Technical > Overclocking / Modding > [OC] If a CPU can't handle a 5% OC...

[OC] If a CPU can't handle a 5% OC...

I agree. Not good as far as OCing is concerned.

Just curious, how many hours have you spent on this already?

Well, we'd have to count the time spent months back before Dave, the original owner who I built it for, died (I miss him terribly). The system ran fine until late last year when it failed on him and I had to reinstall the OS, so for two years almost it was fine and dandy.

Then, last December, while I was home visiting for the holiday, it failed on him. When I got back I figured it was the motherboard and sent it in to Gigabyte for repair or replace. They worked on it (supposedly) and when I got it back Dave had died. I put it together after composing myself for several days and it ran.

Then I had to make a sudden move home and a friend shipped it up here for me, but the video card came loose and after thinking the video card was ruined, then that the motherboard was ruined, we tried with an older processor and the Gigabyte board started up again, but only after trying with the process of elimination with the RAM sticks, where we found with one of them it wouldn't start.

At that time we weren't able to run memtest because we were working on it at another home, but we were able to, once the Phenom I processor was installed and then we reset the BIOS, we were able to put the Phenom II back in, with the (apparently) good stick of RAM and get it running.

A few other times I had to do the same thing after trying overclocking: Put in the Phenom I, reset CMOS, put in Phenom II with the "good" stick of RAM, and be running again. But then I ran memtest and found that the "good stick" was bad also (it had been run a couple of times in the "bad" RAM slot of the Gigabyte board), so I bought new RAM (I am waiting for the RAM to be replaced). With the new sticks, I seemed fine but didn't trust the mainboard and wanted overclocking and opening of the 4th core so I got a new mainboard, a ASRock.

Upon building with the ASRock, it wouldn't POST after running the first couple times. At one point it dawned on me to look into the RAM situation again, because that new RAM had been run, both sticks, in the Giga board beforehand.

Sure enough, one stick was/is bad of THAT RAM now.

And so it goes: Bad, improperly "fixed" motherboard/new motherboard, bad set of RAM sent in for warranty and second, newer set due to go back once I get the first set back, and now what seems like a pretty cruddy CPU.

My first socket 939 Toledo 4800 was shitty too, and when AMD replaced it I was stable again and eventually overclocked the heck out of the system.

I think that once I get some spare money I will get a new Phenom II x4 black, maybe I'll get one used, I don't know...

I hope that by this fall I can build an Intel system and not have so much grief. Not that it is the fault of AMD, but that I feel like twice burned, thrice shy.

Phew, I am tired after writing all of this!
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer.

Hmm... like I said before, i hope you don't sink any more money into this system.

reply to signmeuptoo
Cheap boards do not OC well... nuff said. Could have the best chip in the world... if the board can not give it stable power it won't do crap.

reply to signmeuptoo

reply to Krisnatharok
I don't want to, but at the same time, I need a stable system. If I do get a CPU, it will be the last thing and I'll then wait until, say, fall maybe for a total redo.

I can send in the CPU for service and put the replacement in my HTPC I am building...
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer.

reply to Gordo74
Naw, it isn't stable at stock, that is my point. And it was the same with the 4800, did you by any chance read what I said? Just saying...

reply to signmeuptoo
Or stop trying to OC an ASrock board that can't handle OCing? I'm just saying you're asking for grief.

Oh, I am not trying to OC right now. It isn't like this board is a piece of junk, it's really not that bad for the money. Sure, when I do a new build I'll get a serious board.

One strange thing with this board is that they have the preset BIOS OCs, but no way to set it back down to 0% except to reset defaults.

I hope the upcoming Z boards have some models that are really good but affordable. If work picks up I'm gonna start saving towards something nice.

Actually, though: This ASRock board compared to the bad Gigabyte board: the ASRock POSTs WICKED fast, yet there is no standard POST screen, no option to have the standard POST screen appear, there is only the logo screen, kinda pisses me off. And yet it is a better board than the Giga board, though I suppose that is greatly because it is newer by a few months technology wise...
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer.

reply to Krisnatharok
I just wanted to pop back in here for an important update. I saved my money and since there was a deal for the AMD Deneb x4 955 and I couldn't really afford getting the whole mishmash of CPU *&* DDR3 RAM (using DDR2) *motherboard* at this point in hind sight when I am going to be upgrading by this fall hopefully anyways, I went for it.

