Was going to overclock but...

ZenOne

Junior Member
Sep 6, 2008
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my CPU temp is consistent 30C with no load and 40C with a 80-90 % load. My CPU's themselves are at 50-55C with no load and 75C with 80-90 % load.

My mainboard is an Asus P5K.

Should I OC under these conditions?

My ram is: 2x OCZ2G8001G (DDR2) BTW.

Oh, and will be getting either a 9800 GTX or HD4850 tomorrow.

TIA.
 

ZenOne

Junior Member
Sep 6, 2008
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When using SpeedFan--my system is running at 30C idle and 40C load--my CPU's themselves are at 55C idle and 75C load.

It's weird right?

The reason I was going to upgrade my vid card (8600 gt) and OC is because my HL2 keeps crapping out (more specifically TF2--in heated battle, it doesn't slow down just craps out completely).
 

QuadDamage2k

Member
Dec 23, 2007
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Make sure your fan is on correctly, check your heat skink
Look into upgrading, thats way to hot
mine runs about 55 but gets to 63
 

TidusZ

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2007
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Download coretemp and see what the temperatures are reading there. If they're still that high, you're going to need to read up on removing the heatsink, reapplying thermal paste, and remounting the heatsink. You could read up on lapping the heatsink too, would help. Definitely check with coretemp first though.

The fact is, if your fan is spinning theres no other reason that the temp could be that high at stock unless the mounting is really poor.
 

ZenOne

Junior Member
Sep 6, 2008
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Okay--I just cleaned the fan with Q-Tips (keep in mind I will clean it more thoroughly tomorrow at a normal human hour) and the temp went down by like 12-15C.

It's at like 40C now and maybe 55C under load.

Can I OC now?
 

TidusZ

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2007
1,765
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Ya You've got some overclocking room, if it dropped like that just cleaning the fan though I imagine you got some dust buildup in the heatsink itself. I'd take the fan off and use a vacuum to suck out the dust from the heatsink. You'll get 10 posts after this one saying to use compressed air only and not a vacuum but I've been doing it for years and never a problem, and it saves me a few dollars each time. Anyways, as long as your temps are below 70c under load your fine, so overclock a bit and up the voltage slightly as needed and keep an eye on the temperatures.
 

ZenOne

Junior Member
Sep 6, 2008
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running orthos and on the net at the same time and temp under 100% load is 64C

I did not fully clean it either--OC time?
 

ZenOne

Junior Member
Sep 6, 2008
23
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Temps are a solid 67C while running orthos and surfing the net--I'm about to confirm the pickup of an eVGA 9800 GTX+ and a plantronics headset (is this a better choice than an ATI HD4850 for $10 more?)
 

error8

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2007
3,204
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You never mentioned what is your cpu...

9800 GTX+ seems to be a bit faster over the HD4850 and for 10 $ it might just worth the money. ;)
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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This may or may not be relevant to this discussion.

What motherboard? What BIOS version? If you only needed to clean a fan or cooler fins, that's something else.

Perhaps I should post this on a new thread:

I've upgraded from an nVidia 680i chipset to a 780i. And I upgraded from an E8400 processor to the new E8600 (E0).

This eVGA NF78-A1 motherboard seems a bit clunky with either the shipped BIOS P06 or the flash I did today for v.P07 (July, 2008).

The fan-control features don't work -- and this excludes the VISTA64 sensor readings -- I'm evaluating just by changing the items, "Exit and Save" BIOS setup, and re-entering BIOS setup.

At least one fan-sensor is not registering, yet the fans and sensor wires have been tested "good" before installing the new motherboard.

RealTemp tests seem to indicate that the processor core temperature sensors are just plain stuck -- 46C/46C at idle.

I heard people were having trouble with these E8x00 processors -- the E8400 and E8600 -- regardless of stepping -- per the sensors.

But with my experience with the E8400 processor, I'm wondering if this isn't just a problem with a buggy BIOS.

Comments welcome . . . although the thread is for benefit of the OP.
 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
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ostif.org
I would clean out the HSF better before trying to OC.

The CPU is not supposed to exceed 70C under normal operating conditions.
 

Drsignguy

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: Acanthus
I would clean out the HSF better before trying to OC.

The CPU is not supposed to exceed 70C under normal operating conditions.


Also just to add, what HSF do you have stock or aftermarket???

 

jellyrole

Senior member
May 10, 2008
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techarkade.com
You should really think about upgrading your heatsink then. Take a look at the True 90 or 120 if you have the money. I recently upgraded to the 120 extreme and it made my temps on a Q6600 idle and load the same at 3.4 on the True vs 2.4 on the stock cooler.
 

Drsignguy

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2002
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Ok, well then if you are at stock speeds and these are your temps, then you are going to have a tough time over clocking as your temps will hit the roof with a stock HSF. You just might want to invest in an aftermarket HS as it would be a safer choice IMHO.

As others have said, Take the HS off, clean using Alcohol, wipe with a coffee filter, re-apply TIM and remount. Do the Same if you decide to get a 3rd party HS.

Btw, If you use a vacuum, use it on the Blowing side. Vacuum's creates static and will kill componets if you are not careful. I know! :)
 

TidusZ

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2007
1,765
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I thought your temps were ~55c rather than 67c. You definitely don't want to overclock at that temp, your already as high as you wanna go. It pretty much comes down to whether you want to spend cash at this point to upgrade your cooling.

If you don't want to spend much money, you could remove your heatsink and processor, clean them both with isopropyl alcohol (I use 70% because its what I have, higher % is recommended) and then lap them both using sandpaper and water (400/800/1500 grit).
Lapping Guide This guide walks you through it but he uses more grits of sandpaper than really necessary and he says not to use water. In my opinion, use a few drops of water on the sandpaper when your sanding, it'll slide nicely and despite his opinion you aren't going to ruin your processor, otherwise I would of ruined a lot of processors by now. Once your done lapping hsf and processor, clean them both again with alcohol and remount the hsf. You'll need to use some thermal paste, if you dont have any you will need to buy some unfortunately, but its only 7 or 8 dollars for a tube - I recommend OCZ Freeze or else try Arctic Silver five or else Arctic Cooling Mx-2. I bet if you do this you could lower your temps enough to do a light overclock, and it would cost less than 10 dollars and a few hours of time.

If you are willing to spend cash, I'd recommend ordering a new hsf - if you want a nice bolt through setup go for the thermalright 120 true (~60 Cdn) or if you want similar performance but the ridiculously awful pushpin mechanism, go with the Ocz Vendetta 2 (~40 Cdn). Either of those will lower your temps enough for some serious overclocking and overvolting. You'd probably wanna do the lapping with these as well to take it as far as you can, depending on your time and motivational commitment to the whole thing.

Another thing, you could try downloading speedfan and using that to increase the speed of your processor fan. I haven't used it (I use a bios tool) but it should work. Don't bother looking for a similar bios tool, there doesnt appear to be one for your motherboard.

Oh and one more thing, if you go the cheap route, another option is to get a large house fan and put it right on the open case and crank it up. It wont look great and its a bit fragile of a setup but I dont think any computer enthusiast can say they haven't done it at some point. Good luck with the overclocking and let us know your progress.