New Opty 170

LCB9E.

These things run HOT! I lapped the IHS before installation, something I had not done on my 3700+. Didn't bother with a mirror finish, just a few strokes each direction with some 1500. Installed with my CNPS-7700cu (I'm going to use the Zalman while I lap my Big Typhoon). With all fans on high, including the Zalman, I'm seeing idle temps of 39-40C (room temp 75 F, don't bother me for the conversion). Load temps show up at 58-60C. At STOCK speeds. At 1.325vcore. On a 7700cu. Is this normal? This seems really hot to me. How can I possible overclock this thing when it runs at 60C at stock speeds undervolted?

Anyway, several months back I read about an overclock process that involved voltage starvation the CPU. Basically, keep your chip at stock speeds and lower the vcore, then run stability tests. Find the wall, then run it at the lowest possible stable voltage for a week or two, stress-testing the whole time. Get the CPU "used" to low voltage. After breaking the CPU in with low voltage, THEN start overclocking. My question: Is there a "correct" procedure for this? So far I found that this chip will run stock speeds @ 1.325v. I plan on keeping it here for a while before overclocking. Does this actually work? Am I wasting my time? OR does it actually provide useful long-term benefits?

I can't tell you anything about the undervolting but i know my 180 runs at about 1.125 My Idle temps with a Xp-120 and a Deltra Triblade were about 35-40C idle at 1.35v and went up to about 55C or so at load with ambient about the same as yours. It is a hot littly guy it seems but I got it to 2.8 under air without to many temp probs. I found if i went over 1.35 on air I was pushing the envelope with heat. I am now on a phase change rig and am currently at 2.93 at 6c load. The high load is due to poor evap design and mounting but I think 3 Ghz will be easy now. I heard you really need water to do much over 2.8-2.9 range.

I have a new one too. Definitely much hotter than the 3200+ I was running (to be expected). Did you notice any diff between non-lapped and lapped?

Also, running coretmp I notice a 9-10C difference between core temps. Do you see something similar? I'm thinking it might be either just a badly claibrated diode on mine or an odd IHS mount.

I'm in a "temporary" setup now (aircooled with a XP-90), building a new case. When I finally get to clocking this thing I may do a lapping first, see where it gets me. Then pop the IHS off if I feel necissary.

My 170 seemed to run cooler after a few weeks. Maybe it was the AS5 or something. But it was still a little on the hot side so I removed the IHS and that made it run about 5 degrees cooler. Dont attempt that if you are not good with your hands.

Today with ambient temp 28c load temps didnt hit 50c doing super PI.

I have been running 1.30 volts since I got it and it is at 2400 MHZ now.

It wont do 2800 MHZ at 1.35 volts though--- it restarts. So it probably needs more volts.

I removed the IHS on mine and have it on water so temps aren't bad, obviously. There is a difference in temps between the 2 cores but that is normal from what I understand. Opterons really do need to be on water to be able to hit their full potential. My pwnteron runs daily at 3050Mhz @ about 1.45v. Temps are generally around 20c at idle, will hit around 40c if I really push it and it's hot in my house.

How much of an increase do you usually see with a delidded dual-core Opteron? Last night I polished my new Big Typhoon and found that it only dropped temps about 4-5C over my Zalman 7700cu. I was hoping for more. Right now I'm looking at about 54-58 under load on the hotter core in a 75F room, 1.325vcore and 2050 mhz. If I remove the IHS, would I be looking at 50-55, or 47-52? How much of a drop usually occurs?

I actually didnt test my 170 with the IHS on so I can only relay what I've heard which is normally about a 3-5c reduction. Of course, your results may vary. If you plan on removing the IHS, be VERY careful. There's a post on here somewhere that details a good way to do it.

Honestly tho, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are going to watercool.