Overclock.net - Overclocking.net - Blogs - LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/ An overclocking forum devoted to maximizing the performance of graphics cards, CPUs, motherboards, RAM and everything else found inside your computer case. en Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:46:03 GMT vBulletin 1 http://static.overclock.net/images/oc/misc/rss.jpg Overclock.net - Overclocking.net - Blogs - LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/ Motherboard BIOS Updated http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1500-motherboard-bios-updated.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:39:02 GMT Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything about my system and what can I say, it's been stable. I just updated the BIOS to 2205 for my particular motherboard since one of the previous updates took care of a certain OVERFLOW error I kept getting every couple of weeks.

The good new is there are no problems with the update, the bad news is that all my stored OC Profiles (ASUS MB afterall) were deleted and I can't remember half my bloody settings :mad:. Oh well, try again and make things work better hopefully. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1500-motherboard-bios-updated.html Thermalright VGA cooling on a 4890 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1331-thermalright-vga-cooling-4890.html Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:32:08 GMT Well the results are in and lets just say that it was a much more involved upgrade than I originally thought that it was going to be. While I had originally planned on removing my cpu heatsink to apply MX-3 to it, I had no idea that the VRM-R2 would make contact with my 120x38mm Panaflo (which I... Well the results are in and lets just say that it was a much more involved upgrade than I originally thought that it was going to be. While I had originally planned on removing my cpu heatsink to apply MX-3 to it, I had no idea that the VRM-R2 would make contact with my 120x38mm Panaflo (which I had also planned on making a shroud for). Ultimately, I changed the fan from a push to a pull configuration and based upon what I have read in the forums here, that's going to cost me 1-2C in the end. I did think that I could place the whole thing in my lower PCI-E x16 2.0 slot, nope, the gpu heatsink fans hit the top of the PSU and wouldn't allow insertion into the slot.

I did add 2 110cfm blue LED CoolerMaster fans to the top of my case as exhaust fans, hopefully these will help with getting rid of some of the heat generated by the T-Rad2 GTX exhausting into the case instead of out the back like the reference cooler. So the T-Rad2 GTX has 2 92x25mm 26cfm 1500rpm Thermalright fans supplying cool air to the heatsink and the VRM-R2 has a 80x25mm 25cfm 2000rpm MadDog fan blowing cool air from the front through the cpu heatsink out the back :devil:. That doesn't appear to be making that big of a difference atm.

I must say that with the GPU (DispIO) & GPU VRM load temperatures I'm impressed, but the GPU (MemIO) & GPU (Shader) load temperatures were pretty close to where they started.

Just a little bit of information before I list temperatures. The T-Rad2 GTX fans are at ~40% & VRM-R2 fans are at 100% during idle, while all fans are at 100% during load.

Stock IDLE/LOAD:
GPU (DispIO) - 57C/81C
GPU VRM - 54C/103C
GPU (MemIO) - 62C/85C
GPU (Shader) - 58C/85C

T-Rad2 GTX & VRM-R2 with MX-3 IDLE/LOAD:

GPU (DispIO) - 48C/73C
GPU VRM - 42C/75C
GPU (MemIO) - 53C/84C
GPU (Shader) - 48C/80C

I've gone ahead and attached screenshots of before idle/load and after idle/load. I hope that this can be of some help to someone else who decides to do this upgrade.

I do have an email out to Thermalright about the white washers between the screws and graphics card right now. They seem to be "floating" :confused: there (maybe 2mm more or less) and making no contact with the card. I followed the included directions and even verified on their website this was correct (nut, black rubber washer, graphics card, white plastic washer, screws, heatsink, fans), but it seems to me that the plastic washers and the rubber washers should be swapped.
Attached Thumbnails
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]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1331-thermalright-vga-cooling-4890.html ASUS Technical Support Responds http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1325-asus-technical-support-responds.html Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:56:27 GMT Sorry for the length of this one, but I felt it all needed to be said and included. Well, I've gotten a couple of responses from ASUS Customer Service (I'm assuming they're located in Taiwan given the guys(?) name). Here's the first email exchange:

Quote:
Dear ****,
Thank you for contacting ASUS.

This is **** and I will be assisting you with the issue you have posted.

Firstly, would you please tell us when and after what action this problem occurred? Did the problem exists when you first using this card?
Secondly, the VGA card requires supplementary power. Before booing your PC, please make sure you connect the supplementary power connectors.
Please refer to this link and choose the corresponding PSU:
http://support.asus.com.tw/PowerSupp...Language=en-us
Thirdly, please check if there is any updated BIOS or driver for your other PC components.
Otherwise please change this card to another PC to test.

Sorry for any inconvenience brings to you.
Thanks a lot for your kindly understanding and support!

I look forward for your response with all the details to assist you.

Yours sincerely,

**********
(Fruitful 2009)
ASUS Customer Service Center
And here's my response:

Quote:
Dear **********,

This problem first occurred yesterday after I started a stability and artifacting test. Prior to this, I had not observed this LED lit up at any time, even during POST. I had used SmartDoctor to make voltage, engine, and memory adjustments, then began the test. After about 15 minutes everything stopped and my screen got a checker board pattern. During the test I had opened my case to allow cooler air to the graphics card and noticed that the D601 LED was lit after everything stopped working. After resetting my PC, the LED went out but I have been unable to adjust anything with SmartDoctor and maintain stability.

