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[Vestal]

/Signed

I'm looking into OCing my E6600 atm. Not really hardcore by upgrading the cooling solution and all that, just stock based. How far would I probably be able to go when tweaking the clockspeed through the BIOS?

BTW, a couple weeks ago I patched CoH after which DX10 effects could be switched on. Turns out performance takes a big hit though, by as much as 20 fps! I have a 8800 GTS 320 MB.

The e6600 is one of the best Intel processors for OCing.. Its a beast.. You can probably get away with OCing it around 3.0ghz on stock cooling.. However I recommend OCing up in small increments then doing a Stress Test each time(Prime95) and then verify the CPU temps idel and under load and compare them, difference should be roughly 25deg and should never go over 60deg.

However when overclocking you have to take othe things into consideration as far as Motherboard and Ram, since you can only do so much Overclocking through the Multiplier and sometimes have to increase the FSB speed, by increasing FSB you are affecting the ram aswell. You basically have to play harmony between different components.

I haven't done overclocking in over year, so Im still a bit rusty Ill look at the settings in my Home system when I get there from work, I think I got my e6600 running at 3ghz on stock cooling, but don't remember if I just changed the multiplier or if I had to fiddle with the FSB clock.

 

[Minsc]

If you're running XP: Maaaybe splurge for a sound card if you're an audiophile or something or if you're worried about lost CPU cycles.

If you're running Vista: Don't bother. There is no hardware acceleration yet since MS moved the sound drivers from kernel space to user space.

That's what I read, it's the Audigy and X-Fi cards from Creative that use the ALchemy software to give your games full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support.

Better than nothing, maybe. That and the X-Fi line seems to get real good reviews, might be worth looking in to I suppose.

 

[Vestal]

That's what I read, it's the Audigy and X-Fi cards from Creative that use the ALchemy software to give your games full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support.

Better than nothing, maybe. That and the X-Fi line seems to get real good reviews, might be worth looking in to I suppose.

I just went to Compusa and bought myself the X-Fi Professional Edition for 70bucks.(Down from 159).. They have some pretty sweet deals since most of the hardware is now at 50-70% discount, only 2 days lefts before they close the doors for good.

 

[Slo]

Perhaps that's confusing, but something like CPU-Z might help: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

It helps to explain the bus speeds as well as the FSB:CPU ratio, where 1:1 is ideal but not achieveable most of the time. What you'd want is to try and overclock the memory as well but scale it back if there are hangups. Eg. below:

At stock speeds, the CPU bus speed for a E2180 is 200 Mhz while the bus speed for the DDR2-800 RAM is 400 Mhz. Which gives the FSB:RAM ratio of 1:2.

Increasing the CPU bus speed (small overclock) to say, 233 Mhz will give you 2.3 Ghz (as the multiplier is x10), and if you keep the FSB:RAM ratio as 1:2 you're also overclocking your RAM to 466 Mhz.

At this point you may find that the PC doesn't POST or boot properly. The major reasons this could happen are below:
1. Too low CPU voltage. Increase CPU voltage
2. Too low RAM voltage. Check RAM voltage
3. Check RAM latencies. Try putting them to the manufacturers latencies, eg. set it back to 5-5-5-15 rather than going for 5-5-4-8)
4. RAM cannot be overclocked to that level. Change the frequency of the RAM back down to 400Mhz, or lower if required. This can also be achieved by changing the FSB:RAM ratio. In this case you might try 4:5 (so RAM frequency is 373 Mhz)
5. If all else fails, maybe you can't overclock the CPU

Of course, if the overclock's OK, carry on with faster settings, eg. 2.6 Ghz, 3.0Ghz etc. When you get to a point where you're comfortable with the CPU speed (and temperatures at load), you can tweak and refine the RAM settings and if you want, overclock the graphics card as well. Tom's Hardware has some easy to read overclocking guides:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/11/overclocking-guide-part-1/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/overclocking_guide_part_2/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/18/overclocking-guide-part-1/

Hope this helps!

You, sir, are awesome. As I jacked up the multiplier, my memory was getting waaaay too overclocked. Messing with the memory multipliers is really helping.

