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Q9550 temperatures, any help appreciated!

hanrak

hanrak

hanrak

Associate
Joined
13 Oct 2007
Posts
34
Location
Finland
Hi guys, could use a little help here as im scratching my head at the min.

So got a q9550 on a Asus p5q deluxe MB with this fan on it. http://www.jimmspc-store.fi/tuoteinfo/CPAF-004?pid=1302534624769 . Im using arctic silver 5 paste. All this in a gigabyte aurora 3D case.

My system temp is 43 on idle.
Now im struggling to get decent temperatures on this thing.
So on stock clock idle with real temp im getting
C1 44
C2 44
C3 44
C4 45

And on using prime 95 im getting

C1 61
C2 61
C3 60
C4 64

Now bear in mind this is at stock speeds of 2.8Ghz.

I upped the FSB to 353 to hit 3Ghz and was getting into the 70s under prime so dropped it back down.
Reapplied paste, reseated fan and checked heatsink and all appears good but looking around on google it appears people are getting much lower temps than me and obviously im not going to be able to clock it up to 3.6ghz with these temps. My modle of CPU is the C1 version but would that make all of a difference.

Any ideas guys? Really could use some help.
 
I have just clocked a friends q9550 on a foxconn P45 board with a Thermalright ultra extreme heatsink and an apache 120mm fan.

at 3.4GHz we were getting 30C to 35C idle and 46C-52C with prime 95 load.

I think you need a better heatsink based on those parameters, we used coretemp and HWmonitor to get readings
 
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Those temps look pretty normal unless you have a mega heatsink. 35C off thermal throttling in worse case scanario (prime95) at stock. Very similar to mine, which has average case airflow and a quiet rather than performance cooler. Still clocks to 3.4Ghz with temps in what I consider a safe zone.

You should find the temps don't rise that much all the way up to 3.4Ghz, at which point you may start to increase voltage. Please check that your motherboard isn't auto increasing voltage with FSB, as many do on AUTO settings.

Also, don't use the standard 1.225v. Make sure the voltage remains fixed at 1.18-1.20v for 3.4Ghz and under. Most motherboards default these chips to around 1.1875v. See how far you can clock on that.

You're actually lucky in one way - those sensors look to working quite well. My C1 has the infamous thermal sensors problem (large differences between a couple of cores, stuck sensor at idle temps etc).

The sensors are not accurate anyway until they approach thermal throttling temp - so they get more accurate to the real temp of the CPU the closer they get to 100C. At lower temps they can be way off the real value (as much as 10-20C!!)

If it's stable, anything 75C and under on any one sensor is fine in my opinion during prime. Even if the sensor is hitting 80C, it is still 20C off thermal throttle.
 
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Thanks for the advice guys, seems my vcore was set to auto and that was pumping the temps up quite a bit. Locked it at 1.20 now and temps are around 63 with prime but still only at 3GHz now. So you guys think i should be able to hit 3.4ghz on 1.20 and with safe temps?

Also just a couple of quick questions, should i leave all my ram settings the same if i try for 3.4ghz? Their at 5-5-5-18 at the min and auto on everything else. Oh and anything else i should change off the top of your heads? Memory is 8GB of 1066 currently set to auto ( i think that means their set to 800Mhz).

Thanks for the help again, really appreciated.
 
Well it was stable. Increased the fsb to 400 an now failing burn test on second run twice. So many settings but surely it cant be that hard to OC to 3.4? Somthing else was strange. On speedfan an realtemp the temps once hittin 72 started dropping by 10 whole degrees for a 10 secs the flying straight back. Cause for concern??
 
I used 1.25V vcore for 3.4GHz. The Foxconn board we were using had to be set at 1.28V in the bios to get 1.248V in CPU-z. The northbridge voltage was increased from about 1.1 to 1.18V in the bios. We were using PC2-6400 at 1.9V which only barely accepted 400Mhz clock so limiting the OC, we will try looser timings to 6-6-6-18 to increase this. As stated we have a large CPU cooler so our temps were not an issue here. System temp was about 44C in a warm room.
 
Every motherboard and system is different and settings can depend on vdrop, as nkata shows.

You have 8GB ram, so that means a heavy load on the northbridge memory controller and it will be harder to overclock than with 4GB. With 8GB, you will probably need to boost the Northbridge voltage from 1.10v to around 1.16-1.2v even for 400FSB, definitely once you go above.

As nkata suggests, make sure the RAM timings are loose to start with if you are going above their rated speed - OR with your 1066 ram, make sure they are running at 800 and 1:1 - best to eliminate all possible problems when overclocking. You can always tighten them after you get the CPU stable. Same with speedstep and Halt C1, disable until you are finished overclocking then re-enable and test for stability.

The CPU will be capable of 3.4Ghz without doubt, but some motherboards can be picky with higher FSB and quads.
 
Ill certainly try that guys, as soon as i get these temps down. Ordering the H50 and gonna wack 3 new fans on the case. Any suggestions on the fans?
 
Temps are fine all the way upto 80c

Don on another thread pointed out 100c is ok on some cpu, I dont doubt it. Surely Finland is ideal for an cold air feed for the intake if possible

Ordering the H50
Click to expand...

see the special deals section on this forum, theres a better one on offer for a similar price


suggestions on the fans?
Click to expand...

antec tricool or any 120mm on 5v is fine. I got like 4 of them, no chance of heat build up
 
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I had similar problems but I just re-seated the cpu and the cooler and tried again

temps dropped from 70 degrees at full load down to 60 - clocked to 3.8 and using thor hammer cooler with 120mm apache fan
 
Ok thanks for the tips guys, silver surfer any reason why you suggest it to be a 5v fan in particular? Thinking about ordering 3 of these-http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=52&type=overview

What you guys think to them?
 
Ok so the less volts the quieter it will be? I thought the RPM of fan itself dictated the noise level but ill be honest i dont know a great deal about fans and stuff. Really not sure what fans to buy, so much choice. Do you think the xigmatech i showed you will do the job? Or should i go zalman or akasa. Decisions decisions.
 
Well if it's getting less volts it's going to be spinning at less RPM :p

I just bung a Zalman fanmate on any fan I want to quieten. Works like a charm!

My Q9550 was at 4GHz with an Akasa 120mm @ 50% using a Ultra120.
 
Mine doesn't break 65ºC with a Tuniq Tower Extreme and Apache on it. Case has great airflow though.
 
I had a Q9550 on an asus P5q deluxe, with a thermalright ultra 120 with fan, I overclocked it to 3.6ghz by only changing the frequency to 425 if i remember correct. my temps was 30 idle and never left the 40's under load, was a great solid setup!
 
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