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GeForce6200
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Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:11 am

Got a new setup last week. So far everything is going well, except that sometimes I get stuttering in games and game FPS seem lower than what they show in benchmarks. So I ran 3DMark 11 and got the lowest score for my 4170 in physics, the GPU score is were it should be for a stock clocked GTX 580, however physics score is less than half of other benchmarks. Here is link to my run: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5734264 Also here is a CPUZ shot: http://valid.canardpc.com/2671806 I ran it in balanced power mode and high performance in the control panel. High performance actually dropped it some points. So far I am pretty stumped as to what could cause this, other than defective CPU.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:38 am

Freq : 1396.93 MHz (199.56 * 7)

I'm not terribly familiar with the FX-4170 but that multiplier looks whack, also the voltage seems low especially for an AMD chip. Were you trying to overclock it?

edit: just looked it up, the multiplier is the problem...it should be 21.5x not 7x. Personally, I blame the motherboard.
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:18 am

Check your bios. Make sure it is fully up to date. Sounds like it may not support your cpu fully (yet). Also make sure that your mobo supports the 125 watts of your cpu.

Check the mobo manufacturer website, see if there is a newer bios, flash it, should be better. IF its all up to date, turn off the Cool N Quiet (or whatever they call it now) and try it again.

Any chance you didn't plug in the motherboard 12v power? I've seen this happen once, but it was years ago. Most cpu's won't even boot without the 12v line connected.
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GeForce6200
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:46 am

NovusBogus wrote:
Freq : 1396.93 MHz (199.56 * 7)

I'm not terribly familiar with the FX-4170 but that multiplier looks whack, also the voltage seems low especially for an AMD chip. Were you trying to overclock it?

edit: just looked it up, the multiplier is the problem...it should be 21.5x not 7x. Personally, I blame the motherboard.

Multiplier varies with how much load CPU is under, auto clocks down to save energy. Under load it goes to normal 21.5. Also I haven't messed with any of the settings for the CPU.
TheEmrys wrote:
Check your bios. Make sure it is fully up to date. Sounds like it may not support your cpu fully (yet). Also make sure that your mobo supports the 125 watts of your cpu.

Check the mobo manufacturer website, see if there is a newer bios, flash it, should be better. IF its all up to date, turn off the Cool N Quiet (or whatever they call it now) and try it again.

Any chance you didn't plug in the motherboard 12v power? I've seen this happen once, but it was years ago. Most cpu's won't even boot without the 12v line connected.

BIOS is up to date, only one for this mobo right now. All connections are correct.

Ahhh, found something interesting about others having an issue. Quick ran prime 95, CPU went under load, at 4.2Ghz, for about twenty seconds until prime stopped and it throttled to 1.3Ghz. Ran again and it did same thing. Checked temps with various software, and in prime 95 it shoots up to around 54 then throttles down. Well it appears the stock cooler is not seated right or their is a sensor messing up that is in turn telling the CPU to throttle down. I'll take apart tomorrow and put some new thermal paste on. Hopefully this is a quick fix....
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:12 am

What I've heard is the heatsink that ships with some BD chips may not be adequate to dissipate heat, as you were mentioning. It shouldn't start throttling around 55c though.

I'd also recommend disabling core parking, especially if you're using a bulldozer or piledriver CPU. You want Parkcontrol on the left side. Very easy fix to try and it's reversible.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:38 am

I'll try disabling the core parking, however it seemed to me that it ran the CPU at full frequency, which is what I was thought high performance mode in CP would do. I also went into the BIOS and changed fan control to disabled, this made fan run at full tilt. So after the fan running at 32xx RPM and not 1800m the temps still went to 56 fast, like 30 seconds, in prime 95 until I shut it down. It did not throttle itself though. I wonder if it is possible I have a defective cpu..
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:39 am

GeForce6200 wrote:
I'll try disabling the core parking, however it seemed to me that it ran the CPU at full frequency, which is what I was thought high performance mode in CP would do. I also went into the BIOS and changed fan control to disabled, this made fan run at full tilt. So after the fan running at 32xx RPM and not 1800m the temps still went to 56 fast, like 30 seconds, in prime 95 until I shut it down. It did not throttle itself though. I wonder if it is possible I have a defective cpu..


I'm not 100% sure so i'm just putting this out there......Who controls the CPU multiplier? The motherboard or the CPU?