 

[Pachael]

You, sir, are awesome. As I jacked up the multiplier, my memory was getting waaaay too overclocked. Messing with the memory multipliers is really helping.

Cheers! I've edited my post as I've actually calculated the FSB:RAM ratio wrongly - it's straightforward but you can easily mix the numbers up. In the above case I meant a ratio of 3:5 is required to give the RAM a 388 Mhz bus. (Not 4:5, which gives the RAM 290 Mhz, which is serviceable but gimps the RAM when you can go up to 400Mhz instead).

 

[ag-my001]

So I was finally able to test out my new rig. However, the last PC game I've purchased was GalCiv2A, and as we know Stardock doesn't have the highest requirements. Even so, I can say the game runs like a dream with every option maxed out, and I can see myself losing many hours to playing this game on my 32" TV while sitting in my recliner. Now to go out and purchase something newer; maybe the Orange Box...

 

[zoku88]

TR has posted their February system guide:


http://techreport.com/articles.x/14225

 

[Cheeto]

So is 64-bit Vista a viable option for a gaming machine now?

 

[kruskev]

so I just purchased:

Intel core duo e8400
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

and I also purcahsed a Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet Cpu Cooler because I wanted to try overclocking the e8400 after reading around how easy it is to overclock the e8400 a decent amount on air cooling, however it is my first time trying to overclock so is there anything else that I need before attempting?

 

[Borys]

So I was finally able to test out my new rig. However, the last PC game I've purchased was GalCiv2A, and as we know Stardock doesn't have the highest requirements. Even so, I can say the game runs like a dream with every option maxed out, and I can see myself losing many hours to playing this game on my 32" TV while sitting in my recliner. Now to go out and purchase something newer; maybe the Orange Box...

Old games on new rigs are awesome because you can play them in some stupendous resolutions and 16xAA and 16xAF turned on.

They look like very, very, VERY early 3DStudio Max renders then - no single jaggie in sight.

I played Anachronox about 6 or 8 years after it came out - 1280x1024, 8xAA, 8xAF @ 60 fps and I couldn't believe that was Quake 2 engine. It looked so fucking NICE.

 

[shpankey]

so I just purchased:

Intel core duo e8400
[...]

WAT!? WHERE?!

 

[Pachael]

so I just purchased:

Intel core duo e8400
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066

and I also purcahsed a Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet Cpu Cooler because I wanted to try overclocking the e8400 after reading around how easy it is to overclock the e8400 a decent amount on air cooling, however it is my first time trying to overclock so is there anything else that I need before attempting?

Thermal paste. I like Arctic Silver myself, but others may know better brands.

 

[kruskev]

WAT!? WHERE?!

tigerdirect.com had it for a brief time yesterday I posted it... guess noone saw

edit: it's still in stock.

 

[kruskev]

oops double post

 

[Borys]

Some interesting benchmarks that focus on amount of memory available on cards:

All cards were clocked at the same speed.

Full article here.

1GB SLI = 2GB of VRAM

 

[Kosma]

Why no Ati love in those benchmark Borys?

This shows by the way that there is almost no point going from a 512MB GT to 1GB GT, but the jump from 256 is very big.

 

[Kadey]

Wait till you guys see what I just bought. Hopefully it'll be here in no more than a week. Highly doubtful but I can dream.

 

[Kosma]

Will you post pics? I bet it's some sort of awesome casing.

 

[Kadey]

Nope. But it is something out of this world. I'll go ahead and say I'm probably the only one crazy enough to buy it on gaf right now.

 

[Durante]

Triple SLI? Quad-Crossfire?

 

[Minsc]

Why no Ati love in those benchmark Borys?

This shows by the way that there is almost no point going from a 512MB GT to 1GB GT, but the jump from 256 is very big.

I'd be curious to see if the bars still hold up at 2540x1600, and how they run a game with larger textures, like Oblivion with QTP3, which uses over 2 gigs of 4096x4096 textures. I don't believe any other games use texture maps that large yet.

By in large 1 GB seems wasteful, especially if someone had such a card and could test out 1920x1200 in Oblivion w/ QTP3, or a monitor that can run 2540x1600 (can HDMI cables even output that resolution? I think you need a special type).

