Best way to get socket temps down

[Wsheikh]

Hello everyone. This is my first post and just wanted to say for a noob PC builder I used this site a lot for info and seems like this would be the place to ge to get some ideas.
I recently built a new gaming rig with a FX 8320 and OC to 4.3mhz no sweat. only had to increase my voltage to 1.29v to run smooth. Using HWMonitor my socket temps under max load only got up to 55-57 max. When I push the chip to 4.4-4.5mhz I need to up the voltage to 1.35v. When I check the socket temps after running prime95 for just 5m my temp hits 70c.
My understanding is the only real solution is to mount a small fan either on the back of MB or directly have airflow to the vrm. I have plenty of airflow for rest of MB. All drive cages have been removed everything else in the case is kept cool including the MB. I just think where the vrm is located isn't getting any direct air.
Hope you much more smarter than I folks might have some ideas.

Sys Specs
-------------
FX 8320
ASUS M5A99FX Pro 2.0
16gb ddr3 1600mhz
MSI GTX 970
120gb OCZ SSD OS, 240gb OCZ SSD
1TB WD Blue HDD
CX600w PS

 

[Johan45]

Welcome to OCF Wsheikh,
You're correct about the fans mounted on top and behind the mobo. What do you have cooling the CPU directly?
Here's a couple pics, two with the side door modded and a couple where the fans are held in place with double sided tape or cable ties. The cooling behind the board can sometimes drop the socket temp 10°c

 

[Wsheikh]

I have Hyper EVO 212 so my core temps are great. but the vrm and socket temps were getting to high. I was just looking at some 40 or 20mm fans to put on the back of MB first to see if does the trick.

 

[Johan45]

The little fan in that pic is a 50mm chipset fan but you can use to one off the stock cooler as well. It's a pain but it will come off the heatsink.
To be honest with that board and cooler you're getting close to you stable limits. Both the cooler and the board are OK for mild OC which you have already but the board itself will start to run out of gas fairly soon.

 

[Wsheikh]

To be honest was starting to think the same thing. At 4.3ghz I am getting really good performance in games and not even sure what additional benefit I would get from going to 4.5 at this point.

 

[Mandrake4565]

To be honest was starting to think the same thing. At 4.3ghz I am getting really good performance in games and not even sure what additional benefit I would get from going to 4.5 at this point.

Depends on the game, whether going higher then 4.3 will make a difference. If it's a Gpu bound game in most cases it will not. Putting fans on the VRM section and behind the mobo as Johan said is a very good idea for these Fx 83xx chips. We both do so on ours and it works well.

 

[Wsheikh]

I play all kinds of games FPS, RPGs, Turn Based etc.. I play BF4 64 man servers and can get 75-100fps and that game hammers the cpu pretty good. I use MSI Afterburner and HWMonitor to check the cpu and gpu usage. Also Crysis 3, Metro games, Witcher 3 all run great very high to max settings. Having said that I will get a fan in the back of MB and see what happens. If I can get just a 10c drop then I can have 4.5 np. I have a Corsair spec 2 high airflow mid tower but it is very limited with space from heatsink and top of the case. I am hopeing to get a full tower sometime soon like the Phantek Etho.

 

[RGone]

the vrm and socket temps were getting to high. I was just looking at some 40 or 20mm fans to put on the back of MB first to see if does the trick.

The little 40mm fans don't really push enough air (less than 7CFM usually) unless you pay dearly for them and then they sound like leaf blower too often. Most of us have closer to 50CFM blowing onto the VRM area at top of mobo. I normally have 120mm fan cooling rear of mobo in socket area.

RGone...

 

[Mandrake4565]

When running Hwmonitor what are your package temp readings and socket temp readings? Usually with fans on the VRM and back of the Mobo they will be around 8-10c difference, when running a Fx 8xxx chip.

 

[Wsheikh]

at 4.3ghz socket is at 55-57 and package is around 43-47. Its when I try to push 4.4 or 4.5 and up the voltage to 1.35ish socket goes to 70 and packet is at 49-55

- - - Updated - - -

I have a large mb cut out and the back of the case has a bulge to keep cables in the back and still close the panel. I have a few 120mm fans laying around that I should be able to get to fit back there, they are 40CFM. so you can attach a fan right on the vrm heatsink? I thought I saw that in the pic but didn't wanna sound stupid.

