Guidance For Overclocking FX-8370

gendutz · Jun 11, 2015

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum, and I never did any overclocking in my live. I always thought that
it might damage the processor. But now I got itchy hand, wanna learn overclocking my
processor. So here's the case, I got limited budget, so I have bought the parts one by one.
I finally got all of them today, so thinking of assemble them this weekend.

I live in Indonesia, so the choices of computer parts not as many as in US or AU where I
used to study last time. So with a bit of research, I bought what I prefer. Hopefully no wrong
parts bought. Please don't kill me if I got bad choices

Here's the list:

1. LEPA 80+ Gold 1000W Modular - G1000-MB
2. Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
3. WDC Green 2TB Sata 3
4. Motherboard MSI 990FXA Gaming
5. AMD FX-8370
6. Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX Liquid Cooler
7. 2x Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC12800 8GB Dual Channel (16GB)
8. 2x GPU PowerColor Radeon R9 280X TurboDuo OC 3 GB 384 Bit DDR5 (Crossfire)
9. PC Case Corsair Obsidian 450D
10. Win 7 64bit Home Premium

At first I just want to try that AMD Turbo Boost, but some say that better do manually, less
problem. Dunno if it's true. But Turbo Boost only get 4.3Ghz. Well I don't expect extreme
crazy numbers, maybe just thinking if possible just around 4.5Ghz, should be enough. Just for
moderate gaming and normal light office work. What would I need for preparation? Any recommended
software tools that I need to download maybe?

I have found some of late posts about OC FX-8370 here, but I think none using MSI Gaming.
Is it bad choice if OC using MSI Gaming? Or is it a bad motherboard? I prefer MSI Gaming just
for the color scheme

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

bassnut · Jun 11, 2015

Welcome to Overclockers gendutz.

Your right ...... you are the first with the MSI 990 gaming there has been some talk that the new boards are kinda holding up, I guess we will see. We don't get many people through here with MSI boards and usually they end up leaving disappointed and having to buy a new motherboard. MSI does not have a good rep for their motherboards especially with AMD you have to go all the way back to the 790FX-GD70 for their last at least decent boards.

I'll come straight out and say this now when overclocking these FX 8XXX CPU's they draw lots of power through their power section on the motherboard, the problem we have had with MSI is they can't handle it usually and generate a ton of heat that you will have to deal with. How well you can deal with the heat will determine how well you will be able to overclock your CPU as long as your hardware is capable of running the speeds.

To start off download HWMoniter (free version) and CPUZ for monitoring from the cupid site and get prime95 for stress testing. When you get those downloaded run prime95 blend for 20min with HWMoniter open on your desktop so we can see what your temps and voltages are for a baseline. Then post a screen shot of HWMoniter here in your thread.

RGone · Jun 11, 2015

Welcome to OCF 'gendutz'...

... :welcome:

Now this is 'the' outline of what Bassnut was writing to you above. How we all get on the same page of your book, many miles from us.

This is what we need to see for sure and a real good starting point.

Normally during setup and testing we disable C1/E, C6, Cool N Quiet, APM, TurboCore and in windows performance manager itself we set to "performance" mode. ALSO if you have HPC in bios you would ENABLE it. That way there are not "other" settings messing with the overclocking process. Some of those settings are not available on all models of cpu but where in evidence we disable for setup of overclock process.

CPU Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

Memory Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

SPD Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

And this is screen capture of HWMonitor (free version) from CPUID com
HWMonitor has been scrolled enough and large enough to show Min/Max of Voltages and includes the CPU CORE TEMPS / "package" temps fully visible. Latest versions of HWMonitor show the CPU Core Temp as " a Package Temp" and is only shown as a single temp since there were never multple, individual core temp sensors anyway.

This capture is made of HWMonitor after it has been open and running on the desktop logging Min/Max temps and voltages while Prime 95 was running Blend Mode test on all cores for at least 20 mins and then the capture of HWMonitor was made and it shows the Min/Max temps and voltages before P95 Blend was started and while running P95 Blend mode and gives much greater insight into how the system is performing without guessing.

