Need new motherboard, a few questions.

[Dlaw]

My specs are in my sig. I've come to the conclusion that my motherboard is holding me back in terms of overclocking (ie: can't get my CPU core over 35C without throttling), so I'm looking to buy a cheap AM3 mobo with similar specs to mine, but better. I want to stay with the mATX form factor, as a full ATX board will be tight in my case (though it will fit). Any suggestions?

Also, will I have any problems with my factory OEM Windows install, or should I just be able to call MS and get my key reactivated?

 

[trents]

One suggestion i have is to use yellow or red highlighting instead of blue for your sig. Blue on dark gray is almost impossible to read.

Okay, so your core temps are 35c you say. Is that under full load or idle? And what are your CPU socket temps running? Any down-throttling by the motherboard itself will key off the CPU socket temp, not the core temp since the motherboard cannot detect the processor core temp.

And are you sure it's not the FX processor itself that is doing the down-throttling? Have you disabled Cool N Quiet, C1E, Turbo and C6 in bios and have you gone into Windows Control Panel Power Options and set it to High Performance? These things need to be done in order to disable the FX "green" power saving and down-throttling features.

You can just call MS when you install the new motherboard (if you decide you need to do it) and the automated attendant will ask you some questions and then give you a new temporary product key. It's easy. You can do it 50 times over if you want. They don't really check it.

You may need to get a bigger case with better ventilation more than you need to get a new motherboard. Good case ventilation is crucial to keeping temps down. A good case and a quality PSU and CPU cooler are foundational enthusiast computing components in my mind. I would not go with a micro ATX board. They don't overclock as well as a full ATX. Here's a fill ATX that is said to be smaller than some but has good reviews from overclockers and is modestly priced: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

 

[Dlaw]

I'm not having any problem reading my sig on my monitor, but I can see where it could be difficult, I guess. I'll change it when I'm done writing this.

35C is at full load for 10 minutes on P95 blend @4.0GHz on 4 cores (20x CPU multi, 200MHz HTT, 1.425v Vcore). Socket temperature is 55C under full load. At 3.8GHz (19x, 200MHz, 1.35v Vcore), throttling started happening after about 30mins, temps were 53C at the socket, 35C at the core.

Cool N Quite, C1E, Turbo Boost, and Smart-Q Fan control are all disabled in BIOS, and Windows is in High Performance mode. I don't see a C6 option anywhere, so I assume I don't have it?

From what I can tell, my case/CPU cooler aren't what are holding me back, because my temps (from what I can tell) are reasonable. I mean, 55C max at the socket at 4.0GHz? 35C core? I'm pretty sure I've seen both temps a lot hotter in HWMonitor pics from other users on this same CPU with stock coolers. I'm not trying to break records, I just want a stable overclock.

I posted a thread in the CPU section a little while ago about the throttling, and someone said that throttling is also based on TDP. Is that the max TDP of the CPU, or the motherboard, or both? My current board is rated for 125w, and at x4 with this processor, HWMonitor and CPU-z report 107w at stock, up to 131w overclocked and 159w at x6 idle. Could that have something to do with the throttling?

 

[trents]

I'm not having any problem reading my sig on my monitor, but I can see where it could be difficult, I guess. I'll change it when I'm done writing this. The lighter blue color really helped. Thanks.

35C is at full load for 10 minutes on P95 blend @4.0GHz on 4 cores (20x CPU multi, 200MHz HTT, 1.425v Vcore). Socket temperature is 55C under full load. At 3.8GHz (19x, 200MHz, 1.35v Vcore), throttling started happening after about 30mins, temps were 53C at the socket, 35C at the core.

Cool N Quite, C1E, Turbo Boost, and Smart-Q Fan control are all disabled in BIOS, and Windows is in High Performance mode. I don't see a C6 option anywhere, so I assume I don't have it? Sorry, C6 only applies with the FX CPUs. My bad.

From what I can tell, my case/CPU cooler aren't what are holding me back, because my temps (from what I can tell) are reasonable. I mean, 55C max at the socket at 4.0GHz? 35C core? I'm pretty sure I've seen both temps a lot hotter in HWMonitor pics from other users on this same CPU with stock coolers. I'm not trying to break records, I just want a stable overclock.

