My Phenom X3 720/DDR2 overclocking [need some advice]

[Ozpa]

Hello everyone!

My system is getting "outdated" month by month so I thought about overclocking the CPU for now (my 4870 with custom cooling and reference clocks will be getting this attention soon too).


Here's my adventure so far neatly in an Excel screenshot:

Basically I'm just giving the CPU a 3 hour OCCT test for now and will stick with the highest overclock on daily basis to see if it's stable for use.
I'm only increasing the multiplier and I think I hit the ceiling with 17,5x, now I think I need to experiment with by adding FSB. I'm not a big fan of stressing other components(northbridge, RAM, HT Clock) to attain higher speeds but I still want to try it

My question is about the RAM. What would be the best thing to do if you would find out that your memory can't do higher clock speeds? Lower the timings? Play with RAM voltage? Lower the multiplier?
I really have no experience in playing with RAM, and in my case what tactics would you guys suggest I employ here to reach the highest clock speed possible? What works the best most of the time?

Thank you in advance

Gonna leave my PC @ OCCT testing and jump on laptop now

 

[Ozpa]

17.5x205 and my system is BSODing like crazy. For some reason if I changed the memory multiplier from 5.33 to 4.00 it would not boot at all (had to clear CMOS).

 

[BeepBeep2]

Common clocks for a 720.

Not sure about the memory multiplier, that should have been okay unless the BIOS defaulted to some stupidly tight timings.

 

[Wyverex]

For some reason, I had a lot better luck with OCing via bus speed change, and not with multi.
Also, keep in mind that OCing Northbridge will speed up your L3 cache and increase performance in some programs too (biggest gain I've seen was in Civ5 and Starcraft 2)

At the moment, I'm running 14x235 (3290 MHz) at 1.344 V (+0.025), stable after 4 hours of Prime95, temps under 50°C at max load (reported by HWMonitor)
And, my NB is at 2350 MHz, RAM at 940 MHz (CL5)

 

[Ozpa]

Oh we got almost identical systems Wyverex

What's your memory settings in BIOS? (multiplier, timings, voltage)

 

[brandonwh64]

Have you tried unlocking your 720 to a quad?

 

[Wyverex]

Oh we got almost identical systems Wyverex

Hehe, indeed. And it still serves me quite nicely

What's your memory settings in BIOS? (multiplier, timings, voltage)

My RAM becomes unstable at anything over 1020 MHz, several RMAs did not help. So, I keep it between 900 MHz and 1000 MHz.
It is specified to run at:

• Voltage: 2.1 V
• Frequency: 1066 MHz
• Latency timings: 5-5-5-15-22

but since I can't get it to run over 1020 MHz I keep it at:

• Voltage: 1.9 V
• Frequency: 4x bus, 940 MHz at the moment
• Latency timings: default for 800 MHz memory - 5-5-5-18-23

Have you tried unlocking your 720 to a quad?

Dunno if you asked me or Ozpa, but I'll answer anyway Tried unlocking, won't unlock in my mobo

 

[Ozpa]

Have you tried unlocking your 720 to a quad?

Oh sorry I forgot to reply. I haven't tried it, I don't really need it at the moment either


Wyverex: The motherboard doesn't want to set everything the EPP profile says it to and did you try setting everything manually to specified timings? (multiplier, voltage, timings) That's what I did and it works. Note that one of my sticks started spewing errors in memtest about 4 months in so I had to RMA them. The new set I got after still works to this day great (I noticed many many users complain about this exact same set of momery being DOA and within 1-4 months dead on newegg feedback).

I might try running my memory at the same settings you do.

 

[ivicagmc]

I think you would gain more speed by adding another dual channeler. You could probably find some cheap used DDR2. I have 4x1GB 800MHz DDR 2 and WEI for memory is 7.5, highest of all others in my system. When I remove one dimm it drops on 5.8...

 

[JrRacinFan]

@Brandon
You just got really lucky with your old one.

@Ozpa
Your chart seems to be near spot dead on for my 720 Black as well. Big thank you because it will also help me clock it. Right now I have it running dual cores @ 3.3Ghz, as I don't need the horsepower in an HTPC.