The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

cincyrob,

I've spent the last hour or so hunting the net for problems like yours, and I've only found a few. Most have no temp problems at all, and all the ones that did were using the stock Intel cooler! Most were claiming very low temps for both chips!

Mine idled at 28-30C using the E8400, with load temps running Prime95 in the mid to high 50s (55-58C). The Q9450 idled maybe a degee lower and saw 57C running Prime95. I really don't remember, but that's what my notes say! To my Mind's Eye, that says a lot for my case ventilation as I expected to see higher temps with a F7-Pro!

ZoSoIV,

With all due respect, what does getting an Asus Rampage have to do with solving Rob's problem? Especially when the scuttlebutt on the net say's cooling isn't a problem with his DS3R MB with either the E8400 or the Q9450! It's known as a very cool running MB! I don't see dishing out $259 or $269 for a new motherboard as the answer to the problem! Rob could just as well go out and buy a GigaByte GA-EP45-DQ6 for $10 to $20 less and accomplish the same thing, but he'll still have the now useless MB. I'm sure he can get an exchange, but I doubt if he can get a refund!

All I'm saying is that "we" are here primarily to help people who want to know about building computers, or need help with their build! Rob has a known good motherboard for overclocking, and I think we can help him solve his problems. A new "any brand" motherboard, doesn't do that, it just adds to his expense. What happens if Rob does cave in and buy the Rampage Formula only to find out that he has the same problem. I just think we need to take a good look at things as they are before he opens his wallet!

Respectfully,
Russ

P.S.
What Rob should be doing is exploring the differences between his and Will's build. Case ventilation differences, and maybe Try his CPU Cooler and CPU on Will's MB. I'm down to the CPU cooler being Duff, or the case ventilation being inadequate! Case ventilation is rapidly becoming almost as dark an art as refining memory settings! And every damn time you add something internally, all those carefully chosen fan settings go right out the window!

Rob my friend, you need to visualize where all those fans are pointing and what direction they are moving air. Visualize where any intake fan, especially side fans are pointing! The real trick is to try and get the airflow from front to back as evenly as possible. If you have a fan blowing in where most cases have them mounted, it interferes with the air going through the CPU Cooler! Truthfully, it's a holdover from the socket 340 and 478 days when CPUs weren't so powerful and you didn't need that much cooling. It made sense! Intake fan blowing directly into the sideways CPU Cooler! I have something I'm working on right now that will effectively deal with the 90 degree cross-flow air problem with side fans. It will also give un-paralleled control of your case airflow and cooling! No joke, this thing is going to make me a very well off man!

Russ

 

I still can't grasp how a motherboard purely on its own could raise the temperature of a CPU, it's either creating extra load somehow, which would show in the task manager, or automatically giving it too high a voltage. If that's the case, it would explain it.

 

well i now have bios F12 running. no change in anything i can notice.

as for my fans. i have had them in every thinkable positions. right now i have
the front and rear fans set as intake and exhaust like normal.
2 140mm fans set as exhaust on the top of the case.
a 120mm fan on the bottom of the case in front of the PSU set as intake
a 120mm on the side panel, lower section toward the front blowing in right in front of/over top the bottom fan.

i have had them all in every thinkable way,no change in temps.
only thing i can think of is take them all out,turn off and leave only the front and rear fans running and see what that does.
my ambient room temp right now is 71f
my mobo is 37c
CPU 30c
cores 1 & 2 both are 50c

i had this thing at my work a couple days ago. and in a air conditioned room about 68f and the temps were the same. maybe 49c on both cores.

i had my CPU in Will's old clear case that had next to no ventilation
temps were cooler but i don't remember by how much its been awhile since we did it.
he now has the CM590 which is identical to my CM690.
there is plenty air circulation in these cases. no doubt.
when i had it at work the other day you could feel that air being sucked out of the top of the case, and it was cold air being sucked out. so i know it is cool inside there. right now i can feel cold air being sucked out the top.

i have had 2 coolers on here and no change in temps either.
the CM hyper tx2 and the Arctic cooler freezer 7 pro. the newly lapped CM is on it now. the temps may have dropped 2-3c with the lapped cooler. Guees i will try the ACF7 again.

 

Rob - my CPU temp is 40ºC and my core temps are 51 and 52. You're worried about what exactly?
We've already been over the fact that core temps aren't a sure-fire method of measuring how hot a CPU is, especially for the 45nm ones. If you're not getting any stability problems, and your main CPU temp is less than the low 50s, you're fine.

 

the temps are within standards, but compared to other E8400's they are 15-20c higher(cores that is) the cpu temp is fine. it bounces around 28-32c at idle.

and i dont have any stability problems.. im running at 3.6ghz perfectly. heck i gan get it to run at 3.82ghz perfectly as well but the temps climb even more.. heres what i dont understand.

starting from stock speed 3.0ghz up to 3.6ghz my temps dont change. the vcore dont change. well maybe .01-.02v. i have the voltage still set at auto to run 3.6ghz. but when i go higher i do have to add a little vcore it wont stay stable in auto setting.

