Phenom 1055t OC on a budget motherboard with no MOSFET coolers,bad idea ?

[Euphratesrd]

Hey guys,newbie in both Overclockers forum and overclocking in general here. I have an old 4+1 phase GA-MA785GMT-UDH board with a Phenom II X6 1055t procesor. Now, being a really old (and cheap) motherboard, it has no MOSFET coolers, and since I want an ATLEAST mild OC,I'm worried about burning my mobo. I was planning to stick some copper or aluminium 9x9 mm VGA heatsinks on the mosfets with thermal pads and go through with the OC but I wanted to consult you guys about it as I don't want to thrash my mobo (I'm kinda on a tight budget at the moment).

Also, I don't know if it's relevant but at stock speeds with the stock cooler( My 212 Evo is gonna arrive in a few days), at idle,the MOSFETS were actually pretty cold to touch ( guessing 29-30 C at most but could be lower). I was planning to try to touch them during a Prime95 run but I'm afraid of burning my finger lol.

As a side note, I also have a huuge (25cm) intake fan on the side of my old case that is kinda blowing air to the MOSFETS(mostly to the GPU but with it being so big most of the MOSFETS are in it's range too) as well,so I was thinking it would help. What are you guys opinions on this issue,should I go through with it when my 212 Evo arrives or not ? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Sure, go ahead. Temp will be the limiting factor anyway.
Locked multi so all HT overclock. Mind your ram and NB speeds.

 

[Euphratesrd]

Do you think a 4.0 ghz OC will be viable with that setup ? Or will my mobo have any problems in the relatively long run ?

 

[Tír na nÓg]

^maybe, if you are lucky. But not likely: a 212 should take you to 3.7/3.8GHz.

Those chips usually need 1.45v+ for 4GHz. I got a couple of Thubans (1075 and 1090). Both were doing 4.2GHz/1.55v, but were cooled with a NH-D15...

 

[trents]

1. You will not get to 4.0 ghz on that setup. With that CPU getting to 4.0 ghz would have been very rare on air even with the best motherboard and best air cooler. Most people were getting about 3.6-3.7 ghz on that CPU when overclocked.

2. That motherboard will likely allow for a mild overclock but will not allow the full overclock potential of the chip to be realized. The VRM (power producing components) of that motherboard is not sturdy enough to handle more than a mild overclock.

3. Stock cooling is already marginal when it comes to handling the heat of that CPU and will only allow you a small overclock if any. That's why Mr. Scott said, "Sure go ahead. Temp will be a limiting factory anyway." It certainly will be on the stock cooler, not the motherboard. On that generation of AMD CPUs, 55-60c on the core temp was all they could handle before instability set in when being overclocked. Have you checked you core temps with HWMonitor when fully loaded with the Prime95 stress tester? I think you will see you have very little thermal margin at stock frequencies and voltages with the OEM cooler. And pushing the frequency and voltage up will quickly drive temps up.

 

[Euphratesrd]

Yeah,you are right,trents,stock cooler on a Prime95 run hits all the way up to 55c,but, like I said, I ordered a 212 Evo for that very reason. Though I've read it was a very overclockable CPU,and people were hiting 4.0 left and right,that was why I snatched it when I saw it being sold used for very cheap. Anyways, I believe a 3.6 ghz OC will be plenty for me,so there is no reason to worry I guess.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I assume this is your MB model number GA-MA785GMT-UD2H and your MB below


And you can get these:

here Enzotech Mosfet heatsinks

 

[Euphratesrd]

Hey ! WhiteHawk, thanks for going through the trouble to find the images, yes, that is indeed my motherboard, however, altough I am aware of Enzotech's product, it is impossible get a hold of those in my country (getting them overseas would be more trouble than it's worth). My only options are 8x8 mm VGA heatsinks or carving up an old stock sink. I'm more inclined towards the latter because I can cut it up in a L shape ,cover all of the MOSFETs and give it more surface area. Do you think this little project would be worth the effort ?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Yes. It wouldn't hurt anything.

