I stumbled upon some problems with OC lately. I OC to 4Ghz with 1.4v and 1599Mhz RAM. But if I test if the OC is stable it comes with these messages:
[Sun Feb 17 03:23:17 2013] FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4 Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file. [Sun Feb 17 03:35:25 2013] FATAL ERROR: Final result was 341406DD, expected: 86B106EB. Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
I've changed alot but couldn't figure out the problem and I was wondering if you could help me?
I'm not terribly sure. I didn't get into OCing until the 2500k. I did OC an Athlon II x4, but it's a bit different being that it's a locked CPU and on a different die package. I looked up a review, and LegitReviews needed 1.45v to get 4.1GHz, and they went as high as 1.475v to achieve 4.2GHz. Personally, I'd keep it under 1.45. And keep an eye on those temps.
I'm at 1.46 for 4.2 ghz, it hits 60c peak, and gets an error in OCCT, but it runs Y-cruncher without errors and I haven't had a hardware related crash since I tried for 4.4ghz. http://valid.canardpc.com/2696017
It's extremely hard to get a Phenom II 965 to 4Ghz. Most cap out around 3.8Ghz. You have to remember that the Phenom II's were out when socket 1366 was popular. Socket 1366 CPUs were better overclockers and usually got up to 4Ghz, and very rarely you could get them slightly higher than that. Most Phenom II's were only able to overclock to between 3.6 and 3.8 Ghz. It's very hard to get them any higher than that.
This isn't a modern sandy bridge, ivy bridge, or FX chip that can easily achieve 4Ghz and higher. This is a chip that was made at a time when 4Ghz was as impressive as 5Ghz is today.
Alot of what you can do with a 965 depends on the revision of the chip and temps. Even so, you may have a revision C chip thats a POS? I run mine at 1.55v and it works, (with a generic liquid cooling H100), where as others with the same revision can only hit 1.45 before it sh*tz out. ALOT of it is temp control. If you're on air, you'll need a minimum of a push pull fan on a heavy heatsink. The Zalman "Alien" as I call it is a good sink, and the old tried and true Coolermaster n570 also works well (too bad ya cant find them anymore).
In reality, a 965 is outdated but still a very viable CPU even by todays standards, but you wont get stellar performance out of it. It is however a GREAT quad CPU for less than 100 bux if you can keep the temps down.
Even as an AMD dude, I have to admit that the 2500k is a better chip. Even better than the 4100 just because it is more versitile.
Keeping on topic, the only real way to maximize your OC is to spend some quality time in the bios (not using software based utilities) and play with voltages and FSB speeds in MANY dif combinations to get a good stable speed, then start playing with ram speeds. It takes time and effort. Start with FSB speeds, then move to voltage increases (in small increments on both). Remember, it's not stable untill it passes Prime95 at the least.