3800X2 W/ XP-90

[Boris teh Spider]

Also are BIOS voltage readings usually more accurate than Windows readings? Sorry for the stupid questions but this is my first time building and OCing.

 

[TitusTroy]

I just buily myself a new system using the X2 3800+ and the Asus A8N32 motherboard with the new Zalman CPU cooler...my idle CPU temp is 44 C and idle MB temp is 39 C

 

[Boris teh Spider]

So either you live in an oven or ASUS has problems reading temps too? I am priming at 2.5 now and 1.5V in the BIOS (reported around 1.46 in CPU-Z though) and temps are 51C and still may be still climbing (I just started a few minutes ago.)

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Zebo's guide says not to worry to much about temps because the motherboard diodes are often very inaccurate and if you have a chip that is running to hot it should fail Prime anyway. Does anyone else use this method?

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Originally posted by: Leper Messiah
oh, you have an epox board. Lawl. My NF3 board said my x2 ran at "81C" with a TT bigtyphoon and 1.4 vcore. Its been F@H stable for 2.5 months, so I think it was okay. Now I just gotta find a temp monitor for my evga board, MBM 5 doesn't support it and nothing came with the mobo drivers...

Are you saying the motherboard diode itself is faulty or the EPoX software? Edit: This really doesn't make any sense because temp readings with the stock cooler were almost as good as these, and I don't know what the motherboard diode would have to do with this... Also while typing this the computer temporarily "locked up" for about 3-4 seconds but I could move the mouse, then CPU-Z popped up, now it's fine. WTF?

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: Boris teh Spider

Originally posted by: Leper Messiah
oh, you have an epox board. Lawl. My NF3 board said my x2 ran at "81C" with a TT bigtyphoon and 1.4 vcore. Its been F@H stable for 2.5 months, so I think it was okay. Now I just gotta find a temp monitor for my evga board, MBM 5 doesn't support it and nothing came with the mobo drivers...

Are you saying the motherboard diode itself is faulty or the EPoX software? Edit: This really doesn't make any sense because temp readings with the stock cooler were almost as good as these, and I don't know what the motherboard diode would have to do with this... Also while typing this the computer temporarily "locked up" for about 3-4 seconds but I could move the mouse, then CPU-Z popped up, now it's fine. WTF?

I'm not sure. I think its the way the bios reads the temp sensor, since it was reading really high with the stock cooler too. All I know is my evga reads alot better, like 45C loads at 1.425vcore.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Hmm that's weird. Is 1.52 a safe voltage to run an X2 at? I think this is pretty much as high as I want to push it with the XP-90, but I am pretty sure I can get prime stable 255 x 10 at this voltage...

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Ok nevermind 2.5 is probably going to be max stable, if even that. What the hell is up with the voltage readings on this though? It's 1.52 when idle and then I start up P95 and it goes to 1.46-1.475!?

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: Boris teh Spider
Ok nevermind 2.5 is probably going to be max stable, if even that. What the hell is up with the voltage readings on this though? It's 1.52 when idle and then I start up P95 and it goes to 1.46-1.475!?

what kind of PSU, and what other components do you have? It sounds like your PSU is getting maxed out, because my compy does the opposite, it gives less power under idle (like 1.396 or something), then jumps up to the max vcore under load.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Yeah I was thinking that may be the problem, but looks like it is running @ 2.5 at 1.5 (bios) VCore. The PSU is a 450FSP, which is pretty strong and lot's of people with OC'd X2's have them, so I don't know if it is to blame. I might need something a bit more powerful but I really don't have much in this case.

EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra
2 x 1 GB GSkill Value (2.8V) @ 209MHz
3800+ X2 @ 2.5
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB
NEC 3550A or whatever
eVGA 7800GT @ 510/1.2Ghz w/ NVSilencer

OCing shouldn't draw THAT much power, should it?

Edit: It's running 55C now w/ dual Prime 95 @ 2.5Ghz and 1.5V. If it stays stable at 2.5 I will be happy and call it quits. That is as long as 55C is okay, which does seem a bit hot for these volts but shouldn't be anything to overly hot, correct? I think this temp sensor is just screwed anyway...

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Well looks like this is just a pretty weak X2. I don't think it can do 2.5 even at 1.52Vcore. Guess I'll just have to be satisfied with 2.4, which I am but I was hoping that the XP-90 could help me take it a bit higher, but guess not. Oh well.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Maybe I am doing something wrong in the BIOS though, I am pretty new to overclocking. Maybe I am just in denial and my X2 sucks lol.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Should I try for stability @ 2.5 w/ 1,52 VCore again? I tried for 2550 (forgot I tacked on the extra 5 on the FSB before) w/ 1.52 but failed, I am thinking that 2.5 will be possible, but I think it will display high temps, wether or not I am getting temps that high I have no idea but I have my doubts about it. I already reinstalled the HS and the thermal paste, how can temps possible be only 1-2C better than stock if even that (sometimes they are the same if not worse.)

