FX8350||SaberTooth||24/7 Extreme OC All The Things

[DNRDustin]

--WARNING--
If you wonder whether anything posted in this thread is "safe", the answer is NO!
"This is my thread, there are many like it, but this one is mine"
I will not be held responsible for any damage you may cause to your own system.
Do not copy/paste my settings and expect anything less than a house fire.
This thread is my own personal space for advice from the OC gods regarding pushing my setup(not yours), as well as posting pics and benchmark results.
That being said, I'm sure there will be plenty of useful info for anyone looking to push their FX rigs.
You may be wondering "whats the end goal here?"
Think, Benchmark settings meets 24/7 everyday real world usage... or something like that.

Things in here will probably end up resembling my other thread over here
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...houghts-on-my-Overclock-System?highlight=6200


My Rig
Win7 Ultimate||Ubuntu 14.04||ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0||AMD FX-8350 4.9gHz(280x17.5)@1.512v||CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB cmy16gx3m2a1866c9 2240mHz [email protected]||ASUS GeForce GTX 960 STRIX||Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 240GB||Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003||Corsair Obsidian Series 450D||CORSAIR HX Series HX750
My Cooling
4xNoctua NF-a14 iPPC 3000||1xNoctua NF-f12 iPPC 3000 rear exhaust||Koolance HX-CU1402V 280||Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 280||EK-XRES 100 Revo D5 PWM||EK-Supremacy MX||70mm@4300rpm on VRM||120mm@2000rpm on Socket​

 

[DNRDustin]

A bunch of pics

Spoiler

 

[DNRDustin]

So I recently realized that @5ghz I'd freeze after 2 hours p95 1/3 of the time. I've been tweaking settings and messing with cooling. One things got me thinking, which is more stressful(heat/instability) on the imc/cpu? Upping ram speed, or tightening timings? Would they even out heat/stress wise, or would tighter timings be a better choice?

 

[caddi daddi]

I find that for my fx 8350 that tighter timings count more than making the next speed step, IE, 1866 to 2133.
I also find that it's better for me to tighten read to read and write to write after I get my primary timings set.

 

[DNRDustin]

Got a good link to the process and procedure? Primary timings? You lost me already ��

 

[caddi daddi]

the 5 timings shown in cpu-z under the spd tab.
the first three are the most important and are the first three listed in the bios, set those and further down, tRAS and tRc to what is shown in cpu-z under the spd tab.
or if your bios offers it just click the xmp profile.
the last thing to set is the command rate, you can set this to either 1 or 2, 2 being the more aggressive.
the last things are to set the dram voltage, add .05 to what is rated, if your stix are 1.5 volt, set them to 1.55, this is quite safe as the jdec standard says they have to be able to run at much higher voltage than that.
reboot, and run super pi.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Mmmmm subb'd for info & goodness!
Higher RAM speeds put more stress on the IMC directly and indirectly.

Directly, well higher speeds are harder on the FX IMC's vs Intels.
Indirectly, you will need to increase the DRAM voltage as well as (most likely) the CPU/NBv which creates more heat which the cooling system and CPU need to deal with that extra heat somehow.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

A bunch of pics

Spoiler

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I think you need thicker tubing in there

 

[caddi daddi]

here is a link that has a lot of detail info.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2585-ASUS-Crosshair-V-Formula-BIOS-Guide-Overclocking

 

[DNRDustin]

the 5 timings shown in cpu-z under the spd tab.
the first three are the most important and are the first three listed in the bios, set those and further down, tRAS and tRc to what is shown in cpu-z under the spd tab.
or if your bios offers it just click the xmp profile.
the last thing to set is the command rate, you can set this to either 1 or 2, 2 being the more aggressive.
the last things are to set the dram voltage, add .05 to what is rated, if your stix are 1.5 volt, set them to 1.55, this is quite safe as the jdec standard says they have to be able to run at much higher voltage than that.
reboot, and run super pi.

Ok, so this I'm not lost on

Mmmmm subb'd for info & goodness!
Higher RAM speeds put more stress on the IMC directly and indirectly.

Directly, well higher speeds are harder on the FX IMC's vs Intels.
Indirectly, you will need to increase the DRAM voltage as well as (most likely) the CPU/NBv which creates more heat which the cooling system and CPU need to deal with that extra heat somehow.