 

[Kosma]

Nope. But it is something out of this world. I'll go ahead and say I'm probably the only one crazy enough to buy it on gaf right now.

Liquid metal cooling ??

I'd be curious to see if the bars still hold up at 2540x1600, and how they run a game with larger textures, like Oblivion with QTP3, which uses over 2 gigs of 4096x4096 textures. I don't believe any other games use texture maps that large yet.

By in large 1 GB seems wasteful, especially if someone had such a card and could test out 1920x1200 in Oblivion w/ QTP3, or a monitor that can run 2540x1600 (can HDMI cables even output that resolution? I think you need a special type).

I'm sure the higher the res the more noticeable the difference in these games. I'm playing on a 720p TV so I can't go that high anyways

 

[NIghtWolf]

So now I need a Battery backup, my pc will be 500-550 watts or so (the pc will start lower 400-450w but later with the inclusion of 8800gt that's going to change), that means I need a ups for at least 500watts right, or they work a different way?

 

[1-D_FTW]

You need enough to cover your system's VA requirements.

I built my system to be energy efficient: But I have an overclocked 8800GT, e6750 (undervolted + overclocked to 2.8Gz), Gigabyte P35 mobo, 3GB Ballistix RAM (Overclocked to 840Mz + undervolted to 1.8volts), a 320GB HD, DVD and a Antec Earthwatts powersupply. I also have 4 case fans. I idle at 97-98 watts and load in the low 170s watts (Crysis, DiRT, etc.) These are at the wall measurements taken with Kill-a-watt.

UPS are measured in VA. You need to measure that. Just because you're consuming 250 billable watts doesn't mean that's your actual VA usage. That depends on the PowerFactor number. My Earthwatts powersupply has a PowerFactor of 98 percent. So my 170 watts is actually 173VA. A crap power supply without active PFC could require watts * 1.35 to get your true VA. So 300 watts could actually equal 405VA.

If none of that is understandable, unless you're running some extremely inefficient parts, a 500VA UPS is still more than enough.

 

[AstroLad]

Triple SLI? Quad-Crossfire?

Definitely Quad SLI 8800 Ultras. And knowing Kadey hooked up to five brand new Pio Elites.

 

[NovemberMike]

So now I need a Battery backup, my pc will be 500-550 watts or so (the pc will start lower 400-450w but later with the inclusion of 8800gt that's going to change), that means I need a ups for at least 500watts right, or they work a different way?

I seriously doubt you are going to be using 500 watts. A friend who is using a quad core, two hard drives, a tv tuner and a 3850 is clocking in at under 300w most of the time.

 

[Cheeto]

So now I need a Battery backup, my pc will be 500-550 watts or so (the pc will start lower 400-450w but later with the inclusion of 8800gt that's going to change), that means I need a ups for at least 500watts right, or they work a different way?

How long do you want it to run without power?

 

[Oldschoolgamer]

Anybody know of a decent tv tuner card to get? Also, I think I might just go with the "the grand experiment" on the TR site. As much as I could probably use the extra cores, it might benefit me to wait a little more before I go quad.

And, how big of a dick is MS being in regards to Vista. I'll probably go with the OEM, but, are they really giving system builders a hard time, if they upgrade their hardware?

 

[Cheeto]

Hauppauge makes decent ones, it really depends on your budget though.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr1800.html

 

[Minsc]

Anybody know of a decent tv tuner card to get? Also, I think I might just go with the "the grand experiment" on the TR site. As much as I could probably use the extra cores, it might benefit me to wait a little more before I go quad.

And, how big of a dick is MS being in regards to Vista. I'll probably go with the OEM, but, are they really giving system builders a hard time, if they upgrade their hardware?

OEM really only prevents you from going to a new motherboard. So you can never use the OS on another machine or VM it later if you still need Vista down the road, and you're SOL if your motherboard breaks down.

Weren't there rumors of MS releasing the successor to Vista like next year soon? I'm hoping to skip Vista entirely myself.

 

[Kosma]

So I just read AMD started testing on chips with EUV technology,the chips should be available around 2016. Could get as small as 22nm it seems.

Also I've seen the 9600GT as cheap as 140 euro now. Guess it really replaces the 3850 as the midrange card. I'll update the OP.

