[kkpudge7]

I just started up my new build for the first time. Here are system specs...

Q9450
Asus P5E3 Premium
Radeon 4870
4GB G skill @ 1600Mhz
TRUE 120 Extreme (2 fans, push/pull)

Im using the CF2 thermal paste that the 120 black came with, I heard it was decent so I decided to try it. Anyway the only thing that i'm slightly concerned about is the varience of temps between the 4 cores. I read that +- 7 degrees was okay. Mine bounces between 5 and 9. Here is a pic of what it looks like on average.



I just wanted some feedback on whether the temps were ok.

Thanks in advance.

[thescavenger]

Those temps are really low! 28 degrees must only be about 7 or 8 degrees above your ambient temperature!

Are you underclocking or undervolting?

[NinjaZX6R]

Hmm...with my Q9650 and Tuniq Tower, my temps are always within 2c of each core, but usually 0c or 1c. Your temps are great, so I wouldn't worry about it. Could be the heatspreader not being flat on your CPU itself.

-Collin-

[NinjaZX6R]

Originally Posted by thescavenger

Those temps are really low! 28 degrees must only be about 7 or 8 degrees above your ambient temperature!

Are you underclocking or undervolting?

2402mhz is over 250mhz lower than his stock speed, but I doubt it has an effect at all.

-Collin-

[kkpudge7]

Haven't touched anything in bios. I just plugged it all in and tunred it on lol. I plan on OC up to 3 or 3.2. But I'm just making sure I have all of my drivers and what not updated first.

[blazed]

Would appear to be idle temperatures, heat is an issue for the CPU when it is under load (stessed by an application), idle is not a problem unless the HSF isn't installed properly, which I would say it is since your idle temperatures seems normal, hard to tell for sure without a load temp readout.

2.4ghz is off for a stock Q9450 though, and can't just be EIST because dropping the muli wouldn't add up to 2.4ghz, download CPU-Z to check.

[kkpudge7]

Here is a shot at taken while idle from cpu z. The multi is only at 6x on this shot, its suppsed to be 8 correct? Also, while under load the multi goes up to 7, but I havent seen it at 8. Let me know what I need to do next. Thanks again for all the help guys.

[nGAGEOnline]

Seems to me that your C1E and/or Thermal Controle is enabled in bios. Would explain the dropped multiplier on idle. I personally had a lot of voltage problems myself, but still, for 2.4GHz I find 1.28 (even on idle) pretty high.

My first guess would be, get into bios "disable C1E" and set voltages manually to lowest value except perhaps your ram, set it to manufacturers default values (for now). If necessary also disable thermal control (temporarily) and see if you can properly boot into Vista.
Check CPUz and RealTemp for the voltage and temperatures you get both for idle and load. (use Orthos or Prime95 for load test)

I'm currently reversing my stuff and I run the Q9450 at default 2.66GHz with 1.15Vcore (bios) 1.10V on load, trying to go as low as I can with Vcore, before I start clocking up again.

[k-rug]

Ditto what nGAGEOnline said. Check your C1E setting in your bios. It baffled me until I figured it out.

[kkpudge7]

Here is a shot with C1E set to "Disabled" and the system is idle

Everything else is set to auto, all of the voltages. I dont quite understand what I need to do with the voltage settings nGAGE.



I'm getting ready to head out of town until sunday afternoon, so I cant do the tests right now. But let me know what exactly I need to do, and I'll post a reply as soon as I get home. Thanks for the help thus far!

[nGAGEOnline]

Skip the part about voltages for a moment, because it's auto-adjusting for the higher FSB you've set.
Right now the only concern is the multiplier. One thing you may still wanna double check is the "Thermal Control" bit in the bios. It usually has 4 settings. (it could be called differently in your bios, I don't know)
- TM1 Only
- TM2 Only
- TM1 & TM2
- Disabled

The one called TM2 (hope I recalled that correctly) is responsible for reducing multiplier.

Another thing that touches your CPU speed (dunno if it also changes the multiplier) is the "Intel SpeedStep" thingy. It reduces and increases CPU voltages and clockspeed depending on load, but like I said, I'm not sure about the multiplier part. The Thermal Control setting TM2 I'm pretty sure about though.

[blazed]

Would appear that your FSB is set to 400, shouldn't it be 333? 333x8= 2.66ghz which is the stock clock speed of your CPU, and 1333mhz FSB speeds.

Perhaps the CPU you were using before used 400 and you didn't reset the BIOs, you could try setting the BIOs back to default, or AUTO.

The 2 options responsible for underclocking and undervolting the CPU during idle are usualy called EIST and C1E, seems you have them disabled now though.

[kkpudge7]

Blazed:

I am currently out of town until sunday, so I cant do anything right now. But I can give you guys a little more information.

The motherboard and the cpu are both brand new, I just built the system.

I did disable "C1E" but I didn't mess with the EIST option.

you are correct though, the 9450 is supposed to be 333x8 (2.66) stock. Turning off the C1E gave me 400.4x7 (2.803)

[thescavenger]

This problem is really bizarre. Why would the BIOS be adjusting the FSB and multiplier?

[kkpudge7]

i'm not sure about what it does now, after turning the C1E off, but before the multiplier would drop while idle, and then go up during load. The motherboard is the Asus p5e3 premium btw.

It doesnt really seam like its a "problem" more like something that just needs to be figured out lol. Which is where you guys come in haha.

Thanks for all the help so far.

Edit:

after looking over the CPU Z results from before/after disabling C1E I noticed that it didn't change the FSB at all, it just raised the multiplier from 6 to 7

[thescavenger]

Have you tried flashing to a different BIOS?

[nGAGEOnline]

Originally Posted by thescavenger

Have you tried flashing to a different BIOS?

Just one quick advise. Please make sure what's on the board before flashing. If it does not correspond to any previously released BIOS's, consider checking more details before erasing important information as to the problem. I also always advise to make backups of the existing BIOS's before flashing. Just to preserver "possibly" useful information. If identical, just re-flash it with latest version! Though I doubt the problem is with the BIOS, or it's version. No BIOS will be released for public if it could cause these type of problems (aside from the 1 in a million chance).

[[ EDIT ]]
Might over do it a bit with caution... but ok!

[blazed]

Both C1E and EIST should be disabled to stop any auto dropping of the multi, as well as voltage. FSB however is not nomaly changed automaticaly at all, you should be able to correct the problem yourself just by changing the FSB to 333 from the BIOs, though I can't figure out why it would be 400 default other then maybe an old BIOs version thinking its an extreme edition.

[kkpudge7]

Okay, I'm back in town now and in front of my computer.

I looked around in bios for a while and didn't see anything called "EIST" is that what it is called? or is there a different option for it.

Also, how do I manually set the FSB? There is something in there called "CPU ratio" but I wasn't sure if that was it or not.

[kkpudge7]

Ok, I think I got everything straigtened out, I turned off "Intell Speedstrap" something or another. it's caption said "allows OS to controll CPU speed". anyway, I turned that off and it put my multiplier up to
8x. It also made prime95 work correctly. I also manually set my FSB to 333mhz.

Here is a screen shot from prime95 running 100% cpu for several minutes. These temps ok?




/edit