 

[Wsheikh]

The little fan in that pic is a 50mm chipset fan but you can use to one off the stock cooler as well. It's a pain but it will come off the heatsink.
To be honest with that board and cooler you're getting close to you stable limits. Both the cooler and the board are OK for mild OC which you have already but the board itself will start to run out of gas fairly soon.

Any advise on the Noctua NH-D14? Seems like a big advantage is fans blow air down onto MB thus giving the supporting area air flow.

 

[RGone]

This board > ASUS M5A99FX Pro 2.0 > *should* run that > FX 8320 > to 4.5GHz or somewhere close even if not normally more. OR the board used to do so. 1.35V for 4.5GHz is not really that high compared to two year old versions of FX-8320.

That cpu / socket temp should be showing an increase due to the loading on the VRMs but it should not be that high yet, would not think at only 1.35Vcore. Something does not add up.

With a Corsair CX600 watt power supply and this for voltage rails: > +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@46A, [email protected], [email protected], the power supply should not be an issue in n0t supplying enough voltage to the motherboard on time and clean. Not lets say at only 1.35Vcore at only 4.5GHz.

You need to seriously get after cooling the VRMs and rear of mobo in socket area. The only other thing that even comes to mind is that for many in here 'could' get the FX 8cores stable but not a bump beyond 4.5GHz truly stable wiht that mobo. Maybe your setup just got there early. Nothing else really makes any sense right this minute.

RGone...

 

[Wsheikh]

This board > ASUS M5A99FX Pro 2.0 > *should* run that > FX 8320 > to 4.5GHz or somewhere close even if not normally more. OR the board used to do so. 1.35V for 4.5GHz is not really that high compared to two year old versions of FX-8320.

That cpu / socket temp should be showing an increase due to the loading on the VRMs but it should not be that high yet, would not think at only 1.35Vcore. Something does not add up.

With a Corsair CX600 watt power supply and this for voltage rails: > +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@46A, [email protected], [email protected], the power supply should not be an issue in n0t supplying enough voltage to the motherboard on time and clean. Not lets say at only 1.35Vcore at only 4.5GHz.

You need to seriously get after cooling the VRMs and rear of mobo in socket area. The only other thing that even comes to mind is that for many in here 'could' get the FX 8cores stable but not a bump beyond 4.5GHz truly stable wiht that mobo. Maybe your setup just got there early. Nothing else really makes any sense right this minute.

RGone...

I knew the Fx chips ran hot so I even removed all the drive cages and installed a 140mm fan in front and another 120mm under that. My case is a freezer the air coming out the back is cold idle lol. Tons of cold air in the case. Even when vrm hits 70 MB temp is still under 35 and package temp 49-57. Socket temps and vrm and lack of direct air is all I can think off.

 

[Johan45]

If that's the actual VRM temp they're good to 100c+ . The socket temp on the other hand is dood to 70 and 62 on the package.

 

[Wsheikh]

If that's the actual VRM temp they're good to 100c+ . The socket temp on the other hand is dood to 70 and 62 on the package.

Sorry ment socket temp hits 70 after about 3-5min on prime under full load but my package temp stays 49-55ish. When running the chip at 4.3 I only need 1.29-1.30v and socket gets to about 55-60 and package 43-50. Funny thing is when I play a game like BF4 or Witcher 3 or Crysis 3 and cpu has had 96+ load on all cores most of the time HWMonitor shows cpu reached 4.4ghz while being set to 4.3 max but temps are fine

 

[Johan45]

Do you still have turbo or core boost enabled? Those temps are pretty normal, especially with the board and cooling, voltage isn't the most relevant part with these but the current drawn though the board. A better cooler will help but you won't go a whole lot faster even with that.

 

[Wsheikh]

Do you still have turbo or core boost enabled? Those temps are pretty normal, especially with the board and cooling, voltage isn't the most relevant part with these but the current drawn though the board. A better cooler will help but you won't go a whole lot faster even with that.

Belive I have boost disabled.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Wsheikh, here's a few tidbits just running around in my brain...what's left of it.

