The Official Cooling Thread!

sammorris & abuzar1,
Sam,

I'm running 3.2GHz with a bios setting of 1.350v. I get 124.615 watts on the calculator. I'm using Shane's calculator because it shows the highest wattage of all the calculators I tried!

Yes, it's almost perfect for that. At 3.0GHz I had to raise the setting to 803Mhz unlinked, to get a true 800 Mhz reported on the startup screen, Cpuz and OCCT. Otherwise they all reported 799Mhz!

abuzar1,

I'm using GSkill PC6400 memory that's rated at 1.9-2.0v, set at 2.0v. My fsb is 1425Mhz and the memory is running at 890Mhz@5-4-4-12, using a 2.50 memory multiplier! Within limits the P5N-E MB Sam has, allows you to set the memory speed independent of the fsb. Since you can tweak it by ones, getting exactly 800Mhz is easy. Like I said, it took setting the memory speed in the setup to 803Mhz to get a true 800Mhz on the P5N-E/E4300 I built. Nice feature!

Your voltage is set perfect at 2.2v, as that's what recommended by Crucial. I don't like to have to raise the memory voltage if I can help it as it makes the memory run hotter. I can make mine run just a hair under 3.4Ghz (3.394) but I have to raise the memory voltage to 2.3v and the CPU voltage to 1.4v to keep it stable, which I'm not willing to do! For the benefits gained, it just makes too much heat, and water cooling is not an option for me!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

abuzar 1,

the fsb does effect the memory speed. some mobo's, including the P5N-E will let you unlink the fsb:dram ratio. it's not always a plus though. you can usually make your memory permorm just as well or maybe even better on mobo's that won't let you unlock the fsb:dram ratio by playing with the fsb, cpu divider, and memory divider.

usually the memory will perform best at or near it's rated speed but in some cases it will perform better a little OC'ed.

you had yours set about right since you are using faster memory than me, sam, or russ. you have DDR8000 (1000MHZ) and we are using DDR6400 (800mhz).

usually your goal is to keep the ram at or near it's rated speed and keep the fsb:dram ratio at 1:1. in order for you to achieve a fsb:dram ratio of 1:1 you would need to raise your cpu freq to 500 using a cpu multiplier of 6 (3.0ghz) or cpu multiplier of 7 (3.5ghz) (which I doubt you can achive with an E6400). there are other variables of course but you get the idea.

my optimum goal was to reach a fsb of 400 thus keeping my fsb:dram ratio at 1:1 and keeping my memory at it's rated speed of 800 (400x2). I was able to achieve this by OC'ing my E6600 to 3.6ghz (400x9).

you will need to determine your max stable cpu OC or reach your goal OC and then set your memory at a speed that it will perform the best by performing memory benchmark tests, whether it be near or at it's rated speed or a little OC'ed.

there's little you can determine about how much you can OC your cpu though until you get a better cpu hsf.

 

Hmm, I run 1.425V, I suspect that's why.

 

Yeah I'll try to get a nicer CPU cooler, although after applying Arctic Silver to my chipset heatsink temps are down about six or seven degrees!

 

sammorris,

I ran your numbers through Shane's Calculator. I had to split the difference between 1.4 and 1.450 because he doesn't have a 1.425 setting and came up with about 130 watts. 1.4v would give 125.641 watts while 1.450 would give 134.775 watts. 130.641 watts by splitting the difference!

Clock On,
theone :>}

 

yeah that's very common. the thermal paste the mobo manufactures use between the chipsets and heatsinks is all but worthless and seldom even contacts the entire chipset and heatsink. I lowered my mobo temp almost 15 C by reseating the chipset heatsinks and adding 40x40x20mm chipset fans to both the SB and NB heatsinks.

 

Chipset temps are back up to mid forties. So I guess nothing changed.

 

abuzar1,

That's a very good indication that your case ventilation needs improving. It's not just removing the heat from the CPU and chipset, it's also getting that heat removed from the case! That's the number one reason I got rid of the CPU air duct! Originally I had a side fan blowing in, but it too interfered with the CPU fan's airflow as well. Experimenting with different fan speeds after I had both Silverstones blowing out I settled on 1400 rpm for the rear 120 and the minimum 1300 rpm for the side 80. It's pretty hot out and the A/C is on. The room temp is 25C and my CPU is reading 26-27C and the MB is at 35C. The computer's been on for about 3 hours now so it's thoroughly warmed up!

