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[M.Bluth]

Thanks, I got it. Neither my CPU nor motherboard came with thermal paste. The CPU instructions don't even mention it. Should I just put the fan over it?

If it's an Intel CPU then the thermal paste comes pre-applied to the heat sink

You must have a thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink

 

[TheFatOne]

Thanks, I got it. Neither my CPU nor motherboard came with thermal paste. The CPU instructions don't even mention it. Should I just put the fan over it?

No always use thermal paste. Did the heatsink come pre applied with thermal paste?

 

[jiien]

Yea that has been my experience as well, I assume it's a rather poor stability test. I've run an OC on it for half an hour with no issues, but Heaven's bench crashed it within 30 seconds every single time.

Okay, so it isn't just me.

To continue with my issue, I've swapped out the video card with an old one I had laying around, so I'll see what I can do with that. I guess I'm trying to determine right now that it is definitely a faulty card, and not something else acting up. I'm going to do some Memtest again. I've done Prime95 to death, so I'm sure my CPU/OC is okay. I can't think of any way to really test whether or not my PSU is the problem. Does anyone know how I can tell? What if the PCI-E connections don't supply enough power, or something? I have a Corsair TX650W, so I think I can safely assume that the PSU is okay, right?

 

[Emitan]

Are you sure the hsf doesn't have any thermal paste under it? :lol

Somehow I completely didn't see all the thermal paste on it. I'm being so careful I'm stupid. But this was the hardest part because I've done everything else before so I'm good.

 

[AkIRA_22]

I wouldn't wish push-pins on my worst enemy.



So the all-in-one water cooling market has completed shifted in the last week or so.

After the success of their Hydro series, Corsair has parted ways with Asetek (OEM for H50 and H70) to partner up with former retail rival, CoolIt Systems, for the new H60 and a full line of products that will look familiar to anyone who has used or seen CoolIt's wares before - like the new Corsair Link.

It's a bit strange, as CoolIt's products have regularly been outperformed by their former Asetek-made equivalents, but the design of the new Corsair is supposed to make for improved numbers. As part of Corasir and CoolIt's new union, CoolIt systems will pull out of the retail space.

You'd think this could be a great time for Asetek to make a retail push. Instead, they've now partnered with Antec to create the Antec KÜHLER H2O series, with the first offering being the KÜHLER H2O 620. Antec also intends to release at least one 240mm rad model; something that Corsair obviously never did, even though both Asetek and CoolIt have had 240mm rads for some time now.

If that wasn't enough, Cooler Master has decide to re-enter the market. After being one of the first to release an all-in-one water cooling solution years ago, Cooler Master didn't really bother to develop them any further in recent times. All it took was for the company to see Corsair swimming in money in what's now a matured market, for Cooler Master to whip up the new "A-L2" prototype water cooling system.

So, now we have an awkwardly named Antec, Cooler Master working on another one of their ungainly water coolers, and Corsair finally having to go up against two major players. Should be fun seeing the various solutions being cooked up, and what all of this competition does for pricing.

When looking into coolers for my PC I researched the CoolIt options and the reviews seemed very nonplussed about it. Which is why I went with the H50 (this was 9 months ago). I am VERY enthused with the possibility of a 240mm version, this would be a possible purchase for me if the results reveal it's a legitimate improvement.

 

[n0n44m]

OK after 2 hours of Prime95 and 20 runs (~2 hours) of LinX I think my i7 2600K is stable at 4.7 ghz with 1.35v

Just played a Bad Company 2 match ... fps went from ~50 on Athlon II X4 to ~100 on this beast with GPU usage at a nearly constant 100% (same heavily overclocked GTX 480, 1080p 4AA max settings) 3dmark06 score doubled as well, 3dmark11 Physics quadrupled

CoolerMaster CM690 II Advanced filled with : Asus P8P67PRO , i7 2600K, 8 gig Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz, GTX480 with Accelero Xtreme Plus cooling, 80gig Intel Postville SSD & 1+1.5tb hdd's, Corsair HX650, Mugen 2 rev B with Scythe push/pull fans PWM controlled by motherboard, plenty of Yate Loon 120/140 casefans hooked to a "hidden" 5/12 volts switch

 

[-viper-]

If a 8800 GTS, E6600 and 2GB RAM pc did me well for the last four years, how long can I expect the i2500k, 4GB DDR3 and a 6950 to last me?

