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[Ulairi]

My current setup:

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LINKSYS WMP300N 32-bit PCI Interface High-speed Wireless-N Wireless Adapter
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
Patriot Viper 8GB
Radeon HD 4870 512MB
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V

I'm going to sell my PS3 and purchase a sound card and some nice gaming headphones. I'm gaming on a 24" Acer 1900x1200 monitor. With the 30" monitors coming down in price, I might upgrade next year. I also might upgrade to the 4870x2 this November.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

I'm just RMA'ing it.

Brand and how long have you had that Chiggs?

 

[chespace]

Q6600 G0 @ 3.2GHz rock solid with temps at a very reasonable 37C-40C @ ~ 1.36V. I'm going to try for 3.4 later this week and probably push it up to 3.6 later next week to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go.

When you OC, how do you play around with voltages? I'd like to lower my temperature a bit, especially if I want to OC higher than 3.4.

Give me your OC'ing tricks. Also, I'm worried about frying my GPU on the PCIE slot.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

When you OC, how do you play around with voltages? I'd like to lower my temperature a bit, especially if I want to OC higher than 3.4.

Give me your OC'ing tricks. Also, I'm worried about frying my GPU on the PCIE slot.

Sure thing Che.

Rule of thumb for the Kentsfield chips is if you're pushing more than 1.4x volts to it, then you've entered the [H]ard territory. Moddest overclocks on the G0 Q6600 on Air usually get around 3.2-3.4 or so without having to pump up the voltage to over 1.4 volts.

Either way, I had an overclock early of 2.93GHz w/ my FSB around 1304GHz and I would blue screen if I went to 3.0GHz on my CPU.

Turns out I was doing it wrong simply because I didn't know what my board had.

So I went back into tweak it. I reduced the multiplier from 9x to 8x. I changed the FSB to 400. I changed the FSB multiplier to 2 (equaling my memory) and thus netting me a 3.2GHz CPU overclock.

I left the PCI-E speed to auto--- You can change it to 100MHz if you are inclined.

For decent overclocking territory, it's best to bump up the voltage to around 1.325V. That (again) by rule of thumb gives you a little wiggle room on your overclock.

It's pretty weird to. I can tell a noticeable difference between my 2.93GHz OC and my 3.2GHz OC.

 

[Ravenn17]

Repost:

I have an e8400. Is a 9x multiplier at 400 FSB with stock voltage and stock cooling safe? I'm getting idle temps around 43-46c. Oh, and btw, I have a gigabyte motherboard and I have a few questions about the DRAM settings.

-Should I leave performance enhance on?
-Should I be toying with the (G) MCH Frequency Latch?
-I was looking at the DRAM timing options. What's cAS Latency time? tRCD? tRD?

 

[chespace]

I'm using a Yorkfield, BTW.

 

[Zzoram]

Yorkfields are similar in that you don't want to go over 1.4V, preferably no more than 1.35V to be safe. I have an E8400 which is a Wolfdale, Yorkfield is 2xWolfdale on a single die. My E8400 sucks, I just got a bad core, on stock voltage (1.225V) I can't go past 3.3GHz Prime95 stable 8+hours (stock 3.0GHz). My current motherboard (EP35-DS3L) is on F4 bios, which has a glitch preventing my vcore settings sticking. I need to flash it to F5 but I'm afraid of flashing, especially since I don't really need to push my E8400 much higher, the HD4870 512mb is not really limited by it.

Temperatures in the 60s are fine Che, don't worry about it. Did you get your 2.8->3.4GHz OC on stock voltages? Because that means you have an incredible CPU if it's Prime95 stable. Raising vcore even slightly can translate into a lot more power draw and heat, so people do it in very small increments to make sure temperatures are fine.

 

[prodystopian]

Yorkfields are similar in that you don't want to go over 1.4V, preferably no more than 1.35V to be safe. I have an E8400 which is a Wolfdale, Yorkfield is 2xWolfdale on a single die. My E8400 sucks, I just got a bad core, on stock voltage (1.225V) I can't go past 3.3GHz Prime95 stable 8+hours (stock 3.0GHz). My current motherboard (EP35-DS3L) is on F4 bios, which has a glitch preventing my vcore settings sticking. I need to flash it to F5 but I'm afraid of flashing, especially since I don't really need to push my E8400 much higher, the HD4870 512mb is not really limited by it.

Temperatures in the 60s are fine Che, don't worry about it. Did you get your 2.8->3.4GHz OC on stock voltages? Because that means you have an incredible CPU if it's Prime95 stable. Raising vcore even slightly can translate into a lot more power draw and heat, so people do it in very small increments to make sure temperatures are fine.

