General Issues With My Build

[caboose5216]

Specs first to get that out of the way:

 

AMD 5800k UNDERCLOCKED to 3.0Ghz (from stock 3.8Ghz, issue #1, will describe later)

Cooler Master Hyper 212+

Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 motherboard

G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) Rated @ 1600Mhz, running at 1333MHz (issue #2)

Coolmax ZU-600B 600W 80+ bronze PSU

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD @ 7,200RPM

Sapphire 6670 2GB DDR3 GPU (issue #3)

Element Electronics 40" 1080p LCD TV running @ 1680x1050 (issue #4)

 

So as you can see, there are many issues with my build.

 

#1.

With the Hyper 212+ and stock clocks, Speccy showed my CPU temps in game as 80*C+. Clocked it down, turned off Turbo Mode, and undervolted it, now gaming temps are like ~60*C. Is the 5800k normally a hot CPU, or did I do something wrong?

 

#2.

When trying to run my RAM @ 1600MHz, my whole computer crashes after a few minutes in game. It's not the same time every time, but it will be anywhere from instantly to 20 minutes.

 

#3.

This was a general bad decision on my end, but I'm buying a friend's 6870 soon, so no worries. Anyways, I bought this GPU and the APU in hopes of a Hybrid CFX setup (Read Dual Graphics, per AMD's naming scheme) But I was highly disappointed. The iGPU of the 5800k was already decent enough, and the 6670 was a step above that but when combined together, when the setup wanted to work, I hardly noticed a difference (3-8fps more)

 

#4.

So I bought a TV for my monitor so it would function as a TV, gaming rig, home theater, etc etc. and it's not THAT bad of a deal. I got a 40" LCD TV for $270 and it's actually a good TV. I only have one small issue with it. When connected via HDMI, @1080p, the image is downscaled (black area all around it) but when I scale it up, the image is blurry and hard to see, so I'm running it at 1680x1050 and it fits perfectly. Oddly enough, when I connect it via VGA @ 1080p, the image fits perfectly and there's no "blurriness" to the image. Anyone know the cause of that?

[Chivpcgamer]

Couple of questions to help solve these issues..... Did you use thermal pastr wen installing the cpu cooler or did it have it already on it? Are you using an hdmi cable and plugging into the correct ports? i think that ram might be a tad on the fast side and may be causing your system to be unstable.another thing im pretty sure vga doesnt support 1080p, is that tv just hd ready or is it full hd?

[BenHTBDT]

1. Did you apply thermal paste? If so, try to reapply it. You need to clean both the CPU and the heatsink of the old paste. If you didn't, that's your problem.

 

2. Try a BIOS update if there's one available? It's also possible that your APU doesn't "like" the memory, or the voltages don't work. If you can, try another brand of memory or just deal with it at 1333, because it doesn't make much difference at all.

 

3. Yep. 6-8fps is about what you should expect. Keep in mind that the 6870 is the same as about 20 or so of those lower end cards, if not more. 

 

4. Your TV most likely simply does not support 1080p. VGA doesn't support 1080p AFAIK. Its most likely that you're setting it to 1080p, and its just like "okay, I'll just do my max resolution instead", which is probably more along the likes of 1600x900. Just use the HDMI, and set it at whatever looks good. My dad runs his desktop on a 32 inch 720p TV, and had a similar issue to this. Just set it to whatever the native resolution of the TV is or whatever looks best. Try toying with it for a bit.

[caboose5216]

Couple of questions to help solve these issues..... Did you use thermal pastr wen installing the cpu cooler or did it have it already on it? Are you using an hdmi cable and plugging into the correct ports? i think that ram might be a tad on the fast side and may be causing your system to be unstable.another thing im pretty sure vga doesnt support 1080p, is that tv just hd ready or is it full hd?

 

Yes I used thermal paste. I removed the stock cooler, completely cleaned the CPU, applied the included thermal paste from CM, then correctly installed the 212+. Yes I'm using an HDMI cable and yes it's in the HDMI port on the 6670. From looking online, VGA supports more than 1080p and when I set it to 1080p on VGA, the onscreen display shows 1080p and the resolution settings in Windows state 1920x1080 and the TV is FHD.

 

1. Did you apply thermal paste? If so, try to reapply it. You need to clean both the CPU and the heatsink of the old paste. If you didn't, that's your problem.

 

2. Try a BIOS update if there's one available? It's also possible that your APU doesn't "like" the memory, or the voltages don't work. If you can, try another brand of memory or just deal with it at 1333, because it doesn't make much difference at all.

 

3. Yep. 6-8fps is about what you should expect. Keep in mind that the 6870 is the same as about 20 or so of those lower end cards, if not more. 

