I just picked up a Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition. Now that this
processor family has become the previous generation processors, I was
able to pick this one up fairly cheaply. What used to be a $300+ chip, I
got now for less than $200! It drops in and replaces my previous Phenom
II X3 710 processor. The older Phm II was a 2.6GHz processor, while this
one is Turbo-cored a 3.3/3.7GHz processor, not to mention the newer one
has twice the cores. So I think it was a nice upgrade all on its own,
without overclocking.
I don't normally overclock processors anymore, but seeing as I have a
Black Edition, I feel I'm committing a form of blasphemy not to even try.
Last time I overclocked a processor was a 486, and so I'm a little rusty
with the modern procedures. I'd like to overclock within the limitations
of my *stock* heatsink, so I'm not expecting extreme overclocks, merely
respectable. But the meagre attempts I've done so far seem a little
pathetic. In the BIOS, I was only able to achieve a fully stable
overclock by raising the clock multiplier from 16.5 to 17 (i.e. 3.3GHz
to 3.4GHz, yee-haw). Going to higher multiples results in the machine
rebooting itself after a few hours. I've tried it upto 3.7GHz. Maybe I
needed to change some voltages too, but I didn't touch those.
So then I decided to put everything back to stock in the BIOS, and
decided to try the AMD Overdrive (AOD) utility. It has a built-in
stability test, which was the primary reason I downloaded it while I was
doing the BIOS overclocks. But then I realized that it has its own
overclocking facility, and it's a lot quicker to make changes here than
rebooting and going to BIOS all of the time. Can somebody give me tips
on how to proceed with the AOD step-by-step? How important is it to
change the voltages as I overclock, and by how much should I raise the
voltages if any? Also I found that after running AOD's stability test
for an hour, AOD seems to disappear after I come back. So is that normal
behaviour for AOD to disappear after running the stability test, or
should it just sit idly and let you know that it's finished the
stability test?
AOD suggests that I turn off the Turbo feature of the processor, the
Cool'N'Quiet, and turn off the C1E sleep state. What is the reason for
turning these off features? Do they impact your ability to overclock?
What is the C1E state anyways, it's the first I've heard of it?
Yousuf Khan
