Phenom ii x2 un-OC temps, looking to OC

Hi all

Never really Oc'ed before and have just set my system up to be ready for it, at least I think I have, so with some help I'm hoping to.

This is what i have done so far:
Disabled:
Cool 'n' Quiet
Disabled C1E
Disabled Spread Spectrum
Disabled Smart CPU Fan Control
Set power options to performance
- any other steps you can think of?

Setup:
Mobo: Gigabyte MA770-UD3 Rev 2.0
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2
Processor: Phenom ii x2 550 BE

After doing some tests using the stock settings for the CPU and the arctic cooler, i got the following results:

Idle: 34 oC
Highest using prime95: around 50 oC

Used both Everest and CPUID to get these values.

Do these temps seem to be quite high without ANY OC'ing being done? If I don't get this part done correctly, i guess the whole OC'ing process won't be very successful for me!

thanks for input

Wayne

You might want to enable smart fan control if your cpu fan isnt running at full bore. Sometimes the AC Freezer when not used under pwm do not run full speed. Also, how is the airflow in your case? Any air cooler is only as good as the cool air it can have.

Hey there thanks for reply, i've enabled smart fan control again.

its my first build so bare with me please!, not sure what you mean by air flow exactly, or how to test it.

I've taken a picture and uploaded it:
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5237/compv.jpg
pink cross is the 1 x 120mm fan, its the back of the case.

and here is a link to the case:
http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=33816

I'm thinking maybe the cooler wasn't the best choice now seems it takes in air from near the psu, then blows through the Heat sink towards the gfx card? but these temperature still seem quite high for a pc not overclocked don't they?

I'm not an AMD guy, but is there any way that you can turn the cooler around to blow hot air either at the PSU fan, or at the exhaust fan? I'm sure there's a way to...

CompuTamer said:

I'm not an AMD guy, but is there any way that you can turn the cooler around to blow hot air either at the PSU fan, or at the exhaust fan? I'm sure there's a way to...

Click to expand...

hey

looks like i could turn it towards the psu

Wayne, I have the same CPU, Same Heatsink, My temps are running about 4°c cooler, My ambient temp is approx 75°f. My first question would be, Do you have any intake fans mounted on the front of your case to pull in some cool air. IIRC that case has the ability to mount a 120mm fan in the front. (I may be wrong on this)
As far as O.C.ing, You can O.C. this chip fairly well on stock voltage so you should be able to get to 3.6-3.7 without upping the voltage to the cpu and raising the heat level.
When referring to airflow, Ideally you want air circulating through the case, Cool air coming in and hot air being exhausted.

WayneTrew said:

hey

looks like i could turn it towards the psu

Click to expand...

I would do that so your shooting it straight out the rig and not circulating warm air.

And if the Phenom x2 series is anything like the x4 series (Which I don't know tbh) Your probably not going to have a lot of headroom to OC. I have an x4 955, but it hates going above about 54C. I don't know if the x2 series can take some higher temps, but either way I wouldn't expect a huge OC.

hey everyone, thanks for help

ah just took the front off, and it does indeed have 2 bays for fans So should be buying a graphics card 2mo, so i'll grab a fan too.

Will turn the hsf round 2mo, to point towards the psu too.

Another strange thing is even tho my cpu is reaching 50 degrees, my heat sink is still relatively cold so I reckon I may have messed up with the thermal compound too.
I'll do all this 2mo and run prime and post the results back 2mo hopefully it'll go down a few degrees

Wayne, I would definattly look into a few of these links below..Applying thermal paste is the most single commen mistake to high tempatures.. and even people who know what there doing tend to over look it.. but it is probably the single most important thing never to forget.

Fear not though, we are here to help you

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/cooling/39 - Lapping
http://gutski.net/jefflinsales.com/Tech/Thermal paste application.htm - Thermal Paste Application

99.9999% silver.. or other metal type thermal signature pastes are the best, and go down the list with acrylics and cermics closer to the bottom.

Idealy, you would want to lap both your HSF and CPU, and apply a almost invisible layer of thermal paste, but lapping is not needed in most cases unless you really plan to push some serious voltage to that cpu which would then require you to lap your HSF/CPU for maximum heat disappation.

The best advice I can give is to use a credit card or something similar to try and drag the thermal paste around and get it as even as possible (using silver/metal signiture thermal pastes can be conductive, so make sure you clean up after your self )

I can also provide some video links, or I can personally take a video and show you how I do it.. granted im sure everyone has there own ways of doing such things, but a majority of us oc'ers would agree that lapping and correctly applying thermal paste is probably the single most important thing.

Hope this helps mate, and good luck with your results!

:: EDIT ::
By the way, what video card you plan on getting?
And be sure to look at the CFM/Air pressure of those fans, higher cfm better but some tend to get quite noisy(look for DB/DBA try to keep under 30 if you dont like noisy fans)

WayneTrew said:

hey everyone, thanks for help



Another strange thing is even tho my cpu is reaching 50 degrees, my heat sink is still relatively cold so I reckon I may have messed up with the thermal compound too.
I'll do all this 2mo and run prime and post the results back 2mo hopefully it'll go down a few degrees

Click to expand...

The Freezer 7 comes with MX2 preapplied, Unless you changed thermal compounds it would be difficult to mess up the application.

Alryt,

yeah i put my finger on the mx2 by accident lol, had to take it off and redo it.

cheers for the links, have a look at em in a bit. I got in a right mess with the compound last time i put it on lol, never dealt with something so sticky. Was having trouble with the fan before too, but know how to do it correctly now, so should be better.

Was gonna get the ati 5770, bloke down the road was selling em for £125.00 but hes messing me about, just seen it on ebuyer for 116, with next day delivery it'll be £125.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186468

Looking out for a 24" monitor now...never been such an impulsive buyer lol, keep seeing stuff i want.