Quad Core Thread: Overclocking, Cooling, Motherboards, Troubleshooting & General Info

[Phil_P]

Anybody have any experience with this cooler?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=643655

Link doesn't work!

[explicitlyrics]

Sorry.

Fixed.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=644693

[Clunk]

Sorry.

Fixed.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=644693

Save your £46 quid and put it towards proper watercooling.

[Phil_P]

Save your £46 quid and put it towards proper watercooling.

Agreed. Whether air or water cooling, it would appear only the very top tier of high end products can really handle a quad due to the amount of heat these chips can dissipate.

If that's your budget (£40-£50), get a Thermalright Ultra-120 extreme and stick a good 120mm fan on it (like an S-Flex 1600rpm) - it's the best cooling you'll get for that sort of money

[Clunk]

^^Seconded

[bwgames]

*sigh* re-applied paste, and now the temps are 5 degrees higher

time to have another go...

Edit:

OK, after about 5 different attempts at putting the paste on etc, I've ended up with:

69/69/60/61 under load
47/44/37/42 ish idle.

How do those sound?

The utterly INSANE design of the DS4 motherboard (massive great heatsinks around the CPU area make removing/installing a large cooler (Scythe Ninja+) an absolute pain (my hands look like they've been through a meat shredder), so if you're getting the DS4 either don't get a large heatsink or get the DSR3 instead, barely any difference - only got the DS4 because the DS3 was out of stock, wish I hadn't now.....

Anyone got any suggestions before I just install the intel cooler and leave it at that?

[Phil_P]

*sigh* re-applied paste, and now the temps are 5 degrees higher

time to have another go...

Edit:

OK, after about 5 different attempts at putting the paste on etc, I've ended up with:

69/69/60/61 under load
47/44/37/42 ish idle.

How do those sound?

Sounds like the HS isn't quite on flat, not making proper contact with one core (because of the temp difference between 2 of the 4 cores). See Clunk's first post for details of how to tweak. Warning - may involve more hand shredding

The utterly INSANE design of the DS4 motherboard (massive great heatsinks around the CPU area make removing/installing a large cooler (Scythe Ninja+) an absolute pain (my hands look like they've been through a meat shredder), so if you're getting the DS4 either don't get a large heatsink or get the DSR3 instead, barely any difference - only got the DS4 because the DS3 was out of stock, wish I hadn't now.....

Anyone got any suggestions before I just install the intel cooler and leave it at that?

Sell the DS4 and get yourself the DS3R that you originally wanted

[Clunk]

Anyone got any suggestions before I just install the intel cooler and leave it at that?

What voltage are you at again?

Regarding the mosfet coolers, you know that you can just take them off and use ramsinks, and grab a zalman passive heatsink for the NB, total cost of around a tenner.

[bwgames]

What voltage are you at again?

Regarding the mosfet coolers, you know that you can just take them off and use ramsinks, and grab a zalman passive heatsink for the NB, total cost of around a tenner.

Oooh, CPU-Z says 1.36V for CPU voltage...

edit:

After discovering the voltages were actually set to "Auto" in the BIOS (no I do not want the board to fiddle with the temperatures to "maintain" stability ) , I've set them to "normal", and now CPU-Z reports the voltage as 1.248V...

Temperatures have gone down a bit at idle.
At idle: 45/42/36/42
Load: 69/69/60/62...

Strange thing is, the load temperatures are virtually identical. What sort of temperatures should I be aiming for?

Edit 2: I can't do the tweaking the temps thing as my HSF fits on with pins, not screws... Any other suggestions to make the temperatures more even? 60degC under load for all 4 cores sounds like a good goal to me, or should I aim for less?

Or, get a different HSF maybe?

http://store.over-clock.com/prespec_kits.html but rather expensive

[Clunk]

Oooh, CPU-Z says 1.36V for CPU voltage...

edit:

After discovering the voltages were actually set to "Auto" in the BIOS (no I do not want the board to fiddle with the temperatures to "maintain" stability ) , I've set them to "normal", and now CPU-Z reports the voltage as 1.248V...

Temperatures have gone down a bit at idle.
At idle: 45/42/36/42
Load: 69/69/60/62...