How did you overclock on that board? I read through the guide on the tomshardware forum to get my e2160 to OC, but now with my Q9550, I wasn't able to overclock at all. Any time I adjusted the clock speed, it just reset to the original (I didn't change any other options which was likely my problem). Did you use a specific guide that was better than the one at Tom's?

Edit: I saw the one at anandtech and it seems pretty similar. I think I'm just going to step through that one at some point unless you can point me to a better guide.

 

[Zzoram]

How did you overclock on that board? I read through the guide on the tomshardware forum to get my e2160 to OC, but now with my Q9550, I wasn't able to overclock at all. Any time I adjusted the clock speed, it just reset to the original (I didn't change any other options which was likely my problem). Did you use a specific guide that was better than the one at Tom's?

You have an EP35-DS3L? What bios revision do you have? F4 has the known bug of not sticking voltage settings.

To overclock properly, disable the things that cause your CPU to downclock when idle, there are 2 or 3 things in the bios to disable, I forget their names. Set everything manually, do not pick any automatic settings. There's something in there that defaults to "Turbo" and should be set to "Standard". Also, do NOT install the energy saving software included on a disc bundled with the motherboard, it messes up overclocking. Set your FSB and RAM ratio to 1:1, your RAM might run slower than it's rated speed, but it makes for a more stable overclock. Leave your multiplier at it's default/max whole number, start with stock voltages, and slowly creep up the FSB like 10MHz at a time. Do a Prime95 test for a few hours each time to ensure stability, whenever you start to fail Prime95, creep up the voltage by 0.05V until it's stable. You do this alternating creep of FSB and voltage until the voltage is around 1.35V and temperatures do not exceed 65C, and you still pass Prime95 for a few hours.

 

[chespace]

All I did to overclock my Yorkfield Q9550 from 2.8 to 3.4 was to raise my FSB frequency to 400 in the bios.

Left everything else on auto on my Asus P5Q Pro. It idles at 32, and with Prime95, goes up to 65 max on core 0.

1). Should I push it to 3.8? If so, how?

2). Can I lower my current temperatures at 3.4 by lowering my vcore?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

All I did to overclock my Yorkfield Q9550 from 2.8 to 3.4 was to raise my FSB frequency to 400 in the bios.

Left everything else on auto on my Asus P5Q Pro. It idles at 32, and with Prime95, goes up to 65 max on core 0.

1). Should I push it to 3.8? If so, how?

2). Can I lower my current temperatures at 3.4 by lowering my vcore?

Only problem with lowering your Vcore is you risk stability with the overclock.

BTW, I knew you had a Yorkfield chip Che I was simply commenting on my Kentsfield chip OC.

I would say if you have the thing running now stable @ 3.4 and under full load it peaks out at 65C, then I would say leave it for a while.

I usually leave an OC alone for a week or so to see if I have any weird issues with it. Prime tests and so forth are fine, but I usually throw my machine through the paces of Photoshop, gaming, downloading, music etc (IE normal use) to see if it's worth it to go faster or leave it alone.

If you go any faster than 3.4, you'll likely run into more heat issues meaning that you'll probably push towards the 70C-80C range under full load which is on the verge of dangerous for any chip.

Your call though.

 

[prodystopian]

You have an EP35-DS3L? What bios revision do you have? F4 has the known bug of not sticking voltage settings.

To overclock properly, disable the things that cause your CPU to downclock when idle, there are 2 or 3 things in the bios to disable, I forget their names. Set everything manually, do not pick any automatic settings. There's something in there that defaults to "Turbo" and should be set to "Standard". Also, do NOT install the energy saving software included on a disc bundled with the motherboard, it messes up overclocking. Set your FSB and RAM ratio to 1:1, your RAM might run slower than it's rated speed, but it makes for a more stable overclock. Leave your multiplier at it's default/max whole number, start with stock voltages, and slowly creep up the FSB like 10MHz at a time. Do a Prime95 test for a few hours each time to ensure stability, whenever you start to fail Prime95, creep up the voltage by 0.05V until it's stable. You do this alternating creep of FSB and voltage until the voltage is around 1.35V and temperatures do not exceed 65C, and you still pass Prime95 for a few hours.

Sorry, P35-DS3R, forgot to say. Is there a way to check which BIOS revision I have for sure? And I did have all the downclocking stuff off, though I don't think I had the RAM set to 1:1.

 

[Hazaro]

Repost:

I have an e8400. Is a 9x multiplier at 400 FSB with stock voltage and stock cooling safe? I'm getting idle temps around 43-46c. Oh, and btw, I have a gigabyte motherboard and I have a few questions about the DRAM settings.

