IS THIS STABLE?

trihedral · Apr 8, 2011

Mobo: MSI 790FX-GD70
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955
RAM: A-DATA 1600mhz @ 1.65v

Cooling-
Case: NZXT Phantom (7 Fans at the lowest speed)
CPU Fan: Stock Phenom II FAN

I did about 3 hours of Prime95, the CPU @ 3.8ghz with 1.376v.

Tempts waived around 62C-65C, a little too much, then again, it's a stock fan...

Tested again for 12 hours but this time with cpu volt at 1.336 & 1.344V. @ 3.8Ghz.

No Blue Screens, all cores shows 100% Load with temps around 59C-62C.

Is this a stable overclock? Is it bad to have low voltage even if i dont blue screen?

changes: changed bios cpu volt to 1.32V. it's now running at 1.304V (57-58C) for 20 minutes now.

Will leave pc on for 8 more hours.

joytech22 · Apr 8, 2011

Yes that's pretty good, especially on the stock cooler.

You'll want to make sure you can play games as well as perform other daily computing tasks you like to do just to make sure, a CPU's only as stable as it's most unstable program.

The lower you can keep the voltages at a high clock the better, I got my 955BE to 3.8GHz stable on stock voltage, it did however make it to 4.1GHz using 1.445v @ 48C idle, and 61C load (very close to TjMAX) with a H50.

I didn't keep it overclocked though due to motherboard problems.

trihedral · Apr 8, 2011

joytech22 :

thanks for the reply joy.

i just got done running about 7 hours of blend in Prime 95 and everything is fine.

Amazingly i was able to keep everything stable all last night at 1.288v.

It's funny how when you make the jump to 4.0ghz and up it starts eating crazy voltages.

I seem to get mine to 4.0ghz fine at 1.344v @ 35 idle and 62C load. my TjMAX shows 70C on Core Temp. What is that exactly?

Oh, i was thinking of buying a CPU Cooler but don't know which to decide on.

I'm thinking the Noctua NH-D14 or the Thermaright Silver Arrow.

Kind of scared the two might hit my side fan. I run a NZXT Phantom Case with full equipped fans. (200mm side).

saint19 · Apr 9, 2011

58ºC-62ºC do you want overclock the CPU or cook an egg on it.

Those temps are VERY high, 55ºC or below are safe.

joytech22 · Apr 9, 2011

Hi again Trihedral.

That's pretty good news about the stability but you mentioned your at 62C load.
AMD CPU's tend to damage themselves at around 62C which is why it's a good idea to invest in cheap aftermarket cooling like a Hyper 212+ which can be had for around $38AUSD (about the same everywhere else in the world).

TjMAX on the other hand is what the CPU reports as it's maximum temperature before damage starts to take hold, you'll want to keep your CPU below that, any higher is a bad sign.

EDIT: I forgot to mention something about the coolers you we're thinking about:

Both of them are incredibly good coolers and will handle temperatures of a overclock very well, just keep in mind that both coolers are Extremely large.

trihedral · Apr 9, 2011

Thanks Saint & Joytech.

If 58ºC-62ºC is bad, then why have i seen some people hit 70ºC. Does that mean they're newbies?

I will try and keep temps below 55ºC, but it seems lowest with stock cooler and 1.288V @ 3.8GHz is 56-58ºC. Hopefully that would be alright until i pick up an aftermarket cooler.

Ordered the "Thermalright Silver Arrow" today along with top rated thermal grease "Innovation Cooling Diamond 7 Carat". I was scared to go for the 100% pure metal because it may be a drag to install.

Will be switching the phenom II X4 955 tomorrow for a X6 1075T.

One thing i don't understand is, the 1055T is not black edition but is in a purple box, but the 1075T is also in a purple box but labeled Black Edition. That's extremely strange to me. I'm only buying it for the unlocked multipliers.

should i switch to a X6 or not? much difference in it? How high has these chips overclocked to? i want to hit 4.2ghz T_T.

bardacuda · Apr 9, 2011

Seems like you have a good chip there to be able to get it to ~3.8-4.0GHz with relatively little extra applied voltage. You should definitely be heeding Saint's warning though and keep that processor below 55°C. I'd suggest setting the voltage to where it does not go higher than low 50s at full load and then finding a clock that is stable at that range; or better yet set it back to stock speeds until you get an aftermarket cooler. Whatever cooling you use still do not go above 55°C.