 

[NIghtWolf]

You need enough to cover your system's VA requirements.

I built my system to be energy efficient: But I have an overclocked 8800GT, e6750 (undervolted + overclocked to 2.8Gz), Gigabyte P35 mobo, 3GB Ballistix RAM (Overclocked to 840Mz + undervolted to 1.8volts), a 320GB HD, DVD and a Antec Earthwatts powersupply. I also have 4 case fans. I idle at 97-98 watts and load in the low 170s watts (Crysis, DiRT, etc.) These are at the wall measurements taken with Kill-a-watt.

UPS are measured in VA. You need to measure that. Just because you're consuming 250 billable watts doesn't mean that's your actual VA usage. That depends on the PowerFactor number. My Earthwatts powersupply has a PowerFactor of 98 percent. So my 170 watts is actually 173VA. A crap power supply without active PFC could require watts * 1.35 to get your true VA. So 300 watts could actually equal 405VA.

If none of that is understandable, unless you're running some extremely inefficient parts, a 500VA UPS is still more than enough.

I seriously doubt you are going to be using 500 watts. A friend who is using a quad core, two hard drives, a tv tuner and a 3850 is clocking in at under 300w most of the time.

How long do you want it to run without power?

Well, I'll check that VA calculator when I got all the parts with me (mobo, ram, psu and hhd are coming already)

The ups can last at least 5 minutes, the thing is that it let me save my work and shutdown the pc when the energy goes away (which is very common when rain on here).

I saw this, energy regulator or something like that on newegg and I can't find the link, my question is, ups have that ability or this is something apart? if no, theres any ups that have a energy regulator on it?

What I want is a durable and not so expensive ups that at least give me time to save my work and shutdown to avoid a unexpected reduction of energy that may damage a component.

 

[Cheeto]

Most of APC's PC UPS's will save and shut down your computer automatically in the event of an outage.


This one should do everything you need.
http://www.buy.com/prod/apc-back-ups-es-8-outlet-350va-120v-canada/q/loc/101/202476947.html

 

[SRG01]

Is the AMD X2 BE-2400 worth it for the ~$399 machine? 45W is tempting...

 

[SRG01]

So I just read AMD started testing on chips with EUV technology,the chips should be available around 2016. Could get as small as 22nm it seems.

Also I've seen the 9600GT as cheap as 140 euro now. Guess it really replaces the 3850 as the midrange card. I'll update the OP.

140 euro? I haven't seen any equivalent US prices ($140) so far. Anyone else?

 

[1-D_FTW]

Back when it was released Newegg had the overclocked EVGA for 179.99 (189.99 last I checked) and they had a promo they e-mailed that knocked it down to 169.99. 169.99 for the overclocked EVGA was pretty damn good if you ask me.

 

[mr stroke]

Wait till you guys see what I just bought. Hopefully it'll be here in no more than a week. Highly doubtful but I can dream.

?

18,000$
Falcon-NW machine w/ liquid cooling, quad SLI, and custom paint job??????

 

[SRG01]

Since I'm stressed out and I can't go on a vacation, I've decided to assemble a new rig! :lol

AMD X2 5000+ or X2 BE-2400: ~$104-106. Most likely getting the X2 5000+ instead since local availability of the 2400 is low.

ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus: ~58. Cheapo motherboard, don't need anything fancy. Supports dual channel, but that's a marginal performance increase.

2x Rendition PC2-6400 1GB memory: ~$54 or so.

Add $190-210 for the HD 3850 or 9600GT. I'm probably going to get a $50 SATA HDD as well. No OS since I have academic licensing!

The problem now is the case and power supply. I have an old case I can use with a Sparkle 350W already inside. Would that be enough? Or should I buy a new case instead?


PS. I don't have a lot of money lately, so if there are any suggestions, please keep them frugal.

PPS. I live in Canada, hence the higher prices.

 

[Kosma]

That's almost the same as mine, nice budget rig that will let you play games for some time. I'd get the 9600GT though if you can find a good price, it's slightly better then the 3850.

?

18,000$
Falcon-NW machine w/ liquid cooling, quad SLI, and custom paint job??????