-Should I leave performance enhance on? Dunno
-Should I be toying with the (G) MCH Frequency Latch? NO. Also don't go over 1.3V on that.
-I was looking at the DRAM timing options. What's cAS Latency time? tRCD? tRD? Cycles for your RAM to do crap. Makes almost no discernible difference.

As for 3.6 on stock, I wouldn't do it.

Your idle temps are already kind of hot. I'm guessing the voltage is on auto right now. Download CPU-Z and check what it is (Not when it's running 2400Mhz with SpeedStep) and try lowering the voltage. 3.0 is fine, if you want 4.0 go for aftermarket cooling.

1.5 hp is PLENTY! Unless you keep your computer in a wine cellar... just make sure you get a blower, a computers don't like to be sucked.

I'll try to drag my friend's 3.0Hp over to check it out.

Take your PC down to the local Chevron and have them kick on the free air. I do that once a year.

Also I'm happy to report.....

Q6600 G0 @ 3.2GHz rock solid with temps at a very reasonable 37C-40C @ ~ 1.36V. I'm going to try for 3.4 later this week and probably push it up to 3.6 later next week to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go.

I half considered doing that actually.

Looking nice there.

 

[Mr.City]

your hdtv

Really? There's no way to up the resolution on the PC? I was considering going big and upgrading my pc with a 4870x2, but at that resolution, it seems like overkill.

 

[Hazaro]

Really? There's no way to up the resolution on the PC? I was considering going big and upgrading my pc with a 4870x2, but at that resolution, it seems like overkill.

You can't magically sprout more pixels. That's all you have.

 

[captive]

Take your PC down to the local Chevron and have them kick on the free air. I do that once a year.

Also I'm happy to report.....

http://i33.tinypic.com/6olp8k.jpg[IMG]
Q6600 G0 @ 3.2GHz rock solid with temps at a very reasonable 37C-40C @ ~ 1.36V. I'm going to try for 3.4 later this week and probably push it up to 3.6 later next week to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go.[/QUOTE]
Hey what gadget is that in your sidebar? The CPU one?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Hey what gadget is that in your sidebar? The CPU one?

It's called All CPU Meter v1.0

 

[acura_speed]

Also I'm happy to report.....

Q6600 G0 @ 3.2GHz rock solid with temps at a very reasonable 37C-40C @ ~ 1.36V. I'm going to try for 3.4 later this week and probably push it up to 3.6 later next week to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go.

Have you used core temp or speedfan to get temps of your q6600? I've looked around and I think that real temp reads a little low on the 65nm chips. I believe it is due to the TJMax is set at 95 degrees (instead of 100). If you set the TJmax to 100 (same as core temp and speedfan) on all cores I believe these readings will be more accurate. I was looking around because real temp was showing about 7-8 degree difference on my q6600. Obviously your in great position as it is, but if you wanted to push it further thought you might want to take a look at that. Hope that helps.

 

[Waikis]

Repost:

I have an e8400. Is a 9x multiplier at 400 FSB with stock voltage and stock cooling safe? I'm getting idle temps around 43-46c. Oh, and btw, I have a gigabyte motherboard and I have a few questions about the DRAM settings.

-Should I leave performance enhance on? Dunno
-Should I be toying with the (G) MCH Frequency Latch? NO. Also don't go over 1.3V on that.
-I was looking at the DRAM timing options. What's cAS Latency time? tRCD? tRD? Cycles for your RAM to do crap. Makes almost no discernible difference.

Performance Enchance controls your tRD,which is all that matter when overclocking RAM. If you set it to standard, the tRD=12, whereas in turbo tRD=8. Ram timings do matter and it can give you quite a boost when done properly.

I wouldnt call 43-46c safe. Is this after you clocked it to 3.6ghz ?

Have you used core temp or speedfan to get temps of your q6600? I've looked around and I think that real temp reads a little low on the 65nm chips. I believe it is due to the TJMax is set at 95 degrees (instead of 100). If you set the TJmax to 100 (same as core temp and speedfan) on all cores I believe these readings will be more accurate. I was looking around because real temp was showing about 7-8 degree difference on my q6600. Obviously your in great position as it is, but if you wanted to push it further thought you might want to take a look at that. Hope that helps.

Yup, Tjmax should be set to 100 with q6600.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Have you used core temp or speedfan to get temps of your q6600? I've looked around and I think that real temp reads a little low on the 65nm chips. I believe it is due to the TJMax is set at 95 degrees (instead of 100). If you set the TJmax to 100 (same as core temp and speedfan) on all cores I believe these readings will be more accurate. I was looking around because real temp was showing about 7-8 degree difference on my q6600. Obviously your in great position as it is, but if you wanted to push it further thought you might want to take a look at that. Hope that helps.

