Asus M3A78-CM questions

Hi all,

I have an AsusTek M3A78-CM motherboard (rest of specs in signature). I've been working on an overclock and have some motherboard specific questions.

First, HWMonitor lists Temp0 (the first one) as what I believe are the MOSFETS. These temps run at about 33 idle and 45-50 load depending, on ambient, under OOCT or Prime. Under normal use, such as Halo 2, Quake 2, Lightroom and Photoshop, temps never go above 45 in the hottest weather, usually they are in the low 40s after a couple hours of game play or heavy photoediting. So, is this an issue? I believe I have maximized my case (Antec 300) airflow as much as possible. The Freezer Pro 64 is set to blow on the mosftes, I have two front fans in, top fan out, back fan out, side fan in and a fan attached perpendicular onto the side fan blowing up directly onto the mosfets. Board temps never go above 33 and core temps never above 47-48 under stress, but under normal use cores never above 42 (idle 28-30). If the mosfet temps are to high, should I try adding a heatsink with a cutdown part of my old AMD heatsink? Any tips if I should do that?

Second question, anyone else have this board with a current BIOS? I have version 2003 and find my OC is limited by the cpuNB frequency. Regardless of how much voltage I shove to it (up to +150mv, my boars/bios max) I am greatly limited by the locked 9x cpuNB multi. Does recent bios updates for this board allow more control over the cpuNB multi (FID) or in som eother way improve its OC ability with a Phenom I 9650? I've asked this of Asus by their forum and by their technical support form, no response either way. Very rude if you ask me.

Current setting abbreviated by validation. Max CPU bus I can get is 246 (currently 235), highest multi available 11.5, VCore currently +100mV (for 1.28 idle, max possible is +150), cpuNB voltage +50 (max +150), Memory set to SPD at 400 divider(total 470MHz). Only thing not shown in validation is cpuNB Freq:2115


Just in case, here is a link to my OC thread here:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6579519#post6579519

Thanks in advance!

One of the other temps (besides core temps) in HWMonitor (TMPIN0, TMPIN1, TMPIN2, etc.) is probably the CPU temp and may not be the mosfet temp. Your temps are just fine.

Thanks for taking the time to chime in here also Trents! TEMPIN0 is the one I am curious about. QuiteIce suggested in my other thread that it may be Mosfets. TEMPIN1 is the motherboard, near as I can tell. It us usually in the 30-34 depending on ambient and matches what AOD tells me for MB. TEMPIN2 alwasy says 128C (says -128 in AOD) and I can only assume is not working, not connected, etc. It never changes. The Cores in HWMonitor and and CoreTemp and AOD always match and are obviously the CPU/Cores.

Good to know none of those temps sound problematic though.

I'm really hoping someone with my board can give me good news (I don't anticipate it).

dennisdietz said:

The Cores in HWMonitor and and CoreTemp and AOD always match and are obviously the CPU/Cores.

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CPU temps and core temps are read from two different sensors.

CPU temps are actually read from the socket area of the motherboard below the processor. Is that why you were thinking that TMPN0 is the mosfets temp, because it comes from the motherboard? CPU temp comes from the motherboard also.

Core temp is actually read from a sensor embedded in the processor itself. On newer AMD processors their is only one sensor for all cores. That is why the temp reading in HWMOnitor or CoreTemp shows the same for all the cores. It is just being repeated.

Any software that came with your board that monitors the hardware will give you the CPU temp, not the core temp. Bios also gives the CPU temp, not the core temp.

Thanks trents for all the information. I known very little about all this but I'm reading a lot and asking questions so as to learn from people like you.

trents said:

Is that why you were thinking that TMPN0 is the mosfets temp, because it comes from the motherboard?

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Nope, I was thinking that because Quiteice suggested it might the mosfets. I used to think it was the NB. I find the NB cool to the touch but the mosfets are quite warm. as is the tiny little SB heatsink.

On newer AMD processors their is only one sensor for all cores. That is why the temp reading in HWMOnitor or CoreTemp shows the same for all the cores. It is just being repeated.

Click to expand...

They seem to fluctuate by a degree in CoreTemp, HWmonitor and OCCT- no that it means anything. The CPU temp in CoreTemp is often a degree or so warmer than it lists the core, which makes sense based on what you say about two sensors. CoreTemp CPU is always significantly lower the tempin0 in HWMonitor.

Any software that came with your board that monitors the hardware will give you the CPU temp, not the core temp. Bios also gives the CPU temp, not the core temp.

Click to expand...

