Cooling + OC'ing Athlon XP 2500+{UPDATE (new result and temps)}

[Apocalypse23]

Hey guys, i'm reletivly new to the OC scene, but i've tried something out and wanted your feedback.

I have an Athlon XP 2500+ (barton), an NF7-s 2.0 mobo, a 350w Enermax PSU, and OCZ PC3200 512mb(2x256) Dual Channel high performance DDR memory. OS is WinXP pro and I also have a fx5900 nvidia card. I managed to overclock it to 2.20ghz (200x11) and my vCore is 1.7 with Cpu interface enabled and some memory stuff set to "spd" . Everything seems to be running fine, I did a few tests, played a few games etc and it seems stable. I've also heard stuff about memory timings and memory overclocking, but i'm really confused about that, shouild I also overclock my memory, and if so, how exactly?

Problem is my temps. I have CPUidle running all the time, which helps me reduce my temps around 10C. So idle, I get around 50C CPU and 38C sys. When i'm playing UT2004 (max cpu load) it shoots up to 60-68C (that can't be good). When I had it clocked to 190fsb, the max temp under load I got was 63C, now I have it up at 200fsb and i'm getting 68C on MAX load. So first of all, I need to know if this is tolerable, are these temps badly affecting the life span and performance of my cpu? If so, I want to invest in another fan or something that would help(I currently have stock cooling), but I would require assistance since i'm not too educated on this stuff.

I'm not sure exactly what to buy. I looked around and noticed the Vantec Tornado 80mm is a really good fan, but I don't know if that would help much (I can put it at the back of my case). I heard it preforms good if placed on the cpu heatsink too; would it work with my stock heatsink or should I buy a new heatsink as well? I asked a few people about that and they reccomended me Thermalright SLK800-900 or something. Oh and another thing. I upgraded my comp a while ago, I previously had a p3 700mhz, so i'm still using the same case. That also makes me wonder if the case is the problem. Should I just buy a new case which comes with more fans and is somewhat bigger or just get a fan, heatsink etc.? I don't have a lot of money at my disposal right now too so I would prefer something efficient and affordable for my needs.
Thanks in advance guys, really appreciate it!

 

[Toro 45]

68 C is higher than I would care to run and considering your voltage is not all that high I would say you need better case cooling and possibly a better heatsink/fan. What is your case temp while your cpu is at max (68C)? Do you have any case fans or is it just your psu drawing out the heat? What heasink/fan are you using now, there plenty of good choices from $13.00 and up, you mentioned a couple of nice ones at the higher end of the price spectrum.

You can overclock your ram by changing your "spd" setting to an aggressive or turbo setting. Usually if you set it to high it won't boot and give you a long beep or it will get you into windows and then reboot under a heavy load. You can raise your ram voltage if your board supports it, similar to raising you cpu voltage, helping you reach the speeds your at now.

 

[igblack]

i would go with water cooling to contain those temps. if ur not sure of how to do it, ull need a pump, radiator, cpu water block, and a resovior.


here is a sight that can help u a great deal and has a great forum

www.water-cooling.com

 

[TheStu]

If you don't feel like paying the oodles of money required for Water cooling.... (admittedly they aren't all expensive, but the good ones are, like all good things....) I would suggest the Thermalright SLK-947U or the 948U they are something on te order of $40-45 just for the heatsink, but they are pure copper so they are worth it...

 

[Apocalypse23]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond.
My case temp was around 43C during max load (when my cpu was up at 68C) Is that alright? And no, I don't have any case fans, just my psu fan, a small mobo fan and the heatsink one. I only have one 'slot' at the back of my cpu where I can put an 80mm fan(the tornado?), I don't know how much that will help overall, or wether I should buy a new heatsink and put the fan on that, or just both, or just a new case(was looking at the RAIDMAX SCORPIO).
As for my ram, yeah I noticed the 'agressive','turbo' etc settings but I wanted to make sure first. Considering my cpu is overclocked, will that affect my ram overclocking in any way?

I will also check the watercooling website but I hear that stuff costs a bit(like I said, i don't want to spend too much money on this), and takes up a lot of space in the case(mine is already crammed as it is =/)

 

[Gamingphreek]

No. How many case fans do you have and how are they positioned. The front should be intake the rear should be exhaust. The Vantec Tornado is an awesome fan however it is like a jet engine. The best fans are panaflos which are extremely silent because they use fluid bearings.

Also make sure your AGP frequency is locked at 66mhz and your RAM is running 1:1 or 100% so it reduces latency. What is your ambient room temp?

-Kevin

 

[Apocalypse23]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
No. How many case fans do you have and how are they positioned. The front should be intake the rear should be exhaust. The Vantec Tornado is an awesome fan however it is like a jet engine. The best fans are panaflos which are extremely silent because they use fluid bearings.

Also make sure your AGP frequency is locked at 66mhz and your RAM is running 1:1 or 100% so it reduces latency. What is your ambient room temp?

-Kevin

I only have the PSU fan, the one on the mobo and heatsink(all stock). I don't have a case fan, and only have one slot for it anyway (on the back). I realize this is pretty bad, so that's why I was wondering wether I should just get a heatsink and fan, or buy a whole new case or something. I will also look into panaflo, does it preform well as compared to the tornado? I hear the tornado is loud as hell, but preforms excellent. Someone suggested I get a fan controller if I decide to buy it, but i'm not sure which one to purchase and wether it's even worth slowing down (wouldn't that make it equal to some of the quieter, cheaper fans?) BTW, I also found a good deal on a SLK-900A SOCKET-A COPPER HEATSINK, should I go for it?

