FX6300 - Lots of question after my first OC attempt

Hey guys, recently I discovered this forum and since then I've become obsessed about OC.

So, after weeks reading about it I finally decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, the results were not as good as expected.

First of all, my specs:

Asus M5A78L-M LX/BR

FX 6300

8GB HyperX HX318C10FB/8

Gigabyte GTX 950 OC Edition (single 90mm fan)

Corsair CX600

I have a Cooler Master Seidon 120V with the original cooler and a second 120mm Cooler Master Sickle Flow X (this cooler is awesome btw, it lowered a lot the temps after I installed it), both pulling air out from the computer case.

Also I have the same Sickle Flow X in front of the case pushing air and a 140mm Cougar CFD140 (I didn't like much this one tbh).

Before I change anything in the BIOS my temps were:

34~36 idle - I think it's a bit high for a Water Cooler, but since I live in Rio de Janeiro, which is a really hot city I think thats good. (some Summer days its 40ºC out there!)

47~49 - Small FFT after 1~2 hours

In HWMonitor my motherboard shows 2 temperatures and the processor one.

I think the motherboard temps is the socket temps and processor the real CPU temp, right?

Since the motherboard always show the highests temps, all the temps I'm referring in this posts are from this.

Since

Everything seemed good, so time to OC.

I disable AMD Turbo Core, Cool 'n' Quiet and Core C6 State.

SPM: default (200)

Multiplier: 17,5x = 3500 MHz

VCore: didn't change (default)

Stress test was fine, same temps and VCore was always sitting at 1.200V according to HWMonitor.

I changed VCore to 1,200V from auto and tested again, ok! 3600MHz and 3700MHz were fine also.

At 3800MHz it became unstable.

Here it is a screenshot after a few minutes running Small FFT:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

And the highest the voltage is, more frequently it become:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I tried to increase VCore, 1,300V, 1,350V, even 1,4125V

but It still didn't work.

By unstable I mean, the computer didn't crash or anything, but Core clocks keeps oscillating.

I heard something about cooling the VRM, but couldn't understand much what was it about.

Other questions:

1 - When I turn on my PC and do normal stuff, like browsing the web, watching videos on Youtube. CPU clocks doesn't seems to change.

Here it is how it looks after a few minutes:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

but when I run the stress test they drop a little bit:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Is this normal?? (this happens at 3500MHz too).

2 - When I stressed the CPU with P95 at 3500MHz, HWMonitor says that CPU usage is at 100%, but Windows' task manager only shows 90%. And everytime I increased the multiplier the CPU usage decreases (3500 - 90% / 3600 - 89% / 3700 - 88% / 3800 - 87%).

So, is this normal?

I when used other programs like AMD Overdrive or Intel Burn Test the Windows Task Manager really showed me 100% usage.

Sorry for the long post

What is the temperature of the VRM around the CPU? Can you try putting a fan on the VRM to see if that helps?

//edit: welcome to the overclocking community, hope you enjoy your stay!

And did you disabled APM Master in BIOS "Advanced settings/CPU settings"?

Hi guys, thanks for the quick reply.

What is the temperature of the VRM around the CPU? Can you try putting a fan on the VRM to see if that helps?

I don't know. How can I check that?

As you see in the screenshots, motherboard shows 2 different temperatures (TMPIN0 and TMPIN1), which one is it?

TMPIN0 is always the highest one, but it never exceeds 50ºC when stressing.

Where exactly is the VRM on this motherboard? I checked the manual and couldn't find anything about it.

And did you disabled APM Master in BIOS "Advanced settings/CPU settings"?

I think it is disable by default.

Here it is what I found about APM on my BIOS.

I've Never touched it.

APM Configuration

Restore on AC Power Loss = Power Off (avaiable options are Power Off, Power On and Last State)

Power on from S5 by PME#= disabled

Power on from S5 by Ring = disabled

Power on from S5 by RTC Alarm = disabled

No, I mean another APM Look at my video How to get FX-8370 5 GHz

look at 1:44, there is "APM master mode" Default is at "auto" and it means, this function hold the average TDP (in some time area) at 125W (or 95W for FX-6300)

No, I mean another APM Look at my video How to get FX-8370 5 GHz

 

 

look at 1:44, there is "APM master mode" Default is at "auto" and it means, this function hold the average TDP (in some time area) at 125W (or 95W for FX-6300)

Couldn't find it on my BIOS. This motherboard is definitely not made for overclocking.

I just read in another forum that its VRM doesn't have a heatsink.

Guess I'll have to wait until I get a better mobo

edit: thanks for the help anyway, flanker!

You can always try putting a fan on top of the VRM area. A bit of cooling might help prevent the CPU from downclocking

There is one trick with AMD overdrive for disabling of APM master

keep the turbocorte in BIOS at auto

Open AOD

open there "turbo core control"

unmark the "turbo"