OC'ed AMD Phenom II x4 965BE 3400 > 3800 (need some advice)

[Bluefalcon13]

That's exactly what I was looking for when I was building my 955BE system. Just happened the snipers were on sale on new egg

 

[Axar]

Having all 4 slots full and 16Gig of ram can be hard for a PII IMC to handle. We can look at that later. Thanks for the sig by the way that helps. I also looked into your case, those 200mm fans don't really move a lot of air. You can do a quick check to see if you need more air just by taking the side door off the case and then testing with Prime95. If you get a big drop in temps you know you need more air. As for the thermal paste, any decent paste is fine. Arctic silver 5 is OK but dated any more. I like Phobya HE grease. But like I said as long as it's decent thiere is only a few degrees difference.

Some progress done.

Removing a side from my case, resulted lower temperature of CPU while Stress Test on PM95 goes on. Remember, it was 67c, and now with side removed is 60c. I guess that means I need more air inside my rig, dont have a clue how to make it done tho, alot of fans inside already.

Disabled CPU Q FAN control in BIOS, apparently this was holding up fan reaching maximum speed (which is 2000 RPM for CM Hyper 212), this resulted steady 2000 RPM constantly, over 1500 RPM I had before with Q FAN enabled, so I/We gained 500 RPM+ in my Rig.

More RPM from fan with side removed, resulted steady 58c while CPU is under Stress Test. It is almost 10c less tempereature of CPU core while on stress (compared to temperature I had when started this topic), which is, i suppose, good thing.
Maybe with better paste it will be desired 55c after all.

Cool 'n' Quiet option is still enabled in BIOS, not sure should i mess with that?

Regards
Axar

 

[Bluefalcon13]

So far I personally like IC Diamond paste, but that's just me. For the fans, you may need to upgrade the case fans themselves, or, optimize the air flow through the case. If you have fans in an odd inlet/outlet config it could be less than optimal due to the airflow not making good channels

 

[Johan45]

Some progress done.

Removing a side from my case, resulted lower temperature of CPU while Stress Test on PM95 goes on. Remember, it was 67c, and now with side removed is 60c. I guess that means I need more air inside my rig, dont have a clue how to make it done tho, alot of fans inside already.

Disabled CPU Q FAN control in BIOS, apparently this was holding up fan reaching maximum speed (which is 2000 RPM for CM Hyper 212), this resulted steady 2000 RPM constantly, over 1500 RPM I had before with Q FAN enabled, so I/We gained 500 RPM+ in my Rig.

More RPM from fan with side removed, resulted steady 58c while CPU is under Stress Test. It is almost 10c less tempereature of CPU core while on stress (compared to temperature I had when started this topic), which is, i suppose, good thing.
Maybe with better paste it will be desired 55c after all.

Cool 'n' Quiet option is still enabled in BIOS, not sure should i mess with that?

Regards
Axar

So far I personally like IC Diamond paste, but that's just me. For the fans, you may need to upgrade the case fans themselves, or, optimize the air flow through the case. If you have fans in an odd inlet/outlet config it could be less than optimal due to the airflow not making good channels

That sounds a lot better Axar, as for the air flow, those 200mm low speed fans really don't move much air. Plus you have the HD cages that block a lot of it. You could replace them with something like this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835146003 A higher CFM fan or a couple 120s if you can rig it in there

 

[Axar]

While assembling machine, I did it with a friend who had in that time more experience then me, mentioned that above I think.
Anyway, Front and Rear fan (Inhale/Exhale - let's say like that) come with the case.
Top and side fan are optional, I did bough Top fan (Cooler Master as well) and it helped to Exhale, but never bought optional side fan, which could be good bonus in all this.

Will install side fan and new paste today or tommorow, best I can buy here, and will report here with results.

Short question, messing with NB, will it bring some noticable change, like increase of FPS in games, beacuse if not, maybe best solution for me is not to touch it. Getting too old for Dexter laboratories and *Kabooms*.

Cheers

 

[RGone]

1.) > Will install side fan and new paste today or tommorow, best I can buy here, and will report here with results.

2.) > Short question, messing with NB, will it bring some noticable change, like increase of FPS in games, beacuse if not, maybe best solution for me is not to touch it.

Cheers

1.) > Most of the time "side-fans" can create turbulence around the air cooler on the cpu and cause the cpu cooler to be less efficient because it cannot get good air to push thru the cooler fins. Care is a must that this does not happen as it is sometimes hard to diagnose.

