Overclocking Phenom II X6
Overclocking Phenom II X6
If you decide to start an overclocking session with the Phenom II processors, typically you are much better off with the BE versions (CPU multiplier unlocked).
This processor has an unlocked multiplier. We now can overclock in several ways, modern motherboards often have automated overclock features... in the case of the ASUS motherboard we can flick a setting in the BIOS and after seconds it's already running at 3.7 GHz.
Alternatively you can use AMD's Windows compatible OverDrive interface that allows for very easy overclocking of the Phenom II processor. The latest revision is one of the best CPU tweak utilities out there.
For this review we used the latest version (3.2.3) which has some cool new options.
In AMD OverDrive (select advanced in preferences), through the Turbo mode settings you can simply max out the CPU voltage towards ~1.55 V and increase the multiplier. Play around with it; don't be afraid of a crash. Now what you can do best with AMD OverDrive is determine how high you can overclock and then transfer the final stable settings into the BIOS to make it permanent (if you would to of course).
We overclocked manually through the BIOS -- the results were really dandy as we took it to 4 GHz fairly easy -- and again, this overclock was managed with a simple OCZ Vendetta air-cooler.
Here's an overclock at 4.2 GHz 100% stable. We boosted Voltage towards 1.55 V in the BIOS and simply applied a multiplier of 20. Temperatures are now higher, but really acceptable for an AMD Phenom II at just under 50 Degrees C with the core peaking to 55 Degrees C. Again, and I can't stress this enough -- we are only using a 35 USD air based Vendetta cooler here, nothing fancy.
So we finalized a stable overclock (on all six cores) at 4219 MHz with 1.55 V.
One word of advice, AMD processors start to really consume a lot of power once you overclock them with extra voltage added. At 4200 MHz (all cores stressed) / 1.55 V we consumed over 250 Watts (peak).