Strange thing is, the load temperatures are virtually identical. What sort of temperatures should I be aiming for?

Edit 2: I can't do the tweaking the temps thing as my HSF fits on with pins, not screws... Any other suggestions to make the temperatures more even? 60degC under load for all 4 cores sounds like a good goal to me, or should I aim for less?

Or, get a different HSF maybe?

http://store.over-clock.com/prespec_kits.html but rather expensive

Never use cpu-z to check voltages, its not accurate.

I forget what the level is, but once you get past a certain voltage, it just defaults back down to displaying a much lower voltage than you actually have.

Set your vcore manually first, say 1.4v (or whatever you like), and lower your overclock a bit, then get it stable using that voltage.

Doesnt the Uguru thing work? If not, try speedfan or everest, take a rough average and see if it matches with what you have set in the bios.

To me, it just sounds like AUTO is giving the CPU about 1.5v and thats where your high temps are coming from.

[fat jez]

[B][SIZE="3"]To me, it just sounds like AUTO is giving the CPU about 1.5v and thats where your high temps are coming from.

Hang on a minute, you mean auto doesn't give it what ever the CPU tells it to (i.e.Vid) ? I have mine set to auto on my Asus P5K Deluxe...

Cheers,
Stephen

[bwgames]

Never use cpu-z to check voltages, its not accurate.

I forget what the level is, but once you get past a certain voltage, it just defaults back down to displaying a much lower voltage that you actually have.

Set your vcore manually first, say 1.4v (or whatever you like), and lower your overclock a bit, then get it stable using that voltage.

Doesnt the Uguru thing work? If not, try speedfan or everest, take a rough average and see if it matches with what you have set in the bios.

To me, it just sounds like AUTO is giving the CPU about 1.5v and thats where your high temps are coming from.

What should I use for checking voltages? The gigabyte software?

I'll try overclocking a bit now, but are those temperatures ok for stock?

Its a Gigabyte board, not Abit/Asus. It has something that enables you to change CPU FSB etc from within windows, and IIRC it has temperature monitoring as well as voltages - will check after work. Is that likely to be more accurate/useful than coretemp/cpu-z etc?

yeah, auto was giving my board 1.38V, when "normal" was what the CPU was asking for (1.24V).

Hang on a minute, you mean auto doesn't give it what ever the CPU tells it to (i.e.Vid) ? I have mine set to auto on my Asus P5K Deluxe...

I think it depends on the board. On my gigabyte, Auto alters all motherboard voltages to give what it deems sensible.... not a very good idea. Might be different for Asus.

[bigpun69]

I've got my voltage set on auto also on my p5k deluxe, could explain why the temps are going from 40 to 70c from idle to load when oc'ed to 3.25GHz on my Q6600.

Whats a safe voltage to start from? What increments should I up this by if I dont have success and whats the limit when overvolting?

[Clunk]

What should I use for checking voltages?

I'll try overclocking a bit now, but are those temperatures ok for stock?

Its a Gigabyte board, not Abit/Asus. It has something that enables you to change CPU FSB etc from within windows, and IIRC it has temperature monitoring as well as voltages - will check after work. Is that likely to be more accurate/useful than coretemp/cpu-z etc?

yeah, auto was giving my board 1.38V, when "normal" was what the CPU was asking for (1.24V).




I think it depends on the board. On my gigabyte, Auto alters all motherboard voltages to give what it deems sensible.... not a very good idea. Might be different for Asus.

Ah, sorry mate, for some reason, I thought you were on Abit - Yes, use the gigabyte software. I would have thought that if the gigabyte software isnt accurate, then nothing will be, but I havent tried it, so cant conclusively say

Most of the time, the AUTO setting is fine, especially for dual core, as they dont get as hot.

See how you get on with the gigabyte software.

[Clunk]

Hang on a minute, you mean auto doesn't give it what ever the CPU tells it to (i.e.Vid) ? I have mine set to auto on my Asus P5K Deluxe...

Cheers,
Stephen

No, AUTO gives it whatever it feels is needed, and sometimes it gets it wrong.

This is why, in the guide, I mention tweaking the voltages. Quite often, you can shave off a chunk of voltage by changing back to manual vcore.

[[GSV]Trig]

Maybe a table of volts vs OC might help...