I need some help on this new 1000$ build. The only thing I know could use work are the fans and I probably need a Fan Controller. anyways heres the list... RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB APEVIA CF4SL-UBL-LED 80mm Blue LED Case Fan APEVIA CF4SL-UBL-LED 80mm Green LED Case Fan GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 AzenX Blitztorm BT-SC70BBL 70mm Red LED PCI Slot Case Cooler ZALMAN CNPS7000B-AlCu LED 2 Ball Cooling Fan thanks
quick question, would 2 GB DDR3 be worth getting over 4 GB DDR2? If so I need a good DDR3 MOBO cause I want to upgrade. Also how much of a difference is DDR2 800 than DDR2 1066 or 1333? I really want to know why that is important. thx..
For the RAM, save your money and go with DDR2. There will not be much if any performance gain from DDR3, but price is more than double. Your components look good. Maybe switch that PSU for a better one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 For the CPU fan consider a Freezer 7 Pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134 The one you chose needs some extra parts to fit your CPU.
Thx I switched to the CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 and Freezer 7. Cause I dont want to buy any extra parts for the fan, where would I find those parts anyway?.. one more question, my motherboard say memory standard is 1066 and my RAM is 800. Is it still compatable or should I switch to a higher DDR2 RAM?
DDR2 1066 RAM is overclocked DDR2 800 ram. Here is a screenshot of my RAM, which is 1066 RAM. This shows that it is DDR2 800 (PC2-6400): This shows that it is operating at 533.4MHz (that is DDR 1066MHz) Basically, the motherboard will support DDR2 800, but can support up to DDR2 1066. Really, with the UD3R, I think it can support up to 1600MHz DDR2, but you'll never get it that high I have a UD3P which is the same motherboard except with an extra PCIe slot and I had my RAM clocked at 800MHz for a while and there was no problem. Again, it is the same RAM, but at 1066 it is overclocked. Going to 1333, would probably require RAM that can take some serious voltage. Maybe the 1GB sticks can do that at around 2.4v. I don't think there will be any type of performance gains other than benchmarks. If you want 1066 RAM, go for one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197 Mine were stable at 1066MHz at 1.8v, but I am running them at 2.08v which is their rating. If you want 8GB, then you can get one of each. The fan can cover 4 sticks, however, 8GB is overkill For the Zalman fan, I think all you would need is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118219
Thanks, Ill just overclock my DDR2 800 RAM to 1066 and keep my freezer 7.... are there any afterdawn tutorials for overcloking RAM and CPU's?....
You can't very often just overclock 800mhz RAM to 1066, it's sold as 800mhz RAM for a reason, you bought the cheap stuff that is not guaranteed to work at that speed.
Oh... in that case Im guessing 800 isnt that much worse than 1066 cause Im going to stay at 800 RAM but I want atleast 2.6 GHz of CPU overclocking.
You won't need anything more than 800mhz RAM to reach 2.6Ghz. You can go up to 3.6Ghz on 800mhz memory. The limitation of memory on overclocking is the bus speed - the front side bus speed can never be less than the memory speed, before DDR is applied. In other words, with 800mhz PC6400 memory (which is in reality 400x2 don't forget), you can't exceed 400x4 on the front side bus (as the FSB for Core 2 processors is 4x speed). The normal front side bus for the normal Kentsfield Core 2 Quads (i.e. Q6600, Q6700) is 266. This means you can reach up to a 50% overclock with 800mhz RAM. Notice that the Front side bus of older Core 2 Duos such as the E6300, E4300 and E2180 is only 200mhz, so you can get 100% overclocks with those CPUs only using 800mhz memory, yet newer 45nm Quad cores like the Q9450 and Q9550 use a 333mhz Front side Bus speed, so you can only overclock those by 25% before needing faster memory - does that make any sense?
Suprisingly, I think I got all that, basically Duos overclock the best and Extremes overclock the worst with 800mhz ram... so my q6600 can reach 3.6ghz! I wont go that high cause I dont think my freezer 7 will cool my psu for 3.6ghz right? 3.0ghz is fine for me.. all I need to know is how to overclock. OC'ing a VGA is alot easier that a CPU.. =/
Not Extremes, newer Quads, that goes for the Q8200 too. Extremes only overclock worse because they start at a higher speed, and the CPU itself is limited to a maximum overclock before the voltage you need to use becomes too high. 3.6Ghz on a Q6600, especially new ones, will require a monumental voltage, that would get so hot on a Freezer 7 Pro that it would probably shut down, let alone be unstable. Fortunately you should get to at least 3Ghz before you need to increase the voltage, and therefore the heat.
thats good to hear. Are there any good OC tutorials, cause the official OC thread dosent exactly explain how to do it...