I find that Prime95 is not the best for stability testing and it may take 10+ hours to find an instability that you could otherwise find in a few minutes with a different program.

Try using LinX for 2 hours and set it to use all of your available RAM - 100MB or so...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201670]http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201670[/url]
If it completes the run without errors or BSODs I'd say your stable. (Although when I was originally attempting to OC I had an error pop up after 1h45 or so, so maybe u want to go for 3 hours to be sure)

BTW Saint I was wondering if you could update your AMD Overclocking Club thread?

EDIT1: Just saw your post and I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a Black Edition 1075T. Do you have the original box and does it say Black Edition or "BE" on it anywhere?

EDIT2: Beware of OCing a 125W CPU with an MSI board. There are issues with the VRMs having very short lifespans with high-wattage processors especially when overclocked. Occasionally they even fail at stock. Might want to read up on that first here:
http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/943109-why-vrms-big-issue-why-choose.html

trihedral · Apr 9, 2011

Very informative bardacuda.

thank you very much for the program so i could test for stability.

i will lower the clock until my silver arrow comes, though there's a question i'd like to bring up.

i was looking for the cpu i planned to get tomorrow(1:12am now.., so it's today)

The 1055T which isn't Black Edition, but on FRYS website

http://www.frys.com/category/Outpost/Electronic+Components/Computer+Components/CPU/Processors+-+AMD/Phenom+II+X4+-+AM3/
"Model: Black Edition 1075T - HDT75TFBGRBOX"

it shows the 1075T as a Black Edition CPU.

i don't want to spend $10 on a 1090T when i can have a BE for $10 less.

Do you think it's Black Edition or is the website just being retarded?

bardacuda · Apr 9, 2011

I think that website is misleading you. I have never heard of such a beast and if it were it should have a "BE" somewhere in the product code "HDT75TFBGRBOX" which it does not.
Maybe if you're lucky you can take a screenshot of that, order it, and if they send you a non-black-edition processor you can have them replace it with a 1090T lol. No guarantees there though.

trihedral · Apr 9, 2011

lol @ screenshot

but yeah, it wasn't BE on newegg with the same model, not to mention it's under a purple box and not black.

Guess i will have to put in $10 for that 1090T.

oh right another question, those big extreme air coolers like the Noctua and thermalright silver arrow, would it be best to face the fans toward the back of the case or on the top of the case (for people like me with two big 200mm fans on top).

which would do you think would result in better cooling/ flow?

i don't really have an issue with it hitting my ram, since i use A-Data 2000mhz that don't have those heat-sinks sticking up.

http://nx.i4memory.com/reviewimages/memory/adata/12gb_2000x_xtreme/12GB_ADATA_2000X_01.jpg

Four of those.

bardacuda · Apr 9, 2011

Probably the top but I am no expert on cases and airflow. Probably depends where your intake is coming from and how close any video card is etc. If you haven't noticed the edit to my first post you should definitely check that out if you are planning to OC a 1090T with that board. Also you asked if it would be better than your X4 and that all depends what you're using it for. For today's games an X6 would probably only help you in BFBC2, but down the road games are going to use more and more threads. Still though games are more dependent on the GPU than anything.
If you're into benching or video encoding or rendering then you will definitely benefit from an X6.

trihedral · Apr 9, 2011

i don't really encode videos but do bench and play high end games.

perhaps it might be future proof.

Kind of got that bad news from your edit that it might kill the VRM.

T_T i don't want to buy a new board! the 890FX seenms to have the same issue.

Is there a way to mod the VRM's? If not i'll probably just stay with the 790FX or save some up for a ASUS Rampage.

bardacuda · Apr 9, 2011

I accidentally linked to page 58 of that thread but what you really want to read is the first post if you didn't already. I fixed the link though. Another thing too is with a stock cooler it blows the air downward which spreads across the board (and therefore the VRM's heatsink) but with an aftermarket cooler you may be getting less airflow on the MOSFETs so you may want to point it towards the VRMs to give them some extra cooling. Also some of their boards don't have a heatsink on them and adding a heatsink can help considerably, but I see that yours already does have one. Sometimes just re-seating it properly with high-quality thermal compound can help. I'm not sure if your particular board is one of the more problematic ones or not TBH. Actually after just skimming briefly through his "list of horror stories" I see that model in there 3 or 4 times so that's a little unsettling.

