jimmysmitty said:
By round I mean the contact part of the heatsink. The one that touches the CPU and thermal paste. It could be a bit round instead of near flat (flat is impossibly to do but still is feasable to a microscopic point).
And yes the voltages can be set wrong even by default.
My system is a good example. I got it together and instaklled everything and was set. Tried to play any game and it would crash after a while, sometimes sooner than later.
I checked my BIOS and my memories voltage was set too low at 1.8v while the spec was 2.1v. Then when I OCed it I was able to lower the timings increaseing performance a bit too.
There is always a chance that it could have set something wrong on auto.
And it could be because of only having one intake fan. Normally its better to have 2 or 3 at minimum pulling air in the front and out the back.
Well, here's a picture of the HS:
http://www.masscool.com/product_detail.php?tab=3&pid=14...
Some differences: The back plate is plastic on mine and there is no preapplied thermal compound (But they give you a pack separated).
When I first took out the HS, the paste was already pretty close to it, so I don't think I could have made it any tighter...
As for the voltages, here are some interesting findings:
Before BIOS update:
CPU Clock Ratio: [8X]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio: [+0.5]
CPU Freq. 1.70GHz (200x8.5)
After BIOS update:
CPU Clock Ratio: [12x]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio: [+0.5]
CPU Freq. 2.60GHz
Voltages no change:
CPU Vcore 1.2250v [Auto]
CPU Termination 1.200v [Auto]
CPU Reference 0.805v [Auto]
As for the RAM...
DRAM Voltage: 1.800V [Auto]
Which is different from the voltage number listed on the RAM stick (2.0v-2.1v).
The timings were also different, for the card it's 5-5-5-15. (Is that CAS Latency, tRLD, tRP, tRAS in order??)
Performance Enhance was set to Turbo on default (Other options: Good, Xtreme).
I tried matching the timing with 2.1v setting under the new BIOS, but it still hanged up in Prime95 (Again, not BSOD). Should I try 2.0v and maybe set Performance Enhance to Good?
The CPU temp didn't change... I guess I should attribute that to not having enough fan intakes? Here's my airflow (Image was from google):
http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=300rnr.jpg
Pink arrow show airflow. HS has a fan inside also blowing the same direction as the back fan as indicated.