Question Asus B450F Gaming and countless hours of frustration. What have I done wrong?

Mar 5, 2019
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Ok, hi. New user, long time reader. i've never needed to ask anything because of the awesome advice from the community, but I'm at wits end.
It's lengthy and there are many different topics, so I wasn't sure where to place the post.
I got an Oculus Rift for Christmas. My system at the time was getting really hot and tearing through 2400 mhz 16GB ram. Time for an upgrade:

Antec 850 W Extreme Gamer
Asus Strix B 450 F Gaming
Ryzen 7 2700X
Power Color Vega 56
G.Skill Trident Z (2sets 2x8GB)
Samsung Evo 1 TB
Crucial M_2 1TB
Cooler Master Liquid Ml240 AIO

First, the RAM has been nothing but trouble. I'm not used to OC but I wanted to justify spending $400 on something that was better than my 2400 so I set DOCP in Bios and Freq to 3200
Crash
Did the RAM game hidey who whoop dee do
Reinstall windows
Ok - contacted G.Skill
"Hey, you're an idiot for buying 2 separate kits and trying to run it at 3200, what were you thinking?"
Took a set - threw it in the wifes Ryzen 5 1600 asus prime Set DOCP - no issues.
Now I have just 16GB which Oculus munches down when I really wanted 32 at least running at 3000 because ryzen 7 runs well with blah blah ok
One set - dual channel - set DOCP
Back to Bios/Crash
Switch the seats - Boot
User Bench - "Your CPU sucks" There are like 50 PC's with the same stuff that's way better than yours - suck it punk.
AI Suite 5 WAY OP
Watched Youtube - its so easy they say! Followed directions - Start - Restart
8% Blue screen
Black screen PC running
Scared it was going to blow up
Gets back finally but now stuttering/jittering
AI SUITE - All temps RED AIO pump NA FANS NA
Restart and about to cry
Overclock 8%
Userbench - "Your CPU still sucks, but everything else is top notch!" Get it together man!
3D Mark - Time Spy 1/2 no issue CPU test - the system literally just shut off
Back to bios Optimized Settings Save/Exit
Reinstall windows

Please help - I honestly need a step by step on what to change in Bios because I'm really just not experienced enough to handle this. I'm really out of my depth here.

All I ever wanted was to play Beatsaber without my GPU going to 100+ and my CPU while my system freezes because 16GB @ 2400 can't handle Steam/Oculus running at the same time.


A couple of concerns I have had:
This is my first AIO cooler and I'm not totally comfortable with how it works. Watching the temps it will go from like 20 - to 38 and then back down to 20 and just constantly jump around. I literally hear nothing - no swishing or swirling, but the fans are running.

I found an option deep in the Q-fan control for AIO pump and it was defaulted as disabled - I enabled it and it gives me 3 options Auto, DC, and PWM. Why the hell does the board have an AIO header but then disabled when optimized? Then you can select temp and cycle limit so I set them very tightly but the cycle is all 100, so why even bother? If its running at 100% all the time then why even have to adjust temps? I got scared so I reseated/pasted with M4 but no change.

I've read so much and it's honestly all so confusing, there are so many contradicting things that I don't know what's true and what isnt. 5 way opt literally kills my system and actually I had a better score with the CPU stock than OC but the Internet says I need to OC it because the boost is only on one core and I need it on all cores? Temp should not be a problem with an AIO cooler but I think that's what is killing the 5 way, so maybe I have the aio set up wrong or its broken?

I have never OC'd a CPU or RAM - but have experience in GPU - but I don't really feel it's even necessary at this point with the VEGA - I mean I set it to turbo and with a Time Spy run temps max in the low 50's - I have been keeping an eye on it while in VR (which is a total PITA) and even more intense games like Arizona Sunshine maxed out at lik 48 C. I think the GPU is the only thing that was worth the price tag, and coming from a company I've never even heard of is pretty awesome.

I will adjust the fan curve though and max the power I suppose, but I got a little worried when I did and saw that it was pulling something like 300 watts running Google Earth VR.

Ram was totally my fault I guess since I didn't check the QVL but I've been building basic systems for 15 years or so and have never had an issue using sticks of the same speed. But apparantly it's a big issue with frequencies over 2xxx? Why even bother spending all that money if I can't even hit the speed it says it can do? I've looked and looked for 2 x 16 GB that could OC to 3000 but I can't seem to find a set that does this, but I am told not to use 4 dimm slots because they will conflict.

And honestly would RAM speed even affect my experience? People say yes because it's Ryzen. But in my head I'm thinking I could slap 32GB 4x 8GB = 2 sets because there are literally no 4 packs- in there of some cheap adata or kingston at 2400 and be golden.
 
Last edited:
Mar 5, 2019
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Thank you for you suggestion. After a lengthy email battle back and forth with G.Skill who will literally blame everything else but their own products and techsupport criticizing me for not utilizing the qvl of the mobo and then suggesting I use RAM that also is not on the qvl I gave up and bought 2*16GB of T Delta 3000 1.35. while it's not also on the qvl list my system fired right up with docp set and have had 0 issues so far. I haven't stressed it yet but I didn't get any crashes.

