MSI 870A-G54

[mgcul8r]

is there a way to add a heatsink?? like ordering one from newegg? or is that something that is board specific, only made by board manufacturer, or is there an aftermarket for that? also, where are motherboard temps read from? i mean is the mb temp the nb temp? because according to cpuid hw monitor, TMPIN0 i think is cpu temp, and TMPIN2 i think is mb temp. because duting prime95, either test, the temp2 stays ~ 31c but temp0 is ~ 46c under load and cores ~ 50c under load. are those temps less than ideal? is it normal for there to be such a difference between TMPIN0 + TMPIN2? are ANY OF THESE TEMPS too high? i was just wondering about the temps because i've read a lot of guides and posts where people mention nb temps, just wondering how to read the nb temp, or if it is indeed TMPIN2. also which voltage should i trust for +2.5v and +12v rails. the motherboard bios readings, or cpuid hw monitor readings? because my readings are within the + or - 5%, but cpuid hw monitor is like + or - 20-25% off. is it normal for voltage reading to be incorrect for new mainboards, or is there really a huge diff between bios readings and windows readings? i'm talking about bios reads [email protected] and [email protected] but hw monitor reads 3.24v + 14.08v respectively. seems WAY TOO OFF for me, what do you think?

 

[mgcul8r]

i do have a voltometer, but a little hesitant of taking reading while computer is on, if done right- can i take readings while computer is on, and avoid damaging ANY components- if done right?

 

[QuietIce]

is there a way to add a heatsink?? like ordering one from newegg? or is that something that is board specific, only made by board manufacturer, or is there an aftermarket for that?

There are aftermarket sinks of various sizes you can buy. You'll have to measure the size you need and look for the right ones. I think you know better but I'll say it for others who might read this post: I wouldn't suggest measuring while the system is running.

also, where are motherboard temps read from? i mean is the mb temp the nb temp? because according to cpuid hw monitor, TMPIN0 i think is cpu temp, and TMPIN2 i think is mb temp. because duting prime95, either test, the temp2 stays ~ 31c but temp0 is ~ 46c under load and cores ~ 50c under load. are those temps less than ideal? is it normal for there to be such a difference between TMPIN0 + TMPIN2? are ANY OF THESE TEMPS too high? i was just wondering about the temps because i've read a lot of guides and posts where people mention nb temps, just wondering how to read the nb temp, or if it is indeed TMPIN2.

I don't know which temp is which in HWMonitor, I don't use it.

The "CPU temp" sensor is located on the motherboard under the CPU socket. It's quality varies from board to board and the sensor can be influenced by other factors, like poor case airflow or various CPU heatsinks. "Core temp" is read straight off the CPU and is a different reading from the "CPU temp". Usually the two readings are somewhat close but the readings are not from the same source.

also which voltage should i trust for +2.5v and +12v rails. the motherboard bios readings, or cpuid hw monitor readings? because my readings are within the + or - 5%, but cpuid hw monitor is like + or - 20-25% off. is it normal for voltage reading to be incorrect for new mainboards, or is there really a huge diff between bios readings and windows readings? i'm talking about bios reads [email protected] and [email protected] but hw monitor reads 3.24v + 14.08v respectively. seems WAY TOO OFF for me, what do you think?

Again, I don't use HWMonitor. I always thought HWMonitor just read the BIOS values off the motherboard. There is no "2.5v" reading that I'm aware of, only 3.3v, 5.0v, and 12.0v. There would normally be some difference between the BIOS reading and Windows reading since the BIOS readings are done when there is virtually no load on the system while the Windows reading has at least some load. Even at that 14-anything volts seems a little high to say the least but I can't think of anything offhand that would make the PSU jump from 12-something in BIOS to 14-something in Windows ...

 

[mgcul8r]

yeah i was thinking maybe it's because of the fact its a new board, maybe that program is a little off. I know when i first put together my 860, most programs didn't work right at first, if at all. I'm gonna read a little on psu testing, and give the case another close look., i'm 99% sure i put EVERYTHING together right, but i would hate to ruin my computer because of an assumption.