Makes sense. So tightening ram timings may need more volts on the ram to be stable, but not the cpu/nb?

I think you need thicker tubing in there

I wasn't aware there was a larger size. But seriously I know! I posted a parts list thread before my loop purchase, nobody said anything about it. I'm out of tubing, so next time I rebuild i'll get new fittings and go down to like 12mm?

here is a link that has a lot of detail info.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2585-ASUS-Crosshair-V-Formula-BIOS-Guide-Overclocking

Now thats what I'm talking about. So many numbers, looks like I could break something!

 

[Johan45]

So I recently realized that @5ghz I'd freeze after 2 hours p95 1/3 of the time. I've been tweaking settings and messing with cooling. One things got me thinking, which is more stressful(heat/instability) on the imc/cpu? Upping ram speed, or tightening timings? Would they even out heat/stress wise, or would tighter timings be a better choice?

The two things I see from your pics are temps and an already high voltage.
Have you tried just upping CPU_NB to ~1.35v ? I do find people tend to overvolt the CPU because of the IMC on theses chips. It's not so much the ram speed but it's density and CPU speed. Both require a bit more CPU_NB voltage.
Now comes cooling, you're not going to get much more out of that if you're using P95 for a stability test. You mention benching, there aren't any benches that need that kind of stability aside from XTU and that's strictly Intel. In my opinion Geekbench/ 3Dmark11 physics / Cinebench R15 and realbench are good judges for "benching stability" . Even the test in AMD OD will give you likely a couple hundred more MHz. With those settings you currently have give Cinebench R15 a try, raise the multi and run . Repeat untill windows won't boot or it won't finish.

 

[DNRDustin]

What I mean by benchmarking. Turn it up even if there is no "real world" gains. I want to be real work stable, so benchmarking stable is not what I'm going for. Benchmarks will primarily be used to plot performance gains from stock, to the highest 24/7 OC I can achieve.

I did have CPU/nb volts up higher back in the beginning. I'll bring it up, and see if I can get stability at a lower vcore. As for not getting more out of my cooling with p95, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Could you rephrase maybe? I just removed vrm/nb from the loop, shortened overall tube run length, and added fans on socket/vrm.....

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I wasn't aware there was a larger size. But seriously I know! I posted a parts list thread before my loop purchase, nobody said anything about it. I'm out of tubing, so next time I rebuild i'll get new fittings and go down to like 12mm?

I was joking about getting larger tubes

 

[DNRDustin]

There was supposed to be a in that response. The 16mm tubing was quite the headache for some of my original bends!

 

[ShrimpBrime]

You at 5ghz already. Performance gains past 5 ghz becomes less and less.

Since extreme has been mentioned, you could build an SS unit and probably be in the 6GHZ range for daily use.

Not limited by anything except your cooling capabilities.

 

[trents]

I really don't see any significant "pinches" in your tubing. I think you are okay there. And as far as I know it looks to be the thicker wall stuff that helps prevent that when making turns in tighter spaces.

 

[DNRDustin]

You at 5ghz already. Performance gains past 5 ghz becomes less and less.

Since extreme has been mentioned, you could build an SS unit and probably be in the 6GHZ range for daily use.

Not limited by anything except your cooling capabilities.

Wifee would kill me, no more money's going into cooling any time soon still not stable at 5ghz. Gnna tweak out on it and see if I can get it rock solid with less vcore. Dropping ram down to 1333 will pass 2 hours [email protected] there's all these other buttons and knobs to twist!

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Makes sense. So tightening ram timings may need more volts on the ram to be stable, but not the cpu/nb?

Well sorta. You may need to add CPU/NBv to get real tight timings too. But cas 8 and probably 7 shouldn't need extra CPU/NBv.
In my case with the 1090t I don't need extra CPU/NBv. When actually gets me tighter timings than 7-8-8-24 is more DRAM volts. About 1.8+ actually.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Wifee would kill me, no more money's going into cooling any time soon still not stable at 5ghz. Gnna tweak out on it and see if I can get it rock solid with less vcore. Dropping ram down to 1333 will pass 2 hours [email protected] there's all these other buttons and knobs to twist!

