New to Overclocking, looking for advise AMD8320E with ASRock 970 Pro3

[Sartty]

Hi All,

I've been reading up recently and found a lot of good information on these forums, so now i've joined to ask you guys for your opinions and advise.
I'm fairly new to overclocking but seem to have picked up the basics pretty quickly. I read that for my motherboard combo and restrictions that i don't want to push the voltage too much and try to maximise with the multiplier while keeping reliable temperatures.

I was having some problems with random restarts and BSOD for WHEA_Uncorrectable errors, which led me to searching for some settings and BIOS tweaks.

I reset my BIOS to stock and gradually increased to 3.9GHz with 1.25V. I kept the NB voltage also at 1.25 and have reduced my 1886MHz memory down to 1600.

I have a few questions regarding:

• 
  Cooling effectiveness
  OC voltages
  Temperatures.

My equipment is as follows:
Kingston HyperX FURY Red Series - 16 GB: 2 x 8 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1866 MHz
AMD Black Edition - AMD FX 8320E - 3.2 GHz - 8-core
Be quiet! Dark Rock TF - Processor cooler - PWM Fan - 6 heatpipes
Nitro Sapphire R9 380X 4GD - Graphics card - Radeon R9 380X - 4 GB
Aerocool Strike-X Cube black mATX
Be Quiet! POWER ZONE 750W ATX23 PSU
ASRock 970M Pro3 970 Motherboard.

Be Quiet! case fan Shadow Wings 140mm, 1000rpm - 1x Top down Intake, 1x Top Exhaust.
Be Quiet! case fan Silent Wings 3 140mm, 1000rpm - Front case Intake
The case comes with 1 regular exhaust fan at the bottom.

Cooling effectiveness
My motherboard advises Top Down CPU cooling. My motherboard is horizontal in the middle of my case and the Fan and Heatsink blow down onto the CPU. I also positioned it with a slight offset such that the air will also hopefully cool the nearby VRMS.
I put the Top fan as Intake, becuase it's directly above the heatsink with double fans and does not make sense to have 2 opposite blowing fans so close to one another.

The manufacturer's flow shows this well (i butchered it quickly for reference)

Does this really make sense, or is it a general rule to have exhaust for top?

CPU Voltage
I have just over 1.25V @ 3.9GHz. I don't plan to go much voer 4GHz due to fear of the limitations from my motherboard from what i have read. However, i also read a lot of people say that 1.3 to 1.4 is "required" for 4GHz or above range.
Have i found a sweet spot, or is there something else to consider? I only did Prime 95 for about 20 minutes and was OK. Core 7 is about 70-80% usage while gaming at around 45 degrees.

I also read about Vdroop, i think i can see this as my Vcore in CPU-Z is about 3-4 points less that my actual set voltage, but i cannot find any option for this in the BIOS.

Should i consider, or when should i consider, to use offset voltage? I don't think i need to concern much with anything on the NB at this level ?

I also increased my GPU to about +50% multiplier but no additional voltage, it's running around 60 degrees also while gaming but only shows around 600MHz operating frequency. Is this normal that it doesn't run at the overclocked frequency?

Temperatures
As briefly mentioned above, my temperatures during stress testing rose to 66 degree during 20mins of Prime 95. I read the maximum before throttling is around 70 degrees. Is 66 still safe, considering i will most likely never use this level during normal use?
My motherboard reading is alway around 39 degrees, i have a temp sensor on my VRMs which stay aound 43-45 degrees, and this also seems to be my CPU temp as well.

If anyone has some experience or suggestions for this combination, i would be grateful for some advise.

I don't necessarily need to overclock, but i am interested to do so. Most of my time is spent playing World of Warcraft (around High settings) and Photo / image editing (Lightroom, Photoshop Affinity etc.)

Thanks in advance !

 

[Faktion]

1.5v is the absolute maximum I would go on an AMD CPU in this generation.

I wouldn't be scared to go to 1.3-1.4 though as long as I could keep the temps down.

Speaking of temps.. 20mins of Prime95 is not a lot. I suspect you would hit that 70C+ mark within a solid hour of Prime95. This concerns me because you have a solid cooler and it should be doing a better job.

What thermal paste are you using? Which method did you use to apply it?

 

[Sartty]

Hey Faktion,

I'm using DC1 Thermal paste from Be Quiet!. IT came with a spatula, so i spread it thinly and evenly across the chip before applying the heatsink and cooler.

I did read shortly after that adding a dot in the center may be better to reduce air bubbles?

If i understand correctly, the heat should be generated based on the voltage mostly, since the current is higher? While gaming and streaming, my tempt are still up at 66 for the socket. The CPU went up to 49 and the Motherboard was about 39-43.

I am also wondering if my fans are being powered fast enough. I have an external fan controller, which i'm using to control my 4 fans. Unfortunately, since they're not connected to the motherboard, i cannot determine the RPM.

My motherboard only supports 3 fans to run from it.

I also read that when "stable" the BIOS items should be reset again to enable, like cool n quiet, APM, etc. Is this also correct?

Thanks again

 

[Sartty]

I re-applied the thermal paste as a dot and i'm currently running stable while gaming and streaming the past weeks.

However, my case still feels warms on the side fom my graphics card and the CPU temp is still around 44 degrees most of the time.

Should i re-apply the settings which were turned off in the BIOS during the O/C process, or still keep all of these off?
Does anyone know if connecting the fans via the motherboard will make them faster than they run directly from the voltage connection from PSU? My fan controlled has 3 speeds, but does not show the RPM.