Both Johan and I had the same and/or similar motherboards as you are running. I have a Asus M5A99X Evo and Johan has the one you are using. I want to start by saying that I really like the M5A99X Evo board but being 6+2 Power Phases on the VRM both of us ran out of juice overclocking our 8350's around 4.5+ Ghz. I do not feel you really need to spend the money on the Noctua NH-D14 heatsink, though it is arguably one of the best Air heatsinks on the market. Reason I say this is because you're likely going to run out of board before you run out of temperature headroom. That is, if you can get the socket temp down. I also want to say that if you're thinking of going AIO water this will only exacerbate the issue, because the Air that is flowing over the VRM section will no longer be there, with water. When I first plugged in my Fx 8350 I was already running a custom loop and my Socket temps were 20c higher then the package, on the M5A99X Evo.

What I feel you should do. So we can have a peek under the hood, so to speak, is give us screen shots of the following tabs in Cpu-Z, Cpu Spd and Memory. This way we can see what is what, with the OC.

 

[RGone]

Okay this is what Mandrake4565 is talking about...

...This is what we need to see for sure and a real good starting point.

Normally during setup and testing we disable C1/E, C6, Cool N Quiet, APM, TurboCore and in windows performance manager itself we set to "performance" mode. ALSO if you have HPC in bios you would ENABLE it. That way there are not "other" settings messing with the overclocking process. Some of those settings are not available on all models of cpu but where in evidence we disable for setup of overclock process.

CPU Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

Memory Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

SPD Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

And this is screen capture of HWMonitor (free version) from CPUID com
HWMonitor has been scrolled enough and large enough to show Min/Max of Voltages and includes the CPU CORE TEMPS / "package" temps fully visible. Latest versions of HWMonitor show the CPU Core Temp as " a Package Temp" and is only shown as a single temp since there were never multple, individual core temp sensors anyway.

This capture is made of HWMonitor after it has been open and running on the desktop logging Min/Max temps and voltages while Prime 95 was running Blend Mode test on all cores for at least 20 mins and then the capture of HWMonitor was made and it shows the Min/Max temps and voltages before P95 Blend was started and while running P95 Blend mode and gives much greater insight into how the system is performing without guessing.

In order to attach screenshots of INDIVIDUAL images as suggested, first crop and capture the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories or equivalent. Then click on Go Advanced, a button at the bottom of every new post window. Then click on the little paperclip tool at the top of the Advanced post window when it opens. Clicking on the paperclip tool brings up the file browser/upload tool and the rest is fairly obvious.

Step by Step HowTo Attach files to forum with pictures.
HowTo Attach Files to the forum.

RGone...

 

[Wsheikh]

...This is what we need to see for sure and a real good starting point.

Normally during setup and testing we disable C1/E, C6, Cool N Quiet, APM, TurboCore and in windows performance manager itself we set to "performance" mode. ALSO if you have HPC in bios you would ENABLE it. That way there are not "other" settings messing with the overclocking process. Some of those settings are not available on all models of cpu but where in evidence we disable for setup of overclock process.

CPU Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

Memory Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

SPD Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

And this is screen capture of HWMonitor (free version) from CPUID com
HWMonitor has been scrolled enough and large enough to show Min/Max of Voltages and includes the CPU CORE TEMPS / "package" temps fully visible. Latest versions of HWMonitor show the CPU Core Temp as " a Package Temp" and is only shown as a single temp since there were never multple, individual core temp sensors anyway.

This capture is made of HWMonitor after it has been open and running on the desktop logging Min/Max temps and voltages while Prime 95 was running Blend Mode test on all cores for at least 20 mins and then the capture of HWMonitor was made and it shows the Min/Max temps and voltages before P95 Blend was started and while running P95 Blend mode and gives much greater insight into how the system is performing without guessing.

In order to attach screenshots of INDIVIDUAL images as suggested, first crop and capture the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories or equivalent. Then click on Go Advanced, a button at the bottom of every new post window. Then click on the little paperclip tool at the top of the Advanced post window when it opens. Clicking on the paperclip tool brings up the file browser/upload tool and the rest is fairly obvious.

Step by Step HowTo Attach files to forum with pictures.
HowTo Attach Files to the forum.

RGone...

well I turned up my voltage to 1.37 and set cpu to 4.5ghz, Played BF4 for an hr followed by some Witcher 3 and some Crysis 3 all back to back and my socket got to 56 and package stayed at 46. everything is running fine and gonna see if this holds stable. I use this rig just to game and if it BSD's I will update but putting the PC under the kind of stress I dod day to day it seems to be fine.
Also thanks for all the tips and help if things go hell in a hand basket I will seek thee oh wise one