The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

Russ: Which volkswagen, the Fox or the W12? lol
tinytom: best of luck with your build, but a 300W PSU, especially if its a cheap one would be woefully insufficient for an overclock. It'd be insufficient for the components you're putting in, I'd wager. 500W though, as long as its a decent brand, will do fine.

 

sammorris,

While you are on the subject of power supplys, My new MB does some strange things with the PS. When I shut down, I usually turn off the PS. When I do this with the new MB, I turn it on the next morning it comes on for about 2 seconds and then shuts down for 3 or 4 more and then comes on again to stay. If I don't power down the PS, it boots normal! It's a Thermaltake W0093RU 500w PS with PFC Function. It didn't do that with the P5P800 SE in my old computer so I'm wondering why it does it now? Any answers?

Best Regards,
theone

 

I don't know about coming back on again by itself, but I can say this:

The Asus Terminator barebone system that was quite popular here in the UK, the latter model when you turned it on at the mains, would power on for two seconds without you touching the power button and then turn off again. You then had to press the power button to turn it on for use.
A Dell Dimension XPS T700r PC I borrowed when mine was being repaired (it was quite old at the time, P3 700, 256MB of SDRAM, when I was having my XP 3000+ repaired) powered on and booted up as soon as you turned it on at the mains.
Maybe your motherboard is a combination of the two?

 

Sam,

Don't know but I'll call GigaByte on Monday and find out. It doesn't seem to hurt anything, just that I've never seen any computer do that before. I usually shut the mains switch off at the PS when I power down for the night. My guess is some sort of bios test to see if the MB will accept the called for settings! Either that or maybe something to do with the PFC Function, whatever that is!

Russ

 

No PFC comes at the mains end, and has to do with efficiency. As someone who's messed with the power to their house it sounds like a bit of you (it was you right?) I thought you might know about it. It deals with how synchronised the power usage is to the waveform of the mains apparently. If the mains usage is all in sync, a 500VA UPS for example would let you use 500W of power. Less of course, if they were out of sync, as the peak power usage would be higher.

 

Sam,

That's what I thought. maybe when you cut the mains by turning off the power switch, it has to re-syncronize the power first by resetting the PS and then continues on. That would make sense. I am the "House Power" culprit by the way!

Your power in the UK is more efficient than what we get in the US. Standard line voltage for the wall outlets and lighting here is 120v@60c. Only really big stuff like air conditioning and water heaters use 220V. Even then, most places it only 208v! We get stuck with more usage cost because we use twice as much wattage for our lights and everyday household appliances as you guys do. Never mind that we could save a lot of energy in making the change. Another classic example of the FFG in action and the power of idiots! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Power Supply - Delay,

I'm sure it's not my answer the circle of regulars want, but here it is for the learning noobz and new visters.

When powering on PSU main for the 1st time or after long off period to a cold start, on the better models, the Mobo and PSU will run a quick test for voltage stability and current adjustment (active PFC models). The Mobo , again , better models, do this to also adjust to the PSU, detect & accept ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (S1&3- sleep, S4 hibernate, NCQ etc.). Now, the system is on but in a certain state of power saving mode (either by your earlier choice, or preset). This should be left here for normal usage since the mobo will or should always be ready to cold BOOT and onboard BATTERY is now only for BIOS power loss back up. So for the 1 question, this is normal if you insist in powering off all the time. You will only save fractions on the penny to do this with todays better active PFC units.

As for the "black hole" effect, case lights, fans and HDDs going off for a second or 2, this is also normal on some high end mobos. Yes, it is all to do with the BIOS. My experience with the better ASUS models since the 1st gen. LGA775 (since P5AD2-E Premium - !925XE and on) did just this when overclocked past a certain FSB (back when 1066 was the premium, now it's 1333). This is to make sure the mobo gets all the ACPI configurations correct, boost caps and certain eltronics and be ready for BOOT. If you have one of these better mobos you already see this (when high OC'd) even in a regular restart and cold BOOT. weird and oddly, but accepted as normal now.

I guess it works, cause my older Abit Fatality did not have this feature and often hung above 266FSB at cold BOOTS recovering from S4 or OFF. Often requiring 2 or 3 trys. Usually in older mobos where FSB 266 was new it happened around FSB244 on various ASUS mobos. Oddly my P5W-DH Wi-Fi Ed. did not do this when new but does now since past few months. Same for early P5WD2, some do & others don't My newer P5WDG2-WS did not.

Those are my experiences. So sorry to bud into your circle. Have a good one!

 

NucknFuts,

You're not butting in at all. I just asked Sam because he was talking about power supplys. I appreciate the answer as it now makes more sense to me. If I turn the main switch off, when I do turn it back on it has to run it's own little thing to make sure everything is correct because it loses that info when I power down the PS. I assume that means that I should leave it on all the time? That makes sense because the PFC is passive and therefore if you cut the mains by turning the PS switch off, it has to cycle through and set up the proper parameters, so that explains the on-off-on thing and why it happens.