Yeah, my agp frequency is at 66 and ram is 1:1. If I change the setting from spd to say agressive or turbo, will that change it from 1:1 ?

I live in Canada, and usually keep the window open and fan on. So my room temp is around 25-35 Celcius(higher in summer, but its cool these days).

 

[Toro 45]

Go ahead and get a case fan, for the back that will help with yor case temps and one for the front if you have a spot. Your cpu temp is 25C higher than your case temp so it sounds like you need to work on the h/s/fan if it's a retail cooler is it possible it still has the thermal pad on it? That would cause higher temps than a nice layer of Arctic silver, etc..

As far as the tornado you have to decide, fans like the panaflo L1A are very quiet but move less air, you have to decide whats more important cooler temps or a quiet computer. A fan controller is nice because you can use a high speed fan but dial in just the right fan speed/noise combination. Tha same thing goes with your heatsink if it will take a 80mm fan you could try one of the Enermax fans or other brands that give a fan speed dial or switch to control the noise/cooling performance you want. You should check to see if it using a pad or not

On your ram 1:1 ration meens your ram is running the same speed as cpu(200 fsb) your ram is rated at 200 so it's not really being overclocked, changing the spd to turbo lowers the latency which can give your some performance gain in memory and no it doesn't change it from 1:1

 

[Apocalypse23]

Originally posted by: Toro 45
Go ahead and get a case fan, for the back that will help with yor case temps and one for the front if you have a spot. Your cpu temp is 25C higher than your case temp so it sounds like you need to work on the h/s/fan if it's a retail cooler is it possible it still has the thermal pad on it? That would cause higher temps than a nice layer of Arctic silver, etc..

As far as the tornado you have to decide, fans like the panaflo L1A are very quiet but move less air, you have to decide whats more important cooler temps or a quiet computer. A fan controller is nice because you can use a high speed fan but dial in just the right fan speed/noise combination. Tha same thing goes with your heatsink if it will take a 80mm fan you could try one of the Enermax fans or other brands that give a fan speed dial or switch to control the noise/cooling performance you want. You should check to see if it using a pad or not

On your ram 1:1 ration meens your ram is running the same speed as cpu(200 fsb) your ram is rated at 200 so it's not really being overclocked, changing the spd to turbo lowers the latency which can give your some performance gain in memory and no it doesn't change it from 1:1

I remember when I assembled the pc I did not need to use any sort of thermal paste. I do remember a greyish square like very thin 'pad' at the bottom of the heatsink. I guess you're reffering to that.

Well I don't want something that sounds like a hair dryer running in my pc because I use it a lot. At the same time, I obviously require a lot of power because of the lack of fans my case supports, and how congested everything is in it. So what if I go for the tornado but get a fan controller or something? I will look into enermax fans and stuff also.

I see, okay I am using the Turbo settings right now and sisoft sandara's memory bandwidth test reports a slight increase. Seems to be stable as well.

 

[Apocalypse23]

UPDATE:

Okay, I bought a Vantec Tornado 92 mm to put on a Thermalright SLK-900A Heatsink, a Zalman ZM-F1 80mm fan to put on the back of my case(as exhaust) and I put my old stock amd 60mm heatsink fan and put it on the side of my CPU ( i don't have a special slot to put it in, but I had to improvise with the little holes drilled for air flow) . Ok so my temps went down a LOT, it went down by around 26-30 degrees. Overclocking is a lot easier as well. Right now I have my Athlon XP 2500+ overclocked to 2.38GHZ (216x11) with my cpu voltage up to 1.9v(stable). I can get a nice stable overclock at 2.31ghz on 1.8v(stable). Also, my temps are really good. Under max load and overclocking, I get a maximum of around 42C. My idle temps vary from 35-38C. As for my system temp, they're around 28-29C under max load and 25+C under idle.

I was wondering if I can get a better overclock and if you guys have any other suggestions and what not. Thanks a lot.

 

[Apocalypse23]

bump

 

[Apocalypse23]

I also had a question about voltage settings regardless of temperatures of the cpu. Would having a voltage up at 1.90-1.95 Volts for the cpu + having a maximum of 43 degrees temp under full load be safe for the longevity of the chip? Also how long would this chip last for me (4-5 years at atleast, with these stable temps?) Or does voltage have drastic effects irrespective of the cpu temps?

THanks

 

[pirred908]

With those volatges, your chip won't last four to five years. Regardless of the temps.

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
I also had a question about voltage settings regardless of temperatures of the cpu. Would having a voltage up at 1.90-1.95 Volts for the cpu + having a maximum of 43 degrees temp under full load be safe for the longevity of the chip? Also how long would this chip last for me (4-5 years at atleast, with these stable temps?) Or does voltage have drastic effects irrespective of the cpu temps?

THanks

You should be getting nervous if you go beyond 1.8v.
And the games you mentioned don't fully load your cpu.
Download Prime95 and use it to test your overclock stability.
It will also bring your cpu load to 100%.
If you can run Prime95 for say 24 hours without an error your overclock is stable.

Other tests to perform are memtest86 and 3DMark. They will test your memory and video respectively.

 

[Hyperlite]

24 hours is a little overkill i'd say...

but anyway, SLK900A and 92MM Tornado is the absolute best air cooling solution you can have....check my sig, i like tornados. =D


btw, what large piece of machinery did you imagine the first time you fired up that tornado. =DD