Afaik (but i'm not sure) it's the motherboard. According to AMD the maximum temperature for the FX 4170 is 61.1 degrees Celsius. If the temps exceeds that, then the CPU should start to throttle down and i'd imagine this is built into the CPU and under it''s control, not under the control of the motherboard.

My guess is that the mobo manufacturer built into the motherboard some sort of safety feature simillar to the CPU but set the max temp lower.

Could you post the complete name of the motherboard you're using?

Also, as a quick fix until you find a proper solution to stop throttling at lower temps, you could do some undervolting and slight underclocking. Nothing serious, just a few hundred MHz and .10 or .15V down from the max 1.4125V should help in keeping the CPU under 50 degrees Celsius.

BTW did you replace the TIM yet?
Last edited by Arclight on Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:00 am

I believe it's possible for both to control the multiplier. It's a hardware option, but software can actually change it. For instance high performance mode leaves it at the maximum multiplier. You can disable speedstep/cnq in the bios too so it'll always sit at the highest multiplier as well.

Core parking doesn't relate solely to the multiplier or power states, we were trying to figure out what exactly it did before the thread on it was locked. Anyway with BD or PD architecture it should make things seem quite a bit more fluid, there is a easy on/off button for it with the application I linked in case you decide it doesn't make a difference.

Sounds like this is a thermal problem though. I heard about the throttling taking place at 69c though, guess it depends on your motherboard. There may even be a option for it in the bios.
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:36 pm

About to replace compound with some Antec Formula 6. Also in the BIOS under CPU configuration these are the options that I have:
Limit CPUID Maximum
AMD C&Q
Core Performance Boost
Core C6 State
Enhanced Halt (C1E)
SB Clock Spread Spectrum
All are enabled except for "Enhanced Halt (C1E)
Also here is the link for mobo: http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc ... 15&LanID=9
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GeForce6200
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:12 pm

Well after cleaning the CPU and heatsink, applying new paste and letting idle then stress test, I still have the same issues. This time the temps did not climb as fast, but still went back to 1.3ghz after hitting 60C. I noticed when cleaning the heatsink the it wasn't smooth. There were some scratches and what looked like a nick in it, which was also on the CPU. Not sure if it is poor QC or how it is nowawadys, but my old Phenom 9500 heatsink was nice and smooth. Also randomly now the screen does this no matter what I'm doing. I don't think it is GPU, but I can swap out later to test.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:21 pm

If the screen is doing that even when temps are normal, you've got other issues. Maybe you partially unseated the video card (or ESD zapped it?) while working inside the system to replace the thermal paste? That could even be a symptom of a loose/defective monitor cable.

I've seen stock HSFs with a few scratches/nicks in them too. But unless the base is rough all over, it shouldn't make much of a difference. That said, I generally ditch the stock HSF and install a Cooler Master heatpipe cooler on all new builds these days. They're not expensive (the Hyper TX3 can typically be found for around $20).

You may need to start doing "process of elimination" on this build. If you don't have spare parts to swap in, maybe you have a friend who does (or would allow you to swap parts into their system)?
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:49 pm

Yeah, I can vouch or the 4170. As I built a machine for a friend and her husband 8 months ago upgrading them from an Athlon x2 1.9Ghz Brisbane. It's been running flawlessly. Plus the 4170 runs at 4.2Ghz, so seeing only 1.3Ghz isn't doing any favors. I agree with the others, you have bigger problems going on. Sure, the CPU cold be defective but that is highly unlikely. Honestly, my vote goes to bad / or not fully supported motherboard.

Good luck man...
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:35 pm

It could be the motherboard too. ECS motherboards are rather flaky. I only install them in the most budget oriented, cheapest computers. Even then I've started replacing those with ASrocks (which I got a recommendation for and are quite good for the price). I would never trust my normal system to one.

It most definitely could be a faulty motherboard or it doesn't support that processor properly. You could order a cheap one off Amazon and return it if it doesn't fix the issue. Amazon doesn't charge a restocking fee (or return shipping if I remember right). Newegg you don't have that luxury with.

A chip or nick in the cooler wouldn't matter as JBI said. Thermal paste will fill that in.

Honestly when you get screen corruption like that it's usually a issue with your GPU or something related to it. Usually when that happens your graphics card is close to dying. The majority of the time it was related to heat issues or something getting too hot that shouldn't have (like OCing too far). I don't think I've ever seen something like that and it's been a easy fix or unrelated to hardware damage.
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:05 pm

Bensam123 wrote:
It could be the motherboard too. ECS motherboards are rather flaky.