One of the things I did notice in my experimenting with my DS3, is that the CPU and the northbridge are very close together. I think without enough good airflow through the case in the right places they heatsoak the MB and affect each other's temperatures. That's why I added the 40x40x20 Silenex 6 cfm fan to the heatsink because my Freezer 7 Pro overhangs the Northbridge heatsink a bit. I have it blowing down to keep the heat from warming up the CPU cooler even more. Here's my Everest info.



From L to R: R case fan speed, CPU fan, HD Temp, Vid card temp, core1 temp, core2 temp, CPU temp, MB temp and CPU idle speed.

Clock On,
theone :>}

 

OK, but isn't blowing in cool outside air to the CPU a good idea? Well my duct probably doesn't do that well either, it's about half an inch off. I don't even know my fan speed because this is what it shows!

 

abuzar1,

I agree that it would seem to make sense, but it hasn't turned out that way for my setup. It seems to do much better drawing in air through the vents because of the 125 or so cfm blowing out. I was originally going to put an FM-83 in as an intake fan, but the more I thought about it, the less sense that made as it would have cut down on the amount of air the static air vents pulled so I decided to leave it alone. As you can see by the results, it was a good move on my part. All I can assume is that the large air vent like yours has moves a lot of air over a larger area, making it a gentle breeze that doesn't interfere with the front to back airflow. The slower CPU cooler fan speed assures that the air going through the cooler picks up lots of heat and directs it into the natural case airflow and swiftly exits it out of the case.

I recently ran a series of tests on another forum. One was done while encoding with DVDRB/CCE and the other was done running OCCT. In fact I had to do the DVD Rebuilder test twice because I didn't think to include the Rebuilder screen in the pic. I even left the fan speeds alone at 1400 and 1300 rpms and it passed everything with flying colors. It did a quick flicker to 62C during the OCCT test and stayed in the mid 40s encoding. The chipset temp never went above 41C! Nothing failed or crashed and I was rightly damn proud of my baby! Sam was there and will verify my results.

I think after studying the design of your case, that with the same mods, you should reasonably be able to get about the same results. Both your case and mine have very similar designs as far as airflow goes. Curiously, if I let the CPU fan run at top speed, my temps go up! If I raise the case fans up higher, it doesn't help! I can't think of anything else I could do to improve on my present temps. Scientific mercury thermometers and a borrowed thermal probe with a gooseneck probe with a 3/16 tip have confirmed the reported temps within a degree or two. Everest's reported temps agree with the hardware monitor in the setup by about the same margin. needless to say, I'm happy with the results!

Best Regards,
Russ :>}

 

I believe you are right. Right around the chipset and cpu cooler there is a lot of hot air so exhating that would help. When I get a 80 mm fan I'll post up the results. Right my extra fans larger than 80mm and smaller than that. Just my luck!

EDIT: BTW what the hell is up with those fan speeds?

 

Speedfan often does it, it's a bug. My CPU fan is apparently 30,000rpm. Dream on!

 

sammorris,

They're just trying to convince you that your computer can "fly"! LOL!!
I like Everest Ultimate 2007 much better!

Clock On,
theone :>}

 

another nice little free utility is pc wizard

 

abuzar1,

It doesn't run properly on my DS3 v1.33! Sandra doesn't find the sensors either, and won't give temps or fan speeds! That's why I like Everest a lot better! No fuss, it just works the way it's supposed to! Slows down the boot-up a little, but who cares! LOL!!

Clock On,
theone :>}

 

It slows down the bootup, so, what, you keep it running all the time. I check it from time to time.

 

abuzar1,

Yeah, I do! It's a good thing to have running as if the computer starts doing anything funny, it's the first place I would look. I also have alarms set for the fans. Kaspersky takes a while too but it's benefits far outweigh the it's down side. Remember I go back to the day when you turned on the computer, popped in a disk and hope there were no errors 45 minuts later! LOL!! It's up and running in less than a minute so it's not a problem!

Clock On,
theone :>}

 

Russ, which days were those?

 

abuzar1,

I think they had just invented dirt! LOL!! I go back about 24 years with computers. Back then the hot machine was a Comodore 64, with the worlds slowest 5.25" disk drive. It took about 35-40 minutes to load a game! That's if it didn't fail loading the program! I built my first PC in 1989, a 386DX/40 AMD chip on a Systems & Technologies (SIS) MB, with 512K of memory and a monitor that did VGA in 640x380 in 32,000 colors! Cost about $1600 to build! I just turned 63 in June!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Yeah well I've been dealing with PC for ONLY 12 years. BTW which would be a better cooler, The Scythe Katana or the Thermalright MST-9775?