 

[WEGGLES]

Hahah. Same case and cooler as you.


How many hours of Prime95 until an Overclock is considered stable?

 

[vocab]

If a 8800 GTS, E6600 and 2GB RAM pc did me well for the last four years, how long can I expect the i2500k, 4GB DDR3 and a 6950 to last me?

Probably just as long.

 

[Labombadog]

OK after 2 hours of Prime95 and 20 runs (~2 hours) of LinX I think my i7 2600K is stable at 4.7 ghz with 1.35v

Just played a Bad Company 2 match ... fps went from ~50 on Athlon II X4 to ~100 on this beast with GPU usage at a nearly constant 100% (same heavily overclocked GTX 480, 1080p 4AA max settings) 3dmark06 score doubled as well, 3dmark11 Physics quadrupled

CoolerMaster CM690 II Advanced filled with : Asus P8P67PRO , i7 2600K, 8 gig Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz, GTX480 with Accelero Xtreme Plus cooling, 80gig Intel Postville SSD & 1+1.5tb hdd's, Corsair HX650, Mugen 2 rev B with Scythe push/pull fans PWM controlled by motherboard, plenty of Yate Loon 120/140 casefans hooked to a "hidden" 5/12 volts switch

:O

Nice rig my good man.

 

[AkIRA_22]

FYI, for those cruising around with a Corsair H50 or H70, I just attached the pump to a Molex adapter and got an instant 4-6 degrees C temp drop. A pretty handy drop and a very cheap and simple adjustment.

 

[TheKurgan]

Sweet setup n0n44m! Can't wait to get my Cooler Master 960 Advanced - sweet case.

Well after 24 hours most of my order has already shipped from NCIX - powersupply and thermal compound still pending. Once again very impressed with NCIX.

Does anyone have a link to a good PC building video? It's been 6 years so I wouldn't mind a refresher =P I have already watched 2 vids on the Cooler Master 212+ and I am still not 100% what to do...

 

[AkIRA_22]

OK after 2 hours of Prime95 and 20 runs (~2 hours) of LinX I think my i7 2600K is stable at 4.7 ghz with 1.35v

Just played a Bad Company 2 match ... fps went from ~50 on Athlon II X4 to ~100 on this beast with GPU usage at a nearly constant 100% (same heavily overclocked GTX 480, 1080p 4AA max settings) 3dmark06 score doubled as well, 3dmark11 Physics quadrupled

CoolerMaster CM690 II Advanced filled with : Asus P8P67PRO , i7 2600K, 8 gig Corsair Vengeance 1866mhz, GTX480 with Accelero Xtreme Plus cooling, 80gig Intel Postville SSD & 1+1.5tb hdd's, Corsair HX650, Mugen 2 rev B with Scythe push/pull fans PWM controlled by motherboard, plenty of Yate Loon 120/140 casefans hooked to a "hidden" 5/12 volts switch

Very nice. The push-pull fans on the HDD's is a great touch. Only thing, that 24pin EPS can't be re-routed behind? Have you got a fan controller? I'm just wondering what all those extensions for the fans are.

 

[Wallach]

Very nice. The push-pull fans on the HDD's is a great touch. Only thing, that 24pin EPS can't be re-routed behind? Have you got a fan controller? I'm just wondering what all those extensions for the fans are.

It probably could, but the area back there on the 690 II Advanced is a little tight. He may just not have room with how he routed his other cabling.

