phenom 965 OC (reaching the sweetspot)

[ToeTacTics]

Greetings.. a newcomer here and an old user of phenom II 965 BE (c3)

the last two days i tried reaching a stable oc (and by stable i mean running OCCT for an hour atleast)

Atm the only thing that sticks is 3,8 (upped only the multiplier to x19) and the voltage to 1.50 (everything beforehead just blue screened)

I started with the multiplier from normal voltage and upped a notch each time.

it ran fine until i reached 3,8 then i started getting bsods so i raised the core voltage accordingly.

it passed prime95 small FTT / BLend and benchmark but OCCT was my bane.
most of the tests crashed in the first ten minutes (last stable one was at 3,8 1.475 for almost half an hour- then it crashed).

what bothers me, even tough i know not all chips are the same, is that mine has to run at 1.5 for a measly 3,8 .. while others obtain the 4ghz on 1.45

this lead me to think maybe i miss something and you guys could fill me in.


my specs:
cpu: obvious 965 II c3
HSF: scythe mugen 2
mobo : gigabyte ga-790xy-usb
ram : g.skill ddr3 1333 9-9-9-24-33
gpu : gtx 660 oc (twin frozr)
HDD : samsung hd103sj 1TB
Psu: CM 700w
os: windows 7 sp 1

so im trying to figure out what can i do to hit the 4ghz stability without cooking my cpu.

atm rolling at 41-42*C on idle and on the stress test it jumped to 55 (the golden top)

ive also tried the FSB OCing , bumping the rams a bit and the NB, upping voltages accordingly and setting the clocks suitably. the result were BSODs on OCCT. (the rest works fine).

note: i have this PC built since 2010. i have been cleaning it every few months with compressed air and the airflow is great with 7 fans inside of it.
ambient of 23-24 atm.

every piece of info will help, thank you

 

[trents]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3295#ov

Is this your motherboard?

Have you tried bumping up your CPUNB voltage and your ram voltage a bit?

Also, your idle temps at41-42c seem quite high to me, even with the vcore at 1.5. Which temps are those? Core temps or CPU socket temps and what are you measuring them with?

 

[ToeTacTics]

yes thats the motherboard.

and yes i raised the CPU NB voltage and ram voltage as well.

 

[trents]

Could you be more specific please as to what those temps you quote apply to? We use HWMonitor around here to monitor temps and voltages and it displays both core temps and socket temps. Both are important and if either get too high stability can occur, the former in regard to the processor and the latter in regard to the mobo. One concern I have is that your motherboard does not have any heat sinks on the VRM/mosfet area and when you get up to 1.5 vcore that starts to become an issue. How many sticks of ram are you running and how much total ram?

 

[ToeTacTics]

2 sticks of 2GB each (4gb in total)

im pretty sure its the core temp..

i can check the bios prior to boot for temps as well. at the moment these are my indications for system temps

 

[trents]

On gigabyte boards the CPU socket temp is usually TMPIN2. Your socket temp and your core temp look to be almost equal, at least at idle. How about running 20 minutes of Prime blend with HWMonitor open and post back with another pic of the HWMonitor interface so we can see what's happening with the two under load?

 

[trents]

With regard to your memory timings, is your CR at 1T or 2T?

 

[ToeTacTics]

2t

 

[trents]

Well, I think I can say this much: you didn't get a silicone cherry when you bought that chip. Unfortunately, it does what it is supposed to do at stock and AMD makes no promises about overclocking.

 

[ToeTacTics]

this is it

 

[manu2b]

Well, I'd say you hit the heat wall: these chips et unstable above 55°C. my 955 could not do 4GHz at any voltage until I put it under water and dropped the temps.
It was gving BSOD/reboot as soon as it was reching 52/53°C.

Edit:BTW, 40°C on idle and 55°[email protected] seems pretty high with your cooler. Have you tried reseating it?

 

[ToeTacTics]

nope, havent touched it for more than 3 years now.

 

[trents]

Yeah, I agree with manu2b. I would try reseating the cooler. I think you should be getting better temps than you are. Now I'm assuming your fans are oriented so that you are getting good movement of air through the case, not just "into" the case. Like this:

 

[ToeTacTics]

yes..

front and top pull

back and bottom exhaust

 

[trents]

yes..

front and top pull

back and bottom exhaust

That doesn't sound correct. Front fans should be intake or push. Top and back should be exhaust or pull.

 

[ToeTacTics]

well i did this to clarify my cooling layout.



what should i change?

also, i was thinking of purchasing the corsair h55 to make some space in my case.. because its kinda crammed because of the huge mugen 2 block.


i have the CM 690

edit: i just reverted back to stock voltages and clock.. idle is 38*c. yeah, something isnt right

 

[Johan45]

You should switch the top and bottom ones around. And I've found the side usuall works better as an exhaust if you have a big hot GFX card in there. Or even off. Do some testing but definately switch the top and bottom
Bottom in Top out.

 

[trents]

Your diagram demonstrates that what you described in post #14 is indeed incorrect. All of your fans are pushing air into he box. There are none serving as exhaust fans to extract the warm air. You are creating a trap for the hot air coming off the CPU and motherboard components. Now wonder your temps are not good.

I am constantly amazed at how people just do not get the basics of case ventilation. I guess what seems obvious to me isn't to others. As a principle of physics, heat rises so you try to supplement that with how you configure the fans. As a kid I grew up in the hot, humid SE USA before the era of AC. We had to use large window fans to cool our houses. We would put exhaust fans (pull) in the second story windows and intake (push) fans in the bottom story windows. Works the same with a computer case. I'm guessing you probably thought you were being smart by shoving as much cool air from the outside at the CPU cooler as you could but that doesn't work because, as I said, your fans were pushing against each other and cancelling the air flow to create a heat trap.

As Johan45 said, turn the rear and top fans around. I would also suggest, believe it or not, to remove the side panel fan as they just seem to disrupt good air flow.

While we're at it, which way does your CPU cooler fan face? It should be facing so as to blow air through the radiator toward either the top fans or the back fans (once you turn those around to blow the correct way, that is).

 

[Johan45]

As Johan45 said, turn the rear and top fans around. I would also suggest, believe it or not, to remove the side panel fan as they just seem to disrupt good air flow.

.

These two were supposed to be together.

 

[Johan45]

In my experience you're absolutely right Trents. The only reason I'm using onr right now is because of the DCUII SLI setup. These things go from my NB to the bottom of the board. I was having a nasy heat issue when I first installed the second card. I set up the 120 that kinda centers between the cards near the back of the case. At first I had it blowing in thinking that more cool air into the GPU's would help. Nope no difference. Switched it to exhaust and there's a steady stream of "HOT" air coming out when I really push them. Dropped the top card temp by 15°c.
Cooling is a very important part of the system and it just can't work right without the proper airflow. Believe me I spent a couple months moving fans, turning them, buying better ones etc. before I was happy with what I have going on.