 

[mgcul8r]

Well, I decided to upload a snipping of my overclock after a successful 100 passes of intel burn test. any thoughts on how to improve my memory write speeds? my ram is G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH @ 1600 CL8, and my nb is @2600mhz @ 1.3v, 1.45v vcore in bios and 1.56v vdimm, and +0.5v each on my ht, sb + nb chipsets. any thoughts on improving my current setup? i found my memory has more bandwidth @ 1600 8-8-8-24 than @ 1333 7-7-7-21. any thoughts on how much voltage it takes to get nb stable @ 2800? benches REALLY improve with the bump up to 2800, but stability suffers, and i'm a little scared to go above the 1.3v max you (talking to QuietIce) recommended for the cpu/nb. i was also wondering if you thought an H50 would be a noticeable step up from my Xiggy Dark Knight S1283V i scrapped from my dead lynnfield setup, or do you think 2 high perf fans in a push/pull wouldn't be too far behind the H50? any thoughts would be appreciated. T.I.A.

 

[mgcul8r]

what the heck? i can't figure out how to upload a pic, lol

 

[QuietIce]

The 1283 is a pretty good cooler but if you happen to have an H50 sitting around it might be worth the time to swap them. Not sure it would be worth the expense of buying one, though. In any event double fans would probably cool things down a bit if you're not already using them.


The next step for me (you didn't mention the final CPU speed so I can't be specific) would be to drop all the multipliers back, including the RAM, and start using the clock. Chances are the RAM will run faster than 1333CL7 but you can't get there with a 200 MHz HTRef, it's either 1333 or 1600. You need to hit an in-between spot and the clock is the only way to do that. Bobnova had his running ~1500CL7, which should be better then your 1600CL8. You can hit speeds like 2700 MHz on the cpuNB instead of choosing between 2600 (stable) or 2800 (unstable).


Edit: The pic isn't working.
Use advanced post and then go to "Manage Attachements" at the bottom. Browse to the pic location, open the file, then click "Upload" ...

 

[mgcul8r]

cpu is 3700 mhz, 2600 nb, 1800 ht, and my everest benches were;

read write copy latency

memory: 10,440 - 8,430 - 9839 - 44.7

L1 : 118,177 - 59,116 - 78,807 - 0.8ns
L2 : 29,585 - 23,548 - 27,481 - 2.5ns
L3 : 10,569 - 13,001 - 14,051 - 5.6ns

 

[mgcul8r]

oh, nice, thanks

 

[mgcul8r]

here try this, it's a more complete system shot with voltages, speeds, temps, memory and spd info http://FastFreeFileHosting.com/file/40571/3700CPU-2600NB-1600MEM-8-8-8-24-PNG.html

 

[mgcul8r]

also, have a weird question- my ripjaws are 1333 cl7, but in Amd Overdrive, in the memory tab, when i click on SPD- it has a 1600 spd table with timings and voltage. I only ask because i googled the numbers off the rams pcb and the ONLY hit was a match to G.Skills eco series 1600 ram. do you think these are rebranded eco 1600's or do you think they just use the same pcb and use the same spd info? i actually have the timings tighter than the table says (it says 9-9-9-27 @ 1.5v) you think maybe i can drop the ram voltage to 1.5v?

edit.. the timing profile was in MSI Conrtol Center, not AMD Overdrive. I was thinking, could that be part of the XMP profile that it's showing?

 

[mgcul8r]

I read dolk's guide, and in it he says that when raising core speed, you will likely have to stabilize the cpu/nb because of too fast a cpu speed for the nb will cause errors. he says raising the cpu/nb speed will help. The guide says to find the max of each component separately. I'm asking that if i'm trying to find max clock for cpu, will i hit a point where i have to raise cpu/nb voltage even though i didn't raise its speed? If so, does the voltage required to stabilize the cpu/nb at a given speed increase as the cpu core speed increases, due to the extra workload provided by the processors faster clock speed?

 

[mgcul8r]

BTW if you look at the picture in the link i posted, the voltage is incorrect for +12v and +5v readings, i checked the psu by itself, and under load and the voltages vere within 2% of what they should be, actually almost spot on. 12.04v and 5.02v, but the vcore is right where i set it in bios, but under load it actually increases 0.05v under load from 1.43v to 1.48v, whats up with that?