Yeah I've got speedfan on my system too.

Speedfan reports a variance of 1-4 degrees Celsius compared to RealTemp.

Idle wise I'm looking the following:

Core 0 : 40C
Core 1 : 40C
Core 2 : 36C
Core 3 : 36C

Load wise I'm looking at:
Core 0 : 55C
Core 1 : 53C
Core 2 : 49C
Core 3 : 48C

Either way I've still got some nice overhead for a faster clock if I so desire from the way things are looking.

 

[Chiggs]

I feel compelled to point this out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130402

The value is absurd. I mean, this is arguably the second best card on the market right now.

 

[lachesis]

I feel compelled to point this out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130402

The value is absurd. I mean, this is arguably the second best card on the market right now.

Yeah... I was almost putting this in my cart, even though I swore not to get a card till at least end of next year...! LOL.

 

[Chiggs]

Yeah... I was almost putting this in my cart, even though I swore not to get a card till at least end of next year...! LOL.

I just bought one. I'm giving up on ATI for the time being.

 

[chespace]

I just bought one. I'm giving up on ATI for the time being.

Wha? Wha happen?

 

[Chiggs]

Wha? Wha happen?

So, being quite pleased with the performance of the 4870 1GB, I was dismayed when the card started flaking out on me. Glitchy pixels, flashing textures here and there, and then I started to get the infinite driver loop error late last night. I went to go RMA it, and then I see that it's out of stock until 10/31. I am not waiting that long, so I told New Egg to just go ahead and refund it. In its place I picked up a 9800GX2 for $219.99. :lol

On a side note, I would love to start a petition demanding that ATI stop integrating .NET so heavily into their drivers.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

So, being quite pleased with the performance of the 4870 1GB, I was dismayed when the card started flaking out on me. Glitchy pixels, flashing textures here and there, and then I started to get the infinite driver loop error late last night. I went to go RMA it, and then I see that it's out of stock until 10/31. I am not waiting that long, so I told New Egg to just go ahead and refund it. In its place I picked up a 9800GX2 for $219.99. :lol

On a side note, I would love to start a petition demanding that ATI stop integrating .NET so heavily into their drivers.

So what brand was it? I'm just curious.

 

[Waikis]

I just bought one. I'm giving up on ATI for the time being.

You arent worried with the micro stuttering?

 

[Chiggs]

So what brand was it? I'm just curious.

EVGA.

You arent worried with the micro stuttering?

I think people make too big a deal of it.

 

[Zzoram]

the 9800gx2 for $220 is still a steal, i'd probably have bought it at that price

 

[chespace]

So, being quite pleased with the performance of the 4870 1GB, I was dismayed when the card started flaking out on me. Glitchy pixels, flashing textures here and there, and then I started to get the infinite driver loop error late last night. I went to go RMA it, and then I see that it's out of stock until 10/31. I am not waiting that long, so I told New Egg to just go ahead and refund it. In its place I picked up a 9800GX2 for $219.99. :lol

On a side note, I would love to start a petition demanding that ATI stop integrating .NET so heavily into their drivers.

Did you try troubleshooting it? Maybe it's a corrupt driver or overheating GPU? Those sound like the types of errors I get when my GPU gets too hot, especially the glitchy and flashing textures. The BSoD is alarming, however.

 

[Chiggs]

Did you try troubleshooting it? Maybe it's a corrupt driver or overheating GPU? Those sound like the types of errors I get when my GPU gets too hot, especially the glitchy and flashing textures. The BSoD is alarming, however.

I did two fresh installs, and my GPU temp never went over 65C since I had the Powercolor version with the custom fan.

 

[Zzoram]

Did you try troubleshooting it? Maybe it's a corrupt driver or overheating GPU? Those sound like the types of errors I get when my GPU gets too hot, especially the glitchy and flashing textures. The BSoD is alarming, however.

Glitchy textures is usually a sign of the video card RAM overheating or being unstable. Overclocking it can cause that to happen, especially purple textures. Artifacting is an unstable GPU core (white dots).

 

[Fio]

By February/March I want to get a new PC (to play Empire: Total War!!), a very good one. Looking the products that'll be lauched until there, what would you suggest?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Zzoram]

By February/March I want to get a new PC (to play Empire: Total War!!), a very good one. Looking the products that'll be lauched until there, what would you suggest?