 

What's strange about that? (Don't mean to sound rude)
At stock speed, CPUs are stable at a lower voltage than they're given for overhead reasons, in case you have a dodgy power feed etc, or to avoid risks of RMAs, so you can therefore clock them higher before you need any more than the normal VCore. Once they're more than a certain speed above stock, they will suddenly require increasing voltages to go further.

 

not that its strange, i think its great it will run in auto and not require more volts to get where I'm at. i would just think a higher clock speed would put more strain on it and cause more heat. but the temps are the same from 3.0-3.6ghz

 

For the same voltage they should be, that's what really causes the big temp rises.

 

kinda thought that, but still higher speed still would think useing the cpu more???

right now im encoding a movie. temps are up 60-61c

 

Not sure really, it's still the same electronics running off the same amount of power, they're just doing more with the amount of power you give them...

 

RedRob,

Try taking out or turning off the "bottom" fan. See what that does if you haven't already. Did you get your SATA connections figured out? If NOT then what are you or better yet what is GB gonna do about it??? That is my concern right now.... It seems that you have another issue with the mobo other than a "heat or temp" problem. These ISSUES are NOT phantom ones guys, he's been talking to me and with the respective companies for some time and it seems that he has a LEMON for a mobo. It happens and sometimes there is NO other solution than to replace it with the same product or go with another company.

Just so you know Rob... the EGG has the ASUS P5Q Pro on sale for $119.99 w/ FREE shipping me thinks. Of course you need the EGG's news letter for the promo code.

Some choices for the RedRob.... linky to P45 mobos - cheaper ones

...gm

 

GM
im not sure with the sata plugins yet. since ive moved them around and then back to the same spots im not haven any trouble. so i dont know if it just a loose cable or if it is the slots themselves.

 

that's the same place I got mine.

 

I am starting to second guess my decision to get a q9450 for my rig. I am thinking of getting an e8400 or something and riding it out with that for now until nehalem comes, but I would really like some opinions. I don't do any 3D rendering or large image editing, but I do need it for gaming, so I am deciding if it is actually worth the price hop of $160. I've always thought that uad was definitely worth investing in, the nehalem announcement really got me thinking whether I should just stick with Core 2 Duo for now and upgrade to Quad once it gets cheaper and prices drop a bit.

Pretty convincing stuff...
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000942.html

Although, it looks a bit strange. I thought SupCom had multithreaded support, yet their graphs show no increase in the turnout. Strange.

 

Supcom's multithread support is horrible, yet it doesn't work at all without one, it's a rather silly game. That only applies to the expansion though, the original game works alright.

As for a gaming PC, if you're willing to change your board, RAM and CPU when Nehalem arrives then get a dual core for now, games don't use quads, that's the sum of the matter. If you want a PC that can still be considered powerful a couple of years down the line though, quad it is.

 

some people said you should'en go with the ga-ep35c-ds3r board cause of ddr3 memory prices..well that memory price is dropping now..true i've had my problems with the board that's only cause of the Rev's 1.0 was garbage 2.0 was ok accepted idle floppy did'nt work..now..I done had 2 versions of the 2.1..the first ran great until the test of RedRob's Crucial Ballistix 1066 memory messed it up some how that memory was garbage..now with this new 2.1 flawless to me. I have had luck so far bring the E6750 stable to 3.6Ghz running cool at 34c idle but turned it back down sense..but..i believe with corsair 1066..i can get it over 4Ghz if..I want but what's the point?..all in all..I went with my choice and setup and it worked out well.but thanks to the guys with insight and advice..now for my lastest temps..i dropped my cpu volts down last nite and dropped in temps also by 7 degress from 1.4v to 1.3v at idle..




I'm staying at 3.0Ghz..
nexts build will be Asus for sure done Gigabyte already done and the box holding the parts will be much bigger and Water Cooled..

 

Upgrading to nehalem seems crazy to me right now. Lol. Too much change.

If I go C2D right now, I'll upgrade to C2Q when the prices for it go down. Nehalem is out of reach and regardless I want to build my rig now. If I want to upgrade to it, like you said, I'd have to replace almost everything. I was just thinking of keeping all of the parts and going for a C2D and then just replacing the processor a little way down the line for a quad.

 

A solid plan. I'm running 775 now obviously, and have been eyeing up an upgrade to quad for considerable time, but everytime I look at it, I just can't justify the cost. Right now a quad core's only advantages for me will be higher 3dmarks and faster winrar times, that's it. 3dmark is purely for bragging rights, and i don't use winrar for anything big very often, so what has £110 got me?

 

Yea, that is what I was thinking. Quad is nice to look at, but I feel like if I buy it I'll be disappointed. Better to wait and get it later. Ok, thanks for the input. I am more sure now. Gotta rework my ordering list.

You see, I am deciding where to order the parts and I have spent about 4 hours separating them between Tiger, Egg, and NCIX. Lol...gotta check everything over again. Saving about $500 compared to purchasing all of it from Egg though. Stupid NY taxes are killing me there.

EDIT: BTW, E8500 or E8400? the price difference is like $20...

EDIT2: $20 price difference from newegg. Tiger did not update prices so the difference there is $110. o.o

 

LGA1366 is where it's at.