Phenom I: possible to lower core voltage via software?

[MrSpadge]

Hi guys,

I've got an unusual problem: my PC at work uses a Phenom 9850 @ 1.30 V. This sucker generates so much heat under load that the PC freezes every couple of weeks during summer. The stock cooler was running at maximum rpm already (which is quite loud). Now I exchanged the cooler for a Freezer 64 Pro, but strangely enough the situation didn't get any better.

The board is an AM2 Abit A-N68SV, which would let me increase the cpu voltage (silly with such a hot cpu anyway..) but doesn't give me the choice to lower it. NV system tools can't do anything with this hardware and RM clock doesn't recognize the cpu.

Do you guys know any other tools which may allow me to lower the core voltage? I guess 1.20 should be easy and may be enough to solve the freeze and noise issues.

BTW: accoding to AMD power manager the board doesn't even lower the voltage in C&Q mode..

Thanks,
MrS

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: MrSpadge
Hi guys,

I've got an unusual problem: my PC at work uses a Phenom 9850 @ 1.30 V. This sucker generates so much heat under load that the PC freezes every couple of weeks during summer. The stock cooler was running at maximum rpm already (which is quite loud). Now I exchanged the cooler for a Freezer 64 Pro, but strangely enough the situation didn't get any better.

The board is an AM2 Abit A-N68SV, which would let me increase the cpu voltage (silly with such a hot cpu anyway..) but doesn't give me the choice to lower it. NV system tools can't do anything with this hardware and RM clock doesn't recognize the cpu.

Do you guys know any other tools which may allow me to lower the core voltage? I guess 1.20 should be easy and may be enough to solve the freeze and noise issues.

BTW: accoding to AMD power manager the board doesn't even lower the voltage in C&Q mode..

Thanks,
MrS

AMD Overdrive.

What temps are you getting?

 

[thilanliyan]

K10stat has been perfect for me. I'm at 0.9v on my 9850 and since Cool n Quiet doesn't work on my motherboard while overclocking I use that instead. K10stat allowed me to load whatever profile with just a shortcut so I load a low power one at startup and then just load the high power one whenever I'm playing games or video encoding.

 

[MrSpadge]

AMD Overdrive refuses to work on that nVidia chipset. Temps are ~60°C according to Everest.

K10stat sounds like the perfect tool, exactly what I was looking for! Will try it as soon as I can (Monday) and report.

MrS

 

[imported_Asianman]

If you don't need it, try underclocking to 1.6ghz or so by putting the multiplyer to 8X and 1 to 1.1 volts for the core would be good enough. Maybe your motherboard sees suitable volts for the clock speed and you could undervolt as you underclock

 

[MrSpadge]

I don't think this will work, as it doesn't even lower the voltage in C&Q mode at 1.2 GHz. And the CPU is running under full load most of the time, so underclocking defeats the purpose of putting a fast CPU in there

MrS

 

[MrSpadge]

Part 1: I loaded K10Stat 0.91 and on the P-State tab it says "K10stat clock control function is disabled" and if I try to change clocks (lower the multiplier) nothing happens. And even worse: the option for core voltage is greyed out!

Part 2: no reason to panic, yet. The debug tab works and I discovered that NB and CPU voltage are the same on this board. So by lowering NB voltage I can finally lower the CPU voltage. And the frequency control works there, too. Now I just need a quiet evening to find good settings.

Thanks to everyone who replied!
MrS

 

[speedfreak]

Good for you it works. Those old phenoms really generates a lot of heat. Maybe a bios update could lower down the temps.

 

[richierich1212]

Try this program as well

 

[MrSpadge]

Already made the bios update, no improvements. But using K10Stat I'm at 2.10 GHz @ 1.10 V now. At this point the noise (under load) drops to acceptable levels. And thx, I'll take a look what the other program can do!

MrS

 

[MrSpadge]

Update: 2.50 GHz @ 1.175 V and 2.40 GHz @ 1.150 V are also fine. Noise levels depend on ambient temperature, but are certainly much better than stock (2.50 GHz @ 1.30 V).

MrS

 

[sonoma1993]

Originally posted by: MrSpadge
Hi guys,

I've got an unusual problem: my PC at work uses a Phenom 9850 @ 1.30 V. This sucker generates so much heat under load that the PC freezes every couple of weeks during summer. The stock cooler was running at maximum rpm already (which is quite loud). Now I exchanged the cooler for a Freezer 64 Pro, but strangely enough the situation didn't get any better.

The board is an AM2 Abit A-N68SV, which would let me increase the cpu voltage (silly with such a hot cpu anyway..) but doesn't give me the choice to lower it. NV system tools can't do anything with this hardware and RM clock doesn't recognize the cpu.

Do you guys know any other tools which may allow me to lower the core voltage? I guess 1.20 should be easy and may be enough to solve the freeze and noise issues.

BTW: accoding to AMD power manager the board doesn't even lower the voltage in C&Q mode..

Thanks,
MrS

what the rest of cooling sollution like for your computer? what type of case are you using? any case fans that could be added?

