Noob Watercooling OCing 1090T

[seifer44]

So let me be very clear: I've been following this guide very closely.

My hardware consists of:
1090T
NF980-G65 Mobo
16 GB DDR3
2 GTX 470's and a 9800 GTX+ for PhysX
Custom watercooling setup. Image
Here is a YouTube video of every chunk of hardware I'm running, including every piece of my watercooling setup. Now please don't go knocking on my vid, I merely posted my video in this topic to link every piece of hardware I'm running for whoever wants to know.

As expected, my BIOS is a bit different from the tutorial is above. I have my RAM at the manufacturer's rated settings and 2T. It's also appeared to me that leaving the Green Power settings in my BIOS alone makes the system a tad bit more stable. I've been leaving the FSB Frequency alone, and all I've been editing are the multipliers and the temperature. But this is where my question comes in.

In my BIOS, there is not just the CPU Voltage, there is also something called the CPU VDD Voltage. After doing some Googling around, I read that I'm supposed to change the CPU VDD voltage along with the CPU Voltage (I have NOT touched the Northbridge voltages). I also experienced that I could not be stable without changing the CPU VDD voltage, thus I've been incrementing that. Now, when I + the CPU VDD voltage, it automatically increases the CPU Voltage, and so far that's how I've gotten stable overclocks.

Am I doing this wrong and possibly causing damage to my hardware? Right now my computer is totally stable. I can run the CPU test in Futuremark 11 and it goes through flawlessly. My temperatures haven't gotten close to the maximums, thus I'm assuming that I can continue to push my CPU further. I'm also assuming that, as long as I'm being very careful and making small increments up, that I can continue to push past the 1.4 V max limit. These are assumptions and the entire point of me posting here is for criticism stating I'm right or wrong.

CPU VDD Voltage: 1.4125
CPU Voltage: 1.435
20.5 Multiplier
4.1 GHz

Oh, and a little thing, the BIOS hasn't given me red values for my voltage OCing yet when I increase the CPU VDD Voltage with the CPU Voltage.

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Second question: Which temperature should I rely on? Right now, Core Temp is telling me ~34-35 C with my load around 12% at the moment. When I boot into the BIOS and check the hardware stats, it states ~43 C. Is Core Temp giving me false readings, or does the CPU simply run hotter/at higher load when you're in the BIOS?

 

[rubix_1011]

Moving this to the watercooling forum...you'll get more help there.

 

[seifer44]

Um. Well this is more about the overclocking than the watercooling... My watercooling is set in stone.

 

[grahamie]

have you read threw this guide ?
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/258573-29-black-edition-overclock-guide-raising-multiplier

 

[grahamie]

CPU VDD is the voltage regulator of the CPU-V
CPU V is the voltage of the CPU itslef

1.4 is not you limit on that cpu i run mine at 1.54v for 4.33
have a look at this overclocking table to assess your overclocks. https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Atid2icGx257dFc1MnRteTlMb3VOMy13WklIRWRITXc&hl=es&output=html

also use prime95 to test for max temps and stability

 

[rubix_1011]

OP- I can move it back if you wish...I wasn't sure which you were really looking for help on...up to you on that.

 

[seifer44]

1.4 is not you limit on that cpu i run mine at 1.54v for 4.33
have a look at this overclocking table to assess your overclocks. https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Atid2icGx257dFc1MnRteTlMb3VOMy13WklIRWRITXc&hl=es&output=html

So it's safe for me to assume that as long as I don't get too hot, I can keep pushing the voltage all day?

Still wondering which temperatures I should rely on while I'm pushing my processor.

 

[rubix_1011]

CoreTemp or RealTemp are usually pretty accurate while in OS.

What are you running in your water loop?

 

[seifer44]

CoreTemp or RealTemp are usually pretty accurate while in OS.

What are you running in your water loop?

I've been using CoreTemp so I'll just continue with that.

And what do you mean? It's just distilled water with anti-corrosive if you're being literal.

 

[rubix_1011]

I meant what components...pump, radiators, blocks, etc.

 

[seifer44]

Swiftech APOGEE-XT Extreme Performance CPU Waterblock
Swiftech MCR320-QP Quiet Power radiator
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump Liquid Cooling System
XSPC Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir - Black (Ball Front)
I have 1/2" tubing and there's a little over 1 liter of water in there. I've got 3 fans on the radiator (obviously).

 

[cuecuemore]

So it's safe for me to assume that as long as I don't get too hot, I can keep pushing the voltage all day?

Still wondering which temperatures I should rely on while I'm pushing my processor.

I wouldn't push your voltage too far. Carefully record what voltage it take to get stable at each OC. You should be able to get up to 1.5 without problem. Some people say 1.55, but this is all at your own risk. You seem to be doing everything right so far, but I have a few suggestions for you as I also own the NF980-G65 and it is very different from other AM3 boards.

It appears that you're running your FSB at the stock 200MHz(EDIT: Ah, yes, so you stated), and since you didn't mention anything about your NB or HT (did you touch those multipliers?) you're probably running them at the stock 2000MHz as well. With your CPU at 4.1GHz, I can guarantee you that you're being bottlenecked my both your HT and your NB. I'd recommend upping you FSB and dropping you CPU multiplier unitl it's back down to ~4.1 GHz. If you're using 1600MHz RAM at 200 FSB, you can up your FSB to 240 and drop you RAM multiplier from 1:4 to 1:3.33 and it will still be running at 1600 MHz. If you leave the multipliers on the HT and NB alone, you'll be running at 2400MHz on both of them, and your CPU and GPUs will be able to communicate more easily. You may have to up the CPU-NB voltage to get this stable, it may take a little trial and error, but it's been worth it in my experience.

 

[seifer44]

Yes the only thing I was messing with so far were the multipliers on the CPU and the CPU voltage. I'll get to working on this. Thanks for the advice everyone

 

[seifer44]

Best answer selected by Seifer44.

 

[rubix_1011]

Are you only running your CPU in this loop? If so, you are fine. If you are running the GPUs, you'll need more rads.

I'll drop this back to the OC section...sorry it got moved...my mistake. If you need anything watercooling, PM me or come visit us back in the watercooling forum.

 

[seifer44]

Yeah I've only got my CPU right now. I've considered purchasing a bunch of new watercooling stuff just for my GPU's, but I don't really have the money for it right now. Besides, they are just 470's. I might be better off getting something out of the 500 series.

Take a look at the picture and the YouTube video if you want a better look at my system. It's in the first post.

 

[rubix_1011]

To be honest, there isn't a lot of performance difference between the 400 and 500 series at mainstream and above. SLI 470's are very powerful. I still run SLI GTX 260's and they perform wonderfully.

 

[seifer44]

The main difference between the 400 and 500 series is that they're more power efficient, thus produce less heat. My 470's get hotter than Jessica Alba.

NVIDIA also released a flagship GPU based on a revised GF100 architecture (GF110), called the GTX 580, that featured higher performance/power efficiency than the GTX 480. Nvidia also recently released two updates to the GTX470 and GTX460, the GTX570 and GTX560 Ti, both of which also feature better performance than their predecessor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce#Generations