Why doesn't it? People typically post there on a per-situation basis. Pretty simple really, go into your motherboard's BIOS (Delete), go to Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) and adjust the, I think they call it CPU Host Frequency these days. 266 is your default. Up it slowly until you get to a point where you experience crashes.
Note that sammorris's suggestion to overclock slowly is better as you will catch improper overclocking faster and know what you have to do to fix it. When you overclock FSB, make sure that your RAM is not also being overclocked as well. What you will want on your UD3R is the following (for 3GHz). It will turn everything to normal and give you 800MHz RAM frequency and 2997MHz CPU: Robust VGA: Leave it alone (don't know what this does) Multiplier: 9x CPU Frequency: 2997 (this changes automatically) ---------------------- CPU Host Frequency: 333 (set to 334 if you want 3006MHz clock ) PCI express: 100 MHz CIA2: Disabled ---------------------- DRAM Performance: Standard XMP: Disabled MCH: 333 MHz System Multiplier: 2.40D Frequency: 799MHz (802MHz if FSB is 334) Timing: set to Manual, then Read you RAM specs to set timing ----------------------- vCore: Set it to the stock value (no auto) Terminate Voltage: 1.2 (stock) CPU PLL: 1.5 (stock) CPU Ref: Normal Setting (I think this keeps it stock) ------------------------- MCH Core: 1.10 (stock) MCH Ref: Stock MCH DRAM: Stock ICH I/O: Stock ICH Core: Stock ---------------------- DRAM Voltage: Read your RAM specs and set voltage ---------------- ---------------- There are some settings you will want to change in the Advanced BIOS settings. This is an options in the main menu of your BIOS screen (the same screen that you can select M.I.T.). There is some feature that has max CPU of 3. Disable that. A feature that mentions no execute. Enabled C1E: Disabled C2/C2E: Disabled C4: Disabled CPU Thermal: Enabled CPU EIST: Disabled Virtual something: Disabled If you boot up fine with those settings, then if you want, you can try to overclock your RAM using a higher multiplier setting. At the settings I gave you, ratio would be 6:5. The next step would be 3:2. I think the further away from 1:1 you get, the less stable RAM is (meaning voltage would probably have to go up), but I am not sure of that. I have mine set at 4:3. The multipliers are as follows (multiplier followed by ratio followed by speed based on 333MHz FSB): 2.00 = 1:1/666MHz 2.40 = 6:5/799MHz 2.66 = 4:3/886MHz (I may be wrong on this one at 333 MCH) 3.00 = 3:2/999MHz Auto = 2:1/1332MHz (I am guessing) There are actually more, but once you set MCH to 333MHz, those should be the only ones available. Note, that at these settings, your Q6600 is identical to a stock QX6850. For 2.6GHz, you only have to tweak 1 setting from the above. Change the multiplier from 9x to 8x and clock speed will be 2664MHz. This will be an overall easier overclock than 2.6GHz since 2.6 will need 289FSB, 325FSB, 372FSB, or 433FSB which would give you odd RAM frequencies and you may run into some booting issues or underclocked RAM. Let me know if you want 2.8GHz settings and I could post those as well. However, keep in mind that every CPU is different. Yours will not overclock the same way mine does. I can Boot my Q6600 at 3.6GHz with 1.3675v vCore, which is very low voltage for that clock speed. The settings that work for me (more specifically voltage settings) may not work for you. If the PC boots after overclocking, you are half way there. Next would be to test stability. I ran a few torture tests, but Prime95 was the one that helped me find proper voltage settings. Use Prime95 in Blend mode. If you want to fully test the RAM, install it in 2 locations and run blend mode twice. You will use 3.5GB of RAM during the test. If prime can run for at least 4 hours I would say you are reasonably stable. I let mine run for 9 or 10 hours or something like that and that was enough for me. Some people insist that 24 hours is the minimum. While running Prime95, also run a CoreTemp or Speedfan to monitor Temps. If your temps start approaching 60 degrees, either lower voltage or reduce clock speed. Lowering voltage would make the largest impact on temperature, but reduce stability. It only takes 5 minutes or so to get your max temps in Prime95. If you run into any problems, there are lots of experienced overclockers on this board that can help you. The UD3R will not let you kill your PC from overclocking. If you set something wrong, the PC will not boot. It will then restart at default speeds. If it restarts get back into MIT and change the settings to something that will boot (basically stock settings) so you can get online and ask for help. But, write down all of your settings so you have references for your next try.
Wow, thanks, that was a great guide... I'll be sure to try when my computer gets here although by then Ill probably have a few more questions. thx again
