Phenom II X3 710 Overclocking Question?

Takasniper · July 31st, 2009, 12:59 PM

Hi all my new parts for my rig should be here Monday. I had a quick question I want to overclock my Phenom II x3 710, this will be my first time overclocking anything. Could you give me some pointers of how I should do this once my rigs gets in and what I should be looking for. I'll be running Window Vista if that matters.

Specs.
ASUS M4A78-E AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131368

AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HDX710WFGIBOX
Item #: N82E16819103648

Antec EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active
Item #: N82E16817371015

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR800C44GK
Item #: N82E16820227267

EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
Item #: N82E16814130434

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Item #: N82E16822136319

pullmyfoot · July 31st, 2009, 01:37 PM

May I suggest this combo instead. The motherboard is an excellent overclocker. And very well build. The only con would be that you only get 1 PCIe slot. But I for one never bother with multi GPU configs anyways... I got my Athlon II X2 250 to 3.9Ghz (15x260mhz=3.9Ghz) on that board. I got lucky on this one and got a really good clocker (not all CPUs will clock so high becasue of manufacturing errors, including other 250s). Love it.

I would also suggest spending the $10 more on this CPU instead since you plan to OC. You get some extra stock speed and an unlocked multiplier. Really really handy for making your OC that much simplier. You can just adjust the multiplier to get your CPU to clock higher (the non-BE 710's multi will have a limit of 13, so 13x200=2.6Ghz which is stock speed, whereas the 720's will go up much much higher) You thus can isolate the CPU and then move on to increase your core speed to OC the ram and HT once your done with that. I have that CPU on the slightly more expensive 790X version of the board and have it at 3.8Ghz crrently).

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Takasniper · July 31st, 2009, 01:41 PM

I already ordered from newegg that why I said it would be here monday in my post. Is it possible to overclock 710?

pullmyfoot · July 31st, 2009, 02:47 PM

Yes. You should probably get at least 3.4+ Ghz on it (my Athlon 2 X2 250 is a non BE CPU too and I got 3.9Ghz on that). Its just that the 720 will be easlier to clock for a beginner.

Ultima · August 3rd, 2009, 01:18 PM

yeah a whole lot easier.

some factors you don't have to keep in mind when having an unlocked multiplier:

1: The cheapest ram will do, no need to worry about fsb/ram ratio
2: no mobo will be a limiting factor, since you only overclock by multiplier, not busspeed
3: no extensive cooling needed on chipsets, as they will run stock speeds.(debatable)