New Member Here!

[FreshlySnipes]

hey whats up everyone? My first post here, just thought I would introduce myself and see if someone could help me with my OC. I am from Seattle, HUGE SEAHAWKS FAN and am the sales director for a Data Center up here in the PNW. I just finished my first gaming PC build last month and have been working through the overclocking process. Back in the day I was pretty good with PC's/ Windows but i switched to macbook Pros for school so its been harder to figure stuff out (i know windows server better than XP). This is the first windows PC I have had since 05, but its like riding a bike.. I didnt forget.

Here's what I built after a few install failures..

-AMD FX-8150 black Edition
-ASUS 990FX Sabertooth MB
-EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX-570
-8GB DDR3 1600MHz Ram - Not good memory but im waiting for DDR4!
-Samsung 830 Series SSD
-850w Corsair Power Supply
-Corsair H70 Liquid CPU Cooling system + found room to install the Rear Chassis and CPU fans that the water cooler had replaced.
-LG Blueray Burner/ Player
-InWin Case (White)
-Samsung 27" LED Syncmaster
-Windows 7 -64 bit.

MY CURRENT OVERCLOCK PROGRESS: I have been jumping around between MSI Afterburner, EVGA Prescision X and AI Suite II/ ASUS Sabertooth Bios.

-I have overclocked most of my system already but I am still running into temperature issues, specifically with Vcore 1 (NB i think) and Vcore 2. Vcore 1 is running about (80-90 on a regular basis) which is 20-25 deg higher than Vcore 2 under full load. I will say right now that I know next to nothing about overclocking, I just saw what people did here and on youtube and followed their lead. Liquid Cooling took care of my CPU heating issues ( CPU running about 73-77 deg on full load now).

I am trying to combat the Vcore heat issue by dedicating all the chassis fans but the fans are not running consistently like they are supposed to. I think Afterburner, Precision X and AI Suite are conflicting for control of the fans. My overclocking thus far has been done using a combo of all 3 programs. Are they conflicting with each other? Anyone using a good program you would recommend? If anyone knows of a good, stable clock for any of my components I would appreciate the help!

My GPU Clock (GTX570) According to MSI Afterburner:
-Running about 65-70deg under load-
Core Voltage: 1075 Mv
Core Clock: 900 MHz
Shader Clock: 1800 MHz
Memory Clock: 2001 MHz

My Current CPU/ Clock According to ASUS AI Suite:
-(AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer Black Edition) -
CPU Bus/ PEG Freq: 216 (MHz)
CPU Voltage: 1.45000 (V)
CPU/NB Voltage: 1.35000 (V)
VDDA Voltage: 2.50000 (V)
DRAM Voltage: 1.50000 (V)
* CPU ratio of 22.0 @ 4,752 (MHz) Frequency*
ALSO Clocked my RAM to 1770MHz (or somewhere around there through BIOS). I have to be gettin close to the limits of my power supply Right?

SEAHAWKS - 12

 

[trents]

Welcome, F_Snipes! I'm 85 mi. south of you.

Please tell us about your case ventilation. Where are the case fans located? How many of them? How large (120mm? 92mm? 80MM?)? How are they oriented with regard to intake/exhaust or push/pull to put it another way? Good case ventilation is essential for keeping temps down on those power sucking FX 8 cores. Can you provide a link to your case?

Also, please commit to overclocking from the manual bios controls only. It will be impossible to help you if you mixing bios manual with bios wizard and software tools in the overclocking process. Since your CPU has an unlocked multiplier, overclocking it should be rather simple and straight forward. You should only need to be concerned with the core frequency multiplier (whatever it may be called in your bios) and the CPU core voltage (or whatever term is used in your bios). You would not need to change the "CPU bus" from the stock 200 mhz. That really complicates things because it also increases other system frequencies like the memory, the CPUNB and the HT Link which can all become sources of instability if their frequencies are not adjusted to compensate.

Please download and install the following programs that are standard tools around here to monitor bios settings, temps and voltages and to stress test our overclocks:

CPU-z

HWMonitor

Prime95



My other thought is the Corsair H70 may not be up to the task. Most folks overclocking the FX 8 cores are going with the Corsair H100.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

Thank for the warm welcome and the advise! This website has some good views of the case.

