need help with oc'ing 1100t

[eiflegend]

greetings! i'm a noob and am having some difficulties getting my AMD x6 1100t overclocked past 3.7ghzs. everywhere i go everyone talks about how easy it is to get this thing to at least a 3.8, but that's not what i'm observing here. my specs are as follows:

amd x6 1100t black edition 3.3ghz
asetek 510lc cooler
8gb standard 1600 ram (2 4gb sticks)
hd 6970 gpu
ASUS M4A87TD EVO mobo
Thermaltake TR2 W0319RU psu
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

right now i have everything at stock, and i think theres a major problem going on, and the reason why overclocking is not working for me. my cpu vcore voltages are fluctuating like crazy. i can open up cpu-z and watch it change every few seconds - from 1.32v to 1.45v. and what's interesting is that under load the voltage decreases. i have cool and quiet, c1e and asus core unlocker disabled in bios. LLC is on auto. cpu voltage is on auto as well but even if i manually set it to say 1.3v it still fluctuates the same. idk what to do, im thinking this is some kind of hardware problem. the system is running fine without any problems but i dont think this is normal. does anyone know what i could try and do to stabilize the voltages?

 

[eiflegend]

well i did some research and found out that the drop in voltage under load is the mobos way of preventing damage to the cpu, so that's good. i got it to 3.725ghzs stable increasing the bus frequency, any higher than that and it's unstable. i'd like to list some observations so that hopefully someone could help me out with this
1. increasing the multiplier past 18 causes instant instability. intelburn stops, blue screens, problems during windows startup. increasing voltage to the cpu does not seem to help at all, and my only option is to use the bus frequency
2. i passed the intelburn very high stress level with 16.5x238 at 3.9ghzs setting 1.45v cv in bios. however, while monitoring the procedure i noticed (after hitting 50c in core temps) a sudden drop in core voltage, power, and multiplier of the cpu. cv went down from 1.32 under stress to 1.27, power from 141.6w down to around 68w, and multiplier went from 16.5 to 4x, causing a significant drop of cpu speed for around 10 seconds. then everything went back to normal. surprisingly it didnt prevent me from passing the test. what could be causing this? seems this is the only issue left before a stable 3.9 overclock.
3. i read that some psu's limit the power going to the cpu and cant provide enough for an overclocked one. could this be the issue im encountering here?
4. should i forget overclocking altogether considering my overall crap setup for such activities, and go back to either stock or the 3.7 stable i got?

thanks for your help

 

[Slaymate]

Disable all the power saving features like Cool n Quiet, etc...

 

[eiflegend]

yes i have they're all off

 

[Slaymate]

Do you have a Load-Line Calibration or a VDroop adjustment? You want to Enable Load-Line Calibration or Disable VDroop. I'm sure you've adjusted the CPU VCore, do you have a CPU VTT Voltage? I'm not up on AMD but the CPU VTT is normally the Memory Controller Voltage, it never hurts to bump it up a notch or two when overclocking. I'll see about downloading your mobo manual and see if I can find out what kind of settings you have. But I haven't overclocked a AMD in a few years so I may not be any help at all.

 

[Slaymate]

CPU/NB is the memory controller voltage.

You have a setting called CPU VDDA, playing with it could help. I found this which explains it pretty good.

basically what happens to the voltage when a load is applied on the CPU is the voltage actually drops. so if you set your voltage to say 1.45v in BIOS and the CPU VDDA is set to it's lowest setting, under idle conditions, the voltage should be around 1.45v. however, under load, the voltage will actually drop below your setting of 1.45v. how much depends on the make and model of your motherboard.

setting the CPU VDDA to it's highest setting will cause the CPU voltage to be (alot) more than what you set it to in BIOS. for instance, if i set my CPU VDDA voltage to 2.80v (Auto, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8v are the settings on my ATI chipset), under idle conditions, my CPU voltage will be about 0.04-0.05v more than what i set it to in the BIOS. while under load, it can go as high as 0.10v over my BIOS settings.

it does this to make sure that your CPU is always getting a good amount of power so that the power doesn't dip down and cause BSOD's. usually setting it to AUTO is fine as it will use the lowest settings while under idle and use the highest settings while under load. this makes it so that your not wasting too much power and/or over-volting your chip at idle while making sure under load, you're receiving enough power.

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[eiflegend]

thanks for trying to help me out! ive uploaded some pics of my bios and basically all i have to work with. please take a look:

i couldnt seem to find the option for cpu vdda you were talking about. right now all my voltages are on auto, but if i decide change them manually they do end up being around .05v's lower than what i set them to, according to cpu-z. problem with LLC is whenever i turn it on my temperatures skyrocket and idk if it's good for the cpu in general since the voltage goes up under load instead of down, which is a default safety measure as you mentioned. but even if i set it to say 1.35v the temps are way higher than what they would be without LLC on at 1.45v.
my concern is the sudden drop of power going to the cpu, the cpu voltage, and the multiplier which happens under high stress tests. it all happens at the same time and lasts a few seconds before going back to normal. seems like i have all the power saving options off and i dont know what to do to prevent this. at this point im starting to think that its either a faulty mobo or a faulty psu, but i really hope that's not the case and something can be done about it. if any additional info is needed please let me know

edit: oh and i misprinted my cooling in the initial post its actually an asetek 550lc which does a pretty good job of keeping the cpu at 22c idle 45c load at current setup... which is why i want to get a bit more juice out of it

 

[eiflegend]

well i did some more researching and it seems my mosfets are overheating causing the cpu to throttle. people say getting more airflow around that area will fix the problem. however my case only has slots for 3 fans and i already have them all filled up. its a mid tower xion echo gaming case with asetek 550lc push-pull on the back, 120mm air out silent fan on top, and 120mm air in silent fan on the front bottom. any suggestions on what i can do other than get a new case? thanks

 

[Roark]

Antec Spotcool System Cooler Products Model: SPOTCOOL [SPOTCOOL] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come
Think Best Buy carries them too if there is one nearby.

 

[eiflegend]

there is, good looks. just mount that thing up inside and keep the case closed?

edit: just ordered it from amazon