In order to attach screenshots of INDIVIDUAL images as suggested, first crop and capture the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories or equivalent. Then click on Go Advanced, a button at the bottom of every new post window. Then click on the little paperclip tool at the top of the Advanced post window when it opens. Clicking on the paperclip tool brings up the file browser/upload tool and the rest is fairly obvious.

Step by Step HowTo Attach files to forum with pictures.
HowTo Attach Files to the forum.

RGone...

gendutz · Jun 12, 2015

Thank's guys for the brief guidance. I will try to follow them, and post all the screenshots when done.

Hopefully I will have the time to assemble the new pc this weekend and move all the storage data from
the old to the new. Oh ya by the way, I'm using Win 7 64bit Home Premium, if there's any effect...

I used to love ASUS during my school years last time, but dunno why suddenly during those era, many
problems heard with ASUS. So I switched to Gigabyte. This also my first time using MSI, as I said, just
because I like the color scheme. I almost bought MSI 970 Gaming, everywhere I heard good reviews.
But stumbled cos many says that if wanna do Crossfire or SLI better use mobo with 990FXA chipset,
not the 970. Will be slight bottlenecking by the x16 and x8 on 970. So I waited this 990FXA Gaming.
Especially with USB 3.1 and NVMe capability, I think it's a good buy. Dunno whether will be useful for me
or just another "available unused" options. hahaha...

Sorry if I will ask many noob questions, cos' I am a noob in these things. I usually just bought parts,
assembled, on the pc, then use till' it gets old

Thank's guys.. stay tuned

Johan45 · Jun 12, 2015

I would suggest in your down time to familiarize yourself with this guide. http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688663

This should give you a good understandin of what we're going to do once you're ready.

gendutz · Jun 16, 2015

Johan45 said:
I would suggest in your down time to familiarize yourself with this guide. http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688663

This should give you a good understandin of what we're going to do once you're ready.

Hi, thx for the link. I'll read them soon.
But for now, a delay occurred. Faulty power button on my Corsair PC case, and I'm waiting for replacement.
Currently no stock everywhere. New shipment supposed to arrive within this week. So we need to be patience

gendutz · Jul 6, 2015

Hi again guys,

sorry for the long wait. I've been very busy. Got problems at office.

Anyway, I have captured as instructed. Hope I did it correctly...

Thanks guys :thup:

Johan45 · Jul 6, 2015

Looks like all stock with no load. First set your ram to 1600 with the current timings. You'll see it under the XMP-1600. Then we'd like to see HWMonitor shot with this under load of Prime 95 for about 20 minutes.

gendutz · Jul 6, 2015

ram 1600, Prime95 20 mnts. Done..

Hope I did it correctly

Johan45 · Jul 6, 2015

So far it looks good. i think we should work on getting some extra airmovement on the board though. I'm not that familiar with MSI boards but i think TMPIN1 is the VRM and and 2 is the CPU socket. Both are OK now but will climb as your overclock does. SO lets get some fans in place to blow over the heatsink by the CPU and one behind the motherboard if you can like these.

gendutz · Jul 7, 2015

errgghh....

is it not enough if we just use my current cpu cooler? This is my 1st time planning to OC, so not thinking going too extreme.. just thinking about it gave me shivers.. LOL...

Here's how my PC built looks like. Hopefully enough airflow

RGone · Jul 7, 2015

gendutz...

...the adding of fans is not just suggestion that has not been found to be both needed and work to keep the Socket/Cpu temp lower to make overclocking easier.

Okay problems from it being MSI board and not one we are familiar with.
1. What is TMPIN0 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.
2. What is TMPIN1 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.
3. What is TMPIN2 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.

Now the reason I ask this is because I did 'search' for MSI 990FX HWMonitor temps and got at least 5 'different' answers in a thread at the MSI forums. That does not make it easy to help you when we that do most of the helping do not now nor plan to get an MSI motherboard when we can buy boards that we know work and how they work.

So we see temps that are high. By the way ANY TIME you show a capture of HWMonitor you should always post at least the CPUz capture of the CPU Tab so it is easy to see what speed the cpu is clocked to. Okay back to the temps. The temps for TMPIN1 is high in one of your captures of HWMonitor. But we do NOT know if that temp shown is VRM or North Bridge or what. If it is VRM or North Bridge either one you need a fan blowing down on the heat sinks close to the cpu and rear of mother board.

