Is it really safe to drive 24 hours a day when you have 20 percent of oxygen?
Is it really safe to drive 24 hours a day when you have 20 percent of oxygen?
Hey guys, I finally hit that magical 20% OC mark on my rig. I'm running a 4.7 GHz CPU on water cooling and keep the temps in the low 50s while playing games for hours straight, watching TV, or scrolling through the web. It's not really under load much more than 60% CPU usage. Since it's nowhere near max voltage or getting stressed out, I think it should be safe to go with that setup. But what do you all say? Once I get some new case fans installed and start running Folding@Home which uses a 75% to 80% load on my rig for me anyway, is there anything dangerous about cranking those settings that high? Specifically, I'm wondering if the GPU can take it as well. What's your best guess about how high I could safely run the graphics card at 24/7 without any issues? Thanks a bunch!
You aren't getting a chip with 760G that used to scare us. We often see...
Honestly, it's tough to know if you are handling things well. Every tiny piece of a computer chip is slightly different from the next, so no two pieces are exactly alike. Making these microscopic parts in the processor has this annoying downside. The only real way to check it is by putting it through some stress tests, but honestly I should start much lower than that for now because heat alone can destroy a CPU and void your warranty.
The bigger problem here is just what kind of motherboard you picked. The AM3+ system is known for having some really low-cost boards. When you try to push your processor's speed higher than normal, it usually works fine on its own. But in those cases where you are trying to get a stable overclock, the motherboard often becomes the real issue instead of the CPU itself.
I own a Mobo that is Asus 970 Pro gaming and Aura. I know the VRMs aren't perfect, but they come with factory heat sinks on them. One of my radiator fans blows air directly onto them too, so maybe they stay cool enough. I tried using an infrared camera to check, but couldn't see any heat signs. My thoughts are now on reinstalling a 140mm fan aimed straight at the VRMs. The socket only gets up to about 65C normally, and can go higher to 72C in some cases. So, is this setup good? It feels risky. Maybe it's okay for Razors Edge? Even after I did some stability testing, everything was acting weird. Had to bump the voltage up to 1.48xV with my LLC because HWInfo showed readings of 1.512V to 1.52V when under load.
You probably don't have a single 760G chip set, which was the biggest worry. You usually see people pushing their FX-8350 to its limits on a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 and then suddenly asking why their board died after six months. Are you relying on AMD Overdrive's thermal margin? It really is just the only software you should use to check temperatures for an AM3+ processor; third-party tools are often totally off when reading those CPUs. More air moving around the board, if possible, doesn't hurt long-term overclocking. But I'm not too worried about your motherboard because it has good VRMs in a 7+1 setup. An FX-9590 could probably fit there, though please don't think that's a safe idea since I wouldn't even recommend that CPU on my baddest enemy!
Sweet! So if I get the picture, the O.C. should be fine, letting air on the VRM's helps but isn't strictly needed, and everything looks good. Is that correct? Could you please tell me what a 7+1 config means and why it is helpful?
In short, "7+1" in a VRM story means the power supply has seven separate chips to handle voltage and power for things like your processor (CPU) and graphics card (GPU), plus one more chip just for memory. Some older parts only have three or four of those chips instead of all seven, which makes them less powerful.