I decided to OC my 860k Today. I haven't fooled with OCing since the they took the jumpers off the board and put the options in BIOS. I guess you could call me a no0b at this. I got it to run stable at 4.3 with 1.45625volts. CPU NB to 2000 with 1.28125v. I set the ram to auto..... Well in the middle of righting this I turned off Prime95. It was running for about 30min and got my thermal margin to 24.5.... Well when I turned off prime 95 the CPU frequency went into power saving mode and locked up my system. So I guess its not stable lol. .... Anyways I was wondering what is a good thermal margin to stay at? Is staying at 24.5c good or do I have more headroom?
//edit Here is a Picture of my settings and temps
I have ran prime95 for over an hour. everything runs great. I turn on Valley benchmark I get to the 6th scene and it locks up. Is this bad OC or is it something else?
//edit Installing a new hard drive. Think it may be my problem. I have been getting GPU driver crashes a lot. I install the new drivers today. I am just hoping its my hard drive. When I built the computer I used an old hard drive unknown age. crossing fingers.
OK This is really weird. For shitz and giggles I left Prime95 On blend. While it was running I decided to try valley benchmark again. Ran thru like a charm. 54fps max 31avg with ultra setting 1080p no AA. I turned off Prime95 and Ran valley benchmarks again... It locks up. So as long as I have my CPU pegged out at 100% It won't freeze. I have tried this twice now with the same result. Anyone have any idea's?
Does Valley lock up when you do not have an overclock on your CPU?
No runs stable without OC and turbo core at 4.0.
This is a list of my equipment and the steps I did.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JChF6h
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JChF6h/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($69.49 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital WD Blue 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($127.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.90)
Monitor: Asus VN248H-P 23.8" Monitor ($134.99)
Bios settings
I turned off all the Cool n quiet, virtualization, energy efficient options.
I set my memory to run at 1600. I manual set the Timings to their respected options. Set the Voltage to 1.5
I Disabled Turbo Cores
Set OC to manual.
I set the multiplier to 4.4
I set the Voltage to 1.47
I Set the fans to Full speed
Saved setting and rebooted
OS booted up fine.
I started AOD overdrive/CPUz
Started Prime 95 I started with the first setting for Maximum Heat. Ran it for 30 minutes
I checked my Temps and My TM (Thermal margin) was bouncing between 21.2 to 21.7
Got excited and turned off prime 95 and started valley.
First time it ran to the 6th scene and froze. I hit the Reset button. Computer was hung on code 62 Rebooted and got back into bios
Bumped the Voltage up to 1.48. This is when I heard what I think is coil whine. It was hard to tell because my fans were at full throttle. I couldn't tell if it was the fans or if it was truly coil whine.
I saved and rebooted
OS booted up no errors
Started AOD Overdrive/CPUz
Started Prime95 ran Maximum Heat for 30 or so minutes.
AOD was showing TM of 20.1 to 20.5
I turned off prime95 and started Valley.
Valley Froze at Scene 8
I hit the reset button and got back into bios
I left the voltage alone but I went the the NB bumped it up from 1800 to 2000 and bumped the voltage up 1 setting. I think it was 1.2742 or something like that.
I saved and rebooted
OS booted up fine no errors.
Started AOD/CPUz
Started prime95 Blended this time. Took a shower watched some TV and a few hours latter came back to check. Still running like a beast.
TM was same 20.1 to 20.5
I turned off Prime95 and started Valley
Valley Froze up at Scene 5.
This is when I got the bright Idea to run prime95 and Valley to see if it would hang.
I rebooted and didn't fool with bios.
I started AOD/CPUz
Started Prime95 blended and let that run for 5 minutes.
Started Valley. Did not freeze.
Ran Valley Again Did not freeze.
Turned off Prime95
Ran valley did not freeze
Ran it another time Froze at scene 5. This is where I started loosing my patience.
I rebooted into bios.
I set the voltage back down to 1.475 and set the multiplier down to 4.3
Saved and rebooted
Ran Prime 95 for 2 hours Passed
Turned prime95 off
Started Valley Passed.
Ran Valley again Froze on Scene 8
Rebooted and Defaulted BIOS. Running at default speeds
Turned prime95 not errors
Ran Valley 5 times No errors.
I would have ran the voltage up more but I did not want to fry the Chip or the VRMs on the board.
The problem you're having doesn't sound like its related to the vcore, nb voltage or anything of the sort.
Turn up the voltage on the ram, run it at its rated speed at its rated timings.
Fooling around with lower clocks can actually make your system unstable with some FSB clocks.
Set the ram to 2133 and still froze.
I am bumping the voltage up one by one.
I am at 1.49375 volts.. Running Valley...............Well it just froze haha.
The coil whine I was hearing was coming from the case fan. I unplugged it and the sounds stopped. I guess when it was Reving up and causing that sound Yay
So now going to try 1.5volts
//edit
At Idle I am staying at 50ish TM. bouncing between 50.1 and 60. sometimes with spikes going at 60ish. So good Idle Temps
///edit
Had prime95 Small FFT running for about 10minutes I am down to 19.1 to 19.4 on TM. Going to try valley and see.
////edit
Running Valley for the 3rd time. So far so good. Think I Found the magic Number 4.4GHz at 1.5 Volts.
Ok so Valley hasn't froze on me and I ran cinebencz without any freezes going to continue testing but here is some benchmarks
Stock vs 4.4 OC
Valley AVG fps--------------------------30.6--32.3 Ultra No aa
Valley MIN fps---------------------------6.3--14.3 Ultra No aa
Valley MAX fps--------------------------54.3--72.1 Ultra No aa
Cinebench OpenGL--------------------65.23--76.84
Cinebench CPU-------------------------305--360
I think Furmark killed my GPU temps lol. My GPU has never gotten above 70c gaming and what not. I decided to stress my GPU and see if that would cause any crashes form my OC.
Well I started the test then walked away for a bit came back and my temps were 99 to 100c so I stopped my test got my gpu down to 40c. I started playing bf4 next thing I know my temps are back up to 100c. captured video of it. Uploading to youtube atm will be done in an hour. I was using the PerfOverlay.Graph 1 and it was showing my avg fps as 17 to 20 on Ultra settings and no aa. I was like dang guess I will have to drop some graphics dropped it down all the way to LOW. I was figuring about 20fps faster. Nope stayed the same.