Where to start with this FX-8120!!!

[GamerMagnet]

Okay, so if anyhone has read my prior post I have been worried about my GTX 550 ti running on a high quality 600 watt psu...It runs like a champ..So onto my complaining!!!

Why did I buy this stupid FX-8120? I have no clue. I only have a Hyper TX3 cooling it, but I figured I could atleast get a 4ghz OC with it. Although that def isn't happening. Anytime I raise the FSB the temps sky rocket. Right now I just have the CPU multi up. I know most say can OC this cpu with Water cooling but I am scared to death. It would be my first Water Cooling setup. I just want to have a closed looped for the CPU because my 2 GPU's never touch above 65c.

Also I have to keep my case side open or the RPM of my fans decrease dramatically. I will be purchsing a Water Cooling unit along with a new case. Maybe get a decent quality 750 watt psu just for safety. This will be purchased after the 1st of September. The Case I have now is a Full tower Antec something from like 3 years ago. It sucks for case airflow.

So I have my eyes set on the new HF 922 to cool my other components, but I would like to know what is a decent closed loop water cooling unit for my FX-8120..Cause right now I'm really close to sending it back because my Athlon II x3 455 can do Intel burn test faster than the Fx-8120 at stock settings and I can overclock my Athlon II x3 455 to 4ghz stable, 3.8 ghz stable if I unlock the 4th core with temps never reach 45c during full load. This fx-8120 jumps 10-12c in a split second during idle. I have seated the HSF 2 times already with the most optimized spreading method. I am using Ceramique 2.

I want to get a stable 24/7 4.5ghz clock. So with that in mind. Would the H80 be my best bet, or is there a cheaper solution. Also is that HAF 922 the way to go. With those 2 items I would like to spend around $200, not including aftermarket fans I will purchase myself.

Below is a screen shot of idle temps. As you can see my TIMPIN0 and 2 went up to 78c. Again. This is a split second temp reading and it goes back down to the normal temps. Also my 12v rail fluctuates alot..Is this normal?

[/IMG]

 

[caddi daddi]

cooling unit, h80 or, better would be the antec kuhler h20 920 will get you to 4.4-4.5. the h80 will be a bit less.
with the fx8120 your powering 8 cores not 4 hence, twice the btu's to get rid of.
bulldozer is optimized for interger work not gflops so it looks like it underperforms in ibt.

I'm just trying to be less than fussy, for mine the h80 was a little weaker, either one should do the job and fit his case.
the mount for the h80 is a little better than the antec and easyer to mount.

looks like the h100 is the choice, fits inside the case, cost is little more than the h80.
temps leaping around at idle is not a concern, loaded temps are what count, my idle temps hop about some at idle on all my processors.
right now i would NOT disable cool and quiet in the bios, if you have please enable it.

 

[Knufire]

Pretty sure the H80 is a bit better than the 920.

It's not double the heat either. BTU is a unit of energy, like Joules. How much heat a CPU produces is usually measured in Watts, which is power (energy/time). The Athlon II X3 was a 95W CPU, while the Bulldozer is a 125W (both those numbers are stock clocks).

 

[GamerMagnet]

again another screen shot. This is idle, just watching HW monitor. i cleared min/max after I loaded the program. In the matter of 1 second It goes from 22c to 35c then back to 22c. No programs running in the background. Just jumps up there. my vcore is 1.26 and it stays at the voltage and I have LLC set to High.

another SS of it jumping to crazy temps within 1 second then back down to normal temps with nothing but watching HWmonitor!!



has anyone else heard of this happening with the FX cpu's or is this because I have a Hyper TX3. Would the stock HSF be better?
and I also increased my FSB to 210 with a multi of 17 which gives me 3.57ghz @ 1.26v. I'm not really trying to push it til I get ahold of the new case and Water Cooling unit.

 

[bassnut]

Well lets see....your cooler has single 92mm fan that puts out about 50cfm airflow. Your emps are pretty good from what I could see however you wil not be able to OC the 8120 with this cooler. As far as a closed loop water cooler I would look first at the Antec 920 then the H100. I really like the Antec because of the fan controller they built in which will allow you to set up a custon fan profile based on the coolent temp. Preformance wise it isnt that far behind the H100 but if you want the best overall cooler of the 2 the H100 will get you a couple more deg cooling out of it but it is not as easy to controle the fans and thus generates a bit more noise all the time instead of when your temps rise. I have both there really isnt much difference between them. Both will fit in the CM HAF922 with th H100 givig you a cleaner build as it will tuck away up top easily.

 

[GamerMagnet]

yeah..i have it in a push/pull config with a 92mm Delta pushing through. It's a good 70 cfm. But im def going water cooling. I just want a 4.2-4.5 ghz everyday rig. This is what I will be changing out to after the 1st of the month when I get paid.

http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1020683
decent deal. I have the Corsair CX600 but since I want to overclock and now want to add a water cooling kit I figure I should just go on the safe side

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209054
Seem to like the Antec 920 over the H100..Smaller radiator and 2 decent fans that come with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835132023
getting this for the bottom mount 140mm Fan in the HAF 922.. I have 2 decent 120mm fans already to mount to the side of it.

So another 300 bucks to through in this rig..Oh well. Once the price drops a bit on the 660 ti's I'll probably pick 1 up and sell these 2 550 ti's for hopefully 100 for both. Just trying to get a decent rig that will last me a good 2-3 years.

 

[Knufire]

The CX600 should be fine, the pump in the sealed unit doesn't draw a huge amount of power.

AFAIK the Antec 920 (Asetek) isn't as good as the H80 (Coolit).

If you need a case fan, just grab a 140mm Yate Loon. If you're in a HAF922 you probably don't even need the extra fan TBH.