Just shows that even 18k $ can't buy you taste. Fugly case.

 

[Mrbob]

My E2180 hits a wall at about 3.1 GHZ without a huge jump in CPU voltage from 1.35V to 1.45V. I scaled it back to 3.0 GHZ (333 X9) at 1.35V for stability and cool running. I found out a very cool link on a nice and easy way to overclock your 8800GT (especially if you have the awesome cooler on the MSI OC 8800GT) which I'll post here later tonight when I get home.

I'm happy with my setup. I'm getting between 27-45FPS on Crysis demo with everything on high at my monitors native resolution (1440 X 900). Easily playable. I haven't tried it yet with my GPU overclock though. I'm hoping I can keep it over 30FPS stable now. Are there performance increases in the full version of Crysis over the demo?

 

[Davidion]

My E2180 hits a wall at about 3.1 GHZ without a huge jump in CPU voltage from 1.35V to 1.45V. I scaled it back to 3.0 GHZ (333 X9) at 1.35V for stability and cool running. I found out a very cool link on a nice and easy way to overclock your 8800GT (especially if you have the awesome cooler on the MSI OC 8800GT) which I'll post here later tonight when I get home.

I'm happy with my setup. I'm getting between 27-45FPS on Crysis demo with everything on high at my monitors native resolution (1440 X 900). Easily playable. I haven't tried it yet with my GPU overclock though. I'm hoping I can keep it over 30FPS stable now. Are there performance increases in the full version of Crysis over the demo?

Nope.

And honestly, the 8800gt is really easy to OC. I do it on my old model with the first gen fans (the busted ones) and it works fine. Grab a copy of Rivatuner and you're good to go.

 

[Mrbob]

What speeds do you have your at?

I have mine at 700 core/1000 memory at the moment and it doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat at all. Trying to get a general idea of where the wall may be.

 

[SRG01]

That's almost the same as mine, nice budget rig that will let you play games for some time. I'd get the 9600GT though if you can find a good price, it's slightly better then the 3850.



Just shows that even 18k $ can't buy you taste. Fugly case.

Would the 350W Sparkle run the entire thing though?

 

[Nobby]

Im about the purchase the following

Intel E8400
ASUS P5K-E
Samsung 500gb HD
XFX 8800gt 512mb
Lite-On 20x DVD burner

My questions are should i spend the extra 20 bucks and get 1066 speed ram?

Any opinions on Westinghouse 24" monitor and Hanns-G 28" monitor?

 

[Davidion]

What speeds do you have your at?

I have mine at 700 core/1000 memory at the moment and it doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat at all.

I have to go home and check, it's been a while and I just left it there. :lol Edit: now that I think about it, I think I might be at 700 as well.

Really solid card, even with the old crappy fans. I'm thinking about upgrading to an Accelero but right now it's not even really necessary.

 

[CajoleJuice]

Just popping in here to say that I will probably be buying/building a PC soon and this thread is awesome.

 

[Davidion]

Im about the purchase the following

Intel E8400
ASUS P5K-E
Samsung 500gb HD
XFX 8800gt 512mb
Lite-On 20x DVD burner

My questions are should i spend the extra 20 bucks and get 1066 speed ram?

Any opinions on Westinghouse 24" monitor and Hanns-G 28" monitor?

The ram's not really worth it imo, 800 is still standard.

Westinghouse 24"s are generally ok, do your research on newegg first. 28" is just overkill, imo.

 

[Cheeto]

The ram's not really worth it imo, 800 is still standard.

Westinghouse 24"s are generally ok, do your research on newegg first. 28" is just overkill, imo.

Oh ya? How about 32?

 

[Kosma]

Would the 350W Sparkle run the entire thing though?

I think it could yeah. Is 400w that much more cash? That works for sure.

The ram's not really worth it imo, 800 is still standard.

Really? Isn't the jump even bigger then from 667 to 800?

 

[Mrbob]

If anyone is thinking about building a new PC but worry about the process, tomshardware still has an old but good guide to look at the process:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2002/09/04/building_your_own_pc/

Some things are outdated as the article is from 2002, but it goes through the step by step process of building a new PC and gives you a general idea of what to expect. Some connectors have changed, but the basic overview is the same.