 

4. Your TV most likely simply does not support 1080p. VGA doesn't support 1080p AFAIK. Its most likely that you're setting it to 1080p, and its just like "okay, I'll just do my max resolution instead", which is probably more along the likes of 1600x900. Just use the HDMI, and set it at whatever looks good. My dad runs his desktop on a 32 inch 720p TV, and had a similar issue to this. Just set it to whatever the native resolution of the TV is or whatever looks best. Try toying with it for a bit.

 

1. See my reply to Chivpcgamer.

 

2. BIOS fully updated, tried messing with voltages, timings, and clock speeds, but to no avail. You're right though, no big deal from 1333 to 1600, just something I wanted to fix if possible.

 

3. From what I've seen online, the 6870 is substantially better than the 6670, but not as good as the newer stuff, and I'm okay with that.

 

4. See my reply to Chivpcgamer. And I have gotten accustomed to the 1680x1050 setting. Come to think of it, 1680x1050 is a 16:10 ratio where 1920x1080 is 16:9 so maybe my TV is a 16:10 TV and has trouble displaying 16:9 content?

[Chivpcgamer]

It would be a bit odd for a modern tv to be 16:10, have you looked at adjusting the aspect ratio. Im pretty sure vga cant support 1080p, which is why most monitors get slated for having vga ports nowadays. I think just downclock the ram, check your motherboard manuall to find out how much ram it supports, also the same for your cpu and what ram speed it supports. As for the cpu temps im a little lost for ideas maybe change the direction of the airflow? Remount it?

[Chivpcgamer]

Ok we stand corrected vga does support 1080p, did you say your using an hdmi cable or vga cable? And have you set tv to hdmi or vga output?

[mvitkun]

since all your other questions seem to have been answered all thats left is the CM hyper 212.
 

you should definitely be getting lower than 80C at stock clocks,most likely around 50-60C.

 

I would try to remount the heatsink,try to watch a video of an AMD version of mounting the hyper 212 to make sure you did it right.when you remove the heatsink check to make sure that the thermalpaste spread evenly on the cpu and covered most of it.

 

did you make sure to tighten all of the sides little by little in order to get even mounting pressure form all sides?

[Cheesebaron]

How exactly are you applying that thermal paste and how much?

[Matty_]

Specs first to get that out of the way:

 

AMD 5800k UNDERCLOCKED to 3.0Ghz (from stock 3.8Ghz, issue #1, will describe later)

Cooler Master Hyper 212+

Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 motherboard

G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) Rated @ 1600Mhz, running at 1333MHz (issue #2)

Coolmax ZU-600B 600W 80+ bronze PSU

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD @ 7,200RPM

Sapphire 6670 2GB DDR3 GPU (issue #3)

Element Electronics 40" 1080p LCD TV running @ 1680x1050 (issue #4)

 

So as you can see, there are many issues with my build.

 

#1.

With the Hyper 212+ and stock clocks, Speccy showed my CPU temps in game as 80*C+. Clocked it down, turned off Turbo Mode, and undervolted it, now gaming temps are like ~60*C. Is the 5800k normally a hot CPU, or did I do something wrong?

 

#2.

When trying to run my RAM @ 1600MHz, my whole computer crashes after a few minutes in game. It's not the same time every time, but it will be anywhere from instantly to 20 minutes.

 

#3.

This was a general bad decision on my end, but I'm buying a friend's 6870 soon, so no worries. Anyways, I bought this GPU and the APU in hopes of a Hybrid CFX setup (Read Dual Graphics, per AMD's naming scheme) But I was highly disappointed. The iGPU of the 5800k was already decent enough, and the 6670 was a step above that but when combined together, when the setup wanted to work, I hardly noticed a difference (3-8fps more)

 

#4.

So I bought a TV for my monitor so it would function as a TV, gaming rig, home theater, etc etc. and it's not THAT bad of a deal. I got a 40" LCD TV for $270 and it's actually a good TV. I only have one small issue with it. When connected via HDMI, @1080p, the image is downscaled (black area all around it) but when I scale it up, the image is blurry and hard to see, so I'm running it at 1680x1050 and it fits perfectly. Oddly enough, when I connect it via VGA @ 1080p, the image fits perfectly and there's no "blurriness" to the image. Anyone know the cause of that?

 

Issue #1 - Speccy sometimes doesnt show the correct temp, download realtemp & coretemp and see what your temps are, compare them.

Issue #2 - mabey your motherboard doesnt support 1600MHz Ram? mabey its limit is 1333MHz?

 

Issue #3 - did you buy the DDR3 or GDDR5 version of it? that may be the reason why.

Issue #4 - if you set the resolution to 1920x1080, is it blurry in general? or is that only when you upscale it?

[caboose5216]

It would be a bit odd for a modern tv to be 16:10, -snip-

 

I don't know about the aspect ratio on here, it's very minimalistic. I have the included fan in a push config, going from front of case (120mm fan intake) to the back of case.

