Overclocking questions....

Khannie

First off, relevant specs:

q6600, Asus p5w dh deluxe, pc6400 ram, scythe ninja cooler, antec 900 case.

So I can get 3GHz (333 x 9) with 1.3625 vcore (haven't actually bothered trying it below that), but to get to 3.1GHz (345 x 9) stable I had to up vcore to 1.425. I have the vnb at 1.75.

What's the max vcore I should consider reasonable for the kentsfield?

Also, say I could get to 3.2GHz, should I use 400 x 8 if it's available? (the ram will support this, and multi reduction is available in the bios, so it's down to the chipset).

I'm having trouble measuring temperatures (running linux and it's fiddley). Idle in the bios is 51 for 3GHz and 56 for 3.1. Neither of these is a real cause for concern. What I'm thinking though is that temperature troubles will show themselves as instability in mprime and that I needn't be overly concerned, is that reasonable?

po0k

lmsensors + lots of I2C/SMB bus and sensor drivers in the kernel for temp monitoring.
That said, never got it working right on the limited range of hardware I've tried it on.

Khannie

I fiddled with lm-sensors last night alright. Pissed me off after a while. Tried upgrading the kernel to the latest 2.6.21 pre release and it all went to ****, so I gave up. Had it working perfectly before with my last motherboard.

If I could get it working, I'd probably be able to answer the questions below myself.

Anti

/me cuddles his copy of windows and speedfan

Khannie

Yeah, yeah. :P

Linux is lacking when it comes to tweaking tools, no doubt. Anyway....back to my questions....

What's the max vcore I should consider reasonable for the kentsfield?

Also, say I could get to 3.2GHz, should I use 400 x 8 if it's available?

What I'm thinking though is that temperature troubles will show themselves as instability in mprime and that I needn't be overly concerned, is that reasonable?

Anti

Im using 1.52vcore, which some people say is high, Well it is but not for watercooling. I would say 1.48max, And sure give 400x8 a try, just slacken the timings a little, Then run mprime. See if it fails. Then alter your other voltage. ie ram, chipset. Still wit watercooling i hit 60c with room temp of 22/25c So you might have a problem with heat, but thats all dependant on your cooling situation.

Cuddlesworth

For the most part with conroe's, add +10 degrees to the bios/temp probe readings. I would say 1.45 24/7, 1.48 max.

Overclocking on linux? I bet stability problems show up damm quick.

TonyM.

I just got a Akasa fan controller and my idle temp. dropped 5C straight away
i think the voltages on the fan headers on the mainboard are wrong.

Khannie

krazy_8s wrote:

For the most part with conroe's, add +10 degrees to the bios/temp probe readings. I would say 1.45 24/7, 1.48 max.

I got the on-die temperature monitor working....with 4 cores at 3GHz and 1.36vcore, it's saying 97C! :eek: Is that right? (idle is 56C, which matches what the bios says after post).

It drops 30C in well under 10 seconds when I kill mprime.

krazy_8s wrote:

Overclocking on linux? I bet stability problems show up damm quick.

Yeah, it's surprisingly intolerant with mprime. A good few times I just had to hard reboot (with hindsight, the vcore was way too low).

Cuddlesworth

Khannie wrote:

I got the on-die temperature monitor working....with 4 cores at 3GHz and 1.36vcore, it's saying 97C! :eek: Is that right? (idle is 56C, which matches what the bios says after post).

It drops 30C in well under 10 seconds when I kill mprime.

Sounds about right, 4 cores on full load is quite the vicious heatdump. Even phase change coolers are struggling. Could be even higher, the temp probes tend to drop in bad readings. Hence the 10 degrees higher part. I would try mount your heatsink again, a good mount with little or no thermal paste has been the difference of about 8 degrees for me in the past.

Chosen

Khannie wrote:

I got the on-die temperature monitor working....with 4 cores at 3GHz and 1.36vcore, it's saying 97C! :eek: Is that right? (idle is 56C, which matches what the bios says after post).

No, it's not right. A 40C jump in the temperatures means that your heatsink is not installed properly, or that your monitoring software is wrong. :rolleyes:

Chosen

TonyM. wrote:

i think the voltages on the fan headers on the mainboard are wrong.

Known issue Check Evga's community forums.