I have a Zalman ZM850-HP 850W PSU installed in my PC. All supplementary
(2x6pin PCI plugs) have been pulled and reseated. All hardware BIOS and
drivers are up to date.

Sincerely,

Mr. ************
Now since then I've been able to use SmartDoctor to OC and have had no issues with stability. Kinda odd in my opinion, but I'm not going to question the Computer Gods of Hardware. I've gone with a more mild OC of 925/1100 @ 1.375V even though I have been able to achieve an OC of 935/1155 @ 1.375 using GPUTool, I felt more comfortable with this lower OC after what has happened, plus I have seen no artifacting in Furmark with this OC.

A positive is that my temperatures have been noticeably lower since I set the new OC. My idle temperature has been ~46-48C with the stock fan at 40%-60% (SmartDoctor Smart Cooling) and my load temperature has never gotten above ~71C. The VDDC Slave temperature under load have never exceeded 90C, although it should be noted that I was using Furmark to obtain these temperatures and not OCCT GPU.

Now I have received a second email from ASUS Technical Support advising reinstalling ASUS Catalyst 9.7, GamerOSD, and SmartDoctor.

Quote:
Dear Mr. ************,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

My name is **** and it's my pleasure to help you with your problem.

Firstly, “the LED is still lit”, the phenomenon is not normal.
Secondly, please reinstall these drivers manually:
http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/vga/A...in7Vista64.zip
http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/vga/G..._Vista3264.zip
http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/vga/app/SmartDoc534.zip

Welcome to refer Troubleshooting & FAQ for ASUS products in ASUS website:
Troubleshooting - http://support.asus.com/troubleshoot...Language=en-us
FAQ - http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards,

**********

ASUS Customer Service

If you have any suggestions or feedback about our technical support service, please e-mail to Manager_TMSS@asus.com. We will then arrange for a specialist to work with you regarding your issue. Your suggestions and feedback are appreciated and allow us to provide better service.
The general impression I'm getting is that they think this is a software error of some kind. Well, all I can do atm is give it a try in the morning and uninstall Catalyst and SmartDoctor.

So as a final note, I've seen nothing more happen since I ran the GPU test with OCCT and the D601 LED has not returned. This leads me to believe that the OCCT GPU test is the cause and I have verified that it has discovered a design flaw with the VRMs in at least the reference design ATi HD 4890 graphics cards. Yes, OCCT does put unrealistic stresses on the graphics card during the test, but that is why I like it, it maxes out the capabilities of my card. So for now OCCT is off of my GPU testing list.

Now it looks like I can proceed with the installation of the aftermarket coolers on my 4890 and my testing of my temperatures before & after MX-3. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1325-asus-technical-support-responds.html By Golly, I Think I Figured It Out http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1319-golly-i-think-i-figured-out.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:21:00 GMT Well crap, I'm going to have to postpone putting the Thermalright T-Rad2 GTX & VRM-R2 onto my EAH4890 to help with my uncomfortably high temps, OK, they're high to me with 60C idle and ~75C when I game. This morning I opened up my case to get more air flowing to it during a 30 minute OCCT GPU test to get the maximum load temperature and low & behold, there's a LED lit up on it. I couldn't be lucky and have it be D1601 (critical temperature) or either D1602 or D1603 (power connectors A or B removed), nope it's the dreaded D601 the critical Core power fault :swearing:. Mind you, I haven't had any reason to open my case for about 3 weeks now and tbh, I don't remember having seen it lit up before.

So, looks like I'll be contacting ASUS about this one :(. I've been looking forward to doing this upgrade all weekend and now I'm going to have to RMA it.

Now I think I should also let my fine OCing friends here at OCN know that during my 30 minute OCCT GPU test I had the driver fail 2x and it crashed the system 2x (back to POST) with an "A hypertransport sync flood error occurred on last boot, press F1 to continue" :headscrat:thinking:. Related? Worth thinking about imo.

So let me postulate a stupid question, using the ASUS SmartDoctor on my ASUS EAH4890 (no mods done in ANY way), is it possible that to much voltage was sent through the VRMs and damaged it? I've run it to the max that SmartDoctor will allow, 1.45V, and ended up bringing it back down to 1.4V after much tweaking. I'm thinking yes, especially if there's a bad VRM to start and it's stressed to failure. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1319-golly-i-think-i-figured-out.html Cooling my EAH4890 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1318-cooling-my-eah4890.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:17:34 GMT OK, I've calmed down some now:thumb:. I've managed to get my OC on this guy back up to 940/1140 @ 1.4V with no noticeable problems atm. Friday, I went ahead and ordered some more parts, mostly for cooling this heater down.

I've got a Thermalright T-Rad2 GTX & VRM-R2 coming from SVC.com and some Arctic Cooling MX-3 that has already arrived from Petra's Tech Shop. I also went ahead and ordered 2 Blue LED 110cfm CoolerMaster fans ($5 a pop, :D), 2 80x25mm high volume fans (80cfm @ $2 each, :p) from SVC.com, they were having a sale on them, and and a Ultra Kaze 1000rpm from Petra's Tech Shop that I plan on converting into a shroud for my Panaflo on Megatron.