I posted a thread in the CPU section a little while ago about the throttling, and someone said that throttling is also based on TDP. Is that the max TDP of the CPU, or the motherboard, or both? My current board is rated for 125w, and at x4 with this processor, HWMonitor and CPU-z report 107w at stock, up to 131w overclocked and 159w at x6 idle. Could that have something to do with the throttling? Yes, the throttling can certainly be related to the TDP limitation of the motherboard combined with the overclocking you have done which has increased the power draw. That's probably what's going on. I just wanted to make sure you eliminated the other variables first. What you want is a board rated for 140W TDP. Typically, they are ones that have a heatsink covering the mosfets and VRMs in the area between the CPU socket and the I/O ports at the back edge of the board. The ASRock motherboard I referenced you fits that bill.

 

[Dlaw]

I did look at the board, and ironically enough it was cheaper than the ASRock board I was looking at in the mATX flavor. That will probably be my next/last purchase for this build then, I think. Funny part is, I bought the original parts last year as an ASUS CM1630 from Best Buy, mainly because I knew that ASUS makes decent mobo's. The only things that I now use out of the original box are the motherboard, HDD and DVD drive. I still have everything else in perfect working condition, so I'm thinking that I'll get a new HDD, DVD drive and copy of Windows 7 with the mobo, and put all the original hardware back in the original case, and sell it or something.

 

[trents]

Until recently, ASRock was a division of Asus. They used to make OEM boards for Asus.

 

[Dlaw]

I thought I heard something of the like a while back.

 

[RGone]

Okay, did some backtracking and looking at the Asus website.

1. Asus M4A78LT-M is n0t a motherboard that I would put money on for the purpose of overclocking.

2. No cooling sinks for the VRM circuits to the cpu. So extended cpu load can overheat the voltage supply circuit to the cpu.

3. The chipset used on the motherboard is 760G/710 and rather dated overall for the last line of Thuban processor, even IF the cpu support list does say it supports the 960T. It does support the cpu since it likely will boot and run fine at STOCK/DEFAULT speeds, but could begin to have issues when trying to overclock. I don't know of any motherboard maker that warrants/guarantees overclocking so it falls to the user to determine if a configuration is fully fit for his intended use and if that is to seriously overclock the system, then the system needs to truly lend itself well to over-speeding of components.

4. There have been a few reports from users that had installed and used software like AI Suite or the EPU-4 Engine and did not fully UN-install the software and found they had odd problems when trying to overclock at a later time. Left-over portions of software that could adjust bios settings from windows, would hinder or make odd things happen when trying to overclock.

 

[manu2b]

The M5A97 Pro is a nice board for $100.

The only downside is ASUS RMA...

 

[Dlaw]

That sounds like what's going on here. The reason I ended up with this board is because I bought a prebuilt with it in it. I bought it last year for 3 reasons: 1) Cheap ($500) computer that was easily WAY better than my 6 year old $600 Acer laptop from Walmart. 2) A desktop that I could upgrade later on. 3) Asus brand, plus good reviews on many sites for reliability and features.

I hadn't anticipated at the time that it was going to turn into what it is now (which in my opinion is pretty sick, considering). But, for my next/last stage in upgrading, I think I'll go with the board you mentioned, plus a new HDD and DVD drive (and maybe a SSD), and a copy of Windows 7, and put the OEM stuff back in the old CM1630 case. It wasn't a bad machine before upgrading, and I'm sure I can sell it for $300 (considering the custom case mod, which was basically me taking a dremel to the side panel and adding a fan). I think I have an old HD 4300 series Visiontek card I could throw in too, lol.

 

[Dlaw]

An update: Going with the Extreme3 motherboard Trents had suggested (searched Newegg extensively, and couldn't find a better deal for the features). I also ordered the new DVD drive for a whopping $20 (woot!), and they are in packaging right now, so I'll probably be getting them tomorrow (shipping from Jersey, and I'm in central NY). Next week I'll be getting Windows 7 Pro, and the new HDD (I find it funny that the cheapest 500GB HDD is only $20 more than the Seagate 1TB @7200rpm). This thing will be a beast of a LAN system when I get the $6k I need to build my dream machine (prolly in about 4 months or so), but until then, it's a bad *** daily driver right now.