HELP with overclocking AMD 965BE with ASRock 870 Extreme3...

[lt200420]

I've never overclocked before but am super interested in getting the best performance possible. Basically I need to know the best/most that i can overclock the AMD Phenom II 965BE 125W (WITH ONLY STOCK COOLER) on the ASRock 870 Extreme3.

I purchased the items at Newegg because most reviewers said that the ASRock 870 Extreme3 was very feature rich in the BIOS for overclocking (like just a 1 "click" kind of thing). Some claimed getting all the way up to like 3.74GHz on stock cooler which would be fantastic and the speed i would be looking for (a 10% overclock).

Is it really as easy as just... going to the "Load Optimized CPU OC Setting, Press Enter, Select 10% (3740MHz), Press Enter, Save and Exit, Enjoy? If not, can someone PLEASE post the exact things i must do to achieve this (voltages, frequency, etc etc)?

Even if i can only get the 5% OC (3.57Ghz) on stock cooler that would be satisfactory.

Side Note: I am well aware that most will tell me to go get a badass heatsink/fan but i am really only interested in what i can do with my stock cooler. www.legionhardware.com easily ("quickly" was their words) got a 965BE to 3.57GHz on STOCK COOLER (they also said that 3.74GHz crashed at first but when they boosted the CPU voltage that it worked 100%)!

Side Question: I have also purchased 4GB (2 sticks) of DDR3 1600 (GSKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL). May i also get the Memory clock and timing settings to make those sticks run at the 1600 that they are supposed to (or is it also just as easy as a "1 click" in BIOS?

thx a million for reading (and sorry it was so long and (Possibly repetitive)).
Logan Todd

[Kootsoup]

Re: HELP with overclocking AMD 965BE with ASRock 870 Extreme3...

It really is that easy! I would suggest, however, that if your going to use the stock cooler make sure to get CPUid or some other hardware manager and keep a diligent eye on the CPU temp... be sure to add about 8-10 degrees to whatever the reading is for safety sake. The safe operating temp is about 62 Celsius.

If you want to adjust the frequency manually, you can adjust the cpu multipliers in the bios but you might have to adjust the cpu voltage slightly to keep stability.

To see if your overclock is stable, run "prime95" (google it) for a bit and pay close attention to the cpu temps... if you get BSOD or prime95 shows errors, clock down.