Odditiy while overclocking with Asus P5WD2-E Premium and Intel 920

[ForgetCassettes]

Last week, I had my Asus P5WD2-E Premium and Intel Pentium D 920 for sale here on the board and after a few days, I had a change of heart and I decided to keep them. I think I'm glad I did. Tonight, I decided to try overclocking the 920. I've had it for over two months and this is my first attempt with it. Right now, I have the FSB at 257 making the CPU run at 3.6 Ghz. That's a 29% overclock. This is with stock voltage. I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper L3 Heatsink. I ran prime95 for about 15 minutes with no errors. The CPU idles around 38-40C and while running Prime95, it was 48-50C. Now here's the oddity : When I restart my computer, the computer shuts down completely for a few seconds, then restarts. It seems as though this just started happening once I went over the 250 FSB. Is this common ?

 

[lopri]

How many seconds? Do you mean the boot time? Well, either way I wouldn't worry about it unless the system is instable.

 

[hardwareking]

my system is stable at 3.6ghz(pentium d 930) on the stock cooler.
So i can't really help out.And it's not common.
it oculd be a sign of instability but if u can run prime 95 then thats not the case.

 

[boshuter]

Yes it is common.... I have 2 of those boards they both do it. It is not a problem and all P5WD2 boards do this. Do a little reading on any overclocking site and you will see that it's just something inherent in those boards.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

Ok. I thought that was the case. I ran Prime95 all night without any errors so it seems good to go.

 

[FelixDeCat]

That is weird.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

I upped the overclock to 3.7 Ghz still on stock voltage. It's still idling at 38-40C. I just can't believe it. I'm afraid to keep going higher. It seems too good to be true.

 

[RideFree]

As long as you load both CPUs 100% & it stays under 60° C., you'll be ok.
This chip has built in thermal protection and will throttle itself back if it gets too hot.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

I've got it running at 4 Ghz now but I set the voltage at 1.325. How bad is that? The hottest I've seen the CPU is 53C. I ran Prime95 for 15 minutes with no errors and I ran 3D Mark 05 without issue. I'll let Prime95 run all night tonight if that voltage seems ok ?

 

[Technonut]

Now here's the oddity : When I restart my computer, the computer shuts down completely for a few seconds, then restarts. It seems as though this just started happening once I went over the 250 FSB. Is this common ?

Mine does the same thing.... I rarely turn-off my rig, so no big deal.

EDIT:

I set the voltage at 1.325. How bad is that?

No problem.... Not bad at all.

 

[Duvie]

2 instances of prime95??? Loading both cores??? I ask cause the temp swing from Idle to load does not jive with air cooling. If it was water cooling I would say a 10c swing is legit....AMD's have lower TDP and even with high end coolers I get a bigger swing from idle to load then you get

If so (2 instances of prime95), that is a nice OC....

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: ForgetCassettes
I've got it running at 4 Ghz now but I set the voltage at 1.325. How bad is that? The hottest I've seen the CPU is 53C. I ran Prime95 for 15 minutes with no errors and I ran 3D Mark 05 without issue. I'll let Prime95 run all night tonight if that voltage seems ok ?

Looks like another winner even if you were to have to bump the volts another notch or two.

According to the Tomshardware article, Asus designed the hard reset into the BIOS triggered to a FSB O/C threshold of some # I can't remember. Perfectly ok.

 

[stevty2889]

I've gotten sick of refilling my water cooling all the time, so I am going to see how well my 805 runs with a scythe ninja. 1.35v is nice and low especialy for 4ghz. But you do need to run 2 instances of prime95 and for much longer than 15 minutes to check for stability and max temps.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

yeah I wasn't running two instances of prime95 before. I did that and I got a failure pretty quickly into the test. It's gotten a little warmer in this room now and my idle temp has risen to 42-44C. When I started the dual prime95 test, I watched the temperature rise to 55C and then I got a failure. I'm guessing that was from heat and I shouldn't raise the voltage higher. Correct?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: ForgetCassettes
yeah I wasn't running two instances of prime95 before. I did that and I got a failure pretty quickly into the test. It's gotten a little warmer in this room now and my idle temp has risen to 42-44C. When I started the dual prime95 test, I watched the temperature rise to 55C and then I got a failure. I'm guessing that was from heat and I shouldn't raise the voltage higher. Correct?