 

[QuietIce]

OK, so leave the voltages where they are now, drop the CPU back to 16.5X, the cpuNB down to 12X, the HT Link to 8X, and the RAM to DDR3-1333 with the 7-7-7 timings for 1333. Reboot and enter BIOS then change the clock to 210 MHz to start - that will put the RAM at ~700 MHz (DDR3-1400). If that passes a stress test then increase to 215 then 220 stressing each time. If all works out try 225 and cross your fingers ...

 

[mgcul8r]

There's been a question i wanted to ask, but I haven't for fear of sounding stupid. would there be ant reason my NB voltage (not cpu nb) + HT voltages would be linked? I cannot change one without changing the other.

Here are the voltages listed in bios, along with the default auto voltage, max voltage and where the voltage turns red:

CPU Voltage: auto=1.402v
CPU-NB Voltage: auto=1.112v min-0.041v max=1.656v turns [email protected]
DRAM Voltage: auto=1.502v
SB Voltage: auto/min=1.095 max=1.425v turnd [email protected]
NB Voltage: auto/min=1.094v max=1.423v turns [email protected]
HT Voltage: auto/min=1.186v max=1.560v turns [email protected]

When HT Voltage is red, the NB Voltage turns yellow, so i cannot raise nb voltage (not that I want to) because of HT voltage being in the red.

Do you think the voltages are labeled right?
dolk's guide says
"Stock Voltages:
·CPU voltage ≈ 1.35v
·CPU-NB voltage = 1.175v
·HTT voltage = 1.2v
·SB voltage = 1.26v
·NB voltage = 1.1v
·CPU VDD = 2.5v"

So if cpu-nb voltage is stock @1.175v, why would my board default at 1.112v and turn red at 1.141v which is lower than the default voltage recommended for the cpu-nb? that looks more like my boards default voltage labeled HT voltage which defaults to 1.186v.

I'm only asking because I don't want to be changing the wrong voltage when trying to stabilize my overclock, specifically the cpu-nb. I ask because my other board had a confusing bios, at least to me, because the voltages weren't labeled correctly or at least clearly.
would it make sense for the ht + nb chipset voltages be linked, or any 2 voltages for that matter? i was thinking maybe cpu-nb + ht because they're part of each other (I think)

 

[mgcul8r]

I just don't want to start increasing the wrong voltage, especially since the default voltage is red in the bios

 

[QuietIce]

Some CPUs have lower cpuNB ranges but I don't think any of them are that low or that narrow of a range. The NB (chipset) voltage looks right. The IGP chipsets need more NB voltage so I can see them allowing it to go that high but, except for extreme 'clockers, I don't know of anybody that needs it past 1.2v.

In short, I'm not sure what's going on with the cpuNB and HTT voltage - that's just too weird. Do you have the latest BIOS?

 

[mgcul8r]

yes i do. what 2 voltages could or would be linked? also, there is no IGP onboard, i'm 99.9% sure

 

[QuietIce]

Yeah - I understood that about the IGP but basic BIOS templates seem to used by some companies (maybe all of them), which leads to allowing more than 1.3v for the NB (chipset) voltage so those boards with graphics have enough power. Obviously, they would still have to adjust default BIOS values for various chipsets, so (for example) the 1.3v for the NB would be "normal" and maybe 1.4+v would be "yellow" for those boards.

The closest "link" between two voltages on that list is the HT Link and NB chipset - but quite honestly I never have figured out exactly what the HT Link voltage is running when there are also NB and SB chipset voltages. Some boards have an HT Link voltage and ONE chipset voltage, which I can figure out, the ones with all three have me baffled ...

 

[mgcul8r]

lol, at least i'm not the only one stumped, thank god! i've only seen a few ppl with this board, and NO reviews. was hoping that just me posting this, someone with the same board might read this and enlighten me. By process of elimination, I think I figured it out, but you think they would make it obvious. i left all voltages i wasn't sure of on auto, and raised th nb frequency until it wasn't stable, the raised voltages 1 at a time until it was stable. went further and then reduced voltages 1 at a time until it was unstable. by that method I figured that the cpu nb voltage is as labeled, but i'm just wondering why only a .03v difference between "auto voltage" and RED voltage. 1.141v seems like way way way too conservative of a "dangerous/red" voltage. just scared to put voltages in the red, you know what i mean?

As long as heat isn't a problem, how high is considered a "safe" 24/7 voltage for cpu-nb? I know i already asked, but just wanna be sure. highest i put when trying for 2800 was 1.35v. Is that too high?