Prime95 unstable after 4 hours, any advice?

[lazer]

I got a Barton 2500+ from Newegg last week and have been playing with it for a few days now trying to make as fast and stable as I can. I was able to go from 11x166 to 11x200 with no changes at all. I was also able to do 11x205 without any changes. 210x11 I seem to have problems though. Prime95 died after 4 minutes at this speed. So I relaxed my memory timings to from 2-2-2-11 to 2-3-3-11 (2.7V) and it ran for 11 minutes this time. I then upped the voltage to 1.675 and got 24 minutes out of it. Well I've currently upped the CPU Voltage to 1.75 and it can now run for 3 hours, 52 minutes before a crash.

However, my CPU temps go up to around 63C (42-45C case) at 210x11 and 1.75V under load, so I am unsure if I should try to raise the voltage anymore?

I know that I can probably put some super high speed fans on it and make it run cooler, but they are way too noisy for me!

My case will accept a 120mm front intake fan, if anyone can name a QUIET one I could try that, if it would lower the temps?

Does anyone have any advice that could allow me to achieve at least stable 210x11 (or even more) or is almost 4 hours of Prime stable enough?

System:

Barton 2500+ (AQYFA 0343RPMW) LOCKED
MSI K7N2 Delta-L (5.4 BIOS)
Thermaltake Silent Boost
Arctic Silver Ceramique
SilenX 350w PSU
Enermax CS-3051L-S3A case
2x512 Mushkin PC3200 Level One (2-3-3-11 for now)
120 gig Western Digital 7200rpm (8 meg) hard drive
Geforce4 Ti4200
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1
SMC 10/100 Ethernet adapter
Lite-On 52x24x52 CDRW
Lite-On 16x DVD ROM
1 80mm intake fan (Coolermaster)
2 80mm exhaust fans (Arctic Cooling)

 

[Hoot]

Either of these two are quiet at about 85cfm
http://www.kdcomputers.com/eui/prime/profile/29/24/component.htm
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/pa12mesp.html
but this is the quietest at about 70cfm
http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/25/209.htm?940

I've used all three of them at one point or another.

Hoot

 

[trimai]

The problem is that your case temp is too high. Your CPU temp is about 20C more than your case temp. This is normal for a CPU that run at around 2200 Mhz. You need more fans in your case to improve air flow and bring case temp down. When CPU temp is greater than 60C then system become unstable and that is why Prime starts to fail.

 

[lazer]

Hmm ok, the case temps did seem a bit high to me as well. That brings up another question. The coolermaster LED one I have now is rated at 27cfm I think, and I see the Panaflo 120mm says 70 CFM above. If I get one of the 120mm fans mentioned above, will it introduce enough air to keep things running cooler?

 

[7keys]

I had the same trouble even with case fans. The air could not get through the holes drilled in the case efficiently, it seems like the flat surface around the holes causes turbulence which hinders the air from going through properly.

I found if I cut out the fan grill area on the case so the air could get through unobstructed it had amazing results. Now even at full load the case temps only go up one degree C.

 

[lazer]

Hmm cutting holes in the case is a good idea actually. Especially the back ones have tiny little perforations all around the holes and it doesn't feel like alot of air is going through there at all. Time to get the drill or dremmel out I guess

 

[P2P]

I had the same trouble even with case fans. The air could not get through the holes drilled in the case efficiently, it seems like the flat surface around the holes causes turbulence which hinders the air from going through properly.

its true that most cheap cases do not alow for air to be pushed in from the bottom front you may wanna keep your eye open for a cheap atx side panel that has a blow hole and fan at the bottom front corner or even just with one in the center get a half decent fan and temps will fall for sure plus think about the posisioning of your tower make sure that it aint closed in at the back .

hope that helps ;-))

P2P

 

[cujo]

in my experience newer msi boards read really high. my gf has a kt6 delta and her cpu temp with volcano 11 is 60C+ and her case temp is 45-50C. she has a Tt xaser 3 with all 7 fans running full tilt. there's no way her case temp is 45C. with my case my temps read around 27 and that's with all fans at lowest speed. also, her cpu temp is obviously on die temp. when i used to use the volcano 11 with a bad air flow case i never had temps over 50C at same speeds she is running. my guess is ur board is just reading super high.

also, her kt6 is having super problems staying stable at any speeds. i've tested everything i can think of. narrowed it to either vid card or mobo that is causing problems. me thinks the mobo is going back tomorrow.

also, i originally got the same mobo as you and had all kinds of problems going above 200 fsb. 200 would be totally stable and 202 would crash like mad. never made any sense to me. i even got a replacement and had the same problems. i switched to my nf7-s and could easily do 202 fsb with all same settings.