 

[MrSpadge]

I don't know the name of the case, it's pretty generic. It's got a silent seasonic 330W with its fan spinning quite slow and a mount for an exhaust fan. I added an Enermax 92 mm @ ~1800 rpm there. There may be space for a front intake, but if so it's surely 80 mm. I'd like to try switching the rear exhaust to intake and to turn the CPU cooler by 180° to give it fresh air directly. Oh, and still have to remember taking my AS with me when going to work..

MrS

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: richierich1212
Try this program as well

Thank you very much. That program works great for me in Win7-64...K10stat is very good but now there's no need to click shortcuts to get to the different P-states (CnQ doesn't work while overclocking on this Gigabyte m/b but did on an Asus 790GX board I tried). :thumbsup:

 

[MrSpadge]

PhenomMsrTweaker lacks one feature which I need: profiles. K10stat has 5 of them (and the yactually work, as long as you don't include spaces in the profile names..) and I need them to switch between different heat / noise levels under load.

MrS

 

[cisco]

hey I have an Phenom X3 8650 and just installed a 64 freezer pro on it, looks like the heatsink surface is smaller than the X3 CPU surface (or way off center) , does yours cover the whole processor surface? The 64 freezer pro I have I bought awhile ago and online some say AM2+ some say just AM2 in the specs are there different versions of this cooler?
been searching for info on surface sizes , heatsinks etc. saw your thread here , since part of my cpu isn't covered by the heatsink I figure it could overheat on that section .

 

[MrSpadge]

That's normal and no problem. A small part of the metal cap, the heat spreader, is not covered by the heatsink. but the actual silicon chip sits beneath this cap and is much smaller. In the case of the Freezer 64 Pro I think the limiting factor is to remove the heat from the heatsink, not to transfer it from the heat spreader to the base plate. So if they covered the entire surface.. I'd be surprised if temperatures got even 1°C better.

MrS

 

[jrichrds]

Originally posted by: richierich1212
Try this program as well

I'm a fan of PhenomMsrTweaker. I freaked out when CrystalCPUID and RMClock didn't work with my X2 7750 Kuma (dual-core Phenom). First I found K10stat, but wanted a program that could take over dynamic p-state switching...which PhenomMsrTweaker does nicely (and is also easier to understand and use). Now I have my 2.7Ghz@1.325v Kuma running at 1.2Ghz@0.8v at idle and 3.0Ghz@1.325v at load, dynamically adjusted by PhenomMsrTweaker (a 30W savings at idle!)

PhenomMsrTweaker is especially good for Black Edition CPUs on motherboards that don't have voltage control in the BIOS, as you can just set the multiplier and voltage within PhenomMsrTweaker.

 

[MrSpadge]

Originally posted by: jrichrds
First I found K10stat, but wanted a program that could take over dynamic p-state switching...

With K10stat you get dynamic switching between 2 power states, isn't that what you mean?

MrS

 

[jrichrds]

Originally posted by: MrSpadge

Originally posted by: jrichrds
First I found K10stat, but wanted a program that could take over dynamic p-state switching...

With K10stat you get dynamic switching between 2 power states, isn't that what you mean?

MrS

Thanks for the correction. I only briefly used it before finding PhenomMsrTweaker.

 

[drizek]

Can someone explain how you get dynamic switching? CnQ doesn't show up for me in Windows 7 power management options. Phenom MsrTweaker crashes on startup, so I am hoping to get K10stat working. I can use it manually(and have been stress testing to see just how low I can get Vc at 900mhz), but it won't switch p states automatically.

I get the same K10stat clock control function is disabled message as a previous poster.

I have a Phenom 720 X3 on a Gigabyte 780G. It is OCd to 3.1ghz with the multiplier, CnQ is enabled in the BIOS, but has never worked in windows(at least not with this processor, I think at some point I had it working with my 5200 and Vista, not sure about 7).

 

[richierich1212]

You have to select balanced in windows 7 power options.

 

[Fox5]

Make sure the bios options have cool n' quiet and C1E (and any other power saving options) turned on.
And make sure the windows profile setting is balanced.

 

[drizek]

I went back into the bios and I turned off all the voltage/frequency control options, with the only overclocking taking place in the multiplier 14=>15.5. I also restored NB Power Management from "Enabled" to "Auto", but it still will not throttle automatically. The CnQ option in my BIOS is labeled as "K8 CnQ" so I'm not sure if it applies to K10 CPUs. I am using the latest BIOS.

I did not find any reference to C1E.

Everything in the BIOS and windows is the way it is supposed to be(fresh install too) but it just doesn't seem to be working. I thought that K10stat would be a workaround but it won't work automatically either.

 

[thilanliyan]

CnQ (and hence K10stat in my case) doesn't always work with some motherboards if you overclock with a multiplier change. It didn't work for me with my Gigabyte board with multiplier overclocking but did with HTT overclocking. It worked fine in both cases on my Asus 790GX board. I couldn't get K10stat to switch automatically but PhenomMSRTweaker works fine for me in Win 7 64-bit (I think I might have had to disable driver signing to get it to work...can't remember anymore).