What a difference in processors, I am at a modest 10 percent right off the bat with no tweaking and not even using the faster RAM (have to send it in because one stick gave up the ghost thanks to the "superior" Gigabyte motherboard frying it, a second set to fry) and running just fine so far. No tweaking, just chose the 10 percent OC option, when I get the 1066 RAM back I'll do some real clocking then.

This ASRock board is NOT a POS. ASRock might not be a preferred brand compared to ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, but tell me: The motherboard I was using before this damaged both RAM and CPU, and RAM TWICE and was a "quality" Gigabyte board. Bottom line: ASRock is capable of making ok stuff and I'm not talking about elite hardware, I don't have that kind of budget right now and unless something happens (it could), this board is serving me better than the previous board, which, mind you, was even sent IN to Gigabyte for service and they DIDN'T fix it properly, obviously.

So now I have to decide if it is worth it to send in the giga board a second time, trying to get assurance that it gets actually replaced, and the flaky CPU and if I do get replacements, sell them, or I don't know if it is even worth the shipping, tough call. In any event, I have to wait because my friend down in TN has my stuff in boxes and hasn't shipped it yet, so I can't ship either part in anyways yet. Frustrating, I've been waiting a month for him to get time to ship to me. Does anyone know if there is a way to buy a cheap motherboard box, CPU box, CPU and motherboard foam and bags, I mean, cheap where it is worth bothering?
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer.

How about a used but clean Pizza box.
They'll even be excited to receive the "delivery".

Joking aside, I have several boxes in the garage, and boxes of peanuts and packing materials that I saved. But I'm in California ...

reply to Gordo74
I was just at wally world, I didn't see anti static bags, though I didn't look super hard.

I also have the good old DFI Lanparty monster board with Toledo 4800, Team Extreme RAM, Thermalright XP 120, and panaflo to sell, or not to sell. Maybe I should try Craig's list...
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer.

reply to signmeuptoo
Mark, something I have found 'bout Gig boards, especially the older AM2+AM3, they don't seem to handle the difference in wattage requirements, say, between an Athlon II, and a Phenom II. Where the Athlon needs, let's say 95 Watts, and the Phenom requires 140 Watts.

I stumbled across this while repairing my BILs Gig rig. I replaced his Gig board, with an AM3 ASUS board, (which can accommodate AM2, as well), and lo-and- behold!

He tells me, "it's never performed this well!"

I dunno, not to plug any particular brand, (I have used Gigabyte boards in the past, with few problems) but I have NEVER had an ASUS board fail. They just seem to be a more robust build, for my $.
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Yeah.

And this brings to mind: I might have partly solved the wireless problems, but I am still unsure because I thought I had solved them since rebuilding this system before.

The wireless card is an ASUS and it might actually be ok. After reading some "reviews" on newegg it dawned on me that maybe the PCI Express x1 slot could be flaky or the card need replugging in on this ASRock A770DE+. After all, one of the USB front headers seems to have gone on the blink.

So I pulled that ASUS PCE-N13 client card from the PCI-E x1 slot on top and put it in the second x16 *size* slot (only supports x4 I think), and also changed the channel again on the 2wire gateway and changed my IP on it too, and now, for three days, I have been getting online mostly ok, there are still times it hangs, but it seems that roommate's computer hangs sometimes too.

Damn it all, how is it that one person can experience so many damned defective parts over the course of their life? And I can't afford it!

I think I will run this for another week and then try the x1 slot again and see if the troubles return.

As far as stability, overclocking, and performance, this motherboard is terrific, even IF it lacks PWM phases and cooling! I am running a 3.2 @ 3.95+/- without any sorcery at all, just changing the FSB and CPU V up a notch.

My RAM came back today, brand new set. I'll have to put it in tomorrow maybe and see if it still overclocks well with this RAM too. My keyboard died on me so I am borrowing one from another system for the time being. Ah well, I got it from Goodwill a couple years ago anyways and it was dirty and gross.

If and when I have money for another build, it will be ASUS or MSI unless word gets out that they have gone bad...
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Rest in peace, Pop, glad our last years were good. Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer, donate to Saint Jude's Hospital.