I am still wondering about the AIO though as all benchmarks state my CPU is the worst component of what I am running. I want to boost it to get a higher boost or at least a decent ranking compared to others of the same type. How do I check to see if the AIO is performing well and properly cooling the CPU? So far I am regretting the purchase as with a fan temps would remain constant and at least you could hear the fan ramp up and such. Is this how AIO work with cooling? Are these jumps normal for using them?
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Thank you for you suggestion. After a lengthy email battle back and forth with G.Skill who will literally blame everything else but their own products and techsupport criticizing me for not utilizing the qvl of the mobo and then suggesting I use RAM that also is not on the qvl I gave up and bought 2*16GB of T Delta 3000 1.35. while it's not also on the qvl list my system fired right up with docp set and have had 0 issues so far. I haven't stressed it yet but I didn't get any crashes.

I am still wondering about the AIO though as all benchmarks state my CPU is the worst component of what I am running. I want to boost it to get a higher boost or at least a decent ranking compared to others of the same type. How do I check to see if the AIO is performing well and properly cooling the CPU? So far I am regretting the purchase as with a fan temps would remain constant and at least you could hear the fan ramp up and such. Is this how AIO work with cooling? Are these jumps normal for using them?

You know I've seen this kind of thing before. I would personally be more concerned about the liquid cooler than I would the RAM at this point. Yes, the RAM is a problem, but a faulty liquid cooler could make things that much worse. There's multiple things you could do with your CLL that could point to it as being the culprit. First, try every available SATA port you can on your PSU because that could very well be an issue.

If you try that and it doesn't work, then I would assume it's the cooler itself. Do you still have the stock fan that came with your 2700X? If you do try that and see if it works at all. Then you can go about returning the cooler or try something different.
 
Mar 5, 2019
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Thank you for your advice. The PSU is modular and everything seems to power up without any issues. There is a button on the back labeled "hybrid" that I have not pushed as I don't know what it is, nor can i find it anywhere. I've used Antec PSU's since my very first build and have never had an issue, but I'm willing to check at least.

As for the Stock cooler I certainly do have it and actually that was my plan for this evening was to mount it and check the temps versus the Cooler Masterliquid to see if there was much difference, but after watching a quick youtube kind of side by side I already have an idea of what the temps will be like since he's using the same AIO I have:
View: https://youtu.be/IIGk_fEOnYI


But I'm wondering how this AIO actually works. Should I be hearing water? Should be hearing a fan? Anything? How about the fans? Shouldn't they be increasing/decreasing? I remember when i first started it I heard a gurgle, after that I hear literally nothing. I have the radiator mounted on the top of the case and then I have the fans mounted on the bottom of the radiator sucking air out of the case and pushing air through the radiator and out the top. I have the pump (I think/hope) connected to the AIO header on the board - one fan connected to CPU_FAN and the other fan connected to CHASSIS_1. There was also another wire coming out of the block but that is used for RGB - which then gets plugged into yet another hub that I buried in the wire side. But the two radiator fans the mobo can control them and I can use AISuite Fan Expert to adjust their curves. But, I also have three fans in the front sucking air in, one fan at the back blowing air out and three fans at the bottom sucking air in all of which are RGB and modular (not 3/4 pin) connected to a hub which then is operated by a remote and can adjust the fan speeds to high/low. (I believe they are 1800RPM)

So why then am I getting such varying degrees in temp with the CPU and why in the world would AI Suite Temps be stuck in RED after running fan tuning and the AIO pump reading NA? I feel the board, cpu, gpu should be able as cool as I can get them at this point, but I'll take any suggestions you may have.

Checking the BIOS monitor shows that the pump is maxed? I really think I should hear something, right? Putting my hand above the top of the case the air is luke warm, out the back its a bit warmer but maybe I could have a better setup with the flow.

I also read the B450 sucks at mitigating heat - but I just read that today.

Maybe I shouldn't be trusting AI Suite? I downloaded HWMonitor but when opened it opens this gigantic list and when i manage to find temps they aren't listed as CPU etc - I can't recall what they are called but there were so many I gave up trying to figure it out.

AI Suite will also monitor the Voltage of my CPU which will read (I have High performance set) 4000 most of the time and then jump higher and then settle lower - it just keeps doing it over and over and the system is idle. I researched a bit and found that Ryzen 2700x that's OK to do and is normal?

The most trusted method I have found to figure temps is to run Time Spy and look at the details after the run. So here is the two runs that I had last night maybe someone could shed some light as to why they are inconsistent as I ran one then waited 20 min and ran it again. I didn't change a single thing, yet I have two different scores? Check the CPU - its not consistent. Why? Temp? not OC? Do I need to change something in BIOS?

http://www.3dmark.com/spy/6504303