Need upgrade recommendation

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Anyway, I'm coming into a small CPU cooler problem. I'm going to see if I can get some help here without starting a new thread in C&C. Here's a couple pics:
pic
Closer look

I like the fact that the PSU exhaust fan is aimed directly at the main board and help cool everything, but would it cause air flow problem with the CPU cooler? My other option would be using the other PSU (shown sitting on top) with a rear exhaust fan.

The airflow from that won't be a problem, but if the heatsink is actually touching the PSU with more than a very tiny bit of force, it is possible the heatsink is not sitting with even pressure on the CPU anymore or is bending the motherboard some in order to fit, in which case it could effect temps or be stressful on the board.

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: mindless1
The airflow from that won't be a problem, but if the heatsink is actually touching the PSU with more than a very tiny bit of force, it is possible the heatsink is not sitting with even pressure on the CPU anymore or is bending the motherboard some in order to fit, in which case it could effect temps or be stressful on the board.

Yeah that was my concern too. I ended up cutting some of the heatsink fins off and it fits now.

And boy this is so much faster than my old X2. Crysis runs so smooth at 1280x720 with everything on high except med shadow, and I can turn on 4xAA and it makes a big difference in visual quality yet still runs silky smooth.

This is the temperature I got so far:
Idle: 26C
Load (playing Crysis): 33C

After load it idles at 29-30C

Are these good temp? Would 3.6GHz easily reachable considering these stock temp?

 

[Concillian]

Temps go up slightly with speed, but go up much faster with voltage.

My opinion on the right way to Overclock is to run a low multiplier at the max FSB you expect (6x450 or 6x400) Run OCCT overnight.
When this looks okay, you run the multi back up and set FSB back to stock. Then bump up ~5 FSB at a time and run ~10 minutes of Linpack (Intel Burn Test). Repeat until you start to get failures or temps are scary, then back down 5 FSB and run your long term testing (Prime95 or run enough Linpack for 12 hours or whatever)

3.6 GHz should be achievable given your temps. You won't likely have a temperature issue if you're at 30C load at 3.0GHz. somewhere around 3.6 is where e8400s start needing voltage bumps, so that's a good target if your temps are a concern. Should require only a small voltage bump (none you have a strong CPU)

 

[nerp]

You did well with the E8400. I really enjoy mine and feel it's a processor I'll always look back on with fondness.

 

[walk2k]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
This is the temperature I got so far:
Idle: 26C
Load (playing Crysis): 33C

After load it idles at 29-30C

Are these good temp? Would 3.6GHz easily reachable considering these stock temp?

Those temps are CRAZY LOW. What program are you using to check temps? Mine never goes below 41c (idle) and games hit 57-58c (at stock 3.0 speed).

That's using Speedfan to check temps. The (wrong) Asus bios sensor says CPU temp is 31c which is stupid and wrong because sometimes it shows 22c or something which is even lower than room temp - which is impossible with air cooling!

Get Speedfan or something else that checks the Intel core temp sensor.

My temps with the system below are 41c (idle) and 68c max in Orthos small, more like 50-55c in most games. At 3.6Ghz and 2.40v

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: walk2k
My temps with the system below are 41c (idle) and 68c max in Orthos small, more like 50-55c in most games. At 3.6Ghz and 2.40v

:Q :laugh:

Somehow I think you meant 1.40v !!

My e8400 does 3GHz at 1.225v and 37-38C under stock hsf with one core at 100% pushing the F@H GPU client. I toyed with it at 3.6GHz (1.28v on auto) and only saw 40C under same conditions. Just don't really need the extra power much so I leave it at stock.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

This is the temperature I got so far:
Idle: 26C
Load (playing Crysis): 33C

After load it idles at 29-30C

Are these good temp? Would 3.6GHz easily reachable considering these stock temp?

Great temps. go as high as you can. Would you mind taking a screenshot of Prime95 or ORTHOS running with coretemp, realtemp and 5 instances of cpuz open, please?

Here is my laptop, for example:
http://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=testka4.jpg

 

[mooncancook]

The temps were from a utility that comes with the mobo. I downloaded SpeedFan and Prime95 to play around for a bit. It seems the CPU temp from the utility program is the Temp1 in SpeedFan. I tried a little OC by bumping the FSB to 400 without doing anything else (no voltage change), it boots into Windows but crashed when I run Prime95. I backed FSB down to 380 and it's stable now.

Anyway here's the more accurate temp from Speedfan:
Stock 3.0GHz
Load (Prime95 for 40 min):
Temp1(CPU): 45
Temp3(sys): 31
Core0: 53
Core1: 53

Idle:
Temp1(CPU): 29
Temp3(sys): 30
Core0: 38
Core1: 38

OC 3.43GHz (380x9)
Load (Prime95)
Temp1: 52
Temp3: 31
Core0: 60
Core1: 60

Idle:
Temp1: 29
Tmep3: 30
Core0: 38
Core1: 38

Judging from the temp, if I want to hit 400x9, is the CPU cooler my limit?