First time Overclocking, Athlon II X4 640

Hello guys, I really want to overclock my Athlon 640 to get better performance while gaming.
I have never overclocked before so basically clueless at these sort of things.

I wanna ask a few questions beforehand to determine the best way to do this.

1-Basically I only need my CPU to be overclocked while gaming in certain CPU heavy games like
ARMA and Total War series. I'm perfectly fine with the performance otherwise, like in other games
or while surfing the net or watching movies.

I really wish the CPU to be overclocked occasionally, in order to preserve its lifespan
what would be the best way to do this?? through BIOS or using software like AMD Overdrive,
is it possible to switch OC on and off in overdrive??

2-Secondly there are certain games I play that are not multi-core supported, such as older
Total War titles, so I get really really bad performance while playing those titles as they
only use 1 core of my quad core CPU. Is it possible to have the frequency of 1 core higher
while the others remain lower?? so only increase the core which is being utilized by the game,
is something like this possible??

3-Thirdly I am still using the fan that came with the CPU, is it alright using that while OC'ing??
do I need to buy another one?? if so which one?? I live in Australia so its gonna get pretty hot during
the summer.

Thank you very much for helping me, I really appreciate it!!!

Since you are using the stock fan and care about preserving its lifespan overall (as well as having it downclock when not used), I recommend simply overclocking to 3.3-3.4Ghz (220-227Mhz x 15)

With a medium OC like this you can keep Cool'n'Quiet active which will automatically downclock your CPU when the full potential isn't needed. Providing that your case is decent, you shouldn't have any problems with such an OC.

All cores will run at the same speed all the time. It's all or nothing with the Athlon II.

all I see, btw my PSU isthis one here, 460w

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=3686

my system spec is this

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6850
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor (Quad Core), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 6142MB RAM

will it be sufficient to overclock the CPU??

hello??

I would definitely recommend a better PSU.. Also, have you tried unlocking the 6MB of L3 cache yet?superclocked

Hi guys, i'm not trying to steal the thread but how much could i overclock my i5-750 to on stock cooler and to Zhang, what total war games are you playing? I play etw, ntw and shogun 2 and they run pretty bad for me too.

This is with no overclocking. Why is it higher than stock clock (2.7ghz)? Sometimes it's 2.8 ghz sometimes it's 3.2ghz

@superclocked

sadly my CPU is the Propus model which can't have the L3 cache unlocked

@IvanElk

I wanted to buy a new cooler, but really have no idea which to buy, there's so many different models

can u suggest me any that is both cheap and good??

@szafto

Medieval 2 Total War, that game only runs on a single core, so it really strained my performance

on huge battles. therefore I was wondering if its possible to have the frequency of a single core higher than others??

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=207_23_312

All of those are compatible with yours, look at several within your budget and post back here.

I would go for the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, but it hasnt been released yet.

hmm what should the usual price range that people go for CPU cooler??

and what are the essential features to look for??

also what factor affects compaitability, like cases, mobos etc??

and I need to mention that my PSU is 460w,

so will it be sufficient for the new cooler and overclocking??

hmm what should the usual price range that people go for CPU cooler??

and what are the essential features to look for??

also what factor affects compaitability, like cases, mobos etc??

and I need to mention that my PSU is 460w,

so will it be sufficient for the new cooler and overclocking??

zhangweizheng3

Its just a fan mate, you remove the stock fan and install this one. Dont worry about PSU.

People typically spend $50 or more, I personally look at the mid-range coolers and the top-end and put my budget somewhere in the middle or more. By top-end, I mean only air coolers, I don't look at any sort of liquid.

Compatibility is the brackets, most coolers now-a-days are universally compatible.