 

[Hoot]

Hmm ok, the case temps did seem a bit high to me as well. That brings up another question. The coolermaster LED one I have now is rated at 27cfm I think, and I see the Panaflo 120mm says 70 CFM above. If I get one of the 120mm fans mentioned above, will it introduce enough air to keep things running cooler?

Definitely, IF you remove the stamped grills on all the fan openings, make sure your cables running around inside the case are somewhat tidy and if you are not already doing so, put the case down on the floor where the air is cooler.

Hoot

 

[lazer]

in my experience newer msi boards read really high. my gf has a kt6 delta and her cpu temp with volcano 11 is 60C+ and her case temp is 45-50C. she has a Tt xaser 3 with all 7 fans running full tilt. there's no way her case temp is 45C. with my case my temps read around 27 and that's with all fans at lowest speed. also, her cpu temp is obviously on die temp. when i used to use the volcano 11 with a bad air flow case i never had temps over 50C at same speeds she is running. my guess is ur board is just reading super high.

You might be right. I was reading over on some other forums that the MSI temps are sometimes 7-10C too high. That would make more sense, but I am not finished trying things out yet just to be sure...

 

[lazer]

Well the case is on the floor already, so that is a non-issue for sure. Actually this case does have a blowhole in the top of it and it has a side fan place as well. However in my past experience with my old system adding a fan to the side hole didn't seem to make any difference at all really. In fact I actually wonder if perhaps it was interrupting the airflow from front to back. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

 

[Hoot]

If the hole on the side panel lines up fairly close to above the CPU, having a fan blowing in and down onto the HSF will do wonders for the CPU cooling, even though, as you said, it effects the front to rear flow. The impact it has upon the flow is offset by the benefits of having a fan blowing room temperature air straight down into the HSF. With adequate thru-case flow, a blowhole in the top does not yield a lot of improvement, though if you have the drive bays loaded with heat generating drives, it can help somewhat. The blowhole fan should definitely be set to exhaust.

Hoot

 

[P2P]

i disagree with the front to bsck issue
just as long as the air in the case is being moved thru thecase at a swift enough rate temps will drop
ìf you set the side fan to blow in and top to blow out i doubt u will see the case temps to 50º

as long as fresh air is coming in and warm air out it will work and doesnt strictly need to go front to back just in and out

P2P

 

[julianba]

Well the case is on the floor already, so that is a non-issue for sure. Actually this case does have a blowhole in the top of it and it has a side fan place as well. However in my past experience with my old system adding a fan to the side hole didn't seem to make any difference at all really. In fact I actually wonder if perhaps it was interrupting the airflow from front to back. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

I modded my case with an acrylic window and put two 80mm blue led Coolermaster fans blowing directly onto the hsf/cpu and chipset/videocard. It runs just as cool as if the side of the case is off, and it looks real good too. I use the front and rear fans as exhaust fans. I think having the ambient air blowing directly onto the motherboard is the best arrangement for an air cooling setup. The side fans run at 2600 rpm so they aren't the quietest, but the noise is acceptable to me.

My msi kt6-lsr does read pretty high on the temperatures. I had an asus a7v8x and my 1800+ at 2500mhz with the same vcore, and the temperature difference is 15°C higher with the msi kt6 according to mbm5!(40°->55° under load) Everything is perfectly stable with the kt6 though. It's mostly thermal probe placement a nd different manufacturers that causes the discrepancy.

 

[AL Romero]

i would make a ducting kit so your intake to your cpu is getting room air instead of case air. i did it an my temps drop like 5-7C. then i got some ducting and feed it to the nearest window so it gets outside air which is around 15F cooler then room temp. this gets your cpu even cooler and then you dont have to have a shi* load of fans running.

if you dont like that the 120mm intake, 80mm exhaust in the back and maybe a blow hole up top would do. that going to be a little loud though.

good luck

 

[vidgion]

My suggestions:


Get that case to somehow provide atleast 2 exhaust fans :Top of case--back of case:


Stick one fan under harddrive via inside front panel as a blower:

Stick one fan on window side panel "if available" as a blower:

Observe Prime95 while burning and listen to Powersupply carefully for detect system slowdown or strain:

Start Prime95 atleast five times to evaluate PSU behavior:

Observe +3.3v,+12v and +5v rails while running Prime95 and look for sudden drops or loose fluctuations:

Try increasing to 2.9v one the pc3200:

Run Prime95 for atleast 2hrs with various mem timings to find what best fits your overclock: