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I LOVE the smell of burnt VRM's in the morning! (Help needed!)

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coachmark2

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
So I OC'ed my 920 to 4.0GHZ @ 1.5 volts. I was running an hour at Prime95 to see if she was stable and then POP! It just shutdown. I sat there stunned for a bit and then wondered what was going on.

Then I smelled it.

Burning VRM's have a very distinct smell, and I knew before I opened the case up what I would see. Behold!

For reference, this was an EVGA X58 SLI LE on a Corsair TX750, a single GTX 470, and an i7-920. This computer was named "Hydra" and she died by fire...
devil.gif


So now I'm on the hunt for a new X58 board since it's far out of EVGA 90 day warranty. Check out the picture, and happy OCing

 
#5 ·
Sorry for your loss but where you trying to kill the cpu? Putting 1.5V through the CPU and running prime95 is a great way to do it.
 
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Discussion starter · #7 ·
Hey all,

It's a 920 D0 stepping, and my case sounded like a tornado attacking a herd of kittens. SO MUCH AIRFLOW.
biggrin.gif
Under prime, with an H60, I was only hitting 76 Celcius and 48 in games. I suppose 1.5 was a bit much for her....
frown.gif
 
#8 ·
How long where you running 1.5V?
 
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#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by coachmark2 View Post

Hey all,

It's a 920 D0 stepping, and my case sounded like a tornado attacking a herd of kittens. SO MUCH AIRFLOW.
biggrin.gif
Under prime, with an H60, I was only hitting 76 Celcius and 48 in games. I suppose 1.5 was a bit much for her....
frown.gif
Click to expand...
One of the disavantages of watercooling is that the mobo does not get much active cooling. With a 920 D0 stepping, around 1.30 V or less should be quite enough for 4.0 GHz. Although you were using an EVGA X58 SLI LE, which did not have great VRM components. It was a 6+1 or 6+2 VRM implementation iirc, so 1.50v may have been too much for that mobo. Other X58 mobos had good 8+2 VRM or a bunch lower capacity 16+2 VRM implementations.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ForNever View Post

Damn, sorry for the loss. How long did the board serve you?
Click to expand...
About two days...I came from a sandy setup that died and just (incorrectly) assumed that it could handle 1.5v... I just got it and now I've killed it.
frown.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by rancor View Post

Sorry for your loss but where you trying to kill the cpu? Putting 1.5V through the CPU and running prime95 is a great way to do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, i didn't know that. I was going by a guide that was on the EVGA forums for OCing it. Won't make that mistake again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rancor View Post

How long where you running 1.5V?
Click to expand...
Maybe an hour of desktop/gaming and about a minute of Prime95
Quote:
Originally Posted by TopicClocker View Post

I guess you're very fortunate, It could of been a lot worse.
And only 90 Day warranty? Were you required to register to obtain more days? or was It something like an OEM version?
Click to expand...
I got it in an OCN combo deal. EVGA says it's expired.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wr3tch3d View Post

ouch
frown.gif
For the record, does a burnt VRM smell the same as a blown up power supply? Just for future knowledge...
Click to expand...
From what I understand, they smell rather similar, depending on what died exactly in the PSU
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
For those who have replied to this thread, i have a few questions:

1. On that EVGA board which has a sub-zero mode for extreme overclocking, shouldn't the VRM's have been able to handle 1.5v? I had ABSRUD case ventalation too.

2. What is the max safe voltage for the chip if I can keep temperatures in check with my H60? I know intel spec says .8-1.375 but I've seen people go 1.4 too. Is that the upper limit?

3. What about this? http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=20028&mpage=1

It recommends a start Vcore of 1.475, was that too high?

Just don't want to repeat my mistake.
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by USFORCES View Post

It's common sense 1.5v and running prime95 is just asking for trouble, 1.5v is for a quick bench test with some cpu's or to see if your chip can do 5GHz even then your still taking a chance.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Where did you learn this? And what of the EVGA forum?
 
#18 ·
1)
  • The sub zero mode is most likely there just so you can drop the clocks to stabilize the system after a bench run.
  • Extreme overclocking settings and voltages should only be used with extreme cooling
  • No one is doing extreme OCing with prime95. You aren't supposed to torture test chips at extreme voltages, that's for benches
2) I always said 1.4v for air/AIO loops and 1.45v for custom water. There's also no way you're keeping 1.5v cool enough on a H60 wihtout the chip throttling. But yeah, usually people recommended an absolute max of 1.45v for 24/7 usage.

3) the guide is more of a "how-to-get-a-high-validation" guide than a guide for getting your 24/7 settings right. Again, you're not supposed to stress test at these volts.
 
#19 ·
I just realized its the northbridges mosfet that died not the CPUs so it might just have been a bad board.
 
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#20 ·
Remind me to list this in the confirmed failures list
 
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