OK I'd like to try and help you here. Do you mind?

If this where mine, and it is not.... Approach this in a different manor. I'll start with what I notice in the screen shots and bios pictures.

CPU Current capability does not need to be 140% with such low clock speeds and voltages. You can lower this. 110% would probably be enough.

I like the 1.488v I see. And those nice temps. This FX-9590 for comparison does 4.9ghz respectively at the exact same voltage and 2 hours load OCCT linpack and Prime95 stable back to back. THE next screen shot is 1.5250v. The third shot was way high voltage. 62c is hard to keep stable. This is where your CPU/NB adds heat as you try to get memory stable with a hot memory controller. That's why when you turn down the clocks to 1333 it'll get stable.

OK so memory timings vs divider and frequency plus reference clocks. Your 10mhz shy of 1000mhz memory frequency. CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB cmy16gx3m2a1866c9 This particular memory is the big brother to my 8GB kit. I can pull off 1100mhz Cas 9 stable and 1300mhz cpu-z worthy. RIGHT NOW running 1200mhz at CAS 12. And has been for several days. NB frequency is 2400mhz. HT is linked at 2400mhz. Both HT and NB are running near stock volts (would have to double check upon request) no extra added to CPU/NB is stock. However the memory is over-volted to 1.68750v, have yet to try a lower voltage. Any ways, your memory will enjoy looser timings and would help prevent the need for more CPU/NBv beyond what you want to cool. OK so back to memory. The ram I have has XMP profile at 1066mhz of 11-11-11-31-42 1T-CR at 1.50v-1.65v. I recommend this to try first. If that does not like 1000mhz or more stable, you can try 11-13-13-32-42 1T-CR at 1.50v-1.65v. At cas 9-11-9-27, you'd just need the memory running 1.65v and Should produce 1000mhz.

So +10 FSB. 250 x 20 is 5000mhz. Will give options for 2250mhz HT and NB. or at a higher divider at 2500mhz. Use the lower one first. Manually set CPU/NB to 1.2v HT to 1.2v NB core-v at stock is fine too.

Any voltages you want steady and stable, you must manually implement or the motherboard while setting is on auto, will increase the voltage and may produce undesirable results for you.

Another note on RAM, NB and HT. you do NOT need to crazy trying to find (extreme), but go crazy trying to get a stable system. Most important thing on that setup is the CPU speed. You'll hardly notice anything with Memory overclocking or NB and HT.

So you want 5ghz and beyond? tell ya how.

Water Delta is very important. A few things to try. You could A, put a 120.1 on that back of the case for additional cooling. B, cut out the top of the case so there's nothing between the fans and the rad fins. your loosing major air flow here. Even with a push pull config, you'd still be loosing out on some CFM through that rad. Any how, without cutting the top of the case open, perhaps just set down two fans to help pull CFM through. It should help some. FX-9590 at 5.2ghz with water Delta in the low 60F range. Nice cold basement here at the house provides nice atmosphere for overclocking. So another deal is keep nice low room temps. I've always found in the mid 60F range was ideal to sit in not too cool but really helped better than 75F room temps. It's remarkable how it changes the stability tables.

Any ways, you still can do plenty of tweaks to this setup. These above are only ideas and perhaps opinions and views which other people may or may not agree with. But if you're serious, want to go all out... you need some more mods brother.

A good way to save money is for the first two weeks put a dollar a day away. But each day you add an extra dollar. Day 1, 1D. Day 2, 2D. and so on. After 2 weeks 14$. Every week after the second week, add 14 plus 2 ever week beyond that. So this week (3rd week now) put 16$ away and next week add another 2 for 18$. The following week put 20 away. The week after that 22$ and so on. After the example here of 5 weeks, how much moneys do we have?

 

[trents]

I agree with ShrimpBrime about cutting the top out of the case and mounting the rad and fans outside. That's what I've done on my main ring. It has allowed me to use more powerful 120x38mm fans because clearance to the edge of the motherboard is no longer an issue. Plus, it tremendously relieved congestion in the interior of the case. Things are much easier to work on now. Plus, I just think it looks really cool, like a roots supercharger sitting on top of my computer!