Cooling

[CtrlAltDel]

Firstly, hello everyone, been browsing these forums for a while and decided to register as I need some advice.

I just built me a new rig, here are the specs:

Athlon XP 2500+ (barton) @ 2100MHz (200x10.5)
Abit NFS7-S
2 x 256MB DDR400 Twinmos
Radeon 9800Pro @ 378/702
Maxtor Diamondmax 9 SATA HD
Two older seagate HDs
Compucase 6A Midi Tower

The system itself runs just fine, but the problem is that it's running pretty hot, idling temps (celcius, HSF on full rotation): case 40, cpu 45, and in full load the cpu sometimes gets a few degrees over 60. The system is stable, but I'd like to overclock a bit more, but first I need to get my temps down. I have no case fans yet, and my case has room for one 120mm exhaust fan in the back and one 120mm intake fan in the front. My heatsink and fan combo is Thermaltake Volcano 11+ with manual fan speed control and my room temperature is at about 22C. I used silver paste for the HS. My questions are following:

1. Are these temperatures normal for my system, or should I check my heatsink seating and if the paste was applied in the right amount?

2. What kind of case fans would you recommend? Something efficient, but not terribly loud ones. How much can they lower my CPU/case temps?

3. Should I cut holes for additional case fans, or should just 2 120mm fans be enough?

4. How far should I be able to OC my 2500+, now I know that each processor is an individual case, but if anyone has any OC results I'd like to hear about them.

5. What about the R9800pro? How much can I oc that, and is it even worth overclocking, or is my CPU already bottlenecking it?

6. I'm using aggressive memory settings (not manual, just the aggressive in the softmenu III). Using turbo settings, or even slightly more aggressive timings the computer refuses even to boot and I have to clear the CMOS. Should I pay attention in tweaking the memory settings? Any real performance gains there? My memory is currently running in sync with my FSB (@400MHz eff), is it worth overclocking the FSB furhter as I suspect that the memory won't run stable with much faster (MHz) settings?

Whew, what a long post. Hope it makes any sense ;).

ctrlaltdel

[amd_man2005]

Mostr have no problems gettin the 2500+ to 200X11 wih decent cooling, Also what kind of Silver PAste did you use? I recommend Arctic Silver 3. Another, expect to have to cut your case, in fact I just got done doing that myself :D. But if the 120mm's are decnt, one 120mm in take and one 120mm exhaust may be OK.

[CtrlAltDel]

Originally Posted by amd_man2003

Mostr have no problems gettin the 2500+ to 200X11 wih decent cooling, Also what kind of Silver PAste did you use? I recommend Arctic Silver 3. Another, expect to have to cut your case, in fact I just got done doing that myself :D. But if the 120mm's are decnt, one 120mm in take and one 120mm exhaust may be OK.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm also fairly certain that the 200x11 is obtainable, just won't try it yet as the temps would suggest that there's no chance that it'd be stable. As for the thermal paste, I was going for the AS3, but unfortunately the store didn't have it in stock so I chose another silver paste brand. Can't remeber the name, possibly Titan or something like that.

I'm also ready to make space for more case fans if necessary, but I'll first have to try if the 2 120mm fans would be adequate, I don't want my computer to sound like a jetplane, though when using the volcano 11 at full rotation it comes pretty close to that already.

BTW, what kind of core voltages should I be looking at when going for the, say, 200x11 OC?

ctrlaltdel

[amd_man2005]

120mm normally are the quitest fans around. And alot of times, ppl hit 200X11 at stock voltage, I know my 1700+ TbredB only takes 1.7Vcore to hit it, so Im guessing itll take ya 1.65V core maybe

[CtrlAltDel]

Well just out of curiosity, I tried setting my multiplier to 11 (11x200). System posted but rebooted while loading windows. I upped the Vcore to 1.75, and after that I even got to windows and was able to run 3dmark2k1 and 2k3. However, 3dmark2k1 refused to give me any score, even though I successfully completed all the tests. And my score in 3dmark2k3 was almost 1500 points worse than normally. Any ideas why? My temps were still under 70C after both tests. I'm a bit disappointed since I was almost certain that my system could run fine even with higher settings. Any help would be appreciated!

CtrlAltDel

[CtrlAltDel]

Just a quick update on the subject. It seems that the 1.75 voltage was simply not enough. With 1.825Vcore I'm able to run my system at 202x11 (=2222MHz) and it's stable, although still under stress my CPU temps raise a bit over 60C, but hopefully those case fans will help the situation. The strange thing is, that I can't for some reason go over 202FSB, even if I use memory divider and relaxed memory timings, anything over 202FSB results that the computer won't post and lets out the long beeps which mean (IIRC) memory error. As I mentioned earlier, my mobo is Abit NF7-S (v2.0), could this be a mobo/bios specific problem? It is a real shame that I can't up the FSB any higher, as I believe I might be able to squeeze some more real performance with it, although I wouldn't be able to run my memory in sync with the FSB.

BTW, I also succeeded in finding my limits with the 9800pro (core 400/mem 700), after that I start getting artifacts. Is this a good stock overclock or not? The card is Club3d R9800Pro.

Also, I'd appreciate if someone could give an estimate how much I'd be able to drop my CPU/case temps with two 120mm fans (compared to no fans at all)

CtrlAltDel

[amd_man2005]

Well your TwinMOS should go further than that, try upping your VDIMM. And the fans will help greatyl if postitioned right

[CtrlAltDel]

Originally Posted by amd_man2003

Well your TwinMOS should go further than that, try upping your VDIMM.

Yeah, that's what I though when I bought the memory, but for some reason even upping the VDIMM doesn't help(?), or how high do you think I should set it? I think my mobo max is 2.9. I also tried running 220FSB with memory divider 6/5 and relaxed timings, which equals 366MHz DDR for memory, even this didn't help, all I got was a black screen after boot and I had to reset CMOS (for the about hudredth time :laugh: ). Now this leads me to believe that there must be something else I'm missing. I think my mobo+CPU should easily hit 220MHz and my memory should most certainly be able to run @ 366MHz since it's PC3200 (duh!). Maybe the memory divider doesn't work correctly? Although when you set the divider in BIOS, it also shows you the result speed with the selected divider (in this case 366).

[B] And the fans will help greatyl if postitioned right

The intake fan seating is in the lower front of the case, and the exhaust fan seating is in the upper back of the case, approximately at the height of the CPU, which I guess are pretty standard locations(?).

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[Wiggo]

Ya havn't installed the retainin' clip of the HSF backwards have ya? (the pressure point should be directly over the core) :?:

[CtrlAltDel]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Ya havn't installed the retainin' clip of the HSF backwards have ya? :?:

No, I've done that mistake in the past so I knew not to do it again. ;) I'm mostly hoping that the case fans would drop the CPU temp down by at least 5 degrees. I know that my case temps are way too high (40C), but since I don't have any experience on how much the case temp effects the CPU temp it's really hard to say whether the five degree drop is obtainable or not. If I could lose the five degrees then I'd be at around 55C (while using 202x11) @ full load, which I would consider high, but acceptable.

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