OC'ing FX-6300 Tonight...

[Sun Tzu]

My Sabertooth is showing up today! God I love Newegg.

I did some OC'ing last night with the M5A97, just for ****s and giggles. I topped out at 4.1 GHz. I couldn't get through 2 minutes of P95 when I went higher than that, even with a 1.45 Vcore.

Looking forward to rebuilding and rocking it with the Sabertooth.

 

[chrisjames61]

You should be able to get a better overclock than 4100 and have it stable with the Sabertooth and minimal bios tweaking. I have a GA-990XA-UD3 and run at 4250 stable with only a little extra core voltage. My Arc Midi R2 is well ventilated and I only use a Hyper 212 EVO. YMMV of course.

 

[caddi daddi]

with the sabertooth you should be able to get that theng screaming.
the m5a97 in a really good phenom 4 core board and thats the tops for it.
with the sabetooth you should be limited only by your cooler.

 

[Sun Tzu]

What should I be setting the HT Link to? Right now I'm running 60C socket and package temps at 4.4GHz. Voltage topping out around 1.41, and multiplier set to 22.0.

25 minutes of P95.

 

[Waza]

Set it to 2600, I have not yet really tested if it even makes any difference but I know it might cause instability at high speeds. Anywhere over 2k should be OK.

 

[MongGrel]

That Sabertooth should make life better even if I doubt you'll ever see 5 on air.

And I'll go there myself he he.

 

[MongGrel]

There you go with that warm and fuzzy stuff again. Hehehe.
RRRRRRRRRGone...ster.

 

[Sun Tzu]

Alright. It looks like I'm going to top out at 4.5GHz. No matter what I do, I can't keep my CPU package temps below 65C. I'm fiddling around with different NP/HT frequencies, and also fiddling with multi/CPU Bus combo's. Still, unless you guys have some pointers to get my temps down, I think I'm stuck at 4.5GHz

What's the highest Vcore I can run with safely 24/7?

 

[Blaylock]

I believe AMD states 1.45v as the max recommended voltage. That's where I run my Phenom II for 24/7. Obviously lower is better for heat and longevity. What voltage did your CPU require for 4.4Ghz?

 

[Sun Tzu]

I dropped back down to 4.4 because I really don't want my temps too high. It turns out 4.4GHz even gets me up to 65C.

I'm stable at 1.375 (at least that's what I set it at in the BIOS) for 4.4GHz. I'll try to drop it down bit by bit until my temps drop, too.

 

[Blaylock]

You should post some pics of CPU-Z (CPU, Memory & SPD tabs) and HWMonitor under P95 load. Might be able to see if we can eek out a tad more.

What is your LLC set too?

After you're all done OCing you can re-enable CnQ to help with idle temps. No need to push extra voltage when it's not needed.

 

[Sun Tzu]

Damn. I had to drop my Bus twice. I kept getting errors in P95 after about 15 minutes. I finally found stability at 4.35GHz, but between the 15 and 20 minute mark, I had a quick few second jump up to 68C. Yikes. Otherwise I was holding at 63C the entire time.

Also, I have no idea what LLC is.

Pictures attached. This was a bit over 30 minutes of P95.

 

[Blaylock]

LLC is Load Line Calibration. It is basically a way to control vdroop. Here is a short snippit from Dolk's review of the Sabertooth "As expected, as you raise the throttling power of the voltage regulator, the difference between idle and load becomes more and more even. As you go higher the voltage regulator will allow more voltage to pass through to your hardware. For when you do overclock with the Sabertooth 990FX, it would be better to use the Ultra High settings for LLC. As you can see there is not a huge difference between the idle and load which should give you the easiest CPUv to work with when trying to find the overclock settings you desire. With the CPU-NBv you are not given as many options and as you can see they are all over the place. Not one of the LLC settings gives you a voltages near to which you have set. Again Asus has flopped with the CPU-NBv."

Here is the full review. Very in depth and may give you some insite on other controls for your new board.

I believe he recommends High or Ultra an that board for OCing.


EDIT: Also I don't think your package should be s higher temp than your socket. Makes me wonder if it has a bad seating. How did you apply the TIM?

 

[Sun Tzu]

Funny you should ask about the seating. I didn't really think much of it, but the CPU backplate that came with the Sabertooth was bunk. One of the holes for the screws was stripped when it showed up, which meant I had no way of securing the Noctua properly. I swapped that backplate out for the M5A97 one, which had shorter screw holes. Is there a chance that lead to this issue?

You also asked how I applied the TIM? I'm guessing that means thermal paste? I put a dollup on the center of the CPU (about the size of a fingertip, and then seated the Noctua directly on top.

 

[Sun Tzu]

Thinking this through, I don't think a different backplate would make a difference. The offsets (height between CPU and HS) are what determine the seating, not the backplate. Blaylock, you have the same CPU cooler as me, so you should have a pretty good idea of what I'm referring to. The rubber spacers that the Noctua D14 uses make the backplates essentially interchangable.

Now, in regards to proper seating in other ways...how would I know if I made a mistake?

 

[Blaylock]

The back plate will only make a difference if the screw cannot thread all the way down. I also swapped back plates, my old Zalman plate had a nicer opening to help cool the back of the socket.
Notice how the screws are able to thread as deep as necessary (sorry about focus).
View attachment 139677
If your back plate doesn't allow the screws to thread ALL the way down, the mounting brackets might night provide enough pressure on and prevent the cooler from sitting at the right height.

TIM (Thermal Interface Material) can refer to paste, grease, tape, adhesive, etc. A dollop smaller than a pea is the prefered method.
Not spread out like the image.(This is how I used to apply it until I found out the downfall of this method)
View attachment 139678
View attachment 139679
You may have to much on there right now. To much AS5 can be tragic as it is conductive due to the silver in the paste.

I would request a new back plate from Noctua. In the mean time if you have the means to fix your current back plate I would recommend that and reseat using less paste.

 

[MongGrel]

Yeah, put about a pea on there and sit it down, the Noctua stuff tht came with it.

Well a small pea.

Why you'd use AS-5 over the good stuff that came with it I won't ask about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608008

 

[Sun Tzu]

Well, I used precisely the amount of AS5 that is pictured on the last image you uploaded. The backplate I'm currently using has no threading issues, so I don't think that's the issue, either. Noctua included some thermal paste, too. I might grab a Q-tip and clean everything off, and then re-seat using a smaller amount of the Noctua paste (which got rave reviews).

FWIW, the backplate came with the Sabertooth board. Would it be worth my while to contact ASUS for a new backplate? I've heard horror stories about their customer support.

 

[Blaylock]

Yep that's a good idea. Q tips and rubbing alcohol. The Noctua paste is very good and I believe is actually rated above the AS5. Make sure to tighten the mounting screws all the way and that should provide the proper pressure.

Edit: it doesn't hurt to contact them and request one. If it takes 2 months than whatever. You'll then have a back up plate. Not that you'll ever need it but...

 

[Priller]

Damn. I had to drop my Bus twice. I kept getting errors in P95 after about 15 minutes. I finally found stability at 4.35GHz, but between the 15 and 20 minute mark, I had a quick few second jump up to 68C. Yikes. Otherwise I was holding at 63C the entire time.

Also, I have no idea what LLC is.

Pictures attached. This was a bit over 30 minutes of P95.

With that FSB speed, what is your CPU/NB voltage?