Safe overclocking of a Phenom II 940 BE on a GA-MA790X-UD4P

If that case has no exhaust fan I can understand why.

This fan is good, though it is just a hair loud (not much).
Panaflo makes some very good 120mm fans so I'd trust the 92mm models as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705007

Now this Delta is loud - but it'll also refresh the entire case air every second if you can provide an opening for an intake. No heat build-up here ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705013


I've had TIM over a year old that is still good - if the tube has been capped ...

What you're looking for is "CPU NB VID Control" (or maybe just CPU NB VID) not NB voltage. NB voltage (the chipset) should stay at 1.1v ...

Oh, yea. Good spot, QI! Didn't notice there was no fan in the rear exhaust hole. KamenG, if you put a stout 100mm fan in there you might notice a big difference. Would be better if the hole were for a 120mm fan so if you do put a 100mm fan in the back, put a potent one. It might give you a little more noise than you'd like but . . .

Thanks, guys, I'll be working on it!
Kamen

QuietIce said:

This fan is good, though it is just a hair loud (not much).
Panaflo makes some very good 120mm fans so I'd trust the 92mm models as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705007

Now this Delta is loud - but it'll also refresh the entire case air every second if you can provide an opening for an intake. No heat build-up here ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835705013

Click to expand...

The case has holes on the side panel, right above the plug-in boards, so I would think that's a good intake. I'm a little concerned that the 92mm fans you recommend do not fit in my 100mm opening - the screw holes would line up where there is solid sheet metal. But there is hardly anything (nothing above 29CFM) that I could find in terms of 100mm fans - should I get a 92mm and fabricate screw holes?

Kamen

Maybe I should ask the question a different way. How far is it from one screw hole to another diagonally ...?

From center to center, around 147mm. Between adjacent screw holes, it is ~105mm. Could this be a non-standard fan?
Kamen

That's a standard 120mm fan configuration. TONS of good options in that size. Just give me budget and loudness tolerance ...

Yes, indeed! How about something cheap, moves a lot of air and is quiet? And reliable, too. This one: IPCQUEEN IPC-12025 seems to meet all ($7 shipped, 80CFM, 26 dBA) but possibly the last of this requirement. Anything solid but not too far off in price?
Kamen

I'd be shocked if either of those specs were true. Fan manufacturers lie about their specs, and if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
That's not to say it's a bad fan, just don't get too caught up in the official CFM and noise ratings.

It has decent reviews on NewEgg but you never know. How about a COOLER MASTER R4-L2R-20CR-GP ? It's $12.66 shipped, 90CFM, 19dBA and uses long-life sleeve bearings? One probably can't trust any specifications since, for example, loudness expressed in A-weighted decibels without specifying the measured spectral content of the sound is not very meaningful, anyway. If someone has tried a bunch, this might give a basis for comparison. But I really don't want to spend too much - the entire system has been "slick-dealt" to a total cost of around $350, and it's fairly loaded, I'd hate to spend 10% of the total cost on a case fan.
Kamen

KamenG said:

I wasn't clear . . . it's the CPU cooler that's blowing down from the CPU onto to the video card. Kamen

Click to expand...

So you're drawing air through the CPU cooler with its fan? Not the way it should be oriented. The cooler is designed to have the fan push air through it, not pull air through it. Turn the fan around. I think you'll see an improvement.

I'll double-check on that, I thought I'd felt it blow down but it might not be that way. The fan doesn't seem reversible (it has a shroud) but I'll see if it can be disassembled. Come to think of it, I must be wrong in my "diagnosis" - I can't imagine Arctic messing that up.
Kamen

KamenG said:

Yes, indeed! How about something cheap, moves a lot of air and is quiet? And reliable, too.

Click to expand...

That would be an unobtainium-based fan available only from the SciFi channel. LOL!


Let me rephrase it - you've got three choices:
Quiet Fast Expensive
Quiet Slow Cheap
Loud Fast Cheap


I wouldn't list a fan that I wouldn't buy myself so "reliable" isn't a problem ...

QuietIce said:

Let me rephrase it - you've got three choices:
Quiet Fast Expensive
Quiet Slow Cheap
Loud Fast Cheap

I wouldn't list a fan that I wouldn't buy myself so "reliable" isn't a problem ...

Click to expand...

Would it be too much to ask you to provide samples of each of the three categories listed above?
Kamen

Scythe S-Flex 'G' (one of my usual choices )
Yate Loon in various models (low, medium, high, very high) for the cheap options


There are other choices out there - those are the ones that come to mind ...

Thank you very much!
Kamen

Update

Before I ordered the case fan, I decided to do one more test. I put the CPU to full stock (i.e., no overclocking whatsoever) and ran the IntelBurn test again. The temperatures went over 63C, again! That just ain't right, so I decided I'd also redo the thermal paste as instructed above. So, the new fan came and I opened up the case and took some pictures before putting in the new TIM (OCZ Freeze). You can see that the coverage on either the heatsink surface or the CPU wasn't that good. Shame on Arctic for putting TIM on their coolers in a way that leads to this. So, I applied the new paste as trents described, put the new case fan in and started the test at stock levels. I should mention that there was no arrow or any indication as to what the direction of the airflow was on the fan, so I just mounted it with the trademark facing out. The temperatures went high again... A check of the airflow direction showed it was blowing in. After a quick reversal, the temperatures finally stayed down - around 53C at stock level. A quick overclock to 3.8GHz was stable but it was getting too hot, while at 3.6GHz the temperatures were staying steadily under 62C under maximum stress (around 45C at idle), which I believe is acceptable. I am quite happy now - 3.6GHz with cheap components is quite good. You can see the case has a few intakes and that allows enough air to come in to keep it decently cool. I was able to run the 940 at 3.9GHz through maximum CPU load but it got way too hot, even with an open case and a room fan blowing into it. As to which case fan I got, forgive me but I decided to first spend $4.99 (shipped) for a Rosewill and it seems to be doing the job, so far. It's also pretty quiet, so it'll do for now, and if it dies, I'll get a better one then.
I really appreciate all the input, it has helped me get the system to the level I anticipated. Thank you all again!
Kamen