Hi,
New to OC'ing, I am searching for help on getting a stable OC on a config consisiting of...

• Gigabyte 3D Aurora chassis
• Corsair HX520W PSU
• ASUS Rampage Formula (bios v.0403)
• Core 2 Duo E8400
• CPU cooler: ThermalRight IFX-14 & 2x Nanoxia 120mm fans (FX12-1250) & 1 Nanoxia 80mm fan (FX08-1600) for the IFX-10 backside cooler
• 2x 2GB OZC Reaper DDR2 800MHz (OCZ2RPX800EB4GK)
• 2x 750GB Samsung SpinPoint F1
• ASUS 8800GTS 512MB (G92) mounted in PCIE2 port with cooler/fan pointing upward
• GPU Cooler: ThermalRight HR03-GT cooler & Nanoxia 92mm fan (FX09-1400)
• Fans are controlled with an mCube T-balancer big-NG
• OS: Vista Home Premium 64-bit w/ SP1

Can anybody help me with some more or less complete bios settings that take full advantage of my cooling setup without blowing anything up (hence an aggressiv OC but not crazy ;-) )?

Reading threads on various sites I've played around a bit, but I notice that the NB seems to be getting really hot (above 50 degrees) even when running close to idle. Current OC setup is...

• Ai OC tuner -> Manual
• OC from CPU Level Up -> Auto
• CPU Ratio Setting -> 8.5
• FSB strap to NB -> 400Mhz
• FSB Frequency -> 450
• DRAM Frequency -> DDR2-900Mhz
• DRAM Static Read Control -> Disabled
• Ai Clock Twister -> Light

Voltages:

• CPU -> 1.4v
• PLL -> 1.6v
• NB -> 1.45v
• DRAM -> 2.0v
• FSB -> 1.4v
• SB -> 1.1v

Current temp readouts from bios after running PC for a couple of hours (no heavy use - just Outlook and Internet Explorer):

• CPU: 49 degrees
• MB: 35 degrees
• NB: 49.5 degrees
• SB: 48.5 degrees

Apart from help on getting the optimum OC, can anybody recommend tools for temp read outs? The T-balancer seems great (I'm still new to it), but cooling blocks the size of small houses makes somewhat difficult to place sensors in places where temp read outs are accurate.

OK, I've got that board, along with OCZ DDR2-800 ram and a QX9650 under a TRUE. You're correct, the north bridge runs hot, so drop the voltage to 1.4v if you can get it to run stable at that setting. I'm thinking of getting a separate fan for the north bridge on mine. You can raise the ram voltage up to 2.1v, if needed. Use a full 9x multiplier for a higher clock. A higher multiplier is your friend, allowing 3600mhz with a 400 FSB. Pushing the FSB up to 425, using a 9x multiplier would give you a clock speed of 3825mhz for example, so speed is available. By the way, using a higher multiplier along with a lower FSB should help out with ram stability. To be honest, I leave most the settings on auto, letting ASUS decide what's needed. That seems lazy, but I can run 3735mhz stable with no problem leaving things on auto. I've pushed as high as 4100mhz, but things got warm very fast at that speed, so I leave it down around 3700-3800mhz for daily use.

Thanks, I'll try out your suggestions - by the way I have moved one of my two 120 mm fans from my CPU cooler to the side of the chassis blowing air directly towards the NB - haven't helped much though, propably because the fan from the GPU blows the added air up onto the CPU cooler before it reaches the NB. I'm considering getting af more powerful fan for the job - I don't think there is room for an additional cooler for the NB

how did you get the IFX-10 backside cooler to fit? I have the Rampage Formula with the IFX-14 as well and the backplate would only fit one way due to the copper heatsinks on the motherboard and there was no way to get the cooler to come out at the top of the motherboard like it should

Ferboten:
Violence I admit. I encountered the same problem as you did but managed to fit the IFX-14 in vertical position, so the fans blows toward the chassis exorst fans. This may be the reason why my NB gets so hot. Fitting the IFX-14 may have displaced the NB heatsinks enough to reduce cooling effect.

Sailer:
Tried your suggestions, and I am now running...
9x 440MHz
NB: 1.4v
DRAM: 2.1v
SB: Auto

Works fine so far, although it hasn't changed the NB temp