2.) > Within reason running a faster CPU_NB speed is usually a plus in games on AMD systems. However it is "most" noticeable with fast ram speeds. Slower ram speeds do not "show" so much increase even though there may be an incease; it is just 'harder' to see the bonus.
RGone...ster.

 

[Axar]

1.) > Most of the time "side-fans" can create turbulence around the air cooler on the cpu and cause the cpu cooler to be less efficient because it cannot get good air to push thru the cooler fins. Care is a must that this does not happen as it is sometimes hard to diagnose.

2.) > Within reason running a faster CPU_NB speed is usually a plus in games on AMD systems. However it is "most" noticeable with fast ram speeds. Slower ram speeds do not "show" so much increase even though there may be an incease; it is just 'harder' to see the bonus.
RGone...ster.

Thanks for side fan warning, I think I will still have to gamble with it.

Apparently, will have to "play" with CPU_NB as well, thanks for straightforward answer.

Regards

 

[trents]

Axar, making sure all the fans point in the right direction is one suggestion I have. A lot of people don't understand that having all fans oriented so that they all "push" air into the case is a bad idea. They cancel each other out. What you want is to have the ones in the front pushing air into the case and the ones in the back/top pushing it out of the case. In other words, you want to have the air flow through the case, not just into it. I'll attach a pic that demonstrates this. And I would second RGone's recommendation to experiment with eliminating the side panel fan. They often disrupt otherwise good air flow from front to back.

The other thing to look at as far as improving air flow with your current fans is to remove obstacles such as unused hard drive cages and wires/cables. Wire and cable management is one of the most neglected air flow improvement strategies in the overclocking world. Bundle them together, them off, tuck them out of the way, run them behind the motherboard tray, etc. Though mine is not the ultimate example, it does serve to illustrate so Ill include some pics of my interior cable management.

 

[Coolerman1992]

Well my roomate and good friend has the phenom ii 955 be, and his is at 4.2ghz stock voltage passed 4 hours of Prime95... idk how when i seen it i thought no way... dude i owned 4 955's and not one was able to go over 3.8 or 3.9 without running into heat issues or just topping out... his first one is golden... im sure he could go further but then i thought also that maybe it was down clocking after so long like wasnt 24/7 4.2ghz... nope... it is... i watched it all 4 hours... me and him then i spent 6 hours trying to figure out how in the hell... he did it was it a joke or what.... all legit?

 

[Axar]

Thanks Trents for all the info. I already created such airflow system in my case, same day when I assembled my rig. However, i did not removed unnecessary cages for different drives that might block optimal airflow. Will definetly check into that.
As for side fan, I never had one, just had a tought about it, but as I listen you guys here, that idea geting more and more far away.
Beside, my irl friend who helped me to assemble my computer, saying that he is positive about quality thermal paste will solve alot of heat problems... as we placed some random silly paste at first place, btw he is also against side fan.

Coolerman, I reached 3.4 > 3.8 just by increasing CPU ratio (multiplier), did not change voltage or something else.
After 3.8, computer doesnt want to boot... but I am positive it had something with my RAM. When I try to increase RAM Mhz from 1333 to 1600, or any number above 1333, my computer fail to work. Apparently 965BE supports only 1333 Mhz ram and below.
My idea is, when I raise CPU speed to 3.9 or 4.0, it just doesnt want to "sync" with RAM, might be that CPU "asking" for more Mhz of RAM then 1333, and beacuse of that, does not want to let me boot.

I know I probably speak amateurish language right now, but more or less, I think you and others following me.
Point I want to say is... I think, that 955, 965 (proper "revisions"), etc can easliy be OC'ed to 3.8 - 3.9 - ... - 4.2 etc. without much hussle, just by increasing multipliers and having proper cooling.

Big chance that I am tottaly wrong here, as I am true amateur when it comes to OC'ing.

Regards

Edit: I can only buy here Cooler Master thermal paste's... are they any good, or I should Ebay AS5 (and wait like 10 days)?

 

[trents]

AS 5 and Arctic Cooling MX2/MX4 are widely considered the best value in thermal pastes. Excellent performance and reasonably priced.

 

[Axar]

AS 5 and Arctic Cooling MX2/MX4 are widely considered the best value in thermal pastes. Excellent performance and reasonably priced.

Thanks, I will wait for it then.