So the plan atm is to replace both the SilenX 120x25mm "72cfm" fans (one had the fan assembly just fall out :eek:, lucky me) with both the CoolerMaster LED fans, remount Megatron with the MX-3, and install the new air cooling "kit" on my EAH4890.

I believe that a lot of my artifacting problems have been heat related since I have observed the issues start as temperatures approached and exceeded 75C. Even at 100% fan speed, it just wouldn't keep cool enough. I know that running a stress test would generate heat, but the max dT is over 100C for this gpu, so the VRMs may also be at fault.

Personally I don't like using thermal adhesives since they limit your updatability later on, but I'll make an exception for the heatsinks that are to be attached to the RAM on the EAH4890 (thermal adhesive tape I think).

I'll be doing a log of my progress via a post I started a couple of days ago in the ATi cooling section. Admittedly, the cpu is included in that post, so I think I'll link it to the Air Cooling section as well.

This morning (yes, I work nights), I'll start a couple of stress tests (30-60 min) to get the heat up on both the cpu & graphics and THIS TIME I'll remember to take screens of everything. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1318-cooling-my-eah4890.html Bloody EAH4890 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1266-bloody-eah4890.html Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:55:47 GMT Alright, I'm getting severely po'd at this ASUS EAH4890. When I got it, I could OC to 975/1150 @ 1.45V with no problems and I ran Furmark for 1 hour. NOW I'm at 900/1050 @ 1.35V because about every 2 weeks I lose my OC due to severe artifacting. I don't think I'll EVER purchase a ASUS graphics card again and IMO they are complete garbage. I've had it 3 months and the first 3 weeks were awesome, now I fear that by the end of September all it will be able to run are stock speeds and by the end of the it will have to be underclocked just to be stable.

EDIT: Let me correct that ASUS graphics statement, I will never own an ASUS graphics card again. I just had to put everything back to stock and what good does it do to have a gfx card made to OC that can't be OC'd to any level? ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1266-bloody-eah4890.html Heating and Cooling http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1238-heating-cooling.html Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:55:32 GMT Well I've got the Panaflo installed and I think my top exhaust fans might be "short circuiting" the air flow through my Megahalems somehow. I'm going to pickup some aluminum ducting tape today and try closing off the sides of the heatsink. Then I'm going to take a serious look at fabricating a duct to direct most of the air from the Megahalems toward the rear exhaust.

Oh yeah, while I was at it, I moved my EAH4890 to the bottom most PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot. Talk about a pain having to reinstall all the software again, and odd to, oh well.

Just for the sake of knowing, for case fans I have 2 SilenX 90cfm 120x38mm (side panel as supply & rear exhaust), 2 SilenX 72cfm 120x25mm (both top exhaust), 1 SilenX 24cfm 80x15mm (blowing the back of the motherboard), 1 Cooler Master 110cfm 120x25mm (front as a supply), 1 Cooler Master 44cfm 120x25mm A12025-12CB-3BN-F1 (back of drive bay pushing/circulating air, same fan as the R4-S2S-124K-GP I believe), and 1 Scythe Slipstream 110cfm 120x25mm (case bottom, pushing air at my 4890). ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1238-heating-cooling.html New HSF OTW http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1236-new-hsf-otw.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:49:51 GMT I took the plunge and got a Panaflo FBA12G12H1BX 120x38mm 104cfm 41dB fan to replace the Scythe Slipstream 110cfm 37dB fan for my Megahalems. I'm just not getting the cooling I was hoping for with the Slipstream, the static pressure isn't even 1mmH2O. Sure it moves lots of air but without any pressure.

I also ordered a 38mm fan clip and a 12" 3-pin extension cable. The first, since I've gotta hold the fan to the heatsink somehow and the second so I can finally make my case power LED work.

In the 2 or 3 years I've had my CM690, not one time has the power LED lit up. Why you ask? Because it's a 2 pin cable trying to fit on a 3 pin connection. Not very smart IMO. The Intel and AMD motherboards I've always had have had 3 pin connections for the power LED and the CM690 is the first case where I've had a 2 pin cable. A little rewiring and the 3 pin extension becomes a 2-pin to 3-pin adapter or vice versa. IDK why I never thought of that before :doh:, guess I was content with at least knowing the HDD LED was on and showing the status.

Another thing to note is that I switched the HSF to a puller on Megatron. Turns out that with the ~3 inches between it and the rear exhaust, I dropped about another 2C. The coldest operating temperature I've seen prior to this (with near 2% cpu activity) was 34C, now I'm getting 32C. Kinda interesting, I wonder what would happen if I fabricated a duct to the rear exhaust :thinking:. Results probably wouldn't make much of a difference, but I am curious now to see the results.

I'm also looking at fabricating a shroud for the Panaflo as it blows into Megatron. Hmm, maybe 120x38mm like the Panaflo? This will eliminate the dead zone created by the motor hub definitely, but how would I mount all this?