If you are going to buy a new board I would suggest waiting until the new 9xx chipset AM3+ boards come out and grabbing one of those. Then you are very much more future-proof because you will be able to drop in a bulldozer chip when they hit the shelves. Although MSI has announced AM3+ support for some of their AM3 boards yours does not appear to be on that list and may never be added...and even if it were there are no guarantees yet how well they will work with Bulldozer chips; if all the features will work, or what MEM/HTT clocks you would be able to achieve, or if it would work with later models of the chips.

trihedral · Apr 9, 2011

That was very informative with the VRM heatsink cooling. My case has extremely good airflow, i don't think the vrm will be much of an issue with the silver arrow installed.

the 790fx i have updated bios should work fine with the hexacore, but i doubt it will ever support the 8 cores, or fully that is.

i don't plan on getting a bulldozer, 6 seems to be enough for me now considering i don't have a job. :[

should i replace all my thermal greases on my mobo heatsinks with the IC Diamond i'm getting soon which is like the 2nd best compound you can get. Not sure if that would make any significant difference. maybe by 3C.

Let's hope the motherboard doesn't squeel once i put that hexacore in and run prime.

bardacuda · Apr 9, 2011

It may help to re-seat the heat sink with proper thermal grease. I think they originally come with a rubber thermal pad and you may need another higher-quality one instead of just grease depending on how well the heat sink can be clamped or screwed down. Honestly I don't have any personal experience with it and I'm only going by what I can remember reading in a few posts where other ppl have done it. You may want to make a post about it in the MSI Motherboards section of the forum to get some better advice.

saint19 · Apr 10, 2011

trihedral :

Where do you saw those 70ºC?

The problem is that those 58ºC-62ºC are under the CPU limit, more if you want give you a good lifespan to your CPU.

Both 1055T and 1075T aren't BE, the only Thuban cores BE are 1090T and 1100T. With 1070T and 1090T is a little more easy hit the 4.2GHz stable, but the 1090T gives you unlock multiplier that is a good feature for basic overclock.

About the cooler, the fans goes in the same side of the RAM slots and blowing up the air to the back side of the case.

Regarding the mobo, if you can move on to ASUS or Gigabyte go with one of those, CH IV or Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 Rev. 3.1 if you can find it.

Finally, Do you already have the RAM? The AMD's IMC have some problems when you do overclock using all the RAM slots of your mobo.

trihedral · Apr 10, 2011

@saint19

well i've seen people hit high overclocks but i doubt they are for 24/7, only for temp benches i believe.

i want a 4.0-4.2 oc with 50-55C max, will keep the cpu for a long time before i want to upgrade.

Would be able to fit it blowing up to the top cases dual 200mm or the back works too since i only have two sticks of 1600 ram which shouldn't get blocked because it doesn't have heatsinks. (A-Data Brand).

I'm probably going to go for that Crosshair IV you said, or if i have enough dough to cash, buy a CH IV Extreme. Don't think it's worth $80+ so probably not.

Happy to dodge the amd IMC problem

, might be troublesome if i want to upgrade memory. Would then have to switch these for two 2x4gb Corsair Vengence.

so would i be better off blowing the air to my top two 200mm, or blowing it back to back fan? The back is 120mm as for Thermalright SA, it uses 140mm.

Do you think i would have to remove my case side fan just to fit this thing into my NZXT phantom case?

saint19 · Apr 11, 2011

I don't think that you need the CH IV Extreme, get for the CH IV or Gigabyte and with the if you can add an SSD to your rig.

You can keep the two A-DATA sticks, unless that you want use many adobe applications at the same time 8GB are not necessary.

The best way is blowing the air to the back side of the case, to the back fan. But you can test both configuration and keep the one that gives you better performance.

I don't think that you need remove the side fan of your case, test it and see if fit without problems.

trihedral · Apr 11, 2011

@ Saint

I also think that. for a 890FX extreme seems like a waste especially when the new bulldozer and new sockets are releasing soon.

Actually am sticking with the 790FX-GD70. Updated the Bios to most updated that supports chip unlocking and X6.

Went to the store and switched up a X4 955BE for a X6 1090T BE today. Don't really notice much differences besides de-compressing large files.