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=65408

The case came with 2 fans and has alot of mesh for ventilation. The one in the front of the chassis has space for another one to clip in right above it. That's where I put the fan that came in back chassis. I am still figuring out where I am going to put the little fan that was on the CPU, but for now it is tied inside, behind the side mesh panel, across from the Vcore & GPU.
I cant tell if the abundance of free flowing air is bad for cooling or not. It would make since that the more airflow inside the casing would be better for cooling but it actually does the opposite by decreasing the effectiveness of the air system in place. That is how it works in data centers anyways, the hotter and more concentrated the returning air is, the more efficient it becomes to cool it. If Data Center Science applies here, cooling would be most effective with the computer sealed up almost completely but for an effective intake and outtake. I bet one fan in the front blowing cool air in and 1 in the back pulling hot air out would be more effective than if I put 5 or 6 fans in my case. Honestly tho, the CPU is not an issue anymore since I got the water cooling system.

My biggest issue with OC on the BIOS only is the fact that I cant make adjustments while playing BF3 or Benching. I have benched a few times, but I am not really sure if it came out right. I used MSI Kombuster, EVGA's that came with Prescision X and another one I cant remember the name of. None of them really gave me anything I could really understand well enough to put to any use. I just cant get my fans to pick up the load. The H70 is handeling the CPU without much trouble. It is the Vcores that are raising the temperatures in the whole case. If I can control that I should me running at a high temperature of 70-75 on the Vcores and 67-70 on the CPU and GPU. The 2 fans that are upfront are only working at about 20% and I dont know how to control the power supply fan or get the computer to realize that a water cooling system still has a working fan. AI Suite thinks its off. I used AI suite to control all my fans and temp perfectly until I installed this fan in the front and have been using Prescision X more.

Thanks again, Ill check out those programs! If i delete the programs that created my overclock will I loose it or does the BIOS save stuff like that?

 

[RGone]

People with an air-cooled cpu and not really high Vcore to cpu, do not have problems with Vcore1 and Vcore2. You have gone to W/cooling and there is not enough cooling air going over the heatsinks in the VRM area of the motherboard.

 

[trents]

The little fan from the stock heatsink would better serve you positioned to blow directly on the heat sinks covering the VRM area between the CPU socket and the I/O ports. Another one blowing right on the socket area would be wise as well but they would need to be very close to those two areas not several inches away on the side panel.

I don't really understand why you feel you need to be able to make adjustments to the overclock settings while you game. We have better ways of doing that, at least for the CPU.

The first thing I would suggest is to return all frequencies and voltages to stock. The open HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open while you run a 20 minute Prime95 blend stress test. At the end of that time, attach a screenie of the HWmonitor user interface so we can get a gander at all the temp and voltage readings down through the GPU section. This will allow us to see a great deal of info about temps and voltages under 100% load. Especially it will help us see what you max core and max CPU (socket) temps are at stock settings and give an idea of how much headroom you probably have to overclock from a temp standpoint. It may also point to other problems like a water block being poorly seated or TIM be incorrectly applied.

To attach an image with your post, first crop and save the images to disc. A cropped image of the relevant program window is preferable to a shot of the whole desktop. Snipping Tool in Widows Accessories is great for this. Then click on the Go Advanced button at the bottom of any new post window, then click on the little paper clip icon at the top of the advanced post window. This will load the file browser and upload tool and the rest will be obvious.

I am also attaching an image with my post that shows what good case ventilation looks like.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

I will upload the screenshot when the test is complete. First tho how can I make sure the system is completely back to spec? I have used and applied overclocks from about 3 different programs. MSI Afterburner for the CPU Clock, Nvidia PrescisionX + Nvidia OCscanner for the GPU and ASUS BIOS and ASUS AI Suite II for creating a more more secure clock/ monitoring temps and fans. Will uninstalling the programs do the trick? resetting the bios to default is no problem.

The only reason i tune in game is thats the only thing I built the computer for and I didnt know there were other ways. Thats why I joined! Thanks for the help

 

[trents]

Configure those software overclock programs to not load at startup when Windows loads. They all should have an option to load or not load at start up or you can do that through msconfig and then reboot. Then reboot and go into bios and punch the F5 key (I think) to load defaults.

Bed time for me. 0500 comes early.

