Newbie Overclocking Assistance

Gastrian · Mar 12, 2011, 01:29 AM

I've started dabbling in OCing my system and just wanted to get some help just in case I accidentally blow it up.

My system spec is;
AMD Phenom x4 955 with stock cooler
XFX Radeon 5770 1GB, standard model no overclock.
Asus MA89TD Pro 980FX
Antec 300 case
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU

I do have a Corsair H50 watercooler but my motherboard wouldn't boot with it (my previous Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H booted fine until it needed to be RMA'd). The fan will power through a case fan plug but not through the CPU fan plug causing the motherboard not to boot as it says there is a CPU fault. I'm in the process of swapping the fan out for a Silent Eagle 1000 to see if that will fix it.

What are safe temperatures to have a CPU and GPU run at? I'm using AMD Overdrive to overclock the GPU and at 99% load with a GPU clock at 950 and memory clock at 1300 its running at 62c. Is this too hot?

As a side note my case has two front mounted 12cm fans, a side mounted 12cm fan and a rear 12cm fan (which will be the H50 fan if I can get the cooler too work) all drawing air into the system with a 12cm fan at the top of the top of the case acting as an exhaust. Is this the most efficient cooling setup for the case?

Thanks

skylineaddict · Mar 12, 2011, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gastrian

I've started dabbling in OCing my system and just wanted to get some help just in case I accidentally blow it up.

My system spec is;
AMD Phenom x4 955 with stock cooler
XFX Radeon 5770 1GB, standard model no overclock.
Asus MA89TD Pro 980FX
Antec 300 case
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU

I do have a Corsair H50 watercooler but my motherboard wouldn't boot with it (my previous Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H booted fine until it needed to be RMA'd). The fan will power through a case fan plug but not through the CPU fan plug causing the motherboard not to boot as it says there is a CPU fault. I'm in the process of swapping the fan out for a Silent Eagle 1000 to see if that will fix it.

What are safe temperatures to have a CPU and GPU run at? I'm using AMD Overdrive to overclock the GPU and at 99% load with a GPU clock at 950 and memory clock at 1300 its running at 62c. Is this too hot?

As a side note my case has two front mounted 12cm fans, a side mounted 12cm fan and a rear 12cm fan (which will be the H50 fan if I can get the cooler too work) all drawing air into the system with a 12cm fan at the top of the top of the case acting as an exhaust. Is this the most efficient cooling setup for the case?

Thanks

For the CPU, keep it below 60 Celsius, 55 to be completely safe. I'm sure you can get to at least 3.6, maybe 3.7GHz with the stock cooler, but don't quote me on that. As for your H50, there should be a setting in the BIOS that allows you to choose whether or not you want to ignore the "missing" CPU fan. Search through the BIOS and you should find something. My motherboard doesn't even check for a 4-pin fan.

Your graphics card seems fine at the moment. Mine only starts upping the fan speed at 60 Celsius, although I don't know the thermal tolerance for AMD cards.

Gastrian · Mar 12, 2011, 02:47 AM

Silly question but how would I know if my CPU is hitting 55/60c if I switch off the "missing" fan in the BIOS or does the system measure the CPU temp through the CPU socket?

Sorry for my ignorance, just want to be careful with my first overclock.

skylineaddict · Mar 12, 2011, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gastrian

Silly question but how would I know if my CPU is hitting 55/60c if I switch off the "missing" fan in the BIOS or does the system measure the CPU temp through the CPU socket?

Sorry for my ignorance, just want to be careful with my first overclock.

No need to apologize. Download SpeedFan or CoreTemp to check the temperatures of the CPU, and GPU-Z is good for monitoring GPU temps. Turning off the fan protection or whatever the BIOS calls it won't turn off anything other than that warning it gives you about not having a fan.

