vCore rating

[gt81]

I'm wonder whether my voltage is too high for the overclock I have, E4400@2.66ghz. CPUZ indicates a vCore of 1.39, coretemp is showing idle temps of around 50 degrees (which seems to be better than what I originally posted) with load temps around 65-68.

I'm not sure as to how to try and get these temps down somewhat.

C2D E4400@2ghz (stock)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Gigabyte P35-DS3R (rev1.0, with F6a BIOS installed)
Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 (stock)
Corsair 520w PSU
Akasa Zen
Hitachi Deskstar 320gig HDD 16mb cache
EVGA 8800GTS 320 standard clocks

[Pie_uk]

hello gt81, that does seem very high for that chip. did you seat the heatsink properly? dont go by what CPU-z is telling you, go by the Bios readings.

report back what its set to in the bios. as that chip should be fine for 1.325vcore. this should drop the temps down somewhat

is the akasa zen you're case? hows the airflow ?

pie

[gt81]

hello gt81, that does seem very high for that chip. did you seat the heatsink properly? dont go by what CPU-z is telling you, go by the Bios readings.

report back what its set to in the bios. as that chip should be fine for 1.325vcore. this should drop the temps down somewhat

Yeah the heatsink seems fine, doesn't feel that hot to touch either, even under load.

I've set the voltages to automatic, so maybe its overestimating what it needs. I'm not sure how to change vCore in the bios, I mean I had changed something seeming to indicate vCore but it made no difference to the CPUZ reading, but then there is something after the voltages list that specifically says vCore and can't be changed, whether this is just showing the default in the same way the stock RAM clocks are shown I'm not sure. I'll have a looksee

[gt81]

is the akasa zen you're case? hows the airflow ?

pie

Yep, Akasa Zen.

Airflow seems fine, though I don't know how to measure it. The CPU fan, exhaust fan, and PSU fan are all in close proximity so I'm hoping that warm air is being outed pronto.

[gt81]

I've lowered the voltage to 1.325 and now my load temps are down to around 58-60 degrees, which is still a few degrees higher than what I'd like, but acceptable..

[Pie_uk]

right ok well still ignore the cpu-z reading, it sounds like you changed the vcore then for the chip

now have you got orthos to check for stability? give it a run for as long as you like, just make sure errors dont crop up in like the first 30 mins.

if its all good, drop the vcore down a tad more. and keep dropping it until its unstable (checking with orthos each time) then put it up again so its stable of course, this should drop the temps somewhat more

to measure airflow you just need to look up the fans specification somewhere it will tell you the cfm rating and db for noise.

pie

[gt81]

right ok well still ignore the cpu-z reading, it sounds like you changed the vcore then for the chip

now have you got orthos to check for stability? give it a run for as long as you like, just make sure errors dont crop up in like the first 30 mins.

if its all good, drop the vcore down a tad more. and keep dropping it until its unstable (checking with orthos each time) then put it up again so its stable of course, this should drop the temps somewhat more

to measure airflow you just need to look up the fans specification somewhere it will tell you the cfm rating and db for noise.

I just ran a blend test on orthos and temps were up to 65 on TAT and 65-68 on coretemp. I've not had any errors on orthos since beginning to tinker the other day. When I've got time I might take the ACF7P out and refit just to be sure but it seems pretty secure where it should be.

[Pie_uk]

yeah give that a shot, also with you're dual core have you look on artic silver website, the best way to apply thermal compound is a small thin line down the centre (gold triangle bottom left)

pie

[gt81]

yeah give that a shot, also with you're dual core have you look on artic silver website, the best way to apply thermal compound is a small thin line down the centre (gold triangle bottom left)

Okies. Will report back another day on how I'm getting on. Cheers for the help.

[Pie_uk]

cheers buddie, yeah no worries. let me know how its going

pie

[kungpo]

Well..after looking at this I checked out my e4300 temps etc.

She's clocked at 3.06 running 340 FSB with fairly ordinary ram. 44-46C on both cores at normal load (core temp 0.95), and a voltage of 1.392.

Fiddling around with the VCore speed to anything below and the machine wouldn't boot, so I put it back to Auto. Like you, I have an AC7, but I have my BIOS set to smart fan control. Thermal compound is just some cheap stuff I had lying around.

[gt81]

Well..after looking at this I checked out my e4300 temps etc.

She's clocked at 3.06 running 340 FSB with fairly ordinary ram. 44-46C on both cores at normal load (core temp 0.95), and a voltage of 1.392.

Fiddling around with the VCore speed to anything below and the machine wouldn't boot, so I put it back to Auto. Like you, I have an AC7, but I have my BIOS set to smart fan control. Thermal compound is just some cheap stuff I had lying around.

What constitues normal load for you?

I'm slowly dropping my vCore to see what the lowest bootable voltage is. I've got my orthos blend test temps down to a consistent 60c and still seem to have room to drop voltages more, so I'll see what happens. I may clock the FSB higher and see what the temps are like.

I didn't use any thermal paste, just attached the fan with what was on there, so I might have to invest in some and see if it helps.

[kungpo]

Normal load is Outlook 2007, Azureus, MSN and a couple of instances of IE7. The only reason I have different paste is I removed the AC7 when doing comparitive testing with the stock cooler. I think the stuiff t comes withis probably superiour anyway.

Howver, your 4400 shoudl reach higher speeds with it's x10 multi, as opposed to my 9x. So trying upping the FSB to 300 and slowly upwards and see what you get.

Incidentally, are you running smart fan on the BIOS as well?

[Pie_uk]

gt81,

artic cooling pre apply good thermal compound so thats not a concern. its intresting that kungpo is getting very good temps with pretty much the same chip. i know that my temps are high because its in a sugo sff case with no fan on the cooler.

[Freelance]

Hi mates. Gt81, I see from you that you changed the vCore after all, so you already got to the Ctrl+F1 combination on Gigabyte mobos which gives you access to advanced features and changing the vCore, etc.

Now, about the vCore - I have an e4300, which I OC'd @2,1-2,4-2,6 and 2,8 Ghz on the Gigabyte-p35-ds4, which should have an identical BIOS with yours, I guess. Our rigs are also not that different, well, not too much. Just to let you know that I had no problems running the e4300 on 1,25vCore @ 2,4 and 2,6 and the temps were acceptable (need to find them somehwere - aha!!! found them 2,8Ghz idle 36C; short 1hrs orthos 54C; short 50min tat 61C; I have reseated the HSF meanwhile and temps were higher during hot season, but ambient went down here to 15-18C {brrr} and CPU temps are down again). Bottom line (for my case) - the higher vCore gave me much higher temps. "Automatic" increased the voltage and respectively the temps up the roof. Do try playing with the vCore a bit.

BTW, the "normal" or "official" vCore for these Gigas is 1,3250v, so presumably you shouldn't have problems with this vCore at all.

Another thing that may (or may not?) be related to higher temps is the Intel IHS, which enough people quite often claim to be uneven - so they are lapping it. I don't know if it helps, but here are the threads on lapping:
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...hlight=lapping

or a thread on Xtremesystems mentioned by Tetras in the thread above"
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=156774

There are more on this forum (by graysky, who usually has good reviews - Thanks graysky!). Give it a search if it interests you.

Hope it is not off the topic too much.

[Pie_uk]

chilled pc do a lapping service for £12.49 or something. i just ordered a lapping kit after reading that link you gave to extreme systems !

i have always wanted to lap my processor ! now i will