Help Verify My Upgrade Specs

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275 MHz FSB (1101 MHz bus clock @ 3.856 GHz) has become stable when the Vcore is set to 1.400v, and VRAM at 1.85v. Temperature change on the low end of the spectrum tho, 35-36C Idle, 55C full load still.
 
However i saw a system crash or two, so i have not isolated the problem yet. Aside from those, all tests passed fine as far as temp is concerned
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You have a passive heatsink on your northbridge dont you? If you dont have a fan or some other way to cool your Northbridge then I bet your problem is heat. The Northbrige gets really hot with these CPU's. I had this same thing happen to mine, then found out that the Northbridge was getting way to hot. I have an infrared thrmometer so its eay for me to gauge. You can use a digital one, they work fairly well also. All I had to do to get mine back into acceptable range was to Reverse my 120 rear fan so that it pulled fresh air into the case. The bigger fans produce more air flow out towards the edges and beyond the fan blades. This cooled my Northbridge down significantly.
 
Wusy, actually its mech4 vengance, i should have elaborated, lol. And i was using the Mektek.com expansion mod, so it's kinda fun still :), and it still pushes 3D, so it was a good test.

Mozz, i dunno, the NB was only at 96C (Correction of typo = 36C). I pretty much pinned it to insufficient voltage.

Ok, so here's my overall conclusion: The Zalman CNPS7700 is absolutely able to handle the prescott's heat when not overclocking. It's also kicks a$$ when overclocking the prescott, even quite a bit. I mean going from 800 MHz bus speed to 1085, and 3.6 GHz to 3.8 GHz is not a "mild" overclock. It's even capable of handling more. If i wanted to i could push it to 4 GHz on the Zalman, and it would be still running 10-15C cooler than the Prescott's stock specs. So conclusion: Zalman CNPS7700 = One of the Best Air cooling solutions for the Prescott. It met and acceeded all my expectations for it.

HOWEVER:

This Overclocking experience has shown me what this chip is capable of. As i said, i met and acceeded the overclocking i wanted to acheive with the Zalman. But now like a little kid, i want MORE >:). While i could hit 4 GHz on air, it would run 40-45C Idle, and probably 60C full load. While this is OK for a prescott, MY PERSONAL STANDARDS are not met.

This chip has great overclocking potential i think. And i want to go further. So i think for that reason alone, i'm gonna get a water cooling system............. ICK i can't beleive i said that. ANYWAYS. I think with that i could hit well above 4 GHz on this chip.

So that leads me to asking, what's the best water cooling system (External) in the $150-200 price range? How quiet are water cooling systems? i mean am i going to be hearing a fish tank pump on the side of my computer?

Temperature is not the only thing that eats away at the life of a CPU, voltage is the other. Now, if i'm going to go past 4 GHz, that's going to mean voltages in excess of 1.500v. How much am i cutting the lifespan of my CPU by doing this? Mozz, you said you hit 4.1 GHz right? what's your voltage and temp at with water cooling?

P.S.
quick question, why the heck am i getting conflicting readings from AsusProbe and CPU-Z on the voltage? CPU-Z always reports the voltage much higher than AsusProbe.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by LogicSequence on 01/15/05 05:49 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Boy am i an idiot... that teaches me to make posts at 7am.... SHEESH.

Corrections:
Mech 4 Mercenaries with the MEKTEK mod pack

Northbridge temp 36C NOT 96C LOL.
Yea i like to think i would have turned the computer off if my northbridge could boil water and fry eggs 😉.


<A HREF="http://www.mektek.net" target="_new">http://www.mektek.net</A> download the mektek mod switcher.
 
Your Northbridge temps are good, and that heatsink is worth its weight in gold no doubt. Your MOBO is probably the superior MOBO on the market for this CPU. Of course that comes at a price, but what doesnt? Im sure that you are correct about the potential of that CPU to go higher, mine being the 3.4 flavor has bounced off of 4.2, but not stable enough to work with. That may be fixed in time as I learn the tricks of overclocking this system. All of this really makes me wonder if the 775 is a better CPU than it has been given credit for.

To the water cooling issue. Some thought and planning should be put into this. Water cooling is going to be a pleasent surprise to your ears. If you have a good pump, then you can get it as far away from you as you need. Neither of the pumps that I have make any noise, but there are some that do. My first suggestion is to be very selective in the Heatsink. Dont get one that contains a mixture of two metals. There are corrosion issues that can be a problem with these. Next consider that as you overclock, other parts of the system are going to get hotter also. The Thermaltake Bigwater is a pretty good system for around $170.00. It can be configured internal or external. The only downside is that it comes with only the CPU waterblock. Currently I am only cooling my CPU with liquid but I have made adjustments to my fans to take care of my Northbridge. One postive aspect of mounting the Radiator and its fan on the inside of the case is that the 120 fan can be reversed so that it pulls cool air from the outside to the inside. This fan hits the Northbride perfectly. Another option is the use a side panel fan to pull air in and vent it to the Northbridge. This is easy to do, all its takes is a peice of plastic or rubber tubing that fits around the housing of the side panel fan and run it to within a few inches of the the Northbridge. Another option is a $5 - $10 cyclone exhaust fan. Just pop the housing off, and suspend it so that it blows across the Northbridge. This can be done with cable ties. You can pick up a bag of UV reactive cable ties at Walmart for a few dollars and they really look good when the UV lights hits them.

Im hesitant about your system being undervolted. I think that power suppply is capable of running that system with no problem. One thing that I have figured out about my CPU and voltage is that with the 775 there isnt a very big window to play with as far as ramping up the voltage to the CPU. They just dont seem to need the extra juice. Mine reacts negatively to much more than stock voltage. This is probably a good thing. I think that just for testing the CPU that you should be fine to overclock a bit more. Even if it is just long enough to boot the system. Ive pused mine farther and its not as fast as yours. I did have to drop the PCIe to 100 at higher clocks. Mine set at auto is 110 and I think that you said your is 100. That may be one of the tricks that your MOBO uses for stabiltiy.
 
ehhh... Well as i said a long time ago, the budget is an issue, but i also don't wanna play the "swap the water cooling system to see which is best" game either.

The Bigwater... does it HAVE to be mounted at all? i have ZERO space inside my case, so that's not even an option, but i also don't wanna block 2 exhaust fans on the back of my case with a radiator either. So can it just be set on the floor? Or on top of the case? What about the pump, same delimma there....

Have u looked at the Aquarius III from thermaltake? <A HREF="http://www.thermaltake.com" target="_new">http://www.thermaltake.com</A>. It's completely external and "all in one", i.e. the radiator and pump + res. are all in the one unit.

I think i'd prefer to keep away from DIY units as this will be my first attempt. So with that said, any other good ones you can think of? Or brands/websites to look at?
 
No need to apologize, we all have things mixed up, from time to time.
But, if you really want to, do so by joining our folding team. Then we can be on the same side.
Another shameless plug for the Tom's Hardware Folding @Home team, by "me"
 
If any of you guys here have experience with ATi's FireGL vid cards, or ATi Cards in general, please check out this thread for me if you don't mind, i'm having some minor issues that need help. <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=426777#426777" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=426777#426777</A>
 
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