opinions on "cool and quiet" and OCing please

[Vidman]

Question: does running "cool and quiet" affect the stability of an OC? I've got my box running fine at 4GHz with relatively low vcore but I have the cool and quiet disabled. PC is always on 24/7.

Turn it on or leave it off? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Vidman

 

[Zap]

My preference would be to leave it on even if I had to reduce the overclock, especially on a PC powered on 24/7. That's a lot of wasted electricity.

 

[repoman0]

Turn it on, it works fine. Check out PhenomMsrTweaker as well. It was created by someone on XS forums and runs as a service in the background, letting you make custom CnQ states. Instead of 800MHz and about .95V, I run 1600MHz with .9V at idle.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

Turn it on, it works fine. Check out PhenomMsrTweaker as well. It was created by someone on XS forums and runs as a service in the background, letting you make custom CnQ states. Instead of 800MHz and about .95V, I run 1600MHz with .9V at idle.

This. PhenomMsrTweaker or K10STAT are both great tools that allow you to completely customize your power saving settings. Being able to turn your NB VID down when idle(something CnQ doesn't do by default) helps lower power consumption quite a bit if you're pushing the IMC. You just have to be careful and not turn it down too low or your run the risk of having memory corruption issues.

 

[LoneNinja]

Whether CnQ has worked for me while overclocking has varied on whether I did multiplier overclock or overclocked the base clock, and what motherboard I'm using.

On my systems that can't function with CnQ, I used K10stat to lower the multiplier and cpu voltage to something far more conservative for daily operation, my overclocks only show performance gains in a few things I do. Even gaming I'm bottlenecked by the vid card, best I own is a 5670.

 

[BD231]

Running your CPU at a voltage capable of pushing 4ghz 24/7 is not a good idea, the higher voltage you run the higher the chance's you have of degrading the CPU over time. Leaving your CPU in a state of elevated voltage only makes it worse.

PhenomMsrTweaker is a pretty worthless program as well, short of the north bridge alterations you can make overclocking in itself raise's your C&Q clocks so no need to make any change's there.

At 3.5ghz alone my C&Q speed went from 800mhz to 1000mzh. Never turn C&Q off if you can help it though. The less voltage your CPU receives over time the better and C&Q itself definitely shouldn't stop you from reaching the chips max potential.

 

[jimbo75]

Cool and quiet will automatically be disabled if you overclock past 3.6gHz isn't it?

 

[drizek]

What are you talking about? Phenommsr is not worthless at all. It let's you fine tune everything that is totally impossible from the bios, at least from a gigabyte bios.

Maybe thubans are different, but the x4s don't work like that.

 

[Jovec]

Cool and quiet will automatically be disabled if you overclock past 3.6gHz isn't it?

I can't speak in certainties. My 955 and 1090t both disable CnQ at 19x multiple, but enable it at 18x (gigabyte mobo) and even 18.5x (asus mobo). You can balance your OC by mixing a smaller FSB increase with an 18 or 18.5 multi to get a good final overclock while retaining the idle voltage reductions.

Via my kill-a-watt, the difference between my 1090t at stock 1.3v and CnQ 1.225 volts was 5 watts. If we can extrapolate those numbers on a P2 quad with 1.4v stock and 1.0v CnQ, that's about a 26 watt savings with CnQ and stock voltages.

Put me in the camp that recommends using CnQ.

 

[jimbo75]

I thought it was common knowledge that CnQ disabled after 3.6gHz. However this was 2 years ago when Deneb was just out (940 BE which I bought). Maybe it increased in line with clock speeds with each new chip, ie 3.8ghz with the 955?

 

[drizek]

If we can extrapolate those numbers on a P2 quad with 1.4v stock and 1.0v CnQ, that's about a 26 watt savings with CnQ and stock voltages.

You can't. Its not linear, and the difference will be even more than 26W.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

What are you talking about? Phenommsr is not worthless at all. It let's you fine tune everything that is totally impossible from the bios, at least from a gigabyte bios.

Maybe thubans are different, but the x4s don't work like that.

PhenomMsrTweaker is just as useful for Thuban as Deneb. Being able to fine tune the load sampling rate and threshold is a God-send.

I thought it was common knowledge that CnQ disabled after 3.6gHz. However this was 2 years ago when Deneb was just out (940 BE which I bought). Maybe it increased in line with clock speeds with each new chip, ie 3.8ghz with the 955?

I found that CnQ disabled after the multiplier is put at 18.5 or higher. The clockspeed itself doesn't matter, as you could just use 18x and then 217 HTT/FSB to get 3.9Ghz and have working CnQ(I did just this with my old 940). But I haven't tried this with my Thuban so it might be something that was worked out.

 

[repoman0]

Running your CPU at a voltage capable of pushing 4ghz 24/7 is not a good idea, the higher voltage you run the higher the chance's you have of degrading the CPU over time. Leaving your CPU in a state of elevated voltage only makes it worse.

PhenomMsrTweaker is a pretty worthless program as well, short of the north bridge alterations you can make overclocking in itself raise's your C&Q clocks so no need to make any change's there.

At 3.5ghz alone my C&Q speed went from 800mhz to 1000mzh. Never turn C&Q off if you can help it though. The less voltage your CPU receives over time the better and C&Q itself definitely shouldn't stop you from reaching the chips max potential.

Why do you even bother posting?

