Hi all
My gaming rig
Lian Li PC-A70 case (6X120MM) Cooling Fans
Enermax Galaxy 1000W PSU
Asus Rampage Formula
E8500 Wolfdale(Birthday Gift)
Ultra 120 Extreme HS lapped + Scythe S-Flex SFF21F+Arctic Silver 5
Crucial Ballistic Red Line DDR2 800(2X2GB) 4-4-4-12@2.2V
2X150 WD Raptor HDD
Win XP Pro 32bit
Ready for Dual boot with Vista Ultimate 64bit

Booting with all at default
CPU Temp 40 C
North bridge: More than 40C
South bridge: More than 40C
At full load (Prime95) temps 50C

Overclocked to 3.8 GHz (multiplier 9.5)
FSB Strap 400
FSB Frequency 400
Dram:FSB 1:1
Setting all voltage to Auto
I found the following voltages in bios (With no load)
I'll put between brackets the voltages before overclocking
CPU: 1.232(1.184)
CPU PLL:1.6(1.584)
FSB Termination: 1.344(1.2)
DRAM: 2.048(1.952)
S.Bridge:1.072(1.072) Yes no change!!
N.Bridge: 1.648(1.360)

I lowered N.B voltage only to 1.45V
and kept all other to auto

At full load (prime 95) stable all night but heat !!
Vcore measuring Max. Temp of the cores 62 C (No more)

Did not try 4GHz of course

Loosed Ram timing to 5-5-5-15 but no change
Applied AS5 twice and reseated HS and no change

Do you think it is safe to run at these setting ??
Also amazing not only proc is hot but also N.B and S.B

What do you think of SpeedFan ?? Is it reliable ??
When Vcore is showing 50 C Speedfan is showing 112!!!

Any good Ideas ??

You need to calibrate Speedfan I think.
Try CoreTemp : http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
And HWMonitor : http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

When overclocking you should never have voltage control on AUTO.
The AI features overvolt heavily. Start at Vcore == VID and test until it's stable (1 notch at a time).

Sorry When I said Vcore I meant CoreTemp 0.98.1

Andrius: If you notice no big difference in voltages
CPU from 1.184 to 1.232
SB: The same
N.B I lowered already

I opened Both sides of the case and noticed Cores Temps will go down to 57-58 C ( Not too much)

My Asus P5E x38 only needs 1.39 NB voltage for up to 485 stable FSB. 4ghz is easy to achieve CPU only needs about 1.36volts for it to be stable .

I'm sure your RAM would handle a small 20Mhz increase with timings at about the same C4 rating. At 400mhz you should leave it at C4 not C5.

closed_deal:

True, my RAM can work perfectly @ 4-4-4-12
I just loosened timing to decrease the stress in an attempt to reduce temps

Need some advice gents

Forgot to say In bios always temps of NB and SB are always 7 degrees more than CPU temp

My intentions when I picked up a Rampage Formula were to use Crucial Ballistic 1066 memory.
However, after much research I discovered that the Crucial sticks don't work properly
with this board. Quite a few had good results with either Geil, or GSkill on this board.
I'm currently having excellent results with OCZ Reaper 1066 on this board - can
overclock the memory to 1133 stable @ 3.8GHz. on an X3350.

For proper temp measurements with 45nm processors, look into a program called "Real Temp".
You can find it over at the XStreme forums.

Just a thought coz i've made this mistake on an old DFI mobo. When manhandling the mobo into the case etc... did you by any chance use the NB heatsink has a hand hold?

Also you should've had a little fan thinger to fit on the silver part of your NB combo Heatsink. Have you fitted it?

It's the item on the top right of te picture.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/pictu [...] le.jpg&1=1

chicagosof tplan:

I have no problem with RAM
My DDR2 800 is working fine
The only problem I have is temps of processor, NB, and SB

My friend's Rampage and Q9300 (7.5x466MHz under an unlapped TRUE and Scythe SFF21F) idle with everything below 40°C load temps under Prime95 (1hour) reach 65°C for the CPU. The other temperatures HWMonitor reports are close to but under 40°C. Everything is at stock voltage except Vcore (2 or 3 notches below VID) and RAM (Dominator 1066 in 1:1 CL4 at 2.05V). It's inside a RC-690 with just the stock fans.

Either the side mounted 120mm makes all the difference (that I doubt) or your board is overheating due to being overvolted. I don't own a RAMPAGE myself but if you check the manual for ExtremeTweaker I'm sure you can figure out which voltage is too high. I'm sure the voltages don't change much but 0.1V makes all the differcence.

My Q6600 has a VID of 1.3V and at stock it runs stable at 1.075V (and 20°C cooler under Prime load). At 3.300GHz (9x367MHz it needs VID) and still runs below 60°C (under an unlapped TRUE with SFF21F).

You're either being overvolted or your board has a buggy temperature readout.

@closed_deal
The HSF on a RAMPAGE sits quite snuggly. It's almost impossible to move it. There's at least 10 pins holding it down. I was trying to route an audio cable by sliding it below the main HSF block and it didn't even budge.

closed_deal... that fan is for use with water, or passive cooling only.
Using it on a normal aircooled system will interfere with cooling of the CPU.
I have seen some use a small fan attatched directly to the stock Rampage Formula NB heatsink with good results. However, I agree that too high voltages are mostly the cause for hot NB and SB.

With some cases that fan interfears with the rear exhaust fan (either blocking them or making them loud).

I 'would' have said too higher voltage however the Op has already posted the NB voltages:

'CPU: 1.232(1.184)
CPU PLL:1.6(1.584)
FSB Termination: 1.344(1.2)
DRAM: 2.048(1.952)
S.Bridge:1.072(1.072) Yes no change!!
N.Bridge: 1.648(1.360) '

I just thought if it's 'still' overheating on the stock Voltages it must be heatsink coming slightly loose or bad airflow, also I know the board can do up to 485 FSB on only 1.39v NB, as i have the basic X38 verison so surely the X48 would be better or at least the same? His RAM is also running at 1:1 not 5:6 where the latter would have more of a demand on the NB.

Another thing is, that fan doesn't interfere with my 120 TRUE. Even at 1.6V to get over 500 FSB stable on the NB it never gets over 35C Load.

*Edit* The BIOS it's self says the it can handle up to 1.65v on the NB, but anything after 1.7v NB requires 'better cooling'.

What is the VID for your E8500 ? 1.15V - 1.2V ?
FSB Termination seems high.
The NB (northbridge) seems high even at 1.45V
The SB (south bridge) handles CrossFire and SATA/USB ... It's probably as cool as it gets.

@closed_deal
The fan doesn't interfere with the TRUE when mounted FRONT to BACK.
Turn it by 90 degrees and it might interfere (I never tried that).
The VREG fan was too close to the rear exhaust fan of the RC-690.
It mounted but it made a high pitched noise when running so it had to go.