I recommend CoreTemp more because it shows the highest temperature your processor hit from when you started up the program.

isaak · Mar 13, 2011, 12:51 AM

Grab yourself CPU-z, Core Temp, Prime95 and LinX. CPU-z will monitor your overclock/show you useful information about your processor/mobo/ram, Core Temp for temperatures and Prime95 and LinX for stability. I recommend for 'intermediate' stability (ie still seeing how high you can go) to run 10 runs of LinX and 10-20 mins of Prime95, that way you know if going higher will work or not.

blibbax · Mar 13, 2011, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaak

Grab yourself CPU-z, Core Temp, Prime95 and LinX. CPU-z will monitor your overclock/show you useful information about your processor/mobo/ram, Core Temp for temperatures and Prime95 and LinX for stability. I recommend for 'intermediate' stability (ie still seeing how high you can go) to run 10 runs of LinX and 10-20 mins of Prime95, that way you know if going higher will work or not.

+1

On the fans front, 4 intakes and one exhaust seems a little unbalanced. I'd recommend swapping the rear fan round to an exhaust, but others might disagree. Did you configure the fans like that, or did they come that way round? If the latter, that seems suprising - double check which way they are blowing by dangling a tissue in front of them (the side with the grill, of course, you don't want to just shred it

).

EDIT: 2k posts baby!

Gastrian · Mar 13, 2011, 12:10 PM

I configured them myself. The rear fan is attached to the H50 grill and the corsair video advised that it should be an intake fan, the two front fans are placed in front of the HDD so thought it best to have cold air coming in over them than warm air, the side fan was an intake because it was positioned in line with the stock CPU cooler but that's not necessary anymore. The PSU and GPU are at the bottom of the case but I'm not sure if the GPU and PSU fans are intake or extractors as they are so weak they aren't moving the tissue.

If I changed the top of the two front fans and the side fan into extractor fans would that be better? I think I'd have two airflow systems, the rear fan would take cool air in over the watercooler and vent out the top while the bottom intake would bring cool air over the HDDs and possibly the PSU and GPU then be vented out through the side and front exhaust fans or have I got that completely wrong?

skylineaddict · Mar 13, 2011, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gastrian

I configured them myself. The rear fan is attached to the H50 grill and the corsair video advised that it should be an intake fan, the two front fans are placed in front of the HDD so thought it best to have cold air coming in over them than warm air, the side fan was an intake because it was positioned in line with the stock CPU cooler but that's not necessary anymore. The PSU and GPU are at the bottom of the case but I'm not sure if the GPU and PSU fans are intake or extractors as they are so weak they aren't moving the tissue.

If I changed the top of the two front fans and the side fan into extractor fans would that be better? I think I'd have two airflow systems, the rear fan would take cool air in over the watercooler and vent out the top while the bottom intake would bring cool air over the HDDs and possibly the PSU and GPU then be vented out through the side and front exhaust fans or have I got that completely wrong?

Ideally you should have as many fans blowing air out the case as there are fans intaking. Also, depending on the case, air should flow from the front to the back and/or from bottom to top. Also, don't worry about putting the H50 at the back as an exhaust fan. The air back there won't be warm enough to have any effect on performance. It's how the cooler is meant to be installed.

With Prime95 and LinX, be sure your idle and medium load temperatures are acceptable (Low 30's for idle and around 40 for medium load depending on the ambient temperature. Test medium load by watching a 1080p Youtube video or by playing a game) before you run them because they will drastically increase your CPU temps. This will help you make sure your cooler is working and that it's seated right. Not doing so will cause some damage (Happened to me with a first generation Phenom).

blibbax · Mar 13, 2011, 06:44 PM

Don't have fans in the bottom half of the case as extractors - then they're working against convection, and as such are less effective. As Skyline says, having the top and rear-top as extractors shouldn't cause too much of a temperature difference on the H50.

As a general rule I prefer to have the same number of extractorts as intakes, including the PSU fan (which is an extractor), as Skyline also suggested

isaak · Mar 14, 2011, 07:04 AM

Just flip the fan on the H50, it won't affect it that much. You should be right after that.