 

[Emitan]

Everything's working great except when I boot my computer I get a message saying no hard disk available or something like that for about a second before I get to GRUB. If I change which SATA port my hard drive is plugged into will it fix this?

 

[MikeE21286]

Got all my stuff in yesterday.

Got it all built. Have to take pictures of it built, but I got a picture of the components

Case: NZXT Phatnom full tower
CPU : i5 2500k
Mobo: ASUS P8P67 Pro
GPU: Gigabyte GTX460 (I already owned this)
RAM: 2x2GB DDR3 1600 mhz G.Skill
PSU: Corsair TX750W 80+ Certified
Soundcard: ASUS Xonar D1
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

 

[JoeBoy101]

I went ahead and ordered a Hyper 212. Better safe than sorry I guess.

See last page for my experience with the stock cooler. I fully intended to use it, but I could never get the 'click' sound from one or two of the pins and when looking at the other side, they appeared to all be at different depths. At that point, I really got worried I was going to break the mother board with all the force I was using and said 'fuck it' and pulled out my Hyper 212 and screwed the bastard on.

Everything's working great except when I boot my computer I get a message saying no hard disk available or something like that for about a second before I get to GRUB. If I change which SATA port my hard drive is plugged into will it fix this?

Ya know, mine is doing the EXACT same thing. Yet once it gets past that stage, it reads my HDD just fine. Still gives me that message at the very start of boot-up, but I got Windows installed and am currently downloading 3,495,585.07 games from Steam right now.

 

[Labombadog]

Been kind of behind in my PC hardware. From these new Sandy Bridges, which one is bang for buck? i5 2500k? I 'might' upgrade my pc soon.

 

[MikeE21286]

The Hyper 212 is a VERY nice cooler. Booted it up and was running ~31C right out the gate. Happy with it thus far.

I was kind of dumbfounded as to how to install it initially, until I found the bag of screws for the backplate that had fallen on the ground lol

 

[JoeBoy101]

The Hyper 212 is a VERY nice cooler. Booted it up and was running ~31C right out the gate. Happy with it thus far.

I was kind of dumbfounded as to how to install it initially, until I found the bag of screws for the backplate that had fallen on the ground lol

Had a goddamn bitch of a time getting the screws for the 'spider' mount that holds the heat sink in place to align in the right slots.

Been kind of behind in my PC hardware. From these new Sandy Bridges, which one is bang for buck? i5 2500k? I 'might' upgrade my pc soon.

In my opinion, its the sweet spot for price to performance, but you do let go of hyperthreading that is on the 2600k. But definitely get the 'K' chips, because it looks like they OC remarkably easy and with very little added voltage (heat) needed.

 

[The Bookerman]

Been kind of behind in my PC hardware. From these new Sandy Bridges, which one is bang for buck? i5 2500k? I 'might' upgrade my pc soon.

the 2500k is where it's at I guess.

 

[MikeE21286]

Had a goddamn bitch of a time getting the screws for the 'spider' mount that holds the heat sink in place to align in the right slots.

Yeah, same here as well. Definitely not the most intuitive setup, but it does the job right.

 

[Blackface]

Picked up all my stuff today from Ncix. Installation went smoothly. The responsiveness is mind-blowing.

Also, may I say. I have worked with dozens upon dozens of cases before, and the R3 is by far the best mid-tower case I have ever used in my life. It's completely silent, the cable management is phenomenal, the way you install the front fans is so genius, and it's probably one of the sleekest cases you can buy.

It's on sale right now for $99 by Ncix, and it's easily the quality of a $190 Lian Li. It really blew me away. I don't know how Fractal is making money with all of the stuff this case has, including the acoustical treatments.

 

[·feist·]

An MSI rep has already stated that their standard clock speed N560 will list higher than their N470 and it looks as though rumors of a ~$280 GTX 560 Ti may in fact turn out to be true.

http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop...10040015011_BDY7040P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!

