4850 + Hr-03 Gt

[Evildead666]

So, got all the way to 1.6V on the CPU, at 3560MHz...
Was only upping the NB little by little, and when the NB is at 1.59V, it got to 50C.
So, some fans had to be added, to keep it at 37C Idle, and 43C load...
The cpu on the other hand got up to 83C.

This is with Prime95 running on all 4 cores.
Maximum power usage test, and maximum heat.
It took nearly 20mins to gradually get to 83C, so some more airflow through the case might be good...

Anyhow, i'm begginning to believe that the NB is key here, and i've just brought the CPU voltage down to 1.56V

[Evildead666]

It takes soooo long to reboot this bugger that at 2am i had managed to stabilize the cpu at 3.6GHz, 1.56V cpu, 1.52V after the Vdrop.
temperatures were in the low 60's C after 12 iterations, or about 20 mins...and stayed there.
I still have to try and pull the cpu voltage down to be able to up the frequency more without overheating the cpu...
The NB on the other hand, has to handle all the chatter between the two dual-core dies...
So, the NB is the limiting factor for sure, and the voltage is going to have to go uo from the actual 1.63V.
Watercooling the NB would be nice, but with the heatpipe array its not looking good...
The two fans should be OK for up to 1.7V i think...

One HUGE gripe about the Mobo tho: The voltage setting in the Bios are pure and simple f*cked up.

When I set the CPU GTL voltage to manual, after checking what it was at when set to auto, it overvolted 1.6V to 1.68V.
When i set the FSB Termination voltage, the value was considerably lower than the desired voltage.
consistency would have been nice.
To get 1.56V for the cpu, in the bios, i have to set it to 1.6V.
You have to also take into account the Vdrop when at full load, and you get 1.52 to 1.6V

anyhow, i was at it from whenever i posted about having gotten the memory, 5-ish, t'il 2am. each test taking at least 10mins with the reboots and sh*t...good runs were 30mins...
i had to pull myself away to go to bed

oh yeah, some more shaky blurry shots of the two extra fans on the NB, and the memory cooler
edit: that makes it 13 fans.

[Evildead666]

Hmmm, the volt mod didn't go so well...
It seems, according to the DMM, that i may have put 16V instaed of 1.4V thru the 4850 chip...

The conductive ink may have been too conductive, but anyway, i got me a nice no screen.
currently running a voodoo3 pci...

Looks like a 4870 is on the way...no need for volt mods on those....

[Evildead666]

Heres a couple of pics i took last night, I may have accidentaly put some conductive stuff on the resistor/capacitor to the right of the reistor i was meaning to mod.

You can see on the piccy that it looks a little too shiny compared to the others that are light brown...

Also a piccy of the packaging of the conductive ink pen, made in GA, USA.
"For Industrial use only..." on the pen...

Will be trying the 4850 again today, i might not have left it to dry enough last night...
the PC booted fine, i could tell by the way the disks were loading windows.
The only problem is that the monitor never came on.
Nothing on the card seems to have visibly or smellingly fried, so maybe it just shutdown...

[Evildead666]

4870 1Gb next week.

[Mehen]

Those are some damn high voltages for that CPU. I'm at 1.25v at 3.6ghz. Getting the latest BIOS virtually eliminated vdroop for me.

[Evildead666]

Where do you measure the Vcore from ?
I get it from CPUz ...
I probably still have some room to go down in voltage still, am at about 1.42V load, and 1.46V idle...

I'll have to check for new Bios now...
Could be that you have one of the "Golden" CPU's, they need a lot less voltage to work...

I've noticed that just about anything above 3.6GHz is a no-go for this chip.
I tried to get to 3680, but it failed Prime95 quite quickly.
I tried adding volts to both the NB and the CPU (in separate tests) and they made no difference at all...
So, i concentrated on lowering the memory timings, and got them down to 444-15 at DDR2-900. The SPD is 444-13@DDR2-533, so i'm quite happy to have low latencies...

just waiting for the 4870 to arrive so i can run 3DM06...wont be modding that one only a new cooler if one comes out, and no more than dual or tri-slot...with outside exhaust...

edit : latest BIOS for Maximus Formula is 1201, 5th May 2008....I don't exepect there to be any more...

[Evildead666]

And more importantly, whats your NB voltage at ?
I'm at 1.7V, I suppose its so the two dual cores can speak thru the NB...
Any lower and i get fails in Prime95...

[Mehen]

PC Probe II says 1.31 for the NB.

[Evildead666]

Maybe thats the difference between the x38 and x48 boards...?
If i drop the voltages any more i get a failure in Prime95. NB or CPU Voltage..
1.74V NB in PC Probe II for me...

I also only have a fsb 333 and 400 bootstrap, you may have one higher ?

[Evildead666]

Can't really see whats that different, except that you may probably have a good 9450 chip, from the middle of the wafer, and I have the other extreme, from the edge, or thereabouts...
You also seem to have the edge with the x48, and its a better speed bin of the x38 (more or less) so it probably runs at lower voltages to get to the higher speeds...

From what i've seen around the web, 450fsb is about the limit on quads. So you have a very economical setup, producing less heat and using less power, and i have a nuclear power station

Go and get a lottery ticket, you might just win you lucky b*stard. lol

[TransformX]

Just how much noise do all these fans produce..?

[Evildead666]

The NHH screamer that I haven't put on is about the same noise as walking into a server room.

At the moment, its the two 40mm fans making the most noise, its pretty loud, but its behind the door in the corridor, about 4m away from my bed.
I can sleep with it on...

Any guests might not tho, and if i put the screamer on, i can't sleep either..

[Mehen]

I just noticed something in your sig that I find hilarious. Voodoo3 PCI.

[Evildead666]

It works. It doesn't do hardware DVD, but most vids work fine.

I gave my 8800gts to a friend who was struggling in Test Drive Unlimited with his current card...

I've spent the week with it, i'll live til monday/tuesday...