 

[GamerMagnet]

hmm..weird, the first link isn't working but they have a combo deal on a Case and PSU.

$204.98 for the HAF 922 and Cooler Master Silent Pro 850 watt Modular PSU.

Although I really like Corsair PSU's..I think this one be fine. it's 80 bronze certified, (MODULAR) which is a big plus and is rated for 66amps on the 12v rail. Should be plenty enough power, well a little overkill...but I will be upgrading my GPU around christmas. I wanna go with the 660 ti, but I'm just gonna wait and see where things are at then. If the 680's drop down to around 400ish I might just grab one of those instead. Time will tell and that 850 watt psu should be plenty. I don't like having multiple hard drives or dvd/cd drives. Will possibly get an SSD maybe, but highly unlikely

 

[Knufire]

660TI is 170W, 680 is 200W. Both of those draw less power than your current 550Ti SLI does.

 

[trents]

The "jumping around" may be due ot the "green" technology of the FX CPU. Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E, C6 and APM. You can disable all that. It could also be due to downthrottling in response to high temps but it looks like your core temps are not excessive. Keep in mind the core temp sensor is poorly calibrated with the FX CPUs and typically reports about 15c cooler than it actually is. You probably should also monitor the CPU temps with the FX because of the inaccuracy of the core temps. In HWMonitor the CPU temp may be disguised in one of the TMPINx lines which are out of view in your pic.

 

[caddi daddi]

gamermagnet, lets go into the bios and turn cool and quiet on, this will reduce the multiplier on some cores at idle and will also reduce the vcore voltage on some cores and will reduce the idle temps and help the machine cool quicker.
if you will disable turbo core or core boost, it should be called one or the other, this will help keep things stable at idle.

are you running the latest version of hardware monitor if not please download it.

 

[trents]

Yeah, try what caddi suggested. May be a good compromise.

 

[bigwils1]

Im hAving problems to with my 8120 throttling issue its pissing me off

 

[trents]

bigwils1, you are already posting about this in another thread started by another forum member. Be careful that you don't hijack other people's threads. Maybe you should start your own if solving your problems causes significant interruption to someone else's thread. I understand that it's tempting to do when you have the same problem as someone else, especially when you have very similar components, but it's still a matter of forum ettiqutte.

 

[GamerMagnet]

i dont think it's throttling. It's just acting weird. Right now I set everything back to stock. Temps arn't jumping around.

@ Trents: The first pic of my HWmonitor shows the TIMPIN0 and 2 doing the jumping thing. Jumps to like 70c+ for a split second. I've disabled all that stuff. I just don't get it. Idk. Maybe it's the sensors on the board.

Early I tried OC a bit keeping HT and NB between 2400-2600. Soon as I raise my FSB above 210 my computer will post. Go to Loading screen and then it goes to the "Start Windows Repair" screen. If i Start windows normally my comp will restart itself and do the whole loop over.

Okay..so these are stock everything, well except for some reason it reads my RAM at 1333mhz when it suppse to be 1600mhz. thats the only muilti thats increased.


Idle:


After running Intel Burn Test:
http://[URL=http://imgur.com/fJ8jQ] [/URL]

now it shows 55c as the CPU high temp, but it was hovering around 47c..It would jump to 55c for a split second then back down 47c. I touched the heatsink and it def didn't feel like it was that hot. Was cool to the touch.

Same thing with Core temps, they were hovering around 38c but would jump to 47c for a split second then back down to 38c. I don't get it.

 

[GamerMagnet]

and one more thing. If you look at my very first HWmonitor picture..At the top you can see that my Fan shows 0 rpm and a max of over 8k rpm..Even though it was spinning. This has happened before as well for all fans that show the RPM...They go to like 8k rpm. The fans themselves arn't spinning that fast because I would def hear them if they did. The monitor program just does stuff like that ever since I got this thing. I'm gonna see if the computer place down the road can check to see if the sensors on my motherboard are broke or something. Things just don't seem right at all.

 

[trents]

Try another monitoring program to check the fan speed. Gigabyte offers an overclocking/HW monitoring program of it's own called EasyTune. It's on your install disc.

 

[GamerMagnet]

So I changed my multi to 18. Left everything else stock, except for having the RAM set to 1600mhz and voltages on manual.

3.6ghz @ 1.26v

Idle SS:


As you can see my Cpu socket temp is sitting at 31c but jumps to 45c every 15-20 seconds. When it goes up and comes back down to 31c its instant. Not a gradual drop in temp. Same thing with the cpu core temps. Hovering at 22c but jumps to 36c for a split second every 15-20 seconds. I have all the Cool n quiet and stuff like that disabled.

Full run of Intel Burn Test:


During the duration the cpu socket temp was hovering around 54c but would jump to 61c for a split second. Same thing goes for cpu core temps, hovered around 47c then jumped to 53c then back down in the matter of 1 second.

I'm just gonna go ahead and grab the new case, psu and water cooling kit. I would like to build a custom loop but this will be my very first water cooling kit and I have not a clue dubya tee ff i'm doing.

If anyone is near the Martinsville, VA area and knows how to build a custom loop then I'd be glad to invest some money into it for parts and labor. I would like to have the ability to put my future Single GPU in the loop when that time comes. Not worried about having water cooling on these 550's. Top one is around 63ish and bottom at 57ish under load and I'm not gonna OC them anymore than what they came as.

 

[GamerMagnet]

@trents:

I installed Easy Tune 6 when I first got the system put together. Didn't like it and don't like having a Program installed that can OC the cpu from windows. Had bad experience with AMD overdrive before I bought my Athlon II x3 455.

 

[trents]

I was suggesting to use it to check the fan speeds, not to overclock with.