Best Regards and Thanks,
Russ

 

OVERCLOCKING, A look back in time.

Hey guys, how many of us here are coming from experience of previous CPU's chipsets and mobos? I thought it'd be cool to recap on some of our favorite OC jobs of the past. And will also help many newcomers. So many P4 Northwoods & Prescotts are still in service. more s478's as not too many could aford to LGA775 upgrade till bout the time Prescott was out the door. But then a lot jumpped on the "D" series bandwagion (no offence, but I jumped ship that yr for the AMD x2, but kept tweekin' my D840) and need to make this investment last and cause they can move it to a new C2D ready mobo and still learn the technique of "OVERCLOCKING". So let's not forget the OC's that built us the experience.

Come on guys, share some projects as well as any your still got going. For starters, I still got my 1st major OC'd ASUS P2B-DL w/ dual S1 PIII Coppermine 933's OC'd to 1050MHz/133FSB 1:1, 2.5-3-3-5 on EIDE Promise PATA RAID. What a rig in it's day. Just an example of the fun I had with some old builds. This mobo took me through a lot of media rendering and is still going XP Pro SP2 compatible. not bad for nearly 10yrs.

 

I was thinking of putting this stuff toghether for some good water cooling is there anything i should add with these(tuning/fittings)etc? or is there anything better or whether I should change something?

Suggestions pls Thanks

Alphacool nexXxos HC 240-LE (radiator)
Alphacool Laing DDC-Pump 12V Ultra Water Tank (pump)
Alphacool Cape Coolplex Pro 50 External Reservoir(resevoir)

Also I was reading a review on the Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Kit looked good yet i din't tested it so, any comments ?

 

twice as much wattage? From an electrical engineer? Twice the current, not the power usage, surely?

 

sammorris,

While technicly incorrect, power here is sold in units per KW/h. I was speaking from a cost per KW/h standpoint, ie: more inefficient here! If power costs were as high here as they are in the UK and Europe, we would be all be running 220v tomorrow!

You are of course correct. 1200W@120V=10A. 1200W@240V=5A. However you want to put it, we waste a lot of energy in this country by being stuck with 120V service.

BTW! I am not an Electrical Engineer! ROFL!!

Happy Computering
theone

 

And yet you rewired the supply to your house. Inspiring! Considering the work you claim to have done in the past, you may as well be!
Agreed though, efficiency loss due to the increased current is immense in the US. All that money spent on thicker cable insulation etc., plus the fact that a lot of PC PSUs are up to 5% more efficient when running on 230V rms than 110!

 

Can I expect different results if I buy corsair ram rather than Kingston? Is it worth paying that little extra? Are the corsair heatsinks going to be up to the jobs if made to work a little harder...?

 

It'd be more the fact that you bought faster RAM than what brand it is. Kingston are still a decent brand, not the first choice for overclocking, but they make quality stuff.

 

Anyone can help with my question?

 

RAM Faster, yes, but reputal too. When it comes to "overclocking", Corsair is to memory as ASUS is to motherboards. They tend to bring the best of the fast to the market before the other guys. So if needing it today and willing to spend, Corsair (fast & tight). Want to save (just a little) but need stability, OCZ is the RAM of choice by myself and many performance overclockers. Thet don't always offer the tighest timings as soon as Corsair or run as low VDIM, but you can expect good tweeking out of them. Hard to beat Corsair though, as even their DDR533 value RAM can hit DDR800.

But in Corsair v/s Kingston, I too have to say Corsair. They put out some awsome stuff us OC'rs will hold on to and hold value.

Remember PC150 SDRAM, or DDR1 PC4400 @ 2.5-3-3-8, or DDR2 PC5400UL @ 3-2-3-8, or now DDR2 PC8000 @ 4-3-4-9. But we see OCZ pushing DDR1333 for the next generation high FSB overclocks. Thos few select of us who make use of high FSB OC will love this stuff.

 

syntek,

I'll have to add G.Skill to that memory list as well. Very good high quality memory. Can be a bit expensive when it's not on sale. I gave $129 @newegg for 2x1GB Cas4 DDR26400 #F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK and have had no problems with my new build. It was recommended to me by a friend when I was trying to decide between it and the Corsair XMS, which was about $10 more. They are both good memory but if the price is less for the G.Skill, I would buy it!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

I also hear G-Skill is supposed to give better results with the Gigabyte boards, and Corsair with the Asus boards. Don't know whether that's true, but the DS3 is supposed to be able to make the best of G-Skill ERAM.

 

I was going to buy pc6400 so its a good spec before clocking it.
So if its OCZ or Corsair which one would you get?
Corsair is sounding like the best to me, does it cope with heat well because I was going to buy thermalright heatpipe heatsinks if I got the Kingston. Do the OEM heatsinks work well when clocking on corsair?