 

Ok we stand corrected vga does support 1080p, did you say your using an hdmi cable or vga cable? And have you set tv to hdmi or vga output?

 

On VGA, 1080p looks fine. On HDMI (currently connected) the image is smaller than the screen size and when upsized, look blurry.

 

since all your other questions seem to have been answered all thats left is the CM hyper 212.

 

-snip-

 

I was actually watching a video of how to install the 212+ for AMD MOBO's on my laptop as I was doing it myself. And I was tightening them like top left, bottom right, top right, bottom left, until they got snug, but not overtightened.

 

How exactly are you applying that thermal paste and how much?

 

I don't recall (build is 6 months old) but I was watching a video at the time and followed exactly how he did it. I believe it was a pea sized amount in the middle and let the heatsink pressure spread it out.

 

Issue #1 - Speccy sometimes doesnt show the correct temp, download realtemp & coretemp and see what your temps are, compare them.

-snip-

 

#1. Trying other methods now. Core Temp shows CPU temp at 0*C (yeah right, lol) and Realtemp is not compatible with APU's.

 

#2. Supports up to 2666MHz, I think we're fine on that. And if it didnt support 1333+, then it wouldnt even boot into OS, right?

 

#3. DDR3 version sadly. I made a stupid mistake, it was late at night, was on sale, and didn't bother checking if it was 3 or 5.

 

#4. see my reply to Chipvpcgamer ^^^

[Matty_]

For your issue with the temps, try running CoreTemp then start up a CPU heavy program such as prime95, and see if your temperatures reappear, if the don't, it may be a faulty temperature sensor.

[Blade of Grass]

Maybe I can solve your ram problem.

Did you, by chance, enable the XMP profile?

[Hyydrah]

Specs first to get that out of the way:

 

AMD 5800k UNDERCLOCKED to 3.0Ghz (from stock 3.8Ghz, issue #1, will describe later)

Cooler Master Hyper 212+

Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 motherboard

G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) Rated @ 1600Mhz, running at 1333MHz (issue #2)

Coolmax ZU-600B 600W 80+ bronze PSU

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD @ 7,200RPM

Sapphire 6670 2GB DDR3 GPU (issue #3)

Element Electronics 40" 1080p LCD TV running @ 1680x1050 (issue #4)

 

So as you can see, there are many issues with my build.

 

#1.

With the Hyper 212+ and stock clocks, Speccy showed my CPU temps in game as 80*C+. Clocked it down, turned off Turbo Mode, and undervolted it, now gaming temps are like ~60*C. Is the 5800k normally a hot CPU, or did I do something wrong?

 

#2.

When trying to run my RAM @ 1600MHz, my whole computer crashes after a few minutes in game. It's not the same time every time, but it will be anywhere from instantly to 20 minutes.

 

#3.

This was a general bad decision on my end, but I'm buying a friend's 6870 soon, so no worries. Anyways, I bought this GPU and the APU in hopes of a Hybrid CFX setup (Read Dual Graphics, per AMD's naming scheme) But I was highly disappointed. The iGPU of the 5800k was already decent enough, and the 6670 was a step above that but when combined together, when the setup wanted to work, I hardly noticed a difference (3-8fps more)

 

#4.

So I bought a TV for my monitor so it would function as a TV, gaming rig, home theater, etc etc. and it's not THAT bad of a deal. I got a 40" LCD TV for $270 and it's actually a good TV. I only have one small issue with it. When connected via HDMI, @1080p, the image is downscaled (black area all around it) but when I scale it up, the image is blurry and hard to see, so I'm running it at 1680x1050 and it fits perfectly. Oddly enough, when I connect it via VGA @ 1080p, the image fits perfectly and there's no "blurriness" to the image. Anyone know the cause of that?

1. Try using a premium thermal paste, and apply only a pea sized blob in the middle of the heat spreader. I recommend NT-H1, it's about $10 for a tube and it can be used 10+ times. Underclocking your CPU is not a viable option for the long-term.

 

2. Many DIMMs will refuse to run at higher clock speeds and/or timings without a voltage increase or from raising their timings/lowering their clock speeds. Try running them at 1600MHz @ 9-9-9-24-1T, 1.5V, many DDR3 modules will be capable of it. Try not to exceed 1.525V for long term use, changing the timings and clock speeds won't degrade your DIMMs but the voltage can if it surpasses that limit. Be sure to manually set all of the above settings!

 

As a side note, I'd highly recommend that you avoid TVs for gaming, since they have very high input latency. For around $300 you can get a very nice 144Hz monitor.

 

Good luck.

[DvD92]

For most accurate temp readings I would download EasyTune 6 from your motherboards drivers and support page here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4343#utility

[Chivpcgamer]

You can work the aspect ratio of your tv out with a ruler and a calculator in no time, may help us to see if you are up scaling or are actually at 1080p