When I look at temps for the 850 Samsung SSD you have in the case and it shows temps in the 45c range that is way too high. About 34c would be more expected. So I have looked at your pics and temps and wondered just how HOT it is in the room where the computer is used. It seems it must be HoT.

So my suggestion to you is to set the multiplier to 22 for 4.4GHz speed and see if P95 in Blend mode will run for 2 hours without failure or issue and if it does that is pretty good. If you do that with TurboCore DISabled, you will then have ALL 8 cores running at 4.4GHz instead of just some of ALL 8 cores some of the time at a fast cpu speed. Again if you can run 2 hours of P95 Blend mode without failure or issue, I would use the computer for a few weeks and see how it actually operates for you. It may do just fine and not require anymore tweaking or fans be added.

The "unknown" to us temps is a big letdown or holdup. We normally do not suggest a big overclock when temps are just not readily known. So I suggest a not so crazy overclock with ALL cores functioning at full speed and see how it works out for you.

Good luck man.

RGone...

EDIT:
Okay I went and did a search for 'any' review of that motherboard. All I found was announcements that the board was being released this year, but no actual website doing a test/review of the motherboard. Probably many reasons for this like the AMD FX series is on the way 'out'.

I looked at NewEgg just to see if any users had written a lot about the board. Only found 3 users putting up user reviews of the board. Useless posts really since all they said was 'works' > no issues to date. Wow. Only three users putting anything on NewEgg means the board so far is not being sold much. And the board was out of stock at NewEgg. Must not have ordered many to try and sell.
END EDIT.

bassnut · Jul 7, 2015

When we overclock we all have to deal with temperatures there is no way around it. Overtime we have found a few little tricks that do help lower those temps even though we all accomplish that in slightly different ways to achieve the same thing in the end and we try to pass these on to new users. That is what Johan was trying to do up a couple posts.

Of course you can use the cooler you have, lets see how far it will go. Those AIO coolers can do an OK job for CORE or package temps but not the CPU Socket as long as you realise their limits just keep in mind that at some point you will be limited by one temp or another. What we have found that helps is adding a small fan to help your cooler that you have will help cool your socket a little better which is what Johan was pointing out.

gendutz · Jul 7, 2015

RGone said:
...the adding of fans is not just suggestion that has not been found to be both needed and work to keep the Socket/Cpu temp lower to make overclocking easier.

Okay problems from it being MSI board and not one we are familiar with.
1. What is TMPIN0 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.
2. What is TMPIN1 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.
3. What is TMPIN2 referring to. Meaning what is it showing the temp of.

Now the reason I ask this is because I did 'search' for MSI 990FX HWMonitor temps and got at least 5 'different' answers in a thread at the MSI forums. That does not make it easy to help you when we that do most of the helping do not now nor plan to get an MSI motherboard when we can buy boards that we know work and how they work.

So we see temps that are high. By the way ANY TIME you show a capture of HWMonitor you should always post at least the CPUz capture of the CPU Tab so it is easy to see what speed the cpu is clocked to. Okay back to the temps. The temps for TMPIN1 is high in one of your captures of HWMonitor. But we do NOT know if that temp shown is VRM or North Bridge or what. If it is VRM or North Bridge either one you need a fan blowing down on the heat sinks close to the cpu and rear of mother board.

When I look at temps for the 850 Samsung SSD you have in the case and it shows temps in the 45c range that is way too high. About 34c would be more expected. So I have looked at your pics and temps and wondered just how HOT it is in the room where the computer is used. It seems it must be HoT.

So my suggestion to you is to set the multiplier to 22 for 4.4GHz speed and see if P95 in Blend mode will run for 2 hours without failure or issue and if it does that is pretty good. If you do that with TurboCore DISabled, you will then have ALL 8 cores running at 4.4GHz instead of just some of ALL 8 cores some of the time at a fast cpu speed. Again if you can run 2 hours of P95 Blend mode without failure or issue, I would use the computer for a few weeks and see how it actually operates for you. It may do just fine and not require anymore tweaking or fans be added.

The "unknown" to us temps is a big letdown or holdup. We normally do not suggest a big overclock when temps are just not readily known. So I suggest a not so crazy overclock with ALL cores functioning at full speed and see how it works out for you.