Ahh, food for thought. Until later or I want to rant about something. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1236-new-hsf-otw.html Rated fan volumes http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1226-rated-fan-volumes.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:02:50 GMT Wow, I found a review on SilenX fans and found out that my 120x38mm, 90cfm fans only push approximately 34cfm :eek:. That sucks hard since they don't even put out a lot of static pressure. Dude, I am madder than a wet hen in the middle of a rain storm :sozo:. I feel like I flushed nearly $90 down the toilet. The noise doesn't bother me so much as the lack of cfm.

Live and learn, this is my first full on build in nearly 6 or 7 years. The last build I did was because of deceptive salesmanship at a CompUSA, I asked if a PIV 2.4GHz 478pin cpu would work on my HP motherboard, I was replacing a PIV 1.8GHz 478pin cpu. They said it should, so I bought it and the darn thing wouldn't even POST. I bought a Abit VT7 and started a build since I couldn't even return the cpu (jerks).

I bought my last desktop pc (Dell Inspiron 531) as a Christmas gift to my wife and I in December 2007 and my laptop for school in May 2008. Got my tax refund, heard about the Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition and the rest they say is history.

Right now I'm more interested in finding a good 120x38mm fan with a high static pressure. Static pressure is VERY difficult information to find, much less know that it is accurate. Turns out the Scythe Slipstream I've got on my Megahalems is to weak to push 110cfm through it, so I need something with more push, maybe pull, idk, I'll figure it out latter I guess. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1226-rated-fan-volumes.html Megatron is kicking the crap outta Xiggy http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1218-megatron-kicking-crap-outta-xiggy.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:42:19 GMT Well my order from SVC.com arrived yesterday afternoon around 2:30pm. Did the teardown and couldn't believe what I found, nearly 3cm of my cpu was completely uncovered!!! No wonder my temperatures started to take off, still didn't make a difference ultimately. Having reseated my Xiggy 3 previous times (correctly mind you :lachen:), I was still getting 41C idle with ambient at ~26C. Now I'm getting around 36-38C (there's some bouncing, meh) and I'm much happier. I'll look into another Scythe 1900rpm Slipstream and maybe some shrouds to see if I can't get the temps down even further.

I got even more bad news as I attempted to install my AM2 adapter only to find that it didn't fit :sozo:. I ended up cutting off about a 3x3mm segment at the cpu socket lever arm and blending it into the bends near the corners. Yes, I know it floats some, but this literally wouldn't screw down, it was that far off. A Dremel and ream fixed the problem after I found out that my little cutting wheels weren't up to the job. I don't like cutting things up that I just bought, but it was that or have the Megahalems facing the wrong way :(.

So all in all, I rearranged some fans, added some fans, and got a better heatsink. I'm still in the process of testing that last bit and I've got some cleanup left on the wiring, lots of fan wiring makes for a BIG mess. I believe I read someplace that Orthos will torture my CPU more, so I think that I'll run that to get my temperatures up.

Currently:
Exhaust - 1 rear (120x38 90cfm), 2 top (120x25 72cfm)
Total cfm: 234
Intake - 1 side (GPU 120x38 90cfm), 1 front (120x25 110cfm thermally controlled)
1 behind mobo tray (80x15 18cfm)
Total cfm: 218
CPU - 1 120x25 110cfm pointed toward the rear exhaust
Circulating - 1 at rear of 5.25" drive bays (120x25 44cfm)
1 at bottom pointed at GPU (120x25 44cfm)

Previously:
Exhaust - 1 rear (120x38 90cfm), 1 side (GPU 120x38 90cfm)
Total cfm: 180
Intake - 2 top (GPU 120x25 72cfm), 1 front (120x25 43cfm)
1 behind mobo tray (80x15 18cfm)
Total cfm: 205
CPU - 1 120x25 56cfm pointed down at the GPU
Circulating - 0

SilenX: 2 120x38 90cfm, 2 120x25 72cfm, 1 80x15 18cfm
Cooler Master: 1 120x25 110cfm, 2 120x25 44cfm
Scythe: 1 120x25 110cfm

Yes, I know I have a negative pressure case now (218cfm intake, 234cfm exhaust), but it's all for a good cause, OVERCLOCKING ;). ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1218-megatron-kicking-crap-outta-xiggy.html Confirmation http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1211-confirmation.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:53:06 GMT I just got the confirmation email from SVC on my order :yessir::applaud:. I'm just giddy with joy and can't wait for it to get here.

I do think that after I install my new Megahalems cooler and check my temperatures, I'll finally convert over to RAID-0 and run Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RC until it runs out in June. Dual boot is nice, but I always end up running one OS over the other, so I don't see much sense in doing it. Hopefully SmartDoctor for my EAH4890 works in W7, I'll have to double check that.

Heh, ships today :D.

Hmm, interesting, I just noticed my temperatures and their cycles(?), I wonder if my Xiggy isn't acting like a passive cooler instead? I've got the fan (SilenX 90cfm 120x38mm) hooked to a fan controller with my other fans and cranking it to 100% seems to do very little :confused:. Oh well, tough cookies. I'll see about getting another fan later and making a shroud for the fan. The Scythe Slipstream has such a small motor surface compared to other 120x25mm fans, idk if it will help or no.