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: Boris teh Spider
Should I try for stability @ 2.5 w/ 1,52 VCore again? I tried for 2550 (forgot I tacked on the extra 5 on the FSB before) w/ 1.52 but failed, I am thinking that 2.5 will be possible, but I think it will display high temps, wether or not I am getting temps that high I have no idea but I have my doubts about it. I already reinstalled the HS and the thermal paste, how can temps possible be only 1-2C better than stock if even that (sometimes they are the same if not worse.)

55C is fine to me, but alot of people around here think thats too high. It is a fair ammount of voltage though, and the X2s start cooking when you pump the volts through them. Have you lowered HTT multi to 3x, try running a ram divider, etc?

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Yeah running a 166Mhz divider, and HTT is at 3 so I may just have a bum chip. AMD says max temp X2's should reach is 65C correct? I really don't know how the temps couldn't have improved with the new heatsink, unless I put the thermal paste on incorrectly. I have already reapplied it once and when I took it off there was a fair amount of it on there, possibly too much but nothing huge. Anyway I reapplied and I thinking maybe I put too much paste on again, but I only put a tiny dot in the middle, argh...

 

[Boris teh Spider]

By the way, when the XP-90 is installed there is always a tiny bit of the chip visible and not covered by the heatsink right, just like a little 1mm or so edge on one side? I thought this was a bit off but didn't look like there was any way to avoid this so I thought nothing of it.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Only a little over an hour in but Prime is going strong @ 2.5 1.5VCore. Hope it holds up.

 

[AmpedSilence]

Boris,

I am in the same boat; i have an EPoX MB aslo and am running my X2 at 2.4GHz @ +0.075 (the setting in the BIOS). I also cannot get the CPU to be stable at 2.5 (which is also what i wanted). My idle temps are about 39-41 C and my 2 prime temps are about 53-55 ish. I found that for every 200 Mhz i went up on the chip, regardless of vcore, i added 2C to my temps. are you getting similar results?

Amped

 

[jEnus]

I don't get you guy's temps. My 4200+ @ 2.6 (1.5v) runs 25 idle and 42 load. This is w/ a XP90 & Panflow Med.

But what is interesting is if I install AMD's DC driver, my idle jumps up to 41c.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

I think the EPoX board just has bad temperature monitoring. At least I hope so. And yeah Amped I am running it at auto in BIOS @ 2.4 which gives me about 1.47 according to speedfan. My idle temps are about 34-35 and load temps with 2 Prime 95's are about what yours are. Making the chip run at a higher frequency even if you aren't adding VCore will produce more heat as was pointed out by someone else in this thread, so that is pretty normal. This sucks though, I think I need 1.52VCore to get 2.5. I was priming at 2.5 with 1.5 VCore and it was going for about 3-4 hours, then I let it go overnight, and when I woke up and tried to get the system out of "sleep" mode the thing froze and the mobo speaker emitted a loud solid beep. So much for that lol. Anyone else got a CCBWE 0541? Is this just a really bad stepping?

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Originally posted by: jEnus
I don't get you guy's temps. My 4200+ @ 2.6 (1.5v) runs 25 idle and 42 load. This is w/ a XP90 & Panflow Med.

But what is interesting is if I install AMD's DC driver, my idle jumps up to 41c.

That is really weird. Maybe I should try uninstalling it? What affect does this have on the system? It causes some certain games to freeze, but that was all I was aware of.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Well with 2 Primes running @ 2.5Ghz and 1.52 volts it gets up to 56C so it looks like I will be running it @ 2.4. Guess they were right, 0541's ARE bad OCers. Weird thing is, I know this sounds stupid and it's hardly scientific or accurate, but I felt the heatpipes while Prime was running and it was hardly warm to the touch, whereas with the stock heatsink it was much hotter. I know this is hardly accurate or reliable but I feel like it's the only thing to go by because the temperature read-outs are so weird.

 

[nealh]

could be the mobo..the best ocing mobos are the DFI ...I love the DFI SLI DR..hated it at first because it is picky with ram but once I figured that out it is absolutely awesome mobo...
very stable and people often get a better oc from it as well....

FYI..I hate when my oc is not as good as expected but I promise the difference between 2.4 and 2.5 is small and not noticable

Be happy with it...not worth killing yourself with envy( I am saying this feeling the same way when I end up short of what I want and "need")....I never get a sweet dream cpu...

You could sell this and try again but is it worth chasing a 100-200mhz when the the next best thing is just around the corner..right

Stability is king..I used try to every new bios, fw at every chance..all this does is lead to issue and agravation

I now want 100% stable system first and then any extra is a bonus...for example I hear the 704-2BTA bios on the DFI is awesome so I want to try it..but my bios 623-2 is fine with no issue and works like a rock...so I am tying my hands not add a variable and lose something

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Yeah 2.4 is still pretty damn fast for a dual core, and it's a $630 dollar CPU for $320 so I don't really have anything to complain about, however it did look like it was going to do okay on 2.5 @ 1.52, but temps hit 57 so I said screw it and am dropping it back down to 2.4. EPoX is rated highly as an OCing motherboard, but next time I will probably go with the DFi as well. Definetely not worth selling this CPU, I was trying to push as much out of it as I could, but hey 2.4 isn't bad. My 7800GT hit's 510 core and I think I can go even higher though now that I have installed the NVSilencer, so I may have got a subpar CPU but at least I got something that clocks well.