Thanks in advance.

the new Intel i7 Core 2 Quad (Nehalem)
4gb ddr3 1333mhz

not sure what video cards will be the good value ones by then, will have to wait and see

 

[Chiggs]

I think there's a good chance we'll be seeing DX 11 cards next summer. Anybody building a new pc early next year would be wise to buy a card from the previous generation.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

EVGA.



I think people make too big a deal of it.

No, the ATI card Chiggs. :lol

EDIT: Ahh powercolor.

 

[Chiggs]

Oh, I picked up this power supply today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153053

Overkill, I know. Let's just say I'm getting ready for next year's madness.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Oh, I picked up this power supply today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153053

Overkill, I know. Let's just say I'm getting ready for next year's madness.

Tisk Tisk on getting modular. You should know better Chiggs.

 

[captive]

I did two fresh installs, and my GPU temp never went over 65C since I had the Powercolor version with the custom fan.

Sucks about your card man.

Mines been working great so far. Just got done playing some world in conflict, game is tight.

 

[Chiggs]

Tisk Tisk on getting modular. You should know better Chiggs.

Pfft! :lol Modular's how I roll.

 

[Hazaro]

Tisk Tisk on getting modular. You should know better Chiggs.

It's a 1000W, It's got enough cables to drown a cat :lol

 

[Zzoram]

Quad SLI with a 2nd 9800GX2, obviously.

 

[chespace]

I haven't done this yet, but when I install the FC2 hotfix from ATI, do I need to uninstall 8.10, do a driversweeper, and then install the hotfix?

 

[Zzoram]

I haven't done this yet, but when I install the FC2 hotfix from ATI, do I need to uninstall 8.10, do a driversweeper, and then install the hotfix?

No idea. I know you're technically supposed to uninstall drivers each time you install a new version, but I just went from 8.7 to 8.9 without uninstalling and it worked out fine. I won't bother uninstalling my driver unless the new one is having problems, and I need to see if a fresh install helps.

Hotfixes may not be full drivers, just patches, so I don't know.

 

[Chiggs]

I haven't done this yet, but when I install the FC2 hotfix from ATI, do I need to uninstall 8.10, do a driversweeper, and then install the hotfix?

Che, I believe you can just install the drivers on top of the old ones, and the ATI install manager will sort out all the work.

 

[Lazy8s]

I need a new PC for video and image editing.

I assume a configuration suited for gaming with a fast card and lots of memory would yield the best value. I don't have much in the way of old parts from prior systems, like a suitable case or power supply, that could be reused. I remember some here saying that good deals could be found in pre-built systems sometimes, especially if extra software or peripherals they bundled were useful to the buyer. In my case, a monitor would be useful, but not necessary, a multi-type memory card reader would be helpful, and a peripheral/application to convert analog sources like VHS tapes and audio cassettes into digital would be useful.

Where should I look for a good deal on a pre-built system? I'd add the graphics card separately to get one of those great offers people have posted, like that Newegg link above.

 

[Zzoram]

I need a new PC for video and image editing.

I assume a configuration suited for gaming with a fast card and lots of memory would yield the best value. I don't have much in the way of old parts from prior systems, like a suitable case or power supply, that could be reused. I remember some here saying that good deals could be found in pre-built systems sometimes, especially if extra software or peripherals they bundled were useful to the buyer. In my case, a monitor would be useful, but not necessary, a multi-type memory card reader would be helpful, and a peripheral/application to convert analog sources like VHS tapes and audio cassettes into digital would be useful.

Where should I look for a good deal on a pre-built system? I'd add the graphics card separately to get one of those great offers people have posted, like that Newegg link above.

I have no idea what special things you will need, but if you're doing video encoding, an Intel Quadcore is probably the fastest at doing it. 4GB of RAM too, of course.

 

[rc213]

Tisk Tisk on getting modular. You should know better Chiggs.

What's wrong with modular PSU's?

 

[Zzoram]

What's wrong with modular PSU's?

Nothing, but he spent $350 on a PSU, more than his video card :lol

 

[TheHeretic]

Well I installed my new heatsink and fan, which was rather painful because the fan had to be put in AFTER the heatsink, and the bastard kept popping out as I was putting in the fan so i'd have to start all over again to reach the push in plugs. I appreciate how easy its supposed to be but a back plate would have worked much better.

Took me at least an hour. I took out the old thermal grease with methylated spirits and q-tips, the job the guys who built it for me did was pretty crappy. They obviously used the drop-in-middle method which leaves the sides completely barren.

Anyway i'm at 3.4 ghz at 1.425 volts (q6600, g0), looking pretty stable at 35-45 degrees. I could push it harder but I don't really see the point in pushing 50 for an insignificant increase in peformance. I'm using a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 Red Scorpion, its HDT with a 120mm fan which is as good as it gets really.