Oh, jeez... didn't notice it was an ECS mobo, and didn't realize they were even still around!

Bensam123 wrote:
I only install them in the most budget oriented, cheapest computers. Even then I've started replacing those with ASrocks (which I got a recommendation for and are quite good for the price). I would never trust my normal system to one.

My first (just a few weeks ago) ASRock build wasn't 100% stable at "Auto" settings (had to manually downclock the RAM). Needless to say, I'm not impressed so far. But they seem to be the only semi-respectable source for Socket AM2+ motherboards these days unless you're willing to gamble on (ab)used gear, and I have a small stash of DDR2 RAM and AM2+ CPUs I want to use up for non-performance-critical builds.

Bensam123 wrote:
A chip or nick in the cooler wouldn't matter as JBI said. Thermal paste will fill that in.

The fact that a few isolated scratches/nicks are a very tiny percentage of the total surface area is more important than the fact that thermal paste will fill them in.
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GeForce6200
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:07 am

Well the screen corruption was my own doing, DVI cable was loose, causing the intermittent flickers. I have also emailed ECS tech, to let them know of the issue. I may try and bring the CPU to a local shop so they can test, as of yet I do not have another system to test in. As for the ECS board, I still have one (s478) that currently still works, the only motherboard that never gave me any issues. I figured I would try them again, albeit much has changed sine then. I as well have a feeling it is the motherboard, though I wish not.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:26 am

1. What do you mean there's a nick in the IHS? Is it big?
2. What stepping is your motherboard? If you don't know, you can use CPU-Z and look at the motherboard tab. From the link of your mobo i noticed that the FX 4170 is supported by the B2g stepping with it's latest since BIOS dating from 08/29/2012.

That said, if you say that the temp gets to 60 degrees Celsius and then the chip is throttled down, i guess that's a good thing. The bad thing is that it shouldn't happen even with the stock fan if the CPU is at stock speeds/voltage, especially now that it's winter time and the ambient is usually lower.

Can you please use OCCT to stress test for a bit? It alows you to see the maximum voltage the chip has and it should be interesting to see how high it goes. Since the chip might not be supported officially, it might adjust the voltage a tad too high.

That said i'm also concerned that you said the IHS is damaged. Is it bent inward or is it just a bit scratched?
Last edited by Arclight on Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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GeForce6200
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:58 am

Arclight wrote:
1. What do you mean there's a nick in the IHS? Is it big?
2. What stepping is your motherboard? If you don't know, you can use CPU-Z and look at the motherboard tab. From the link of your mobo i noticed that the FX 4170 is supported by the B2g stepping with it's latest BIOS dating from 08/29/2012.

That said, if you say that the temp gets to 60 degrees Celsius and then the chip is throttled down, i guess that's a good thing. The bad thing is that it shouldn't happen even with the stock fan if the CPU is at stock speeds/voltage, especially now that it's winter time and the ambient is usually lower.

Can you please use OCCT to stress test for a bit? It alows you to see the maximum voltage the chip has and it should be interesting to see how high it goes. Since the chip might not be supported officially, it might adjust the voltage a tad too high.

That said i'm also concerned that you said the IHS is damaged. Is it bent inward or is it just a bit scratched?

The nick is small, just looks like it was dropped on something, many scratches underneath as well. I would think the paste would fill in the small nick. Here are the OCCT results. Never used it before, very interesting. As you can see it didn't last long.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 2:47 am

Ok, i see that at the 72 secounds mark the CPU reached ~61 degrees Celsius and the throtle started right after at around the 85 secounds mark. Also the voltage is quite low, meaning that the chip achived the max frequency at almost .30 V from maximum recommanded for stock settings.

Something is clearly wrong in this picture, the CPU should not reach that temperature, that fast, at stock speeds and at such a low voltage. I'd blame it on the damaged IHS and if i were you i would try to see if i can get the store that sold the chip to replace it. Problem is, can you prove it's not your fault? They are entitled to ask since you accepted the product and you didn't contact them right the way. It depends on the company, really. Some of them can be quite a PITA to deal with, others are quite helpful and easy. Call them up, if you haven't already and explain the situation.

On the mobo side, i was wrong. Aparently CPU-Z does not show the stepping. Maybe it's written on the box in which the mobo was packaged?
Ah, nevermind. The stepping was actually reffering to the CPU and it's irrelevent. Actually it seems that the mobo is revision 1 and it officially supports the FX 4170, starting with the BIOS released on 08/29/2012.