Bios lists only two temps, labeled as MB and CPU, which always match tempin1 and the cores or CoreTemp cpu.

dennisdietz said:

They seem to fluctuate by a degree in CoreTemp, HWmonitor and OCCT- no that it means anything. The CPU temp in CoreTemp is often a degree or so warmer than it lists the core, which makes sense based on what you say about two sensors. CoreTemp CPU is always significantly lower the tempin0 in HWMonitor.

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The CPU temp in CoreTemp?!? As far as I know there is no such thing. CoreTemp only shows the core temp and nothing else, which is why I often recommend it to avoid all the vocabulary mix-ups between 'core' temp and 'CPU' temp. (In fact I don't remember CoreTemp having "CPU" anywhere on it, though I believe it has "CPUID" or some such.) Maybe I'm just not reading this right?

dennisdietz said:

Bios lists only two temps, labeled as MB and CPU, which always match tempin1 and the cores or CoreTemp cpu.

Click to expand...

The CPU temp in BIOS is not the same as the core temp. However, some motherboard programs, and ASUS Probe II is one of them, are very good at giving a good CPU temp - one very close to the core temp. The main way to tell the difference between them is to watch them as you start Prime95 or OCCT. The core temp will shoot up almost immediately while the CPU temp usually has a 5-10 second lag before it maxes out ...

Actually, Ice, CoreTemp does use the "CPU" terminology all over its interface but we know by the design and intent of the program that it uses "CPU" to mean "core". It's easy to see why this is confusing to beginners.

Dennis, the reason there is that 1c differential between the four core readings in HWMonitor or in CoreTemp with the AMD chips is because the one temp sensor for all the cores is being polled by the software at various intervals over time. The collective temp of the cores does vary slightly over time, even at idle since there is background processing happening all the time. The software will assign the temp report to a different core in the program interface with each polling but there is still only one sensor for all the cores.

trents said:

Actually, Ice, CoreTemp does use the "CPU" terminology all over its interface but we know by the design and intent of the program that it uses "CPU" to mean "core". It's easy to see why this is confusing to beginners.

Click to expand...

Well, isn't that interesting. I haven't used CoreTemp recently except on my sig rig and I (naturally) assumed it would be the same for all platforms. Seems that it isn't, so I checked it out on my M3A32 940BE system and it looks the same as yours there. Go figure! Here's a shot of what it looks like on my sig rig taken next to your post above ...

PS
And it isn't from the version number - I used the 0.99.7 vesion on my M3A32, which looks like yours.

Well, at least the mystery is solved!

The CPU on CoreTemp corresponds to the core temps listed in HWMonitor. TEMPIN1 n HW Monitor corresponds with the BIOS and AOD listing for MB (motherboard). Both Core and TEMPIN0 will climb 20C degrees inder load like Prime or OCCT, each climbs about 10C with heavy gaming (heavy to me at least) or heavy photoshop work like stitching together 15 x 12mb files.

So maybe TEMPIN0 is the actual CPU, like what people measure with IR thermometers in the back of the mobo? My mobo tray does not have a cutout in this area.

It could be that TEMPIN0 is the CPU socket. I don't run HWMonitor much so I honestly don't know. I guess I mis-understood you in the other thread - I thought you had said it didn't match core temp or the CPU temp ...

Thanks. tempin0 is a temp all it's own. CoreTemp, AOD, HWMonitor an OCCT all agree as to the core temps, though as trents pointed out coretemp labels it funny. My coretemp looks like quietice's left image. Maybe I need to update it.

It's not the CoreTemp version number that changed the window. I don't know why they're different except that the machine on the right has been running CoreTemp since it first came out so maybe the program is continuing to use the "old" window even though it's been changed? I don't know. Doesn't matter too much, though, since CoreTemp doesn't give a CPU (socket) temp and as long as everybody is clear on that we're good ...

All clear.

So what does HWmonitor say is tempin0? I tried looking and seeing which, core or this rose first under stress as QuiteIce suggested that, cores jump up in about 2 seconds and tempin0 took 6 seconds to start (jumps 5 degrees then). Tempin0 does not really climb until the core is higher than it. It eventually climbs past the core once the core reaches it's approximate max.

I observe the same thing in multiple trials. Does that shed any light?

That would be consistant with CPU (socket) temps ...

I see. Thank you!

So should I worry about idle in low 30s, heavy use in low 40s and stress in low 50s for the CPU itself? Cores are upper 20s, mid 30s, mid 40s respectively. I've searched some but no real answers.

Honestly, the only time I look at the CPU (socket) temp is when I first put a rig together and start stress testing at stock. (I look at a lot of different things when I go through that particular ritual. ) After that the only thing I look at is the core temp and yours look fine ...

Cool, thanks. I guess worst thing that happens is it dies sooner and I have to upgrade. I've been reading the mod logs here and at OCN, I've really got an itch, but unfortunately no scratch