So now what do I do..

[Wetsuit29]

BIOS Photos

This is my BIOS Tweeker Setup Page, Award F9

 

[Wetsuit29]

Stuck

This is What is Happening...The first worked fine, the second does not.

 

[RGone]

Simply put the second or 'failing' speed is from not enough Vcore or perhaps too high HT Link Speed for the amount of voltage being applied to the CPU/NB. OR borderline too much HT Link speed altogether. It seems a voltage or make that lack of voltage problem for sure.

Here again as 'trents' has said, for the best idea that we can see, it is almost a certainty that we need to see HWMonitor, CPUz tabs called CPU, Memory and so we don't have to dig back in earlier posts the SPD tab. If you had those 4 captures posted, I could see CPU speed, CPU/NB speed and HT Link Speed. Plus the ram speed. All four are critical to making an educated guess as to what the hale is wrong at your end. Miles from my end. Luck man.

 

[Wetsuit29]

Memory

This is my memory

 

[Wetsuit29]

Progress....

This ran good on the 20 minute Prime95 test. I reset a setting in PC health to protect my computer for over 70c instead of 60c, the default as temp 3 hits 61 for a second or so and the prime test fails. My HT link is in Auto as first things first. I can manually adjust the HT Link settings if need be. So have a look at this as I see if I can bump up some more. Also I ensured that my video card is on its default settings as it will overclock from windows and I wanted to rule out any extra load.

 

[RGone]

Since you have 68c for CPU Temp and max is suggested at approximately 70c ish, it would seem your CPU temps are getting very close to being too high.

You seem to have 55c for "package" originally known as CPU Core Temp, and it is suggested to not exceed approximately 60c ish, you could see this temp rise some, but not a lot.

Seems better cooling may be in order before going more than a 100 or maybe 200Mhz faster.

 

[keny]

I found on my fx that I was more stable with both HT and NB @2400 and you should be able to make that on stock cpu NB voltage.

 

[trents]

You will need to extend the Prime95 stress test to at least two hours now to confirm stability. As others have said, you are at the temp wall already and will need more efficient cooling to progress in your overclock. With the max CPU core voltage of 1.376 I'm surprised you are getting temps that high with the six core FX processor. I suspect a big part of the problem is your case. It only has one 120mm fan in the rear for ventilation. Not enough. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553003

I would suggest you remove the side panel from the case and set a household fan to blow into the open side of the case and then check temps again during a Prime95 stress test. If temp go down significantly, that would indicate you need a case with more fans and better ventilation.

 

[Wetsuit29]

Thank you all for so much help. This computer is only about 2 weeks old and when I set up to build it, I went to some effort NOT to buy to much stuff for if at the front end, but to add to it after a need shows it's self.
I have a 120 mm fan that is mounted to the top of the case, that exhausts out,not into the case, and I have a 120 mm fan mounted on the radiator that blows out of the back of the case. I can mount up to 5 more 120 mm fans and fans are in expensive. I also think I will set up a case mounted fan controller after I have everything finished.
This is also why I have only one GPU. Why 2 if one does what I need. By the way, The GPU has 2 fans. It is an unlocked GPU, but I don't want to speed it up until I have a GOOD understanding of exactly how the BIOS settings relate to the CPU and Board.
I have to say that to me it is confusing, as in electronics, as the frequency increases, the total impedance of a circuit should drop and require less voltage for the same total dissipated power. This overclocking work seems to be the opposite, And so now I am very interested in it. Until I gain a complete understanding of the BIOS relationship, I shall not stop working at it. This is why I appreciate all your help. Indeed, there is another way to overclock this computer and that is by simple increasing the dollar input...but that would not really increase my overall understanding of this sort of effort.
I easily could have went I7 and intel sandy. I went AMD because I have a massive plasma tv to receive my graphics from... and my costs are pretty low for the computeing performance that I have.
In any case, If I cannot totally understand something, I just will not stop until I do.
Please continue your assistance and advise, it is extremely helpful and useful. What else would I do, ask my wife or my kitten? They cannot help, but there is this forum and I really appreciate it.
I will post a picture of the inside of my computer and my progress later today.

 

[trents]

The household fan blowing into the open case is a way of testing if inadequate case ventilation is a culprit with regard to your high temps.