EDIT: UPS tracking says that it will be here Wednesday, July 1. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1211-confirmation.html New Heatsink on the way. http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1204-new-heatsink-way.html Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:43:28 GMT Well, I've thrown in the towel and decided that whatever my the cause of heat issue, it seems to primarily point back to the Xigmatek HDT-S1283. However great everybody else thinks HDT is, it's not working for me. I'll go with the flat, thin base on the heatsink from now on. I did notice that BenchmarkReview updated their thermal interface material test to 80 from 33 and included method and enthusiast ratings for the TIMs.

I've gone ahead and ordered a Prolimatech Megahalems with an AM2+ adapter kit and a Scythe 1900rpm Slipstream. I added on to that a blue LED 110cfm Cooler Master to replace my 42cfm. My reasoning, both the SilenX 120x25mm 72cfm supply fans are becoming exhuast fans and one of the 2 SilenX 120x38mm exhaust fans (the one on the side panel) is becoming a supply fan. I've got 2 spare Cooler Master 120x25mm fans that I plan on using as circulating fans within the tower. One of the right now is pointed at my ASUS EAH4890 and I've seen a 10C drop there and a ~3C drop in my CPU :cheers:. Although dropping my overclock back to stock may have helped a little (~2C) there.

With shipping as it is these days, I expect to get my order by the end of the week and have everything completed by next Sunday. This also means that I have to redo some of my wire routing so it doesn't look like a mess AND interfere with good air flow. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1204-new-heatsink-way.html Confusion http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1203-confusion.html Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:07:57 GMT OK, I'm all confused now. Temperatures are back near normal again, although I do think a 1C change since updating to the 1303 BIOS revision is strange (core temp = ~44-45C :wth:).

I've changed nothing, but I did notice while I was rummaging around in the BIOS that the VCore is 1.481V. I remember having read that the "stock" voltage for this cpu is 1.35V and it's range is 0.875-1.5V, hmm, :thinking:. I manually set the voltage starting at 1.2V and raised it in 0.025 increments until I was stable. After about a dozen BSOD and 3 "I think it's stable now" then a BSOD, I just set the voltage back to "AUTO" in the BIOS. I'm gonna need a few beers after this :drink:.

Ambient is currently 25C (77F) and slowly rising thanks to my big space heater sitting next to me. I think I am still going to reseat the heatsink after I am done here, idk, maybe I can talk the wife into letting me buy a Megahalems "kit". The blue LED fan is just to replace the 33cfm I have running right now and get more air flow with a wonderful 72cfm SilenX. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1203-confusion.html Hot hot hot http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1202-hot-hot-hot.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:30:24 GMT Wow, looks like my temperatures are on the rise after this BIOS update. Coincidence? Maybe, but idk, but I kinda doubt it.

Get this, I started up my computer this morning and got tied up doing something else for about 3 hours. So it's idling, right? Should be about 43C like normal, right? WRONG!!! 55C CORE TEMPERATURE!!! ***!!! :sozo:

It takes 10 minutes of all the fans full blast, including an external fan, to get everything down to what idle temperature was before. I don't know what is going on, but I'm getting mad as hell now. I have no idea why this should change, the ambient is the same, there is only ~30% of cpu activity according to Task Manager.

I'll take and reseat the heatsink after I clean up everything. But I'll deal with this later when I get up, I'm just to tired right put up with this right now and I've been up for 25 hours.

Until later. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1202-hot-hot-hot.html Success http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1201-success.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:28:47 GMT Well what do you know? It worked. I went ahead and corrected my memory to 6-6-6-16 and then ran prime95 for 5.3hours with stable results. Things did get a little toasty at 59C on the core temperature and 55-56C on the CPU.

I still don't know why they are different, on my laptop it seems to be consistently within 1C across the board (although it does have an Intel cpu and not an AMD) :jealoussm, but I do I expect from getting a Dell, almost every single cpu they offer is an Intel.

I'm hoping someone will give me an idea that doesn't involve WC. It's just to expensive and outside of my comfort zone currently. I have been checking out the CoolIt website and some prices and while they appear to rate highly, they are almost as expensive as a full on custom WC solution. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1201-success.html A new BIOS revision and another try http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1198-new-bios-revision-another-try.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:28:09 GMT So I post to the AMD motherboards forum to try and get some help with my 1202 problem, basically I copied and pasted what I've posted here and did a little editing for language (proper English is always good).

I got plenty of hits but only one response. Turns out that ASUS has released revision 1303 for the BIOS and I missed it by several days, a week to be exact. I'm checking all this out with about 15 minutes before I have to go to work :(.

To the point, I downloaded, unzipped, rebooted to the BIOS, flashed to 1303, rebooted to BIOS, and set everything as I had it before (messed up the RAM, 6-6-6-18 & not 6-6-6-16 oops). At this point, I've still got a few minutes before I leave, so I load up Vista and sure enough no issue at this point. I'll check it out in the morning and I think I'll run prime95 for a few hours while I'm sleeping. I gotta remember to move my case out from under my desk while doing prime95 since there is very poor circulation under there, recycled heat and all that good stuff.

