vcore, since it was able to handle a 400Mhz increase and stay cool with a basic air cooling set up. Its important also however, that the Gelid Tranquillo out performed the phenom's stock cooler as under the same conditions, probably as expected? as it managed to decrease temps by approximately 11.6c, this difference is significant regardless of the cooler. Fundementally since the focal point was overclocking, as a finale I decided to clock the Phenom to 3.6Ghz and again with no non automated increases in Vcore, no instabilty was found and the difference in temps was only approximately 7c.

Overall a 600Mhz increase was achieved quite easily with this chip, but questions do remain, what are the temps under load for longer periods of time and ultimately what is the overclocking potential of this chip when using a basic air cooling set up? Opinions anyone?

 

Nice write up but why didn't you keep pushing it until you hit 1.45 volts? Should be able to hit 4ghz at least by the time you get there.

 

My dualcore 555 (unlocked to quadcore 955) does 4ghz nicely on 1.45 volts

 

To be honest I chickened out lol, I have not enough experience in O/C to know the potential of these chips, 4ghz?

Thats a nice unlock plus O/C, kudos.

 

No joy unlocking to x6?

 

Its odd because I do have a core unlocker tried it and no extra cores unlocked, this is odd because the Thubus and meant to unlock to x6 regardless, then the issues arise if they are either working or defective, but in my case it remained at x4?? another thing is that my chip states it thubus which is natively x6 but apparently the x4 960T on wiki is a zosma chip which is a hit and miss for 2 hidden cores?? I have no idea if it does have x6 but my mobo just doesnt support it or not since its a 990xa chipset

 

put 1.5v through it se if it unlocks then. then overclock the tits out of it

 

If you push 1.5V through it; it's entirely possible you could get it to boot at 4.3Ghz+, I managed that with my previous 555be (Although it was toasty at the time.)

Just keep an eye on the temps and you'll be fine!

 

3.6 should be doable more or less stock volts

get it to 4ghz

 

To be fair; On Modern cooling; Pretty much all Phenom II chips can hit 4Ghz.

 

Going off my set up and results, what is the probably of my CPU frying itself or indeed BSoDing, if I increase another 200mhz without a change in vcore? I want to get to 4ghz but not at the cost of buying a new chip or worst fryng my mobo.Additionally if a cpu isnt stable at a higher speed, i.e increasing without a change in vcore, what is the factor behind this and can it be controlled? Lastly I am due to receive new RAM, 1600Mhz to replace my 1333Mhz, will this affect the current O/C speed or future increases of the CPU?

 

It could blue-screen if there isn't enough voltage. Best example is to keep Prime95 handy. If you start that and it instantly blue-screens; not enough Voltage.

1600Mhz RAM will help if you're Overclocking off the FSB, rather than the Multiplier. It can give you better performance to do it that way, and lets you fine-tune the overclock a bit better. You can afford to leave the memory multiplier at a higher setting. I usually had my 1600mhz kit at 1599mhz with the Overclock. Ran bloody fast like that.

 

is going off the multipler risky then? i.e multipler >>vcore , multipler >> vcore etc etc

 

Not really. But you can be limited by just the multiplier. Experiment. That's the best thing to do. Just keep tweaking and toying. I find the Phenom II's a good challenge to overclock, and a good starting point.

 

So you think it should hit 4ghz no issues?, and is x0.5 or x1 multipler increments better and should I not increase Vcore until I need it i.e BSOD

 

At first, yes. I do tend to increase the Vcore when I'm upping the multiplier, but that's more experience on knowing what speeds require what voltage. Set yourself a maximum Vcore, then slowly get it as fast as you can until you hit that. Keep an eye on temps the whole time.

 

I've tried some retarded settings with some of the Phenom-setups I have (not a cent of own money in it, so go figure) and anything is yet to blow, so as long as you don't try pumping EXTREMELY high voltages through the chips, you aren't going to fry anything.

Quads should definitely do 4 GHz without much hassle. I don't have personal experience of these quad-Thubans (only the 6-core variety) so can't give any specific numbers...

 

whats the deal with my chip, core temp says its a thuban (x6) but wiki says the 960t are zosma (x4)? and what temps should I be aiming for at 4ghz and about 1.35/75v? so I know if I am within a very safe temp range

 

With your cooler you can easily put 1•5v through it and not worry about temps. Have put 1•7 through these chips before without a single meltdown.

 

All Phenom II's cap out at 62, so about 55 should be safe max, to account for your room heating up during summer and such.