Windows 7 set to performance under power options, getting about 15-20C idle. (YES, Got the TR Silver Arrow today!)
It came with the Thermal Right Chill Factor 3, im not sure if it's worth $10 right now buying the IC Diamond.

Would waste time cleaning and re-greasing it, not to mention not knowing how much improvement & curing time it would take. Does anyone know which one is better? Thermalright Chill Factor 3 vs IC Diamond 7 Carat.

Playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit with max setting 1080P, and getting about 27-29C load.

Also changed the stock grease of the motherboard's northbridge, southbridge, and graphic card chip with the TR CF3. Hopefully it does some good

.

here's what i have now

i have no bloody clue what to improve next besides the GPU.

bardacuda · Apr 11, 2011

Greenlee tools....nice! Who needs Klein? That's a pretty beastly cooler! Does it block any RAM slots?

saint19 · Apr 11, 2011

Can I suggest change the fan that is in front of the back fan of the case, to the front side of the cooler?.

Logitech G series? Excellent choice dude, solid rig.

bardacuda · Apr 11, 2011

I have to semi-agree with saint. It's better to push air towards the heatsink than pull air away from it. However the method he described probably will end up blocking RAM slots if it isn't already. It would be better to turn the entire cooler 180°, and then flip the fans 180° again as well so they are still blowing toward the back. It would end up the same way saint suggested except the entire unit would be offset more toward the back of the case and less likely to be blocking RAM slots.

trihedral · Apr 12, 2011

@ bardacuda

lol you know my screwdrivers brand hahaha. My ram doesn't touch the coolers by 1 1/2 inch.

Since the fan touching the ram isn't much of an issue for me, i'm buying 4gb more ram and another Thermalright TY-140 fan to improve the temp by 1-2C.

The heatsink is right above it by 1 1/2 inches, i think there should be enough room to install the 140mm, i doubt it will drag down 1 1/4 inches. Kind of deciding right now... Buy another Thermal Right TY-140mm fan or a memory fan?

@ Saint 19 & Bardacuda
It's the G15, i tried to mod the keyboard's LED lights and ended up breaking it. T_T. wish i had enough cash for a G510 or G19 now.
Your sentence was hard to understand, but i think this is what you meant.

I don't see why i would need to turn the whole cooler bardacuda when turning it 180 would be the same. all i would need is to take off the fans and put them in a different area. They air flow are all pointed towards the back of the case.

You say that blowing toward the heatsink's result in better cooling, but i can't understand why when pulling seems the same as pushing to me. If they go a certain CF, both sides should be pull as much air as it is pushing, it should result in the same cooling or does it not? I need to research more into this T_T..

This was what i planned to do, either this or a corsair memory cooler.

bardacuda · Apr 12, 2011

ohh the heatsink is ABOVE the RAM. K I got it. Yeah I am an electrician and almost all my tools are Greenlee. I have the same screwdriver lol.

Well if you rotate the entire unit, the leftmost heatsink will then be where the leftmost fan is now, but if you take the fan off and put it on the other side, then the whole thing gets offset to the right. If you buy a 3rd fan and put it there, then it won't matter.

If a fan is pulling, it could be pulling in air from all directions, as in around the outside of the heatsink instead of directly coming through it's fins. If you push the air through the heatsink, then you know the air is blowing directly over the fins mostly and only very little would get deflected to the area outside of the fins.

trihedral · Apr 12, 2011

@ bardacuda

Ah, fan of greenlee than haha. if i rotated the heatsink 180 degree, the heatsinks would still be the same area unless it was a 90 degree turn. It is made even, so rotating the sinks would not do anything.

It's all a matter of changing the fan's locations.

As you can see the middle fan, i can attach it to the right wall or the left wall of the middle gap of the two heatsinks. Right now it's attached on the right side sucking air from right heatsink, should i put it to the left so it pushes air through the left heatsink and attach a 140mm on the right heatsink, all the way on the right side to push air through to the back of the case?

i hope you understand, i tried to write as simple as i can lol.

But if i didn't buy a 3rd fan, what would be the best performance place i could put the two fans?

the are a total of 4 places for the fans to clip on. Two in the middle, and one on each side.

Edit: I think i got the general idea of what you mean, except the idea that it's leaning too much to the right.

Would that be correct?

IS THIS STABLE?

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