More on the final results of BIOS revision 1303 tomorrow "Childrens". ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1198-new-bios-revision-another-try.html BIOS 1202 revisited http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1187-bios-1202-revisited.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:42:39 GMT Monday I bought a small desktop fan to circulate air out from beneath my desk to help keep temperatures lower when I'm gaming, it seems to give me a couple of degrees Celsius so that idea looks like it worked.

I reapplied the version 1202 BIOS to my M4A79T Deluxe yesterday figuring I'd try some tweaking to get past the BSOD that keeps popping up during the Vista boot screen. I bumped both the CPU and CPU/NB voltages up by 0.1V to 1.400V and 1.200V respectively and that seems to have solved the problem :rolleyes:. Later I intend to go back and reduce these to the minimum need since I think only one may be needed. I came up with the 1.4V and 1.2V by reading on Overclocking.net forums about other people OCing their 955BE cpu and found only one person with a similar air cooler (they have the Xigmatek Dark Knight, I have just the S1283) the same motherboard (didn't list their BIOS rev. but after the 1202 update) with a 18.0x multiplier, 1.4V CPU, 1.3V CPU/NB, and 2000MHz NB clock. I figured if they could get 3600 stable like that, what would happen if I tried something similar and worked my way up there. I haven't tested for stability as of yet, but my latency (according to Everest) for the RAM at 6-6-6-18 CR2 is 46.7ns (WOOT :D ), that's a reduction of 3.1ns from previously :cool:. And according to the chart given, a full 12.6ns faster than a Core i7 Extreme 965 on a Asus P6T Deluxe x58 platform with Triple DDR3-1333 (@ 9-9-9-24 CR1).

At that time, I would say that I am happy with the results. Idle is holding at ~41C or 14C above ambient.

EDIT: *sigh* Well the issues with the 1202 BIOS came back as a BSOD paging fault in a nonpaged area and are worse than before. I spent the 3 hours trying various settings before becoming frustrated enough to downgrade my BIOS back to 1103 again. I am aware that this BSOD usually is a RAM issue (ie bad), but the only way I could get my system stable was to set everything at it's default settings :( . I'm beginning to think I may have either a bad motherboard or cpu, either is possible at this point since I'm running stable with the 1103 BIOS and not with the 1202. Very annoying and no fun when trying to overclock. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1187-bios-1202-revisited.html The routing of wiring http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1186-routing-wiring.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:35:44 GMT This last Saturday night I spent about 3 hours or more rerouting all my cabling and wiring in my tower, most of that was spent trying to figure out how to do it. Needless to say, the interior is much cleaner now and has much better air flow. I had an idea that Sunday morning, after having read... This last Saturday night I spent about 3 hours or more rerouting all my cabling and wiring in my tower, most of that was spent trying to figure out how to do it. Needless to say, the interior is much cleaner now and has much better air flow.

I had an idea that Sunday morning, after having read several reviews regarding the testing of air cooled cpu heatsinks, I noticed they all had one thing in common, a controlled environment. It didn't matter what the ambient temperature was, most were ~24-28C, they were all controlled, this was the one thing I didn't have. I figured out that if I couldn't control the room temperature with the same precision as they did, I'd do the next best thing, turn a fan on high and direct it at my tower. Well what do you know, it worked, my average temperature after running a prime95 torture test was 54C after 3 hours. At the same time I was running a FurMark stability test on my GPU (71C average). I do believe I may have this stock frequency temperature issue resolved now.

Ok, now with the ambient being 27C (80F), the cpu idling is running at 34C (93F), that's just 7C above ambient. The cpu at load is 54C (129F) and the maximum temperature for this cpu per AMD is 62C (144F). Remember I have an external tower, oscillating fan going full blast at my case to get these numbers. So at this point I would have to say LET THE OVERCLOCKING COMMENCE. :lachen: ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1186-routing-wiring.html BIOS rewind http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1185-bios-rewind.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:32:13 GMT I had ended up reflashing my BIOS back to rev 1103, everything appeared to be stable and normal once again. With BIOS rev 1202, every time I did a cold boot, the POST screen would say that the OC had failed, press F1 to... and I would have to reload the settings I had last time I started up, TO... I had ended up reflashing my BIOS back to rev 1103, everything appeared to be stable and normal once again. With BIOS rev 1202, every time I did a cold boot, the POST screen would say that the OC had failed, press F1 to... and I would have to reload the settings I had last time I started up, TO MUCH EFFORT to do that EVERY TIME I start my computer.

Somebody had suggested that I up the CPU voltage to see if that would stabilize things, of course I read this after I reflashed to 1103. At the moment, I'm just not wanting to deal with rev 1202. My guess at the time, by the lack of posts, is that everybody else is having no problems with it and that my situation is unique. Oh well, life goes on and I'm really not willing to give up on this board yet, way to many excellent reviews on it and SO many tweaks for it and so much money spent.