Edit
TO BE CLEAR by IHS i mean the integrated heat spreader on the CPU not the heat sink fan that is mounted manually above the CPU. Did you mean the same thing when you described the damage?
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:10 am

It's good you fixed the video issue... when you see stuff like that it's usually really bad...

This does seem a lot like this is a motherboard issue. I'd find a nice cheapie to replace it or to at least test it with. 60c IMO isn't too hot for a processor and it really shouldn't be throttling around that temperature. If your case was 60c that'd be a different story.


I'm sorry to hear about your issues JBI. Could be you just got the perfect combination of memory with a cheap motherboard to make magic happen. ASrocks are pretty good low-mid grade options. I bought a higher end one for my new computer, but returned it because I wasn't impressed with it for the price (ended up buying a Asus instead). They generally have quality components on board and have a good build for the price.
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:36 am

The ECS K7S5A! It lives!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:11 am

Check the cabling/monitor. The damage pattern looks too uniform (magenta/green) for it to be a problem with the GPU.

**edit**: doh, nevermind. I had this thread open since yesterday night with the last post, and replied without refreshing it.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:37 am

Arclight wrote:
Ok, i see that at the 72 secounds mark the CPU reached ~61 degrees Celsius and the throtle started right after at around the 85 secounds mark. Also the voltage is quite low, meaning that the chip achived the max frequency at almost .30 V from maximum recommanded for stock settings.

That doesn't look like normal throttling behavior to me. The clock speed should've come back up after the temperature dropped. Something is seriously borked here.

Arclight wrote:
Something is clearly wrong in this picture, the CPU should not reach that temperature, that fast, at stock speeds and at such a low voltage.

While I agree something is seriously wrong, I don't think there's anything particularly strange about the quick temperature ramp-up. BD core does tend to heat up fast under full load; I can get a quick rise like that by running Folding@home, for example. (The main difference between this system and mine being that mine plateaus in the mid-50s, never reaches 60C, and doesn't throttle.) Enabling fan speed control exaggerates the effect too, since the fan doesn't crank all the way up until the CPU gets pretty hot.

Arclight wrote:
I'd blame it on the damaged IHS and if i were you i would try to see if i can get the store that sold the chip to replace it.

If it is just a small nick I seriously doubt the IHS is to blame.

Can you tell if the fan is ramping all the way up to full speed before the CPU throttles? Because if it isn't, that's another sign that something (BIOS, most likely) is messed up.

My diagnosis based on the evidence presented so far is that you've got a combination of a barely adequate stock HSF, and a dodgy motherboard (BIOS) with broken CPU thermal management. Deal with either one of those issues and you'll probably fix the throttling (or at least get it to where it automatically speeds up again when it cools down). But unless you replace the HSF with something that has a larger, lower RPM fan, the din at full load may be unacceptable (depending on your tolerance level for fan noise).

Bensam123 wrote:
I'm sorry to hear about your issues JBI. Could be you just got the perfect combination of memory with a cheap motherboard to make magic happen. ASrocks are pretty good low-mid grade options. I bought a higher end one for my new computer, but returned it because I wasn't impressed with it for the price (ended up buying a Asus instead). They generally have quality components on board and have a good build for the price.

Other than the stability issues with the RAM at stock it seems like a nice board for the price. Incidentally, according to Memtest86+ the RAM was actually overclocked by a few percent when at "Auto" settings; I bumped it down a notch and all of the stability issues magically disappeared. The weird thing was, it would pass Memtest86+ even at the higher speed; but Windows 7 was definitely having problems.

TBH I was actually a little surprised to see that it didn't downclock the RAM automatically when all 4 DIMM slots were populated with double-sided DIMMs. Most of the Asus AM2/AM2+ boards I've used have done that; looks like there's a good reason!

I would've bought an Asus instead, except that they discontinued all of their DDR2 AMD boards a while back.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Wed Jan 30, 2013 2:52 pm

I believed to have narrowed it the problems is being caused by the CPU being undervolted. All software reports that the CPU is at a voltage of 1.14 yet the BIOS says 1.4. From browsing forums I have saw that 1.14 seems way to low for stock, and should be upwards of around 1.25-1.4. However in the BIOS I cannot manually set the CPU volt, only increase in 50mV intervals. Possibly just going to return this motherboard to newegg, hopefully the CPU is not damaged.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:34 am

I will also add that I have a ECS AM2 motherboard in my server with a Phenom2 x3 710 and the voltage that is reported by CPUID and Fanspeed is much higher then what is reported in the bios. It also doesn't properly implement C'n'Q so it's always sitting at that voltage. It was definitely a cheap motherboard ($35 with rebate), but stuff like that shouldn't happen. This could be a trend with ECS just being PoS. It has FSB clock controls, but no vcore controls (for whatever reason).