Khannie

Chosen wrote:

No, it's not right. A 40C jump in the temperatures means that your heatsink is not installed properly, or that your monitoring software is wrong. :rolleyes:

Hmm. I'll check the heatsink again tonight. Wasn't overly impressed with the ninja's method of attaching to the motherboard (4 plastic clips). The arctic is very thinly applied, so that's not it.

I'm pretty sure the monitoring software is right. I updated the kernel and it's taking measurements directly from the sensor on-chip.

Thanks for all the help so far lads.

edit: I'll ssh home at lunch and do individual temperature tests and report back.

awhir

have a look on xs fourms there is a way better way to mount them coolers they shaved like 2c off

Chosen

awhir wrote:

have a look on xs fourms there is a way better way to mount them coolers they shaved like 2c off

And it's not just the 2C, it's also getting rid of the fear of keeping a heavy fecker like Ninja attached to a motherboard with 4 little plastic clips

Khannie

Hmmmm. I noticed that leaning on the heatsink takes 5 degrees off my idle temp.

For such a good heatsink, those poxy plastic clips are a real let down.

Chosen

Khannie wrote:

For such a good heatsink, those poxy plastic clips are a real let down.

awhir wrote:

have a look on xs fourms there is a way better way to mount them coolers they shaved like 2c off

This is for the Infinity, but it's the same principle. You can also try springs instead of the rubber stuff.


And the original thread.

Khannie

I had seen the original last night. I like the rubber washers idea in the updated version. I've to work from home today (missed two trains in a row somehow) so I'll head down to the hardware store at lunchtime and do it then.

I underclocked (just dropped the multi to 7) and it's still idling at 63C, so something's definitely wrong.

Khannie

F*CK SAKE!

From this thread on xs....

What are your temperatures? I used to have a Ninja Plus revB, but it must have been flawn as CoreTemp showed up to 90C at full load! I reverted to the stock cooler for time being, which gives me some 20C lower temps. However, I'd like to install a better CPU cooling - is you Scythe OK?

I'm having problems with the temps of my QX6700, as well. In fact, I had to revert from Scythe Ninja RevB to the stock cooler, which does much better! I RMA'd the Ninja, and will be giving next try when a new one arrives.

I'll be right p*ssed if mine is dodgy. Gonna try the stock cooler at lunch before doing the mod.

Khannie

Well....I went and got the bits in the hardware store and took off the poxy plastic clips.

It was clear by looking at it that the centre of the CPU wasn't properly touching the heatsink.

Fresh arctic + mod in previous post = 42C idle. It was idling at 65 earlier today. That's a whopping 23 degrees! :eek:

Gonna test temp under load now....

edit: 69 under load. Christ. Some difference. edit 2: has slowly crept up to 71 under load. Edit 3: with 8K fft's on mprime, the load temp leaped from 73 to 80 in a matter of seconds.

Chosen

I say it's good. wprime is not a realistic load application, the heaviest you can have on a quad is encoding and that's not half as intense as the 8k ffts

TonyM.

Chosen wrote:

Known issue Check Evga's community forums.

I have a replacement board coming from Evga next week cross-shipping no downtime and they are doing a step-up on my 7900gtx to a 8800gtx.

Chosen

TonyM. wrote:

I have a replacement board coming from Evga next week cross-shipping no downtime and they are doing a step-up on my 7900gtx to a 8800gtx.

They started the cross-shipping method for EU already? Good stuff

Khannie

Couldn't get it to 3.15GHz all the way up to 1.45V, so I'm gonna stick with 1.36VCore and 3GHz for everyday use (I'll fiddle with the 8x multi to make better use of my ram later).

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Enjoy that 8800 Tony. Crackin' card.

I wonder with my experience, and those two other posts on the xs forum, if the ninja's could do with a bit of lapping to even out the surface. I'm happy enough now tbh, but the thought did occur to me.

Chosen

I found my QX6700's heatspreader to be concave, so I lapped it and dropped temps by 8-10C (my waterblock is perfectly flat).

Khannie

Chosen wrote:

I found my QX6700's heatspreader to be concave, so I lapped it

I'm not willing to lap my quad core love. Just in case it needs to go back. I may lap it after the warranty has run out.

The arctic's starting to settle in now. Currently idling at 37C.