Many times CnQ voltage can be lowered by 0.2V or more compared to the default voltage, which is not configurable in any bios I've seen. It's also quite nice to have a higher idle speed so the CPU ramps up less than it would - all while using the same power at idle since you can keep the same ~0.85-0.9V at twice the 800MHz default frequency.

 

[Vidman]

Thanks for the replies. How do you know if it's on and working?

I tried turning it (cool & quiet) on. booted back into Win7x64 and turned on Prime95. Prime95 stopped almost within the first minute. I'm running a straight 20x200 OC. I disabled it and prime95 is running fine now. I think I'll leave it off. Prime95 ran for over 16 hours when first OCed it to 4.0 GHz. Not a hiccup.

I'm at 1.416vcore according to CPUz64, 1.396v according to ASRock OC tuner. 52C load. 30C when just 'net surfing.

Go figure.

 

[BD231]

Many times CnQ voltage can be lowered by 0.2V or more compared to the default voltage, which is not configurable in any bios I've seen.

It's called a voltage offset and most all AM3 boards have it. If you can tweak it via software you can tweak it via bios.

 

[repoman0]

Thanks for the replies. How do you know if it's on and working?

I tried turning it (cool & quiet) on. booted back into Win7x64 and turned on Prime95. Prime95 stopped almost within the first minute. I'm running a straight 20x200 OC. I disabled it and prime95 is running fine now. I think I'll leave it off. Prime95 ran for over 16 hours when first OCed it to 4.0 GHz. Not a hiccup.

I'm at 1.416vcore according to CPUz64, 1.396v according to ASRock OC tuner. 52C load. 30C when just 'net surfing.

Go figure.

Sucks I guess. If I were you I'd turn the OC down a bit to leave CnQ on, that's a lot of wasted power. Maybe try one of the software options.

It's called a voltage offset and most all AM3 boards have it. If you can tweak it via software you can tweak it via bios.

That doesn't mean you can control both idle and load core voltage independently like you can with software. Hence, the whole point of any of these programs.

 

[BD231]

That doesn't mean you can control both idle and load core voltage independently like you can with software. Hence, the whole point of any of these programs.

Yes it does actually, you can PM me or hit google if you'd like to know more.

 

[SickBeast]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't C1E better and more effective than CNQ?

What I've done personally is use a program called K10STAT to perfectly tune each of the 4 speed steps.

 

[BD231]

With C1E the processor power can be reduced by lowering the memory controller clock speed and halting the hyper transport links, C&C is strictly multi/voltage on the cores themselves.

 

[blckgrffn]

Buy the cheapest "Black" CPU with the number of cores you want, adjust Multi to 18x, make sure QnQ is enabled, save and exit bios. Problem solved?

*shows himself the door*

 

[aigomorla]

Just a warning for those of u guys who are after power saving / reduction:

LC'd Systems.. even ones with Corsair H#O products should not be put into sleep.

The startup amperage on the pump is quite harsh, compared to operational amperage.
And having many many on and off's is a good way to kill any pump.


My thoughts on C1E / CnQ.

I tend to leave them off, if my system is overclocked.
Getting them both on to me honestly feels like asking for too much.

C1E is only a straight multi reduction, as well as CnQ, so when it drops that multi, sometimes it drops votlage, which can lead to a failed OC... machine sometimes wont wake up from sleep.

And quite honestly, the extra cost in electricity is what?
10-20 dollars / year?

I'll skip on a few Latte's at starbucks, and instead leave my PC on.

 

[deimos3428]

LC'd Systems.. even ones with Corsair H#O products should not be put into sleep.

The startup amperage on the pump is quite harsh, compared to operational amperage.
And having many many on and off's is a good way to kill any pump.

The very best thing you can do for that pump (or any other piece of electric equipment) is to never, ever, ever, ever turn it on..but that's not really much of an argument for keeping your PC running 24/7.

 

[soccerballtux]

My preference would be to leave it on even if I had to reduce the overclock, especially on a PC powered on 24/7. That's a lot of wasted electricity.

+1

 

[Vidman]

Just a warning for those of u guys who are after power saving / reduction:

LC'd Systems.. even ones with Corsair H#O products should not be put into sleep.

The startup amperage on the pump is quite harsh, compared to operational amperage.
And having many many on and off's is a good way to kill any pump.


My thoughts on C1E / CnQ.

I tend to leave them off, if my system is overclocked.
Getting them both on to me honestly feels like asking for too much.

C1E is only a straight multi reduction, as well as CnQ, so when it drops that multi, sometimes it drops votlage, which can lead to a failed OC... machine sometimes wont wake up from sleep.

And quite honestly, the extra cost in electricity is what?
10-20 dollars / year?

I'll skip on a few Latte's at starbucks, and instead leave my PC on.

I'm with you. Box runs great at 4GHz and no C&Q. That's the way it's gonna stay. I've been OCing stuff since 200MHz Pentiums and I've never used any power saving BIOS settings or the like. If it blows up tomorrow (It won't), I'm out $127. I can deal with that and the extra couple watts of electricity. Personally, I wonder if moving a cpu up and down in frequency, and voltage, isn't harder on it than just keeping it at a level pace and voltage.

Cheers,
Vidman

 

[nvidiaintelftw]

couldnt you just get a Corsair H60 or H70 and run cool and quiet. Also just turn the computer off at night. no need to waste that electricity and kill more polar bears. :biggrin: