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Total beginner looking for help taking first OC steps for AMD FX4300

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Thank you found it, wasnt marked well in manual (want to buy index) found the memok button and that successfully reset it, so i've set the settings back to where we were before we tried to bump the ram up to 1866. should i do something else for the ram? or move on to the other thing, "set the cpu/nb speed to 2600, retest. " from caddi daddi
 
yep, reset the bios to default,
set the ram manualy to spd specs.
reboot.

Sorry i dont quite understand. currently i got it back working and set it back up to the profile you gave me yesterday with my cpu/np offset still pushing it to 1.25 volts, which was the setup i ran earlier that had the stable heat on the p95 test after cleaning dust out.

so we are resetting to default settings (f5 optimized defaults, or load optimized defaults on the exit menu)? and getting rid of the settings we set yesterday?

Edit: and for setting the ram manually to spd specs do you mean adjusting the values in dram timing control to match one of the 2 columns on the right 'xmp-1866' (CAS# latencey, RAS# to CAS#, and continuing down those settings?) the only difference between the to columns is 'command rate' one column says 2t other one says 1t
 
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Only tangentially related to your overclock, but since you are overclocking your rig will use more power. Even at stock I wouldn't trust a Raidmax PSU for anything.

I'd also look for one that can put out more amps on a single 12V rail, rather than splitting it over 2 rails. Your chip iirc is only 95W tdp (I used to have that same chip and mobo for almost 3 years, literally sold them both on ebay like 3 weeks ago due to upgrading. both served me very well and actually retained 50-60% of their value when I resold them) so it's probably fine, but if you ever get a GPU (or sli/crossfire) that needs more power than your PSU can put out on one of its 12V rails (that PSU has 2 12v at 24 amp = 288w) it might fail. Or if you build a new rig someday using a chip that needs more power, same thing. Cheap PSU's can literally explode and take out everything inside your case, and/or even burn your house down. Get a quality one. I would go to jonny guru and get one he reviews and recommends.

Mind you, those are not LIKELY scenarios, but they are possible with cheap PSU's. I am no expert, I just gained this info from reading when I researched my first buy for a PSU myself (a few years ago). It's really worth reading up on if for no other reason than to be informed as possible. Seasonic, Antec, Silverstone among others are known for quality PSU builds with excellent safety features, which is what you want in something that powers everything in your computer case.

Fun video:
 
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Excellent points and I completely agree and was actually looking a round alittle at psu's the other day. I had no idea of the raidmax bad reputation till i saw a list the other day on tom's hardware forum ranking psu's by tier and i saw how poorly they listed raidmax and i started looking around. This rig was bought off a friend for cheap and he knew he had skimped alittle on the gpu and prob didnt know raidmax's reputation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

i've gone thru my share of psu's on a past rig but they always died without frying the rest of the comp or explode but very interesting video.

any suggestions? i was just poking around on amazon alittle and saw some from their tier 1 and 2 list in the 80$-100$ range.

Also is that wattage range good? how does one size psu wattage for their pc. i've seen a calculator for computer watts and saw in a guide that 'kill-a-watt' thing that you can plug inbetween the computer and the wall to get a live reading of wattage and other electrical info.
 
Wattage is not really the only number you should be looking at. It's the amps on the 12V rail that matter a lot (once you know how much total watts you need, that is). I have seen a rule of thumb that basically goes something like: You want about .08 of the total watts delivered in amps on the 12v. (And of course all the over current safety measures and such that come with quality units). This is because the biggest power users (CPU/GPU) and things like fans use that 12v for their power. So for example my unit at 620 watts delivers 48a on the 12v. Well, 620 * .08 = 49.6 That is pretty close and a fine unit. Again, do your own research just to be sure, I'm just relaying what I remember reading a while back, so it might not be 100% accurate.

Safety features matter too: A cheap unit that fails can take other stuff with it, a good unit that fails will shut itself down safely and not hurt other stuff.

With one card and a CPU most systems today are fine with a 500W psu being more than enough (provided the amperage delivered on the 12v rail is sufficient), but if you want a bit more detail you can plug your build into pcpartpicker and get an estimate on power requirements. Even that won't be completely accurate but give yourself some headroom and you should be fine. I use the Antec HCG 620

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371059

and I actually thinkt he OEM of that unit is Seasonic. While it's not their best work it is still a very fine PSU and should be more than enough overall power for most systems, with 48 amps on the (single) 12v rail. The exceptions are sli/crossfire setups you need more power, and here again the pcpartpicker build tool can help there. It's not perfect though, it estimates my 5820k as 140W (based on tdp) but I know from reading that chip can pull 300+ watts or more when overclocked and benchmark testing. Give yourself some headroom.

To get even more granular info on power use you kinda have to dig. Or use a meter that can measure power draw at the wall (I don't have one of those). And things like "tdp" aren't really indicative of max power draw. It's a heat thing, (thermal design power) and doesn't necessarily correlate to power use. Example my CPU is a 140w tdp intel chip, but overclocked in a stress test it can pull up to 350W through its socket. Or even 400 with Prime 95 which can be dangerous I have read. So I don't use Prime 95 with it (Haswell e). That's the kinda thing you have to dig around to find out, checking various tech review sites for the part in question.