I must say that I hope this is not an indicator of BIOS updates to come. I've got to include that I am rather disappointed with this being my first ASUS motherboard (Abit previously) that such a little thing could cause such huge problems. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1185-bios-rewind.html Last of the parts, or so I think http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1184-last-parts-so-i-think.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:29:54 GMT I had gotten done installing the last WD hdd (planning on RAID-0 eventually), the last 2 SilenX 120mm fans, and a Zalman 6-fan controller, zero noticeable effect on the overall temperature. Oh well, plenty of air flowing now so I have little to worry about when it comes to cool air for my system.... I had gotten done installing the last WD hdd (planning on RAID-0 eventually), the last 2 SilenX 120mm fans, and a Zalman 6-fan controller, zero noticeable effect on the overall temperature. Oh well, plenty of air flowing now so I have little to worry about when it comes to cool air for my system. Best part is, even though my tower is louder, the only noise that I do hear isn't from the fans but from the air they're moving :D .

I downloaded and update the motherboard bios from 1103 to 1202, not my best move. While successfully updated, I ended up have to set everything to it's defaults (except Cool-N-Quiet is enabled) due to a BSOD and hard lock that kept coming up during the Vista load screen. I haven't exactly determined why since all the update did was add unleash mode to the ACC function (I left it disabled) and fixed the Intel 9300PT LAN card not waking up the system from S1/S3/S4 (I don't have one, so no big). I suspected that it may have something to do with the NB frequency being at 2400MHz since I had something similar happen when I tried to set that to 2600MHz with BIOS revision 1103. The only upside seems to be that I shed nearly 2C and I'm now about 11C above ambient (39C absolute). I gotta do some checking since I didn't know what the default voltage is for the NB, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that increasing this voltage would help to stabilize things.

As always, any and all reasonable suggestions and ideas are welcome. By God, I'm gonna kick this pig until it works, :cool:.

EDIT: Sure enough the issue was the NB frequency being at 2400MHz, although I didn't know why at the time :confused:. I tried raising it to 2600MHz to see what would happen. I managed to get Vista loaded, but for some reason, according to CPU-Z, it would default to 2000MHz and I couldn't get it to change. I double checked the BIOS and it was still set at 2600MHz, :twisted: . I also raised the DDR voltage from 1.86V to 1.9V, that seemed to help with the benchmarks some, dropped the latency from ~57ns to ~49ns; I was much happier when I had ~47-48ns with the NB frequency at 2400MHz. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1184-last-parts-so-i-think.html More research http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1183-more-research.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:24:14 GMT I had been reading more articles on various websites and came to the realization that perhaps the more important temperature to follow is the difference between the ambient and CPU temperatures verses the absolute CPU temperature. As of right now that difference is ~13-15C at idle, which appears to... I had been reading more articles on various websites and came to the realization that perhaps the more important temperature to follow is the difference between the ambient and CPU temperatures verses the absolute CPU temperature. As of right now that difference is ~13-15C at idle, which appears to be the norm.

At that time, I had been looking at purchasing 2 SilenX 120x120x25mm IPX-74-14 fans to replace the 2 CoolerMaster R4-S2S-12AK-GP fans, this would increase inlet airflow from approximately 149 cfm to 205 cfm. Although I'm not a big fan of LED fans :kookoo:, the front CoolerMaster stock blue-LED fan is tasteful and I think I'll leave it in place for now. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1183-more-research.html After lapping the heatsink http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1182-after-lapping-heatsink.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:17:35 GMT Alrighty then, I had completed the lapping (2 hours of work) and I could see my reflection in the now mirror like copper surfaces, especially after using the Final Polish Compound. I must say that I don't think I did that bad of a job considering it was my first time lapping a CPU cooler of any kind. Even though the coarse kit was included in my purchase, it wasn't need it since the surface wasn't that rough to start with.

Anyways, to the point, idle temperatures appeared to have gone down from ~42C to around ~36-37C, a 5-6C drop :D. Initial startup temperature shows 38C with PCProbe II & Everest and actually dips down to 35C at times after everything has loaded. I'm currently avoiding using CoreTemp since the only readout I could get in the current version is the hottest core temperature and not all four or the overall. Now for the Prime95 load information, I ran the blend torture test for 2 hours and for the first hour it seemed to hold at 53-55C (again a 7-9C drop :D) but then things started to warm up from there to 60C :shock: (still a 2C drop) after 2 hours. After much anger :mad:, checking the fans to see they were running and their speeds, opening the case to verify I had indeed clamped the cooler down properly and centered it on the CPU, I realized that the ambient temperature near my tower had risen :idea:. Well, duh, hotter air pulled into the tower IS going to make it run hotter overall :o.

Overall, lapping the CPU cooler had accomplished its intended goal of reducing normal load temperatures by at least 5C, I thought "Now I can start with the overclocking." At that time I'd gotten a CPU multiplier to x17.5 on stock voltage giving me a CPU OC of just over 300MHz for a frequency of 3511MHz. Naturally temperatures had risen, but I was not as close to the 62C mark as before. Stability had me a little concerned since I had a total computer lockup in the middle of a game and Core Temp showed the hottest core at 55C (here I used it just to get an idea). The next step, I supposed, would be bumping the CPU voltage up from the default 1.350V and see if this minor stability issue would go away. While I'd like to see a 20% OC, I think a 10-12% OC is more realistic with air cooling* given how well my AMD Dragon system heats the air where it's located.

