Overclocking Questions from a newbie overclocker

[TankerHC]

I have a few questions about overclocking because I am having some problems.

I just finished building a completely new Desktop, with the exception of the HD. You can see my build in my sig below. I used the onboard overclocking feature in the BIOS and here are some problems I am having.

1. If I use the complete overclocking feature it is supposed to overclock CPU, RAM and unlock cores. I have read and was told by members of this forum that you can unlock 2 cores on the 960t. When I set the core unlock feature on the MB, the computer will boot up to the Win 7 splash screen but when attempting to boot to the desktop will give me a memory dump and shut down. I know its caused by core unlocking because when I turn it off it boots on to Windows fine. What can I do about this?

2. The 960t is a 3Ghz CPU, when I overclock it, it goes to 3.375. Thats actually less than when overclocking my previous AM2 Phenom II X4 920. Is this normal? Is there some formula as to where the 920 overclocks higher but is actually still slower than the 960t at 3.375?

3. I have 16GB of DDR3 PC-12800 1600. When overclocking it drops down from 1600 to 1033. I have read that when overclocking a CPU, RAM is automatically overclocked so overclocked CPU=Underclocked RAM. I manually set it to 1600 and set DRAM CAS# Latency to 7, DRAM RAS# to CAS# to 7, DRAM RAS# PRE Time to 7 and DRAM RAS# ACT to 24. Saved changes and rebooted. Computer wouldnt boot so had to clear the BIOS and start over. When setting the RAM higher automatically and leaving everything auto, I get a memory dump and shutdown. If I dont set it, it unuderclocks, sometimes all the way down to 800, which is what it is benchmarking right now. What do I need to do about this?

Finally, at its current overclocked settings, it is benchmarking lower in every area than my previous build with the 920 and 8GB of DDR2-800. The windows 7 Performance is 4.7, my last build was 7.1.

Here are my Benchmark Scores from NOVABENCH

12/13/2011 12:41:43 PM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Phenom II X4 960T @ 3375 MHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520

16371 MB System RAM (Score: 197)
- RAM Speed: 3970 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 380)
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 103858976
- Integer Operations/Second: 369573336
- MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 686338

Graphics Tests (Score: 59)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 192

Hardware Tests (Score: 62)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 932 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 138 MB/s

PERFORMANCETEST Benchmarks

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Thanks in advance
Jeff

 

[claptonman]

It is better to manually bump up the multiplier instead of using the overclock feature. Not sure where it would be on an MSI board.

The possibility of unlocking the extra cores is not guaranteed, so you may have gotten a chip that you can't unlock. Another reason could be that it is not getting enough voltage. I do not have experience in increasing voltage, so I'm not going to try. Do not go and increase it without another member consulting you.

If you use the multiplier, you should get it to a decent overclock, like what I have.

I really wouldn't touch the RAM for overclocking. You'll see no real world difference.

When you say the performance is at 4.7, that is using the lowest number out of your components. Which is at 4.7? And the Windows experience index is not the most accurate indicator of performance.