phenom 965 OC (reaching the sweetspot)

[ToeTacTics]

atm im at work .. thank you so much for the replies.. would someone be kind enough to remark the correct colors for good airflow.. i noted one says rear and the other bottom, a bit confusing

the cpu fans are facing the rear push pull blowed to the back exhaust

 

[Johan45]

Here ya go.

View attachment untitled.bmp

You could also add a 80mm fan to the right side dorr to pull air ouy from behind the MOBO.That case is all set up for it.

 

[ToeTacTics]

thank you!
i was thinking of replacing my hulkish mugen 2 with a corsair h55, and placing its radiator and fan on the side (exhaust ofc).

what do you guys think?

 

[Johan45]

I would put it on the rear as an exhaust. Putting it on the side door would be a royal pain in the ***. You'd have to remove it everytime you wanted to open the box and they do need regualr cleaning.

 

[ToeTacTics]

damn your right.. even now the side fan's cords bug me when i open the case

 

[trents]

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.

Yes, the side fan can help cool overheating video cards if the side panel fan mount is placed correctly. However, I've seen a lot of cases where the side panel fan mount wasn't line up well with the PCI-e lanes. There might be a small trade off there between keeping cards cool and best air flow for cooling CPU and mobo.

 

[trents]

thank you!
i was thinking of replacing my hulkish mugen 2 with a corsair h55, and placing its radiator and fan on the side (exhaust ofc).

what do you guys think?

I doubt if the H55 will cool any better than the Muygen 2 and maybe not as well. There's this myth out there that any water cooling kit will outperform any air cooler.

 

[Johan45]

You're right on the money Trents.
I have to say that Thermatake did a decent job on this one . But it's also twice as big as the H55 and about 2" thick.
I was running the FX at 1.58V_core and just histting about 63°c on the core!

 

[azanimefan]

OK... I've got your exact chip and ran into exact the same problem at 3.8

It took me a while to figure it out. Now, every piece of silicon is different. So my solution might be different from yours... So i'll direct you first to where i learned enough about my chip to overcome the problem on my own.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023

Before i tell you how i overcame this wall, understand... that while i was able to get over 3.8 temps and power became a huge issue... and though i was able to get stable overclocks up to 4.0 (unstable up to 4.2), the temps got so bad i ended up pulling the whole overclock back under 3.8 to stabilize temps and give me a rock solid overclock.

So while you might overcome this, you might not get temps your comfortable with under an extended prime95 burn.

Ok... onto the solution.

At about 3.8 you need to bump the HT/CPU-NB speeds, the cpu-nb should be up to a min of 2400, i found i couldn't stabilize the overclock without this, i also needed to bump the voltage of the cpu-nb to stabilize, you may or may not need to increase the HT speeds/voltages too, stock is no longer fast enough maintain the communication between your ram and cpu. You may (or may not) need to bump voltages to your ram (I needed to bump the voltages for my ram a little) to stabilize.


Because i found vcore and temps got a bit out of control over 3.8, when i brought it back down under 3.8, i tinkered with the overclock to get the best temps/voltages. In order to bring down my vcore and general temps i switched to 100% FSB overclocking... while my cpu didn't love FSB overclocking i was able to knock 0.1v and nearly 10C off my cpu temps for an identical multiplier overclock. Something to think about as you go forward.

 

[ToeTacTics]

thank you for the info.

i already went through dolks guide ( i stated i tried upping the nb and such in my first post).

now im looking across google about the phenom 965 c3 and the mugen combination and im seeing lots of people having similar temps (some a tad higher and some a tad lower)
and most say its ok.

what temps should i get with my cooler on this proc according to you people?

 

[trents]

Did you turn those case fans around yet?

 

[ToeTacTics]

not yet.. i need to remove the whole cooling unit to turn the top one around.

atm im thinking of some additional changes to maximize airflow.

thought of buying a modular psu as well, my current one isn't and its quite messy out there each time i make modifications.

Important edit : i just noticed my memory is 1600 not 1333 . the mobo specs say: Support for DDR3 1866(OC)(Note 2)/1333/1066 MHz memory modules .. i hope there is no problem here as well regarding the stability issues

 

[caddi daddi]

don't think modular psu quite yet, they have up and down sides.
I have had connection problems with mine due to paying the big price for no so great quality.

 

[ToeTacTics]

i was looking at the seasonic 520w m12ii

and i thought of replacing my case to a bit spacy one .. the corsair 400r (better cable management and the cpu cutout)

my 690 rusted in several spots now. humid zone over 60% humidity here in the summer.

i dropped the liquid cooling idea (afraid of leaks).

im going to replace all the fans accordingly in the new case , re-seat the cooling unit and post results.

important note: atm my air conditioning is turned on at 26*C and the core temp of the cpu is 34-35*C on idle (stock clock and voltage of course).

 

[RGone]

i dropped the liquid cooling idea (afraid of leaks).= I was going the say drop the H55 idea anyway. Not for any leaks, but because it is not very likely much better than a good clean Mugen that has good air-flow thru the case. You spend for a smaller H55 and then upgrade to something that is hotter and have to upgrade the cooler again. Not sure that is the best move. Buy and buy again.
RGone...

 

[ToeTacTics]

UPDATE

switched to a Corsair carbide 400r case

3 intake fans 3 outtake (two front in , two top out) one corsair AF on exhaust at the back and one SP bottom intake.

new cpu cooler - Noctua nh-u14s

this time i used coollaboratory liquid pro.

ambient temp is about 28*C (high humidity), at stock i idle at about 36*C and full load prime didnt pass 48*C. everything on stock.

i still think that i should get lower temps with my upgrades.

 

[storm-chaser]

Bummer dude.

were ram voltage and timings properly set after the reset?

Can you post up some pics of cpuz as well as memory and SPD tabs? thanks.

 

[caddi daddi]

heres my 4.1 setup, I use an antec all in one, ghetto rigged of course, to get the rad outside the case, you should be able to approach this with that rig.
this clock is 24/7 stable.
I find 3.8 to be about the best clock with this cpu I have had it in all my rigs and allways find 3.8 is just right for it.

that's the right one.

 

[ToeTacTics]

I lowered the vcore by 0.5 to see if there is any difference (just dropped to 36*C)

ATM im using a single 4gb DDR3 1600 mhz Team Elite stick

 

[storm-chaser]

You might try tailoring your rig after c_d's specs. I had good results with the FSB at 240 as well with my 965 rig.
I'd say up the vcore a couple notches and see what you get. I don't think the heat is a factor in your prime95 runs ATM.

If that doesn't improve the situation you might try bumping up your CPU_NB voltage to the 1.2v range and see if that improves reliability.