Can I swap my HSF's? (Stock Black Edition955 vs Zalman 9500A)

How much are you planning to overclock? Should be plenty for a mild overclock.

Did you get a C3 stepping 955?
 
I having a hard time remembering, but I'm fairly certain that it was the C3 stepping. I'm on a different computer right now, otherwise I'd Cpu-z it. As far as over clocking goes, I don't plan on over clocking a whole lot. It seems like a waste having purchased the black edition and all, but time is limited with a 9 month old running around. I haven't even really had a chance to fine tune the computer.
 
If you want to overclock using the Zalman, especially if you start cranking up the CPU voltage, just keep a eye on your CPU temp.
 
Zalman was one of the best in its day. But the 9500 is kinda small. At the time the 9700 was a better cooler.
 
It's not a super great cooler, but it's not bad. Probably a marked improvement over the stocker.

Stock volts is 1.35,and stock multiplier is 16. Just put the multiplier at 18 for 3.6 and manually set Vcore in the bios to 1.35 (so auto doesn't bump it up).
You may even be able to get 3.8ghz (19 multi) on stock volts, since it's a C3. But check stability using prime 95 smallFFT and watch your temps. You don't want anything over 60c at full load. For AMD cpu's I use Core Temp.
 
Thanks for all the specific overclocking tips! I'll have to give that a go one of these weekends. I don't suppose you know why my memory shows up as Single channel in cpuz? I have read a number of posts/articles on ganged vs. un-ganged and they all seem to contradict each other. I have 2x2gb sticks.
 
I always ran Ganged.

If it's showing up as single channel, you probably don't have one of the sticks in the proper slot for dual channel mode. Is it registering all 4gb (Both sticks) but just single channel mode? Or is it only reading one stick 2gb?

Some motherboards you need to put the ram in slots right beside each other for dual channel, other boards require to put the other stick over an extra slot spaced out. Either way, typically there's 2 slots that are the same color and 2 slots a different color, put the ram into two of the same color slots. If it still doesn't work, try swapping the ram sticks into the other two slots.
 
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NeedaComputer said:
I don't suppose you know why my memory shows up as Single channel in cpuz? I have read a number of posts/articles on ganged vs. un-ganged and they all seem to contradict each other. I have 2x2gb sticks.
Click to expand...

If you have two sticks, on that board put them in the first green and orange slots. Not orange/orange or green/green.

Unganged is more stable. The performance difference between the two is so close it really doesn't matter.
 
87dtna is correct, that the board in my sig is the old computer. Sorry for the confusion, I should really update the signature. The board on my new computer is the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3. Although you are absolutely correct about using the two different colors on the old MSI K9N Neo, even though the manual says to do it the other way.
Just from the CPU-z info. All 4gb are registering, but there is a field labeled "Channels #" and the value in CPU-z reads "Single". I can't remember what it says during BIOS, but I'm pretty sure it's un-ganged. I think I tried all the slot combinations when I first put it together. Currently they are in Slot #1 and Slot #3. Sounds like it doesn't matter a whole lot performance wise, but it would be nice to eventually have everything set properly.
Thanks again for all the help!
 
Oh there is a huge performance difference between single and dual channel ram.

Ganged and unganged does not mean single or dual channel, it's something completely different. Just set that to whatever is default. But check to see if you have the ram in the correct slots on the EVO.
If you have the ram sticks in the two black slots, try putting them into the two blue ones. or vice versa. If that doesn't work, you may have some setting in the bios to select single or dual channel. Asus boards are stupid that way sometimes, I don't care for the bios layout's on most asus boards.
 
Ah! That makes much more sense. I was under the impression that Ganged/Un-Ganged replaced Single/Dual Channel nomenclature for DDR3 memory. I'll have to check that out.
Edit:Just did an image search for my board and ran across someone who has both sticks in the blue. That is definitely not what I'm doing. Maybe I'll re-read my manual for BIOS settings I may have glossed over during initial build.
 
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Ganged, the memory controller is a single 128 bit controller. Unganged it acts as two independent 64 bit controllers. Unganged does better in multi threaded applications.
 
What are you doing? You have a stick in each color? That will put it into single channel mode for sure. Put both sticks either in the blue or both in the black.
 
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