How serious is a vDrop?

[Alec246]

Hey guys

I´m running my C2D E6400 at these settings:
8X400 = 3.2GHz
vCore=1.30
vFsb=1.30
vMCH=1.25 I think
My Samsung Value DDR2667 memory is at 800MHz with vDIMM 2.15v, 4-4-4-12

5 hours of ORTHOS with no error, memtest86, all that stuff..

Temperature:
Idle = 44°C, Orthos= 60 to 62°C, TAT=68°C Those are both for Core 0 and 1
Case temp is just wrong, I don´t know how much, but I think it´s +15°C over the real temp.

But what I´ve noticed is that SpeedFan reported my vCore to be 1.26V, but when I start running TAT, it drops to 1.22V!

I haven´t got any stability problem so far, but isn´t it just wrong?

 

[sirheck]

probably nothing to worry about.

not all monitoring software is 100% accurate.

a more accurate way would be to use a (dvom with a clamp on amp probe).

but the hell with that, if your computer runs good and temps seem to be consistant. have at it. 8)

 

[Alec246]

I´m so glad to hear this

Yeah, I´ll probably forget about it and just enhoy my 50% faster PC

Thx for the help guys

 

[highchris]

One thing interesting is that I can run at 3.4ghz @ 1.22 after vdroop all day long... My room temp right now is 21C to 22C. Temps are not getting higher than 48C under TAT.

Now...

If i run 3.5GHz I have to up the voltage considerably... 1.33? and 3.6 posts but i would have to raise it a lot more and its NEVER EVER reliable... why this wall????
Ideas

I am water cooling with a thermaltake big water 745 which has yielded very good results...

As of now.. I have some Shin-Etsu on the way and I am using AS3.

 

[mrmez]

Vdrop happens on all boards... even if only a little. It is more common and noticable when u OC.

Dunno EXACTLY what causes it... increasing inefficiencies with heat/V.

What it means in real life: u may have to bump up the V a little to get stable.

For eg... my sig sys. 1.32v No load = 1.29 full load. If i set V to 1.29 load would ~1.26... which would cause a crash.