 

[caddi daddi]

yes, please cool the power section with something, we with the fx cpu's point a fan right on it.
with phenom and thuban cpu's i have found that a 3.8 clock was a nice compromise for me.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Hey ! WhiteHawk, thanks for going through the trouble to find the images, yes, that is indeed my motherboard, however, altough I am aware of Enzotech's product, it is impossible get a hold of those in my country (getting them overseas would be more trouble than it's worth). My only options are 8x8 mm VGA heatsinks or carving up an old stock sink. I'm more inclined towards the latter because I can cut it up in a L shape ,cover all of the MOSFETs and give it more surface area. Do you think this little project would be worth the effort ?

Not everything on Newegg is sold by Newegg, there are international sellers on Newegg that you can order. Like https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3TR21E0834.

 

[Euphratesrd]

yes, please cool the power section with something, we with the fx cpu's point a fan right on it.
with phenom and thuban cpu's i have found that a 3.8 clock was a nice compromise for me.

Like I said, I have a giant of a side fan pointing at the CPU and GPU section, do you think some small VGA fan will be necessary as well ? If so, I might think of buying one from my local hardware store,they sell for like 2 US $,though I'm not sure if my motherboard has pins to power it.

Not everything on Newegg is sold by Newegg, there are international sellers on Newegg that you can order. Like https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3TR21E0834.

I'm aware of that but considering the time it would take,and the preeety high dollar exchange rate in my country, it is just not worth it for a product like this. Also, I was under the impression that carving up an old bronze passive cooling heatsink would be better for cooling purposes as it would have a much bigger surface area, am I wrong in this line of thought ?

Oh,and by the way,thanks for all rhe help guys,this thread did put some ease into me.

 

[BugFreak]

If I remember my 1055t correctly it is locked so you have to use the fsb to overclock it. That being said a low to medium board will make that challenging imo and that's not considering the heat problems talked about above. Older low end AMD boards don't have the quality of the high end boards. Much different than Intel where even low end are decent quality. I would find a good board if you want to overclock.

 

[trents]

If I remember my 1055t correctly it is locked so you have to use the fsb to overclock it. That being said a low to medium board will make that challenging imo and that's not considering the heat problems talked about above. Older low end AMD boards don't have the quality of the high end boards. Much different than Intel where even low end are decent quality. I would find a good board if you want to overclock.

I don't think the difference is in the quality of the boards, whether low end or high end or in between. I think the difference is in the power draw of Intel CPUs v. their AMD counterparts. AMD CPUs before Ryzen in the same market niche tended use much higher wattage and therefore put more strain on the motherboard power producing components than do their Intel counterparts. In fact, when you look at the Asus Sabertooth and Crosshair board series for AMD the ruggedness of their power producing components probably exceeded higher end boards for Intel CPUs for all but Xeon and Broadwell production class CPUs.

 

[Mr.Scott]

FX has you all running scared now on the power draw thing. It was almost never an issue on processors before FX.
Go ahead and run your Thuban on that board. Temp and board will hold you back. Only reason the board may come into play is because your overclock will be all FSB. Some boards just don't rev as high as others do.

 

[trents]

Thubans to some extent, Mr. Scott.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Poppycock.

 

[Euphratesrd]

Came back to give an update, today, I got my VGA coolers, slapped them on the MOSFETS, and cleaned the gunk in south and northbridges in the process. I saw an immediate improvement, with prime95 Small FFT's my temperatures were going up to 62c in CPU and 52c in Core at most, whereas I was seeing 68c in CPU and around 57-58c in Core before (and this was in blend, I was afraid of running Small FFT's). Now, I'm not sure if these results were because of me reapplying the thermal paste in bridges or adding the heatsinks but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Considering these temperatures were achieved with the stock cooler, I believe when I get my 212 Evo I will have some room to overclock (3.6 will be plenty honestly).

I know I'm being a pain in the behind at this point, but I have one more question for you guys. After I cleared up the gunk and put the north and southbridges heatsinks back on I noticed they were not really stable anymore. They kinda move when touched, and I was worried this might be a problem. Should I get some thermal pads for them or do you think it is ok the way it is ?

 

[trents]

Personally, I would glue them on with this: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

 

[Mr.Scott]

You don't even need to go that far.
A dot of super glue on the corners after you TIM it works just fine.