Good luck man.

RGone...

EDIT:
Okay I went and did a search for 'any' review of that motherboard. All I found was announcements that the board was being released this year, but no actual website doing a test/review of the motherboard. Probably many reasons for this like the AMD FX series is on the way 'out'.

I looked at NewEgg just to see if any users had written a lot about the board. Only found 3 users putting up user reviews of the board. Useless posts really since all they said was 'works' > no issues to date. Wow. Only three users putting anything on NewEgg means the board so far is not being sold much. And the board was out of stock at NewEgg. Must not have ordered many to try and sell.
END EDIT.

The MSI board really just been released 1 month old. I was on hold building my PC because I was waiting for the board to be released. I checked even worldwide not released yet. Not in us nor Germany. I got relatives who live in US and Germany. They both check locally and same thing, not released yet. For Germany, they have open orders, planned to release on last 16 June. But strangely, the local distributor here informed me that the board has landed last 5th June. So I bought it the next day. But... every where else still not released yet. Even in Germany the last time I checked, even have passed 16th June. Dunno now.. The 2nd country been released I heard was Thailand. Just recently. Now that strange

About the HOT temperature, yes.. when I tested it with Prime95, I did not on any Air Con in the room and I left it for 20 minutes. And yes.. my fans and cooler setting were in "Quite Mode", not in Balance or Performance Mode. I thought was if it's maybe already enough, so next when needed, I always could still change it to Balance or Performance Mode. Should I retry the test?

I have turn off the "Turbo Core", but honestly I forgot was it before the test last night or this morning

- - - Updated - - -

bassnut said:
When we overclock we all have to deal with temperatures there is no way around it. Overtime we have found a few little tricks that do help lower those temps even though we all accomplish that in slightly different ways to achieve the same thing in the end and we try to pass these on to new users. That is what Johan was trying to do up a couple posts.

Of course you can use the cooler you have, lets see how far it will go. Those AIO coolers can do an OK job for CORE or package temps but not the CPU Socket as long as you realise their limits just keep in mind that at some point you will be limited by one temp or another. What we have found that helps is adding a small fan to help your cooler that you have will help cool your socket a little better which is what Johan was pointing out.

Thx for the info bassnut. Could you help inform me like what is the acceptable temperature? Cos at the moment I'm really got no idea at all

bassnut · Jul 7, 2015

What we recomend is 62*C for the CORE temp which in HWMONITOR is labeled Package and 72*C for the Socket temp which in HWMONITOR is labeled CPU temp.

Keep in mind your room temp will affect your CPU temp on a 1 to 1 basis which basically means for every degree your room temp rises or falls so will your CPU temps. This is allot more important in real warm climate especially when using an AIO cooler where you are probably running temps near their max.

Using Quiet mode is probably ok for basic computer use but once you Overclock or are using some program or game that is pushing you CPU hard you will need to up the profile to Balanced or Performance to keep temps in line.

gendutz · Jul 7, 2015

bassnut said:
What we recomend is 62*C for the CORE temp which in HWMONITOR is labeled Package and 72*C for the Socket temp which in HWMONITOR is labeled CPU temp.

Keep in mind your room temp will affect your CPU temp on a 1 to 1 basis which basically means for every degree your room temp rises or falls so will your CPU temps. This is allot more important in real warm climate especially when using an AIO cooler where you are probably running temps near their max.

Using Quiet mode is probably ok for basic computer use but once you Overclock or are using some program or game that is pushing you CPU hard you will need to up the profile to Balanced or Performance to keep temps in line.

Ok bro, thanks a lot for the guidance. I'll keep in mind. I will try to do it step by step

Guidance For Overclocking FX-8370

gendutz

New Member

bassnut

Premium Member

RGone

Senior DFI Staff

gendutz

New Member

Johan45

Benching Team Leader Super Moderator

gendutz

New Member

gendutz

New Member

Johan45

Benching Team Leader Super Moderator

gendutz

New Member

Johan45

Benching Team Leader Super Moderator

gendutz

New Member

RGone

Senior DFI Staff

bassnut

Premium Member

gendutz

New Member

bassnut

Premium Member

gendutz

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