830 Overclocking woes...

Hi all, not new to the forums but this has been bugging me for quite some time and i'm finally going to ask around for some advice.

Currently the "new rig" in my sig is the setup that's giving me problems. I have an 830 with a TT big water SE setup and at default voltage (1.375) and stock speed, idle is around 45C and load is almost 60C!!!! Whats up with that? So far I haven't had any better luck with this water setup than i did with my zalman 7700cu and it's getting annoying

I have lapped the water block, re-applied AS5 many times and have still had no luck. Did i just get a dud chip or what? I see people putting tons more volts into these things and I start to wonder how they can run ~50C on air???

Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome...

how did you apply the as5? there is 2 cores so there is two spots you should be appling the as5 to... isnt the big water a 8mm tubing system? if so that might be your answer...with 2 cores and that water setup might not be able to handle it or the asus board is reading temps wrong...

Are you sure you have your block correctly attached to the CPU?

Every month i read post about high temps on water and almost everytime it turns out they didnt screw the block down far enough or installed it incorrectly.

And from what i hear the TT big water setup has a really really low flow rate and a few people have commented that the TT big water aint much better then air cooling, that might be your issue, maybe you can get a new pump or mod the TT setup?

@Evilsizer: I thought that the 8XX series was two cores on one die and that it wasnt until the 9XX series that they were physically two cores... i'll have to check that out.

@Phrenetical: I think i set it all up right and it is a tight as my motherboard will allow it to be (don't want to bend the motherboard.) As for modding it, that might be an option but it uses 1/4in tubing and i haven't found a pump that says it can step down to that size...

you are correct about the 2 cores. it was with tht 9xx's that they actually seperated them.

not that it really would make a difference. if you are applying thermal grease properly, and are mounting your waterblock properly, then there should be enough grease/enough pressure on the WB to cover the IHS entirely. this is assuming that your IHS is (relatively) flat.

I think my problem lies in my m/b temp, it's at 44C! just figuring out the ambient temp, at worst it woul donly be 26C, more like 24C. The culprit? Probably my cooler master 120mm fan! Looking on the web they only make 1 and it pushese 11cfm... ONLY 11!!!! Maybe that's why it's not doing it's job! It came with the case and i replaced the rear fan with a panaflo but didn't think it would be that bad.

I'm really hoping i found the problem, let me know if i have skipped another obvious error...

its a TT bigwater..i wouldnt expect much out of it to be honest
is it the regular or the 745?

I didn't know there was two versions, where would i find out if it is the regular or the 745?


^^Edit: Nevermind, i just googled it. It's the regular. Currently sitting inside a centurion 5 case and instead of blowing air through it, i have a panaflo (old one) 120mm fan sucking the air off the radiator (it wouldn't work pushing air through it because of the lack of room in the case)

Those 8** are junkers compared to the new 65nm chips. Ebay that limper while its still worth something and buy a 920.

Ok, status update:

currently have it at 3500 with mem at 800 and it's running better. Lowered my ambient temp from 44C to 34C and now at 1.35V, under full (dual prime Large fft) it runs at about 56C. About a 10C difference... Havent' had time to push it any farther.

As for junking this 830... can't really afford to at the moment. I assume by summer they will have a new revision of the 9xx series and i'll be able to afford one by then, hopefully!

So what are typical overclocks on an 830?

With good cooling you should be able to squeeze anywhere from 3.9 to 4.2 depending on the chip. Really its all going to come down to how much noise you can take from your rad fan. You can get all crazy with the biggest pump on the market attachted to a G5 Storm waterblock and still have high temps if the rad simply can't get rid of the heat fast enough. I tried using 3 70cfm panaflows on a BIX III with my 830 and still had a very rough time cooling it down at high overclocks. If you want quiet then you'll be stuck around 3.7ghz with that chip. If you want 4+Ghz on a 8** cpu then you will need a high flow fan.

i have 3 830's on 3 different asus mobo's - p5ld2, p5wd2, p5wd2-e

Mine are all on air and all are caseless using TT big typhoons and sonic towers.

Case temps are clearly one of your problems ... i ran 1 830 in a case for a while and it was hot !

I think you other problem is your water systems capacity. These 800's are rated at 135W ... your water might to ok on a p4 rated for 115 W or less.

Mine are all running around 260 fsb (3.9 ghz) and all need around 1.4vc to do that. cpu temps up to low 50's to high 50's, depending on ambients and mobo.

Without very good cooling, you are going to be limited in your OC.

You can run them under load (mine dual fold 724) up to low 60's, beyond that stability problems will arise.

So I would suggest the following:

-get more case cooling, add an intake fan or 2, especially one directly over the cpu if you have or can cut a side cover duct hole. Top blowholes are good for exhausting hot air.

-I don't know anything about that water system but see if you can add a better fan or a second fan to your rad.

- when you go to water you need to add a fan for your mosfets & NB since hsf will normally help cool those. This will also help stability.

Re the 920 ... i have one of those also ... you would have similar temps issues with it in your current rig setup.

Oh and don't forget to sink up the mosfets and make sure the northbridge and the fets are getting good airflow from a fan. Keeping those mosfets cool makes a huge difference on these dual cores.

One other aspect that may limit your stable OC is the nvidia chipset on that board. I don't have one but have read that they can't OC nearly as far as intel chipsets can.

This of course is moot until you can get better cooling to your rig.

Well at the moment the mosfets are getting REALLY hot! But there is no good way to cool them since it's tucked away between the rad and the block. The northbridge is now actively cooled but hopefully it will go on water as well.

I think i need to get some higher CFM fans as going from 11 to 64 yielded 10C drop in case temps.

Anything else i need to cool? Could my vid card be causing more heat (it runs at 52C idle...)

You need to geto rig a fan to blow on the fets and NB. Use zip ties, twisty ties, whatevery you need to do.

It is good to have someting like the artic coolers on the vid card since they will exhaust hot air from the vid out the back instead of preheating the air to be exhausted through your rad.

I am not sure what the best vid card coolers are that work like this these days and what fits your nvidia card ... i have a few artic coolers on my cased rigs with older ati's

/edit ... and make sure you don't add a wc block to your gpu ... your water system is already at or past its cooling limit.

Yup these D/C chips put out serious heat. The Big water is still decent, just not better from the 7700. Key is ambient temps, if they are high, you gonna have bad temps. I am having the same problem with my X1800XT

So i basically need to get a active cooling on the mosfets and a better cooling on my vid card(one that will exhaust the heat)?

bikinistud said:

So i basically need to get a active cooling on the mosfets and a better cooling on my vid card(one that will exhaust the heat)?

Click to expand...

Those will help ... but also get another fan or 2 blowing into the case to help with your case temps. Blowing hot air onto the mosfets will help a bit, but you need to get more cool air blowing through that case.

I assume your only exhaust is through your rad? If so more input air pressure to the case will help, and another exhaust would help too.

Check out the cooling section ... also Batboy I think has a sticky or a link on his sig to a case cooling 101 thread. Includes stuff like reducing cable clutter to improve air flow.

But just improving airflow doesn't help too much if you are not getting enough cool air into the case.