GEFORCE GTX 560 WILL BE 10 PERCENT FASTER THAN GEFORCE GTX 470
http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-1...e-10-percent-faster-than-GeForce-GTX-470.html


GAINWARD: GTX560, GTX560 GS, GTX560 GLH, GTX560 PHANTOM


GALAXY GTX 560 Ti White Edition
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1898/nvidiagtx560tiwe.jpg


Supposedly legit benches:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=9010033443

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3012/37011895.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1942/26015184.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/461/93677862.jpg

When looking into coolers for my PC I researched the CoolIt options and the reviews seemed very nonplussed about it. Which is why I went with the H50 (this was 9 months ago). I am VERY enthused with the possibility of a 240mm version, this would be a possible purchase for me if the results reveal it's a legitimate improvement.

CoolIt's AIO 120mm and 240mm GPU water coolers are even less impressive. A bit pointless when lower-priced air-coolers easily outperform them. We'll see how the new design works out. Corsair is guaranteed to have CoolIt build 120mm GPU coolers, and possibly 240mm CPU and GPU options at some point, so there's a lot at stake.

A 240mm Antec could turn out to be what you're looking for.

 

[MikeE21286]

Picked up all my stuff today from Ncix. Installation went smoothly. The responsiveness is mind-blowing.

Also, may I say. I have worked with dozens upon dozens of cases before, and the R3 is by far the best mid-tower case I have ever used in my life. It's completely silent, the cable management is phenomenal, the way you install the front fans is so genius, and it's probably one of the sleekest cases you can buy.

It's on sale right now for $99 by Ncix, and it's easily the quality of a $190 Lian Li. It really blew me away. I don't know how Fractal is making money with all of the stuff this case has, including the acoustical treatments.

I nearly picked up the R3. I loved the design of it. Very sexy.

I have to say I'm enjoying the case I picked out quite a bit as well. The NZXT Phantom is the first full-tower case I've ever owned and not only is it nice to have a full tower case, but I think it looks pretty nice as well.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Yeah, same here as well. Definitely not the most intuitive setup, but it does the job right.

Telling me. I was idling at 13-15C for chrissakes. Doing Prime95 right now, and my CPU has creeped up into the mid 40's. That's with the UEFI Bios set to Performance and the CPU pushing 4ghz and change. Mid 40's was around where my old CPU (9450?) idled.

 

[Shambles]

Telling me. I was idling at 13-15C for chrissakes. Doing Prime95 right now, and my CPU has creeped up into the mid 40's. That's with the UEFI Bios set to Performance and the CPU pushing 4ghz and change. Mid 40's was around where my old CPU (9450?) idled.

You really should turn your furnace on

 

[Blackface]

I nearly picked up the R3. I loved the design of it. Very sexy.

I have to say I'm enjoying the case I picked out quite a bit as well. The NZXT Phantom is the first full-tower case I've ever owned and not only is it nice to have a full tower case, but I think it looks pretty nice as well.

The main reason I went with the R3 is two fold. First, I live in a 70 year old house, close to an airport, by a high-way. To say the house is full of dust all the time is an understatement. No matter what you do, the dust-never goes away. When you dust, by the time you finish dusting the room, the table you first dusted is covered again. The second reason was I needed something super silent.

The R3 fit both categories, and everything else was just a bonus. The dust filters on the R3 are the best I have personally ever seen. The ones in the side/top/front-door, with the acoustical treatment, are 100 percent dust proof. The ones in the bottom are so fine, only the tiniest of dust particles have a chance of getting in.

 

[JoeBoy101]

You really should turn your furnace on

I'm thinking there is something that needs more calibration in Speedfan. That said, there is the possibility my case is just pushing that much air that quickly.

I do keep the house at 68F though.

 

[Emitan]

Looking at the manual for my mobo the SATA 6 GB/s ports have lower numbers than the SATA 3 GB/s ports. I'm guessing plugging my hard drive into the 6 GB/s port would get rid of that annoying message at boot, but that's really a waste to do.

