Is building as easy as it looks?

Oat23

Hi lads.

Just wanted to let ye know all my parts arrived at around 3pm today. I started the build when I got home at 6pm and I finished installing windows 7(64bit) around 30 minutes ago. Everything is running great and I just need to update some drivers. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be after all .

Big thank you to everyone who helped me out and gave me advice. I'll try to get some pics up soon in the stickied thread.

Cheers!

Oat23

Do these temp readings look okay lads?



The core temp topped out at around 56C about 6 minutes into transferring the files from my external HD to my internal one. it also had the fireball beside ''core:'' where there is a grren arrow now.
Also, is it right where it says Fan 1: 3341 RPM but the rest say 0 RPM?. The 3 cooler master fans (+ cpu fan) are all working.

Thanks.

Solitaire

What mobo are you using again?

Looks like SpeedFan isn't a big fan (sic) of your choice of mobo, as one of the temp sensors is spouting gibberish (or you have it on LN2 ) and none of the fans other than some fast 80mm jobbie are showing up, suggesting either the fan or the mobo fan header aren't PWM-capable.

What CPU cooler are you using? Stock? Try using CoreTemp (more accurate for CPU temp readings than... well, anything really!) then using something like Prime95 to max out the load on each core and see what temps you're getting after ten minutes. That'll be the highest protracted temp you'll ever see at the current CPU speed/voltage setting.

Oat23

I went with your suggestion, the MSI 770-C45 . And yes, stock CPU cooling fan.

I downloaded both of those programs and after 15 - 20 seconds of starting the stress test the core temp rose to 73C :eek:. I got nervous and shut it off.
I've managed to feck something up during the build?

Solitaire

What's the case? And what CPU did you go with in the end? X4-630 or something bigger and hotter?

That temp is too high for full load at stock speed, the AMD stock cooler should be able to keep a quad in check far more easily. Clearly something is up with the CPU cooler or case ventilation in general

Oat23

Case is the HAF 922 from coolermaster. CPU is the AMD Athlon II X4 630.
I cleaned up the cables and pinned them back so air flow inside the case is pretty good.

Could I have applied too much/not enough thermal paste(arctic silver)?. I put a small bit in the middle of the processor and put the cooler on it and wiggled it a bit to spread it. I removed the stock thermal paste from the cooler before applying the new stuff.

Solitaire

How much is a small bit? If the stock cooler's base didn't have a very good finish a very small amount might not have been enough. I'd use CPU-z to check what voltage your CPU is running at though. Sounds like the C45 is pumping too many volts in there, which translates into "lots of heat" for a quad on a stock cooler If its one of the newer AMD CPUs the mobo might need a BIOS update.

Oat23

It looked similar to this picture after applying the paste. Could applying the thermal paste wrong be causing all the problems?.

Here is screenshots of CPU-Z:

No load:


100% load:


What would you recommend doing next?. I'm lost to be honest .

Solitaire

Stock volts under load look way too high. Update your mobo's BIOS to the latest and if that doesn't change things set about manually undervolting the CPU until you find out the lowest voltage it can get away with in Prime95.

And contrary to popular opinion that's not a great way to put on your gunk. I'd recommend resetting the cooler (clean it and the CPU IHS off first!) with a thin layer of thermal paste spread evenly across all but the very far edges of the CPU heatspreader with something like a credit card (didn't your AS5 come with a wee card for doing that?) then attach the cooler and see what happens. AFAIK you were unlucky with that CPU, only a few old X4-630s were C2, the vast majority are the newer and cooler C3 stepping

Oat23

I'm trying to avoid a bios update unless it comes down to that as the only thing I can do. I just think I will feck it up somehow.

So I took the cpu fan off and cleaned the grease off it and the processor, applied some new shtuff and put everything back on.
Started up the stress test and 2 minutes into it things where sitting at 46C, then I heard a small click in the case and the temp rose within 5 seconds to 90C and it was at 98C before I could hit the stop button in prime 95 .
The PC shut itself down and it turned out I hadn't attached the cooling fan right(doh).

Re-started the test and here is a screenshot after 10 minutes:


So It looks like it was a thermal grease problem OR maybe I had not attached the cooling fan right in the first place, wouldn't put it past me .

BUT...there's always a but when I'm involved.

A new problem has arose(yayy). Twice in the last 2-3 hours the computer has just froze up, first everything on windows 7 becomes unresponsive then 5 seconds later my mouse & keyboard freeze and I have to reset the PC :mad:. It happened once while doing a stress test and once while I was just on the net.

Any ideas?

Thank you for all your help so far!

Oat23

Freezing is happening regularly now, can't use the PC at all now because it freezes and I lose all my work. Back to the old one till I find out what's happening.

Could it be a voltage issue?. BIOS update needed?.

I tried switching around the RAM slots but still the same. Have 2 2GB sticks of OCZ RAM in slot 1 and slot 3 on the mobo.

Solitaire

VID is quite high, looks like you got the dregs of a low bin, that CPU should probably be an X3 due to heat/stability issues

Not going to call time on it yet though; check all connections and update the BIOS to start with. Even if you do muck it up MSI mobos are usually replete with recovery features Also check out the unofficial USB BIOS update tools on the MSI forums

You can also use the bundled MemTest86 to check your memory modules for problems; no guarantee its your CPU that's causing the instability!

zappb

The definition of noob on this forum, is someone that takes Solitaire's advice.

so be careful, it's a double edged sword.

but your doing well here, good job.