When you increase the speed of the CPU cores you are asking it to do more work. More work requires that more electrical power be supplied, that's why we must raise the voltage to maintain the integrity of the data flow through the system. It's just like when you ask you body to work harder you will need to supply it with more glucose and more oxygen to meet the higher demand. The problem with increasing the voltage to the CPU is that it produces more heat and higher temps. Higher temps drives up resistance and the only way to overcome the extra resistance is to push the electrons harder with more volts. Soon, you reach an equilibrium where the irresistible force meets the immovable object and that is where your overclock tops out.

By all means, buy some more case fans. Here is a good pic of how case air flow should be with air moving from the bottom down low to the back up top. Sounds like you need some front fans pushing.

 

[ivanlabrie]

Actually I suggest a front to back airflow pattern instead of down to top.
His case looks good for this, it has mesh covers in the 5.25 bays...

Try this: Fit a 120mm fan in the 5.25" bays under or over your optical drive. You can pressure-mount it using some foam or whatever. That will lower cpu temps and cool your ram and NB.
Use front intake fans in the two lower intake spots as well, remove your pci slot covers and if you have any top exhaust fans put them in the front as intakes, and do a push pull setup with your radiator as exhaust.

 

[trents]

Actually I suggest a front to back airflow pattern instead of down to top.
His case looks good for this, it has mesh covers in the 5.25 bays...

Try this: Fit a 120mm fan in the 5.25" bays under or over your optical drive. You can pressure-mount it using some foam or whatever. That will lower cpu temps and cool your ram and NB.
Use front intake fans in the two lower intake spots as well, remove your pci slot covers and if you have any top exhaust fans put them in the front as intakes, and do a push pull setup with your radiator as exhaust.

"down to top"? Not sure what you are referring to, his description of how he has it now or the picture I attached. The picture I attached is front low to back high. Is that what you mean by down to top?

 

[ivanlabrie]

Yeah, old school airflow pattern...
I prefer my approach, you avoid gpu heated air to go up into the cpu hsf and/or vrm.

EDIT: I should have used the word 'bottom' sorry, my bad.

 

[Wetsuit29]

My Build.

This is what I am working with. Radiator exhaust out the top rear. 120 mm fan exhausts out of the top. PSU fan is pointed up as that's the only way it fits. I have one more fan plug in on the board after that I have to get a fan controller.
Cold air from the bottom/front and hot air out of the top. That's what I will shoot for. First I need to extend my main 12 v power cord so I can route it around the back. Right now it goes over my GPU as it is too short for anything else.

 

[ivanlabrie]

Can't you flip the psu with fan pointing downwards?
That would help it run cooler and conflict with the gpu air intake.
Also, if that gpu is not a reference blower type it will heat up your case, unless you go with a front to back airflow type.
You should place your radiator as your rear exhaust, use the current fan as pull and your other fan as push.

There:


Crappiest editing ever lol!
That should reduce your temps radically...

Notice how I moved the hdd lower and put a mid case fan in there, you can hold it with zip ties or whatever, it will cool the gpu better and move the stagnant hot air the gpu creates out through the pci slot covers, which are gone.

Then, I moved the optical drive higher up and fit a 120mm fan under it in the front, next to the 5.25 bay covers, which are mesh.
That and the top intake fan help move cool outside air over your critical components. You can move the top intake further to the back if you wish, it's the same really.

 

[Wetsuit29]

Modifications

I have made these changes and I makes a Huge difference.

 

[RGone]

You mean like this?

Front to rear like this?

 

[Wetsuit29]

Yeah, Iphone photos always are 90 degrees out and I am always to lazy to fix that....

 

[Wetsuit29]

So, I have a North bridge Bios question.... In my bios this setting jumps from 2000mhz to 4000 mhz with no settings in between, so how do you match it to the HT frequency setting of 2600 mhz as earlier suggested? Do I just put it on 4000 and see what happens?
So far, in Prime95 testing, my temperatures are now much lower.

 

[trents]

So it looks like you put the cooler on the outside and flipped the PSU over. Anything else? Case ventilation gets short changed by a lot of people who either don't realize how important it is or for some reason don't understand how it works. When I was a kid growing up in the hot, sticky summers of the southeastern states before there was AC we learned how to cool the house down at night with window fans so we could sorta, almost sleep. We had house ventilation down to an art. A computer case works the same way. I'm sure RGone will tell you the same thing.

So let's see some new temps.