OC'ing with the FX-8370

[steveokinevo]

hey everyone!

new to the boards here and looking to get some assistance in boosting the performance of my system. right now i have only turned the multiplier to 22 (4.4Ghz) and turned turbo boost off. im not sure what else to try, dont wanna fry anything. also looking to see if i can do anything with the RAM as the only thing i have done with that is set it to 1866Mhz. it doesnt wanna work on 2133mhz, but have read thats normal for AMD cpu's. anyways here's my setup to help. let me know what you think.

specs updated 1-10-18

Mobo: MSI 990FXA Gaming
CPU: AMD FX 8370 w/
Corsair Hydro H100i v2 - 240mm Radiator
Case: Rosewill ATX Mid Tower Tempered Glass
RAM: 2x Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB DDR3 2133Mhz
GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 1060X 6GB
PSU: EVGA 850 BQ
SSD: Samsung Evo850 240GB
HDD: 1TB & 2TB 7200 rpm

NEW CASE (without the new liquid cooler)



how its has been for about a year....

 

[trents]

Welcome, Steveo!

Need more information. Two things:

1. Please attach pics of these three tabs from CPU-z: "CPU," "Memory" and "SPD"
2. Have you done any temp monitoring while stress testing with say, Prime95?

It is not clear to me whether you are running 8 gb total of RAM or 32 gb total. If you are running 32 gb of RAM that will likely have a negative effect on overclocking as the FX CPU line has a fairly weak IMC. High amounts of total RAM and four v. two sticks stress it out more, as does frequencies higher than 1866.

MSI motherboards and overclocking the 8 core FX CPUs don't usually mix well. There are only a very few motherboards the OC Forums community would recommend for overclocking the 8 core FX CPUs: Two or three Asus boards and a a couple of higher end Gigabyte boards. MSI just seems to put weaker power producing components on even their high end boards on the AMD side. In addition, your Wraith cooler may be limiting you.

 

[Kenrou]

All that and the lack of cable management will hurt your air flow, a tidy case is your friend don't expect anything over 4.3-4.5 with the wraith cooler unless you have a spectacularly good chip. What have you used to test your overclock ?

 

[steveokinevo]

Welcome, Steveo!

Need more information. Two things:

1. Please attach pics of these three tabs from CPU-z: "CPU," "Memory" and "SPD"
2. Have you done any temp monitoring while stress testing with say, Prime95?

It is not clear to me whether you are running 8 gb total of RAM or 32 gb total. If you are running 32 gb of RAM that will likely have a negative effect on overclocking as the FX CPU line has a fairly weak IMC. High amounts of total RAM and four v. two sticks stress it out more, as does frequencies higher than 1866.

MSI motherboards and overclocking the 8 core FX CPUs don't usually mix well. There are only a very few motherboards the OC Forums community would recommend for overclocking the 8 core FX CPUs: Two or three Asus boards and a a couple of higher end Gigabyte boards. MSI just seems to put weaker power producing components on even their high end boards on the AMD side. In addition, your Wraith cooler may be limiting you.

with prime95 i stressed tested for an hour and it got to 63C. it is 32GB of RAM to be clear. are you saying 16>32? the only reason i have that cooler is im nervous to use liquid cooling and something fails......

- - - Updated - - -

All that and the lack of cable management will hurt your air flow, a tidy case is your friend don't expect anything over 4.3-4.5 with the wraith cooler unless you have a spectacularly good chip. What have you used to test your overclock ?

yeah. i need a new case lol. been wanting one. theres not a lot of room to do much. i do have 3 case fans, but all those wires......

 

[trents]

I'm saying two 16 gb sticks of RAM put less stress on the IMC than four 8 gb sticks and I'm also saying that 16 total gb of RAM puts less stress on the IMC than does 32 total gb. And is there a reason that you need all that RAM? What do you do with the machine? Are you doing a lot of high end Photoshopping or video editing? If not, I would be tempted to take two sticks out.

Concerning reluctance to do water, there are a lot of high end air coolers that will give better temps than the Wraith. And what exactly does the 63c you reference refer to? Is that CPU temp or package temp and what tool were you using to check temps. There are two important temps you need to track when overclocking an FX CPU: 1. Core/package temp (which measures temps inside the processor) and 2. Socket temp (often called "CPU temp") which measures the thermal stress on the motherboard's power producing components. If either of these get too high you will either get instability or throttling.

Please download and install HWMonitor on your desktop. Open it and expand it's window so you can see everything from the Package temp line up to the top. Run Prime95 blend for 20 minutes. Attach a pic of HWMonitor after the stress test.