 

[MisterAnderson]

I really need to overclock soon. Been running stock for about a year and a halfish now. Have yet to overclock my processor, GPU, or RAM (been trying to "overclock" my RAM to it's certified settings of 1600 MHz but it doesn't boot up -_-).

If anyone has this CPU/Mobo combo and could help me out (I know there are guides out there but so far all the guides I've seen are confusing cause the BIOS is different from mine) I'd appreciate it.

i7 920 2.66 MHz
EX58-UD4P Gigabyte Motherboard
Radeon HD 4890 1GB
12 GB Corsair 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 DDR3 RAM (for some reason it defaults to 1066MHz and instead of 8-8-8-24 it's set to 8-8-8-20)

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Everything's working great except when I boot my computer I get a message saying no hard disk available or something like that for about a second before I get to GRUB. If I change which SATA port my hard drive is plugged into will it fix this?

Ya know, mine is doing the EXACT same thing. Yet once it gets past that stage, it reads my HDD just fine. Still gives me that message at the very start of boot-up, but I got Windows installed and am currently downloading 3,495,585.07 games from Steam right now.

Me three. P8P67 here with a Spinpoint F3.

And whew, can finally take a break after copying lots of old files. Think everything is okay so far.

Case: Antec 300 Illusion
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 1GB
CPU: Intel i5 2500k
Motherboard: Asus P8P67
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM
PSU: Corsair 550VX 550W

Now if you'll excuse me gentlemen,me and Crysis need some alone time...

 

[Blackface]

Thats something I was going to add.

Make sure you take a look at the wires connecting your stock CPU fan to the mobo. Sometimes even if you don't touch them, they are in the fans path. I almost completely destroyed it when I started up the PC for this reason.

 

[coopolon]

I've read multiple places that before OC'ing you want to set your PCIE frequency to 100 so that your motherboard doesn't overload it and damage any PCI cards. But when I try to set this in my bios (for p45 platinum mobo), my only options are 37.3 and 42. What am I missing?

 

[Shambles]

I'm thinking there is something that needs more calibration in Speedfan. That said, there is the possibility my case is just pushing that much air that quickly.

I do keep the house at 68F though.

Yeah there's either an error in the software or just as likely in the sensors themselves. 68F is approximately 20C. To have idle temps of 13C your house would just be barely above freezing.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Yeah there's either an error in the software or just as likely in the sensors themselves. 68F is approximately 20C. To have idle temps of 13C your house would just be barely above freezing.

Probably the software, but an Idle temp of 15C is 59F, so its not that far off from ambient. Certainly not near freezing.

 

[Ecto311]

Another question:

Wife has a 9400gt and only plays wow/starcraft2. It's starting to stutter a bit with special effects all over in cataclysm. She has a Pentium e wolfdale 2500 dual core at 2.5ghz.

I am thinking that the video card is shit, thus looking to upgrade but she wants to stay under $50. What if anything would be an upgrade and not pissing in the wind. It has 2 gigs of ram and the board is maxed unless we went with 2x2 sticks.

 

[Shambles]

Probably the software, but an Idle temp of 15C is 59F, so its not that far off from ambient. Certainly not near freezing.

A processor only will be at ambient temperature when it is off. You have to take into account the 2500K will idle around 8C hotter than ambient no matter what you do. Perhaps you just had the bad luck of flaky sensors on the board. Not a huge deal but nice to have still.

 

[wandering goat]

I'm thinking there is something that needs more calibration in Speedfan. That said, there is the possibility my case is just pushing that much air that quickly.

I do keep the house at 68F though.

From my personal experience, speed fan reported core temps of around 15 C less than any other program - that's with an i5-760. Try using Core Temp or RealTemp. Both should report similar values to each other.

 

[calder]

Another question:

Wife has a 9400gt and only plays wow/starcraft2. It's starting to stutter a bit with special effects all over in cataclysm. She has a Pentium e wolfdale 2500 dual core at 2.5ghz.