I actually ended up buying a new ASrock board to replace it last week before this topic came up so I could OC it a bit. I guess you get what you pay for. I should've just paid the extra 5-10 off the bat to get a slightly better board.

As I suggested, consider ordering a board through Amazon so you can return it without paying shipping or restocking to make sure it's the board and not something else. Nothing like getting stuck with 15% restocking fees and shipping across the board for everything you test.
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:44 pm

Well case with ECS is going slow. I don't believe I am the only one with this issue, as other newegg reviewers have stated issues with the BIOS as well. Hopefully a simple BIOS flash will fix this. I called ECS today and they stated that their techs are working on this issue.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:42 pm

GeForce6200 wrote:
I called ECS today and they stated that their techs are working on this issue.

Well, at least that's better than "Issue...? What issue?"

4170's been out for roughly a year though; you'd think they would've gotten things sorted by now.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:53 pm

Ya, the BIOS update that was posted was for Vishera CPU support. The tech I have spoken with explained this is not an isolated issue. Something to do with the BIOS. It should be sorted out soon and hopefully with a BIOS flash.
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:23 pm

Newegg will give refund on ECS board. Honestly I'm disappointed in the board and QC failure. Other newegg reviews show the exact same problem with CPU downclocking. ECS told me that AMD recommends to use an aftermarket cooler in order in to use 100 percent of the CPU, which is incorrect. I called AMD on that matter and they too said stock cooling was fine for stock clocks and why ECS would even post that is odd. With no BIOS update coming in the next few days and my return time frame running out I have no choice but to return the board. It is also now the Chinese New Year, in which ECS told me their RD department would be closed until late February. Unacceptable for such a catastrophic error on their boards.
I currently have the Gigabyte 990FX UD3 board on my purchase list, if anyone has any recommendations for an AM3+ board it'll be appreciated.
AMD FX8350|Gigabyte GA78LMT Modded (Rev 5.0)|EVGA 980Ti FTW|16GB Corsair DDR3|840 EVO|Raijentek STYX|Enermax TriathlorEco 650|M-Audio BX8a Deluxe
 
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:36 pm

GeForce6200 wrote:
ECS told me that AMD recommends to use an aftermarket cooler in order in to use 100 percent of the CPU, which is incorrect.

Yup, stock cooler should be fine at stock clocks. In my experience, AMD CPUs with the stock cooler and reasonable case ventilation will run just fine, but the cooler will be frikkin' loud when the CPU is under load because the cooler will be asked to work pretty hard to keep the CPU temps within spec.

*I* recommend using an aftermarket cooler on AMD CPUs, unless you've got a GPU with a fan that is so loud it drowns out the noise of the CPU fan! :lol:

(The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 I recommended further back is nearly silent most of the time, and only tends to get loud if you peg a 125W TDP CPU in a warm room. And even then, it's still a lot quieter than the stock fan...)
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Re: Trouble with AMD FX-4170

Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:13 pm

just brew it! wrote:
GeForce6200 wrote:
ECS told me that AMD recommends to use an aftermarket cooler in order in to use 100 percent of the CPU, which is incorrect.

Yup, stock cooler should be fine at stock clocks. In my experience, AMD CPUs with the stock cooler and reasonable case ventilation will run just fine, but the cooler will be frikkin' loud when the CPU is under load because the cooler will be asked to work pretty hard to keep the CPU temps within spec.

*I* recommend using an aftermarket cooler on AMD CPUs, unless you've got a GPU with a fan that is so loud it drowns out the noise of the CPU fan! :lol:

(The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 I recommended further back is nearly silent most of the time, and only tends to get loud if you peg a 125W TDP CPU in a warm room. And even then, it's still a lot quieter than the stock fan...)

I'll be getting an aftermarket CPU cooler most likely in the summer. For now, being in college I don't turn the heat up too much. That Cooler Master is pretty inexpensive too, tempting...
AMD FX8350|Gigabyte GA78LMT Modded (Rev 5.0)|EVGA 980Ti FTW|16GB Corsair DDR3|840 EVO|Raijentek STYX|Enermax TriathlorEco 650|M-Audio BX8a Deluxe

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