I have a 3970X with an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme ( latest BIOS ), 64GB of 2400MHz G.Skill DDR3
F3-19200CL10Q2-64GBZHD and a Corsair H100i ( In a quad 2x-2x push-pull config ).
I've tried two thermal interface materials :
1)
Indigo Extreme 2) Arctic Silver 5 ( what I'm currently running with )
( Note that I used Realtemp GT for measuring temperatures and prime95 x64 at the "maximum heat" setting for load testing below )
With the Indigo Xtreme, even after reflow, my load temps at stock were upwards of 75C+ but only about 29C idle. They did get high enough about 4 times to shut off my computer due to thermal protection ( 90C? ).
Now with the Arctic Silver 5, my load temps are "better" around 50-60C but idle is a craptastic 35C. That's pretty sad considering I tinted the CPU heatspeader and the H100i water block with Arctic Silver 5 and used the 1mm
"vertical line" method of application on the CPU as well as rotating the H100i water block several times before bolting down.
Note that I've disabled Intel Enhanced Speedstep so I'm running at 4.0GHz most of the time. I've also disabled C1E .
Just FYI my batch number is 3238B264 .
I should be seeing idle temps of around 25C and load temps of around 40-45C.
CPU-Z says my load Vcore is around 1.384V ( after Vdroop ) and at 1.4V when idle when the Vcore is set to "AUTO" in the BIOS.
This seems quite high. The default "AUTO" Vcore is 1.256V. I've been running prime95 with small ffts for about 7 hours straight without errors at a manual 1.265 Vcore so it seems that I haven't reached the lower limit yet on Vcore and this is 4.0GHz at load. My temps have also improved remarkably, with the coolest core coming in at 49C .
So, I guess my question is, how low can you push the RIVE-3970X Vcore voltage with a load frequency of 4.0GHz before expecting instability?
Thanks,
jdbtwo
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