Actualy it probably failed from not enough vcore. My 920 needed 1.45v for 3.7ghz. 55c still isn't too bad. When you start hitting 65c you are close to throttling.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

well I rebooted and changed the voltage from 1.325 to 1.35. It ran longer this time before crashing. It ran about 4 tests this time before crashing. Shall i give it more voltage? The highest temp I saw was 57C.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: ForgetCassettes
well I rebooted and changed the voltage from 1.325 to 1.35. It ran longer this time before crashing. It ran about 4 tests this time before crashing. Shall i give it more voltage? The highest temp I saw was 57C.

Yeah, try 1.375 or 1.4v. Also may need to increase the chipset voltage. Are you using a ram divider or is your ram being overclocked?

 

[ForgetCassettes]

Ok. I tried 1.375 and it ran for 20 minutes before halting. I'm running at 1.4v now and I'm about to try Prime95. As far as my memory goes, cpuid says my memory is 2:3 (FSB : DRAM).

 

[ForgetCassettes]

Well it looks like 1.4 volts was just what it needed. I ran Prime95 for 90 minutes without errors. My big problem now is heat. The temp went to 63C at load. Should I remove the heatsink and try Arctic Silver? I used the thermal pad that came with the heatsink. I'm afraid if I remove the heatsink I will somehow spoil things and I'll never reach 4 Ghz again.

 

[RideFree]

AS5 is the ticket.
??Do you have the HS sitting vertical or is the M/B in it's normal orientation and sitting vertical, itself.

Reason I ask is that heatpipes operate best with a gravity assist in the vertical position.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

Well this morning, I removed the heatsink and applied AS. My temps have gotten higher as I was afraid they would. That thermal pad had been in place for over two months. I just ran prime95 and once I saw the temps go above 63C, I just stopped the test. I'll pull the heatsink up and try to reapply the AS. As for the orientation of everything, you can see a picture here

 

[RideFree]

The AS5 has to "cook in". Don't be afraid of 63 degrees. The chip has protection built in.
Don't expect cool Prime95 temps until it has settled down.
Did you wipe the chip & H/S down with alcohol before the AS5 application?
Run it at 1.400v. for several days of normal operation. Then next weekend prime the heck out of it.

 

[RideFree]

Also, try laying the computer on it's side to see if there is a gravity phenomenon to the heatpipe issue that I previously referenced.
In other words, run two tests...
1. On it's side
2. On it's feet
3. Compare temps.

Edited: BTW, the H-L3 is pretty anemic for high end air.

 

[ForgetCassettes]

Yeah I wiped it down. I keep some isopropyl alcohol (91%) near the computer. I tried reseating the heatsink but I noticed something that disturbed me. I decided to try putting the AS directly on the heatsink instead of on the cpu. On the bottom of my heatsink, there is a small square where the cpu makes contact with it. I covered that square with a very thin coating of AS. I replaced the heatsink and my temps were through the roof. I shut down and removed it and it appeared the heatsink never made contact with the center of the cpu. Only the edges of the cpu had AS left on them. I thought perhaps I seated the heatsink poorly so I tried again. Same result. I ended up just placing a small drop of AS in the center of the cpu and just letting the heatsink spread it. I really don't like these new style Intel heatsinks. I'm thinking of going to pick up a thermaltake blue orb II. It looks like it would be a much better cooler and quieter as well. This Cooler Master heatsink is extremely loud. What do you think?

 

[Technonut]

EDIT:

I'm thinking of going to pick up a thermaltake blue orb II. It looks like it would be a much better cooler and quieter as well. This Cooler Master heatsink is extremely loud. What do you think?

Personally, I suggest the XP-90C (with the LGA 775 Adapter Kit) and a quiet 92mm Panaflo fan......