I am thinking that the video card is shit, thus looking to upgrade but she wants to stay under $50. What if anything would be an upgrade and not pissing in the wind. It has 2 gigs of ram and the board is maxed unless we went with 2x2 sticks.

Can you talk her up to $80? The HD 5670 sounds like a good budget card at that price. Although while upgrading the 9400GT at least a bit sounds like a good idea I wonder if the ram might be an issue in WoW too.

Tom's Hardware best cards $100 and less

 

[Ecto311]

Can you talk her up to $80? The HD 5670 sounds like a good budget card at that price. Although while upgrading the 9400GT at least a bit sounds like a good idea I wonder if the ram might be an issue in WoW too.

Tom's Hardware best cards $100 and less

Her ram is showing in cpuz: DDR2: 5-5-5-15

Thanks for the info so far. Her ram is showing up as dual channel where mine (4gig) is showing up as single. Not sure what impact that has. Something else to search I suppose.

 

[Emitan]

My 2600K is at 20 degrees C according to Speedfan. The room I keep it in is in the 60's F and my case is pushing out cold air. Is this normal or am I magic?

 

[Mobius1B7R]

I just realized I have 3 sticks of ram and SB only supports dual, not triple (der). Man i'm dumb. Should I pull one out or is it okay as it is? I totally forgot SB didn't support triple. I searched online if they sell a single stick of XMS3 in a 2gb fashion but I don't see it anywhere.

 

[AkIRA_22]

And When I was cleaning out my case I noticed there was enough space on the back of the Motherboard panel to fit my 2.5" drive. This will let me free up a slot in the actual tray (there's only 3) for another 3.5" HDD. Being a mATX case HDD slots are at a premium.

this is not my case

And the final product.

This is an incredibly easy mod that anyone with an SSD can do. The holes need to be drilled 62mm apart with a 3.5mm drill bit (this allows for a small margin of error). The beauty is you only need to do two screws because an SSD does not move, and since there are no exposed electronics you can fasten it hard up against the case. The only prerequisite is a case with a decent amount of cable room behind the motherboard tray, I'd say about 15mm.

 

[Emitan]

And the final product.

This is an incredibly easy mod that anyone with an SSD can do. The holes need to be drilled 62mm apart with a 3.5mm drill bit (this allows for a small margin of error). The beauty is you only need to do two screws because an SSD does not move, and since there are no exposed electronics you can fasten it hard up against the case. The only prerequisite is a case with a decent amount of cable room behind the motherboard tray, I'd say about 15mm.

I just realized my Antec 1200 has room for dozens of SSDs if I do this. I'm going to go broke, but dammit I need 20 SSDs in one case!

 

[WEGGLES]

8 hours of prime95 enough to call it A-OK on an overclock?

 

[Wallach]

8 hours of prime95 enough to call it A-OK on an overclock?

Personally I switched to using Intel Burn Test; if it can live through 50 rounds of that without throwing an error I will usually consider it stable. I've seen it throw errors where Prime95 won't, and you'll see it hit higher temps as the stress is considerably higher.

 

[WEGGLES]

Personally I switched to using Intel Burn Test; if it can live through 50 rounds of that without throwing an error I will usually consider it stable. I've seen it throw errors where Prime95 won't, and you'll see it hit higher temps as the stress is considerably higher.

Well. I more meant like. I've ran Prime95 for 8 hours, can I go to bed




I'll try Intel Burn Test tomorrow.

 

[Wallach]

Well. I more meant like. I've ran Prime95 for 8 hours, can I go to bed




I'll try Intel Burn Test tomorrow.

Oh, well yeah I don't think it'll do anything weird while idle if it made it through such a long run of Prime95.

 

[WEGGLES]

It seems to be running perfectly fine.

Quick question about temps.

How does

~60 (58-61) at load and ~35 at idle sound for temperatures?