 

[oldbrave]

FreshlySnipes> Am I correct in the fact that you say that your CPU temps are NOW down to 73c to 77c under load ? If so then you are still well into the danger level for your CPU.
You want your MAX load temp to be no more than 60C, to be comfortable the tamps should be in the mid 50'c range. If you only have one fan on your H70 system you might want to put another on there and run them in a push/pull manner.
You should also remove the waterblock from the CPU and replace the thermal compound and remount the waterblock.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

Thanks for the tips guys. I reset the bios and removed all overclocking programs, files and profiles before I did the test. I added 2 more small fans to the casing and took your advise oldbrave and fit another fan on the other side of my Cooling system for push and pull. I will upload a pic of my fan setup soon. My cooling system is setup to exhaust hot air outside the back of the case (the new fan is pushing air through and the old fan is on the other side pulling the air out the back). Would reversing the flow into the case be better? All the hot air is moving through the water system instead of cold outside air. I added fans on the top and side of the case that push outside air directly in towards the Vcore and CPU.

This screenshot was taken after about 40 minutes of testing by prime95 Blend

 

[FreshlySnipes]

My computer is soooooooo much slower now haha. Excited to get the new OC going! I am upgrading to windows 8 as soon as I get a larger SSD. I am getting a new Samsung 120gb SSD to replace my current one (both are Samsung 830 series SSD). My current one is only a 60gb (not sure what I was thinking at the time, I ran out of room the first day).

Will the stress test yield different results on windows 8? I am hoping to get the SSD sometime this weekend with windows 8 and do a clean install! Fresh and squeeky clean

 

[trents]

Snipes,

We need you to create a "Sig" now that contains all your hardware information. A Sig travels with every post you make and so is very helpful to anyone joining in your thread, especially after the thread gets long and any system info you gave early on has gotten buried. This is a common forum courtesy. You can use mine if you want some guidance of what to include.

To create a Sig, go to top of page and click on Quick Links and then click on Edit Signature.

 

[trents]

So now what you need to do is go in bios and locate the CPU core speed multiplier (maybe called "CPU core speed ratio" or something like that). The stock multiplier would be 18x I believe (3.6 ghz = 200x18).

Then locate the main CPU core voltage control. Something like "CPU VID" I believe.

Also, in bios disable the following "green", power saving, down-throttling technologies that interfere with overclocking: Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E, C6 and C1E. Then go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance.

Please realize that unless we have the same motherboard as you do we won't be able to tell you exactly what the bios terminology is employed on your motherboard as that differs from one board to the next. If you are uncertain, snap digital pics of your bios and upload them.

1. start making .5x increases in the core speed multiplier.
2. after each .5x increase in the above, save the change in bios, go into Windows and run a Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes. Have HWMonitor open before you start the Prime95 stress test to record max, min and current temps and voltages. You don't want the core temp to exceed about 60c and you don't want the CPU (socket) temp to exceed about 70c. Stop the test if either happen. This should not be an issue in the beginning.
3. Repeat 1 and 2 above until you cannot pass the 20 minute Prime95 blend test. Failing the test can mean: BSOD, lockup, spontaneous restart or one of the Prime95 "core workers" quits while the others keep going.
4. When you first fail the test, add .025 volts to the CPU core voltage and repeat steps 1-3 above.
5. Report back with a progress note when you get stuck and pics from the last failed stress test: CPU-z tabs "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" and of the HWMonitor interface from the last stress test.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

Sounds good, I will start that tonight. Any thoughts on my test results? Based on the data how far do you think I can push it safely?

 

[trents]

You have about 17c of CPU temp headroom so that should allow you a moderate OC. You might break 4.0 ghz.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

damn I hope I can do better than that, Ive been pushing 4.85GHz for the past few weeks and was lovin it. A more stable foundation is a good thing. Is the restriction defined mostly by temperatures? If that is the case I will get a much bigger water chiller.... and a portable AC

 

[trents]

Yes, your main restriction is the current water cooler. Be patient with the process. Wait and see what you can get out of this one. When we overclock on this forum we make sure it is a stable overclock. We get a lot of noobs who report some fantastic overclock levels and when we ask them to check it out against a several hour Prime95 stress test they come back with their tale between their legs admitting they went off half-cocked.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

It was not stable for extended full load activities I admit, but for music production and web browsing it was awesome. This PC is only for gaming and music production, I have a macbook pro for everything else. Have you heard of anyone over clocking a mac? I got the new Macbook Pro retina but would be interested in overclocking my old MacBook Pro Unibody.

 

[trents]

I have never heard of anyone overclocking a Mac.

 

[FreshlySnipes]

I wonder how the genius bar would feel about that lol