This guy knows a lot more than me, check out this video, and others:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Addendum:
I looked up that unit on newegg just to see if anyone reported frying issues.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152042

Normally, newegg reviews are nothing to go by, you need professional reviews by tech people who actually tear stuff down and verify it works according to the specs listed. On retail sites people give 5 stars to anything if it lights up when they get it. That's fine, but it's not good enough to qualify as a real review in my opinion. That being said, I found this one funny.


This review is from: RAIDMAX Blackstone series RX-700AC 700W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: -Lasted two years
-Didn't fry any components when it failed twice
-Raidmax replaced it speedily (see cons)

Cons: -Lasted two years only
-Something melted despite the temperature of all other components being fine, there was a melting plastic smell for days. Shipped it back to Raidmax, they replaced it. Though it seems like they actually sent me back the SAME unit, just with some extra thermal paste slapped on the component that melted. The new one failed after a few months, and had some white, melted gooey stuff inside it, which was probably thermal paste, and certainly wasn't MY thermal paste.

Other Thoughts: I was extremely lucky that nothing was fried, and I certainly won't be dealing with Raidmax again.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,
All of our PSU comes with 2 years warranty, and if you passed the 2 years warranty we usually don't give replacements.
We appreciate you choosing Raidmax products.

-Raidmax Support Team

Thanks Raidmax! lol

Granted, everyone has units that fail. But the good ones don't have as large a risk of taking other stuff with them when they do, and have longer warranties. The unit I linked above that I use has a 5 year warranty. Take from that what you will.
 
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Builder680 thanks again, yea i'm looking at a bunch of units from the more repuatable brands, off that tiered list, and i watched some jay2cents psu videos very enlightening. and noticing most of these units have 5-7 year warranty. this raid max is over 2 years old by date but probably has around 2 years of runtime on it. Buddy built the rig, had it for like 5-6 mo before the one hdd failed, which he kept diagnosing as other things ( thats how i have a new in box copy of my mobo, he thought a bridge was bad on it they sent him a new one without asking for old one back, original one was fine so he left it in there, then he thought it was the SSD, turns out it was his high velocity HDD) then he left the rig for about 6-8 months before i bought it and i've had it alittle over a year.

That being said i'm in negotiations with my finance minister (my wife) and hope to be able to buy a new PSU in the next week or so.
 
a little evga 500-550 watt will be more than you need and they make some fine units.
 
a little evga 500-550 watt will be more than you need and they make some fine units.

Antec has some fine units too. Have an 850 and 1000W that both have done LN2 Dice and run rigs daily as well. Both over 6 years old out of warranty.

Now that I've said they are good units, one will probably die on me!!
 
have you set the ram timings in dram timing control to match the spd tab in cpu-z?
also set the cpu/nb speed back to auto.
 
No i havent yet as i wasnt entirely sure if you wanted me to load default settings on bios or leave it with the settings we were at for the stable p95 test.

Am i matching the timing to one of the xmp-1866 columns? (circled below, only difference between the is 2T and 1T for the command rate which command rate shoudl i use) should i set cpu nb speed to auto first? or after setting the ram?

Spd column..JPG
 
okay set the cpu/nb speed to auto, set dram voltage to 1.5(from auto) and the timing clocks to match. memory frequency was still set to 1600, should i set this to auto as well or try 1866 again? heres current Memory tab:

mem tab updated clocks.JPG


So dram freq still at 802 but the clocks match the spd tab now
 
That is some strange memory. And also why I never purchased any GSkill.

How the F are the memory timings TIGHTER at higher speeds? Cas 10 at 750mhz and Cas 11 at 1600??

:screwy:
 
Alright it booted. Dram Frequency on Memory tab now reads 936.5 (some times it flashes down to like 926 then back to ~936. also FSB:dram cahgned to 3:14, it was 1:4 before.

do i do any testing or the fact that its booted up and cpuz shows ~933 is enough of a test that ram is at 1866 ?
 
That is some strange memory. And also why I never purchased any GSkill.

How the F are the memory timings TIGHTER at higher speeds? Cas 10 at 750mhz and Cas 11 at 1600??

:screwy:


That went right over my head. Is that a bad thing? Or just a fact of gskill life. Again it's what was put in by buddy so if I need to add ram to the list of things I need to upgrade let me know. But I thought gskill was a decent brand
 
That went right over my head. Is that a bad thing? Or just a fact of gskill life. Again it's what was put in by buddy so if I need to add ram to the list of things I need to upgrade let me know. But I thought gskill was a decent brand

I don't know if it's bad or good at all. Just how that memory is designed.

You could run all those speeds with the 9-10-9 timings and it would probably make no difference.

In fact most memory with very little help will run 9-10-9-27-36 2T on 1.65v @ 1100mhz with most FX chips.

You've still got headroom for more OC.
 
well thats good to hear. to me its exciting getting it to actually run at 1866 after last time setting it to 1866 and it not booting and having to hit the mem reset button on the mobo ( nice feature so you dont have to pull the cmos battery and it only resets the mem settings i didnt have to redo everything after using that button to recover).

I'm quite appreciative of every ones patience. I've learned alot so far. way more comfortable, despite what i'm sure to you guys is a pretty slow pace :)
 
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