Thermalright AXP-100 on FX-8320 for modest overclocking

[miladed]

Hello, I've a gaming system with the following specs.

AMD FX-8320 (OC to 4.0 GHz, running stable)
DeepCool GAMMAXX 300 Cooler
M5A97 R2.0 (added fan for active VRM cooling)
2xGeIL DRAGON 1600 4 GB
Sapphire R9 280X Dual-X
Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD
Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD (soon, purchased but not yet delivered)
Corsair VS550 PSU
Windows 7 x64

I was planning to add a better cooler to my system. I checked the prices for high end air coolers and low end liquid coolers and the best air cooler I can buy is Thermalright Macho HR-02, however, it's too big my case and it won't fit. Other similar coolers, such as DeepCool Lucifer are also too big. About liquid cooling, the best I can buy is DeepCool GAMER STORM Maelstrom 120, which is still higher than my budget, or maybe a Corsair H60 if I can find one.

So, I'm currently looking at Thermalright AXP-100. It's slightly more expensive than Macho, and it will perform worse, but that's the best I can get, all things considered.

My current cooler can handle 4.0 GHz, with 63 C socket and 48 C core temp on heavy, maximum.

So, should I get the thermalright or wait and get a better CLC cooler? The highest clock I'm aiming at is 4.4, 4.3 is fine too, considering my mainboard isn't really cut out for heavy OC.

 

[ihog]

Have you tried reaching those clocks with your current cooler or are you already at your temp limit?

What's your budget, what country are you in, and where would you want to order from (if you're outside the US, since I don't know many/any sites outside of the US)?

 

[miladed]

Have you tried reaching those clocks with your current cooler or are you already at your temp limit?

What's your budget, what country are you in, and where would you want to order from (if you're outside the US, since I don't know many/any sites outside of the US)?

4.2 GHz proved unstable while testing with IBT.

 

[ihog]

Did you raise the voltage more?

 

[miladed]

Did you raise the voltage more?

Raising voltages resulted in freezing.

 

[Michael Clancy]

If those really are your temps at max load you are well under any kind of thermal limitation, I wouldn't even bother with another cooler until you can get past the 4.2ghz wall that you seem to be hitting (what are you temps there?). For instance I'm using stock cooler with a 4.1Ghz stable clock on my fxx-8320 and my temps are 64-65c socket and 54c core and I'm not worried at all. I had it stable at 4.2ghz as well, socket w ould hit 69-70c and core would hit 58-59. This was also on 1.26v. Since I am on stock cooling though I just went with the 4.1oc and left it there since it never gets over 45c in games and sits at like 16c during idle (I know that isn't accurate under 40 but still).

 

[miladed]

If those really are your temps at max load you are well under any kind of thermal limitation, I wouldn't even bother with another cooler until you can get past the 4.2ghz wall that you seem to be hitting (what are you temps there?). For instance I'm using stock cooler with a 4.1Ghz stable clock on my fxx-8320 and my temps are 64-65c socket and 54c core and I'm not worried at all. I had it stable at 4.2ghz as well, socket w ould hit 69-70c and core would hit 58-59. This was also on 1.26v. Since I am on stock cooling though I just went with the 4.1oc and left it there since it never gets over 45c in games and sits at like 16c during idle (I know that isn't accurate under 40 but still).

Thanks!

What's your motherboard? I think my motherboard might to blame for my 4.2 GHz barrier. It's a rather cheap one after all.

Also I think I need to mention, AMD overdrive tested 4.2 and gave no errors. I didn't dare go past it. I don't understand why IBT regards it as unstable.

 

[ihog]

IBT is faaaaaaaar more taxing than AMD OverDrive's test.

 

[miladed]

IBT is faaaaaaaar more taxing than AMD OverDrive's test.

That would explain it then. I might just test it with Watch_Dogs. It puts about as much pressure as IBT on my hardware, and I still get frame drops to 25. Damn ubisoft.

 

[Michael Clancy]

I'm using the Asus M5A99FX pro r2.0 motherboard, I actually just got it a few days ago. I was using a very cheap ASROCK that very discreetly specified that it supports the 8-core processors but only the 95TDP or less... well I had purchased that without seeing that, so it only had 4 pin CPU power on it. My system still worked, I even OC a tad but once I realized it was not for my 125w processor I picked up what I have now.

I'll play with my stock cooling and see how far I can push it I wouldn't be surprised if it will hit 4.3ghz if I lower the bus speed an add some to the multiplier.

How are you Overclocking? Multiplier/CPU Frequency? Have you tried the old tried and true underclocking your ram to remove that variable and finding what your max multiplier is, then starting over and finding what your max frequency is, then finding the sweet spot between those 2 maxes (all whilst keeping the ram under clocked so that it cant cause instability).