 

[steveokinevo]

I'm saying two 16 gb sticks of RAM put less stress on the IMC than four 8 gb sticks and I'm also saying that 16 total gb of RAM puts less stress on the IMC than does 32 total gb. And is there a reason that you need all that RAM? What do you do with the machine? Are you doing a lot of high end Photoshopping or video editing? If not, I would be tempted to take two sticks out.

Concerning reluctance to do water, there are a lot of high end air coolers that will give better temps than the Wraith. And what exactly does the 63c you reference refer to? Is that CPU temp or package temp and what tool were you using to check temps. There are two important temps you need to track when overclocking an FX CPU: 1. Core/package temp (which measures temps inside the processor) and 2. Socket temp (often called "CPU temp") which measures the thermal stress on the motherboard's power producing components. If either of these get too high you will either get instability or throttling.

Please download and install HWMonitor on your desktop. Open it and expand it's window so you can see everything from the Package temp line up to the top. Run Prime95 blend for 20 minutes. Attach a pic of HWMonitor after the stress test.

i think i may try taking 2 sticks of RAM out. i have been told that i really only need 16 to do PC games. i know computers and all just not the technical overclocking sides of stuff. just thought more was generally better, but i do understand what your saying. if it was 2x16's it would be better over 4x8's.

heres the results of the stress test for 30 mins. i put the cpu back to 4.3 after reading kenrou's comments.


could you point me in the right direction for a good cooler? thanks for the help and suggestions btw

 

[||Console||]

Noctua makes nice air coolers . The bigger the better for cooling. You could also look at a 120x2 aio

 

[Kenrou]

Noctua NH-D15/S (if the case allows it) or the equivalent from another brand will be your best bet, it goes toe to toe with some of the best AIO in the market, it handles my 8370 @4.7ghz 1.431v perfectly well. Damned quiet too

 

[steveokinevo]

i'll have to look into a better fan i guess. is there anything i can tune with what i have? hows the results look?

 

[bassnut]

Assuming TMPIN1 is Socket temp then you are right on your max temps .... SOcket @ 75*C and CPU @ 56*C ......... you are not getting more out of that cooler.

 

[steveokinevo]

Assuming TMPIN1 is Socket temp then you are right on your max temps .... SOcket @ 75*C and CPU @ 56*C ......... you are not getting more out of that cooler.

thanks for the reply! so those temps are pretty normal it sounds like...... case & fan will be the next step i suppose. is there anything i can do with the memory? besides removing 2 sticks?

 

[trents]

thanks for the reply! so those temps are pretty normal it sounds like...... case & fan will be the next step i suppose. is there anything i can do with the memory? besides removing 2 sticks?

No.

Put some some spot fans on your motherboard heatsinks to get that socket temp down and consider putting a spot fan blowing on the back of the motherboard socket area. Might have to cut a hole in the side panel to do it.

 

[bassnut]

I wouldn't call those temps normal ..... they are high. With FX we have found that instability becomes more relevant once you pass 70*C socket and 60*C Package. You can try adding a fan blowing on the VRM's ( heatsink beside your CPU) and another behind your socket / motherboard sucking the warm air out, which is my preference if your motherboard has a cutout behind the CPU.

 

[steveokinevo]

i will definitely get some spot fans soon. when i took a look for them i really only found 1 from antec. any other ones i should know of?

also i removed 2 sticks of RAM so i was going to stress test that and see if theres any difference.

 

[trents]

i will definitely get some spot fans soon. when i took a look for them i really only found 1 from antec. any other ones i should know of?

also i removed 2 sticks of RAM so i was going to stress test that and see if theres any difference.

I don't under stand what you mean when you say you only found one spot fan and that one from Antec. Spot fans are not special purpose fans. They are just pc fans that you place in a particular "spot" to give more air flow across a certain component. They can be attached various ways: zip ties, double sided adhesive tape, hot glue, etc.

 

[steveokinevo]

i dont really understand all the terminology. i thought that was specific........ my bad.

 

[Mandrake4565]

stevie, just to clarify what Trents and Bassnut are saying. All you need is something like a 80mm fan for the VRM heatsink and either a 80mm or 120mm if you have the clearance between the backside of the motherboard and case panel. I used zip ties to mount my 80mm fan to my VRM heatsink and double sided tape for the back of the motherboard.

 

[Trollyy]

here is an example steve!

however you can get it on, a screw to hang it off with zipties, adhesive tape, etc.

 

[steveokinevo]

thank you for the example. that looks to be an 80mm? think i will try 1 or 2 of that size. 120mm may be too big with what i have. 1 on top of case and 1 directly over topshould be good?

 

[trents]

Where's that neat pic from Johan45 where he installed a spot fan under the socket?

I have found 50 mm fans to be about right for heat sinks.