MSI Fusion/Phenom II Quad Core Cooling Problem . . .

Mr Dee · 9 Jan 2011 at 17:03

Hiya's

I have been a PC gamer for many years but I am very new to the world of overclocking, So when it came to building a new system I went for the MSI Fusion motherboard as it looked the most user friendly with the overclocking features as it manages it all for you :-)

and I also bought the Gigabyte GTX460 OC, the Phenom II Quad Core processor with the Arctic Freezer 13 cooler, but I am experiencing problems :-(

in normal mode everything is fine, but when I go into overclock mode the CPU temperature goes right up and if I play a game for a little while the computer will switch off. I am only presuming the cooler isnt dissipating the heat properley ? The cooler isnt actually mounted ideally as the cooler only mounts one of 2 ways round, either to point towards the PSU or if I mounted it the other way the cooler fan would be VERY close to the PSU fan if it will fit that way at all, it would have been better if the cooler mounted 90 degrees around, this way the fan would blow straight towards the case extraction fan. (I dont think I can post pictures on here to show you) I cant see the problem being caused by a lack of case fans as I have 2x 80mm fans sucking in from the front of tower, an 80mm fan in the side of the case above the cpu cooler, a 120mm fan blowing out the back of the case and the OCZ ModXstream-pro also has a big fan just above the CPU cooler. Am not really sure which direction to go in, so any help you guys can give me would be very much appreciated :-)

Thankyouuuuuu

redfist · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:53

have you tried re-applying the thermal compond? i had this with a friends PC and after cleaning & applying it dropped right down

welshdragon · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:19

When you say the mobo does it all for you I think you need to look at the settings it applying as well. It may be throwing far too high an oc on. Which model processor have you got and what are your oc figures?

Muel · 12 Jan 2011 at 09:26

First off, which Phenom II is it? 945, 955, 965 or 970? C2 or C3?

Also, don't rely on automatic overclocking, I've used it in the past and IMO it never works. Set everything manually in the BIOS for best results.

Personally I'd say that cooler isn't big enough for overclocking a Phenom II x4. I have a Titan Fenrir and that struggles to deal with the temps from my 965BE at times.

mrfil13 · 12 Jan 2011 at 17:14

Use HWMonitor to check the temps you are getting at idle, underload not oced, then oced idle and underload.

Will get an idea of what your temps are and how much they are increasing by. Also use something like cpuz to see what voltage and speed its setting it too. It could be that its not overheating but the OC is simply unstable, could be dodgy ram as well.