As I have mentioned several times previously, I will continue to keep this updated as I change things with my system. It may be a couple of weeks at a time as I experiment to see the stability before I post. If anybody has good ideas or suggestions on setpoints with this particular configuration (ASUS M4A79T Deluxe, AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition, and Mushkin PC3-12800 (996601)) please leave a post or PM and let me know. It may take a couple of days to respond, but I'll at least PM you and let you know that I read your post, then I'll post the results later.

*Just so that you all know, air cooling/circulation is currently provided by the stock Cooler Master fans (intake) that came with the CoolerMaster RC-690-KKN1-GP tower (1 120x120x25mm TLF-S12-EB & 2 120x120x25mm R4-S2S-12AK-GP), 2 SilenX 120x120x38mm IXP-76-18 (exhaust), 1 SilenX 80x80x15mm IXP-52-11 (intake blowing the back of the motherboard), and the stock Xigmatek 120x120x25mm CPU PWM fan. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1182-after-lapping-heatsink.html More on my ASUS http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1181-more-my-asus.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:57:49 GMT I had set the NB frequency is set 2400MHz (2408.4MHz according to CPU-Z) and 2600MHz = BSOD, and everything else is either in auto or its default. The timings at 1337.8MHz (hmm, interesting number) were 6-6-6-18-24-2T per CPU-Z, with voltage set at 1.86V. All these timings were set manually in the... I had set the NB frequency is set 2400MHz (2408.4MHz according to CPU-Z) and 2600MHz = BSOD, and everything else is either in auto or its default. The timings at 1337.8MHz (hmm, interesting number) were 6-6-6-18-24-2T per CPU-Z, with voltage set at 1.86V. All these timings were set manually in the BIOS, with the exception of the CR. The tRC was originally 34, but I tightened it to 24 to see what would happen, so far so good. All other memory settings are left in Auto. The FSB is still at 200 since I had a few issues in the past getting a BSOD on anything near 220, I may play with it some more later, idk.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'll keep this post updated as things progress. I ordered my lapping kit from EasyPCKits.com and expected it to arrive early the next week, I got the whole shebang, ArctiClean with Arctic Silver 5, Coarse Lapping Kit, Premium Lapping kit with glass, and the Final Polish Compound. After I lap the CPU cooler and imbibe in much beer :devil-smi, I figured I'd run prime95 again to see where things would go from there and hoped to shed a minimum of 5C. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1181-more-my-asus.html Asus M4A79T Deluxe http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1180-asus-m4a79t-deluxe.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:45:23 GMT This is mostly just a transfer of information I've already posted in other forums (1 2) to the blog here just to make things more easily accessible and centralized for me.

I'm just posting this as a kind of log as to what I'm doing so that others with similar setups may follow and hopefully not repeat any mistakes that I make. Any useful suggestions are always appreciated.

I'm running a AMD Phenom II x4 955BE on an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (BIOS rev. 1103) with 8Gb of Mushkin 996601 (4x2Gb) since the end of April and, IMO, I had been running pretty stable at a CPU multiplier of x17.5 (3511MHz) and my RAM at 7-7-6-18-24-2T (CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR) voltage 1.86V (2 weeks at this voltage, 1.9V before) and DRAM frequency set at 1600MHz, all other settings are auto.

Now in the middle of May, I've set my multiplier back at stock (x16) due to heat issues, not that big of a deal at that time, I've got some ideas on how to fix that (lapping the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler). Then I got a BSOD every time I boot (I don't remember which one though, :(). I reset the CMOS since I couldn't even make it past the boot screen of Vista. I then ran the MS memory tester on the Vista DVD and behold, I got a hardware error at about 39% on the first pass. So, I went ahead and set my 996601 sets to 1333 timings on the main screen and left everything else in auto (9-9-9-25 or so if I remember correctly). I re-ran the MS memory test and got a clean test after both passes and it seems stable at that time.

I'm still new to the OC community, but it seems strange to me that after running stable for 3 weeks (admittedly a hot CPU ~42C @ idle per Core Temp) I should suddenly start getting the BSOD less than 5 minutes after startup. I tried bumping the voltage to 1.85V, tightening the settings at 1333MHz, and playing with the NB frequency and voltage some per the suggestions that MushkinSean has been posting.

The only thing that really bothered me was that my overall CPU temp seems to be ~43-45C @ 26-28C ambient (Core 0-3 seem to avg. ~3C higher). The cooler has already been removed, cleaned (with 100% acetone), and had AS5 placed on it 1 time since my initial install since I thought that the problem may have been to much or incorrect application of the AS5. I had prime95 running and got a failure after 2.25hrs and the overall CPU temp reached 62C. As I stated previously, I was going to try lapping the heatsink since numerous posts I've found on the internet suggest anywhere from a 6C to 12C drop in temperature. I was tempted to lap the CPU, but I don't want to void the warranty yet, so I'll save that as a possibly for next spring. ]]> LoneWolf3574 http://www.overclock.net/blogs/lonewolf3574/1180-asus-m4a79t-deluxe.html