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Here's my chronicle of my quest for a stable 4.0 Ghz do-everything rig.
I started with a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 & a 6600 Conroe last year, but all I could really get out of that was about 3.4 Ghz on air.
The cooler that I was using was quiet and inexpensive and did a relatively good job of keeping the Conroe at a stable temp in all the situations I put it in.
Well last month I read that Micro Center was having a sale on the Q9550 Quad Cores, and the best steppings were in stock too. So I thought I'd run over & see if they had one.
Well, they did - and with Windows 7 on the horizon and the ability to install and use more than 4 gb of ram I decided to pick one up and see what it would do in my mobo.
I got about 3.8 out of it, but the temps were getting too high (approaching 70C) and 3.8 Ghz was the wall with the GA-965P-DS3 's chipset.
So I decided to upgrade my mobo (muhaha....)
And I went with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P - wow what a nice piece of hardware!
So installed the mobo and the Q9550, then installed the Coolermaster with some AS-5.
I took it immediately ot 3.82 Ghz but the temp problems remained. So I lapped the cpu heatspreader and the base of the HSF to try to lower the temps some -
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1458718
Well, that lowered the idle temps some but the loaded temps were still hitting 70C.
After researching the air coolers available I decided to go with a Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B Heatpipe CPU Cooler from SVC -
http://www.svc.com/megahalems.html
The last time I had one of the "best" cpu coolers around was when I had a Thermalright SLK-900A on my overclocked Athlon XP 2500 Mobile, so I was really looking forward to getting it in the mail.
I picked up 2 120 X 25 mm Scythe Slip Stream 120 fans - 1200 rpm & low noise. My plan- one pushin' and one pullin' for quiet efficiency.
Here are the boxes -
Everything out of the box - hardware, thermal interface material, HSF, and support plate -
The heatsink fan itself- massive, well engineered and mega-mega -
Here's the base, reflecting a coin - cupie doll to the member that can ID the coin -
2 comparison shots of the Mega vs Coolermastrer -
And installed in my Antec 900 case -
Close up HSF goodness -
After getting it installed (it was very easy) I started the overclocking.
The Gskill memory has a stock voltage requirement of 2.0-2,1 volts, so I set that 2.08v as I was going to push it as well as the CPU & chipset with my 4 ghz demands. I kept the timings at 4-4-4-12 as well.
The EP45-UD3P set the vcore to 1.18750 volts, and with that set the system topped out at a stable 3.82 Ghz (8.5 X 450). Beyond that and things got unstable with BSODs and restarts, so I began to up the vcore.
With the overclock set to 4.0 ghz (8.5 X 471) I finally found the sweet spot for the vcore. I took my time increasing it it until I came to a "Prime Stable" state, and that voltage was 1.31250 volts - well below the max of 1.3625 recommended by Intel. -
So where will I go from here?
Well, up of course!
I started with a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 & a 6600 Conroe last year, but all I could really get out of that was about 3.4 Ghz on air.
The cooler that I was using was quiet and inexpensive and did a relatively good job of keeping the Conroe at a stable temp in all the situations I put it in.
Well last month I read that Micro Center was having a sale on the Q9550 Quad Cores, and the best steppings were in stock too. So I thought I'd run over & see if they had one.
Well, they did - and with Windows 7 on the horizon and the ability to install and use more than 4 gb of ram I decided to pick one up and see what it would do in my mobo.
I got about 3.8 out of it, but the temps were getting too high (approaching 70C) and 3.8 Ghz was the wall with the GA-965P-DS3 's chipset.
So I decided to upgrade my mobo (muhaha....)
And I went with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P - wow what a nice piece of hardware!
So installed the mobo and the Q9550, then installed the Coolermaster with some AS-5.
I took it immediately ot 3.82 Ghz but the temp problems remained. So I lapped the cpu heatspreader and the base of the HSF to try to lower the temps some -
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1458718
Well, that lowered the idle temps some but the loaded temps were still hitting 70C.
After researching the air coolers available I decided to go with a Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B Heatpipe CPU Cooler from SVC -
http://www.svc.com/megahalems.html
The last time I had one of the "best" cpu coolers around was when I had a Thermalright SLK-900A on my overclocked Athlon XP 2500 Mobile, so I was really looking forward to getting it in the mail.
I picked up 2 120 X 25 mm Scythe Slip Stream 120 fans - 1200 rpm & low noise. My plan- one pushin' and one pullin' for quiet efficiency.
Here are the boxes -
Everything out of the box - hardware, thermal interface material, HSF, and support plate -
The heatsink fan itself- massive, well engineered and mega-mega -
Here's the base, reflecting a coin - cupie doll to the member that can ID the coin -
2 comparison shots of the Mega vs Coolermastrer -
And installed in my Antec 900 case -
Close up HSF goodness -
After getting it installed (it was very easy) I started the overclocking.
The Gskill memory has a stock voltage requirement of 2.0-2,1 volts, so I set that 2.08v as I was going to push it as well as the CPU & chipset with my 4 ghz demands. I kept the timings at 4-4-4-12 as well.
The EP45-UD3P set the vcore to 1.18750 volts, and with that set the system topped out at a stable 3.82 Ghz (8.5 X 450). Beyond that and things got unstable with BSODs and restarts, so I began to up the vcore.
With the overclock set to 4.0 ghz (8.5 X 471) I finally found the sweet spot for the vcore. I took my time increasing it it until I came to a "Prime Stable" state, and that voltage was 1.31250 volts - well below the max of 1.3625 recommended by Intel. -
So where will I go from here?
Well, up of course!
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