Damnit Blibb, you're catching up

blibbax · Mar 14, 2011, 09:05 AM

Isaak: Well, I did join before you :P

Mar 12, 2011, 01:29 AM	#1
Gastrian HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266 Rep Power: 56	Newbie Overclocking Assistance I've started dabbling in OCing my system and just wanted to get some help just in case I accidentally blow it up. My system spec is; AMD Phenom x4 955 with stock cooler XFX Radeon 5770 1GB, standard model no overclock. Asus MA89TD Pro 980FX Antec 300 case OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU I do have a Corsair H50 watercooler but my motherboard wouldn't boot with it (my previous Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H booted fine until it needed to be RMA'd). The fan will power through a case fan plug but not through the CPU fan plug causing the motherboard not to boot as it says there is a CPU fault. I'm in the process of swapping the fan out for a Silent Eagle 1000 to see if that will fix it. What are safe temperatures to have a CPU and GPU run at? I'm using AMD Overdrive to overclock the GPU and at 99% load with a GPU clock at 950 and memory clock at 1300 its running at 62c. Is this too hot? As a side note my case has two front mounted 12cm fans, a side mounted 12cm fan and a rear 12cm fan (which will be the H50 fan if I can get the cooler too work) all drawing air into the system with a 12cm fan at the top of the top of the case acting as an exhaust. Is this the most efficient cooling setup for the case? Thanks __________________

Mar 12, 2011, 02:47 AM	Thread Starter #3
Gastrian HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266 Rep Power: 56	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance Silly question but how would I know if my CPU is hitting 55/60c if I switch off the "missing" fan in the BIOS or does the system measure the CPU temp through the CPU socket? Sorry for my ignorance, just want to be careful with my first overclock. __________________

Mar 13, 2011, 12:51 AM	#5
isaak HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 2,286 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance Grab yourself CPU-z, Core Temp, Prime95 and LinX. CPU-z will monitor your overclock/show you useful information about your processor/mobo/ram, Core Temp for temperatures and Prime95 and LinX for stability. I recommend for 'intermediate' stability (ie still seeing how high you can go) to run 10 runs of LinX and 10-20 mins of Prime95, that way you know if going higher will work or not. __________________ The first step... shall be to lose the way. - Galway Kinnell

Mar 13, 2011, 12:10 PM	Thread Starter #7
Gastrian HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266 Rep Power: 56	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance I configured them myself. The rear fan is attached to the H50 grill and the corsair video advised that it should be an intake fan, the two front fans are placed in front of the HDD so thought it best to have cold air coming in over them than warm air, the side fan was an intake because it was positioned in line with the stock CPU cooler but that's not necessary anymore. The PSU and GPU are at the bottom of the case but I'm not sure if the GPU and PSU fans are intake or extractors as they are so weak they aren't moving the tissue. If I changed the top of the two front fans and the side fan into extractor fans would that be better? I think I'd have two airflow systems, the rear fan would take cool air in over the watercooler and vent out the top while the bottom intake would bring cool air over the HDDs and possibly the PSU and GPU then be vented out through the side and front exhaust fans or have I got that completely wrong? __________________ Last edited by Gastrian; Mar 13, 2011 at 01:11 PM.

Mar 13, 2011, 06:44 PM	#9
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 4,262 Rep Power: 254 System Specs	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance Don't have fans in the bottom half of the case as extractors - then they're working against convection, and as such are less effective. As Skyline says, having the top and rear-top as extractors shouldn't cause too much of a temperature difference on the H50. As a general rule I prefer to have the same number of extractorts as intakes, including the PSU fan (which is an extractor), as Skyline also suggested __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!

Mar 14, 2011, 07:04 AM	#10
isaak HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 2,286 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance Just flip the fan on the H50, it won't affect it that much. You should be right after that. Damnit Blibb, you're catching up __________________ The first step... shall be to lose the way. - Galway Kinnell

Mar 14, 2011, 09:05 AM	#11
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 4,262 Rep Power: 254 System Specs	Re: Newbie Overclocking Assistance Isaak: Well, I did join before you :P __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!