The Ultimate Dream Computer

My first IBM PC was a PC I in 1982, with 64KB of memory, however, I added a 265KB expansion board, 2 5 1/4 floopy drive ($500 a piece), and 20MB HD (external) and tape backup, DOS 1.X, and mono monitor. Couldn't wait for DOS 2.0, which overcame the 2048 max number of files the OS would allow.

Oh, price $12,000.00.

 

1.65Vcore does sound a little high, it'd be more reassuring to hear you can run the system with it lower. My NB Vcore is that high, but the lousy BIOS means I can't really be bothered to find a setting where a lower voltage will work.
15414 is an outstanding 3dmark score, well above double mine, hope you can utilise all that power!

 

hey frank, thats a damm nice setup you have got there and doing it your self (the pc build ) should make you proud. what you should do now is run some benches and post the results in the oc thread and make us all cry

take it easy.

 

I'd say 15,586 in 3dmark06 is a pretty good start. How about 6755? <whimper> <sob>

 

@fasfrank

with a little bit of tweaking, i am certain you can catch up to my 3DMark06 score (and even surpass it) since i lowered my cpu speed to 3.6ghz to run the tests, also, i brought my 8800gtx's in SLI back to stock speed for a more "fair" test to compare and demonstrate what a good balance of components can achieve.

my own was illustrated here:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/160/344865#3093359

when i had my cpu at a hair higher than 4.0ghz (wasn't completely stable mind you, it crashed before i could save the screenshot) i was ALMOST @ 20,000 3DMark06 score and both my 8800gtx's were overclocked too, it's not something i could brag about simply because the system was NOT stable enough to claim 24/7 usability, i just wanted to see what i could get "maxin" every component out

just changing a few settings now i could easily attain 17,000+ 3DMark06 scores but it's never been about "benchmark racing" for me, it's interesting for me to see what others are getting though with similiar components, as with overclocking, it's become more of a 2nd nature to me and i do it on EVERY system i build, but each with it's own limits/goals depending on WHO will be using the system primarily.

it's all in good fun and i build high end rigs. as a hobby in what little spare time i have. much like you, i work long hours, 6 days/week in fact, and can only dedicate the little extra time i have to putting a build together and then "testing" it later and "OC'in" it even later. all in all, if i were to TRY to calculate/approximate the total time spent from start to final finish -including build time, installation of OS and all programs, testing, tweaking, OC'in, modding the mobo, swapping out diff. components in hopes of find the "best" one to do the job, fine tuning to what i consider "perfect" specs, etc...i could honestly say, we looking at about 40 hours total- you can add another 10 hours to that figure once you get into water cooling, ie. leak tests/filling/draining/properly fitting/cutting the tubing, etc. (which is more than double of what you spent on this most recent very nice build of yours)

nothing wrong with being meticulous about your rig., i look at it as time well spent to do it RIGHT the first time, so you won't have to do it again in the near future should something happen...good luck!

 

Hi Doc,
It's always good to get your input. I appreciate it. I just started so there are a lot of unknowns I have to work through. Reading yours and others posts has helped a lot.

I did manage to get a 3DMark06 of 15714 after tweaking the 8800GTS cards up and pushing the FSB a bit harder. I think I'm right at the pre-supernova point though so I backed things down. I managed Orthos for about 20 minutes until the 65 core temp worried me and I stopped the test. I don't know what the upper temp limit is and really don't want to find out by roasting my new parts.lol.
Cheers,
Frank

 

65 for the CPU or GPU? For the CPU that's obviously too hot, for the GPU that's barely more than idle, my X1900XT's load temperature with the stock cooler was about 90-91C, that's about average.

 

Hi Sam,
You know when Orthos runs it hits those different test points and at one point it jumped from 59 up to 65. I didn't like that at all so I took all the settings back to default and now I'm working my way back up again. 3.6 Ghz @1.575 Vcore and 50°C Max. Orthos stable for 2 hours. Seems a bit more reasonable. I can probably lower the Vcore a tiny bit but I'd rather raise the FSB. I 'll probably just leave that as it is and work on the memory speed/timings.

Cheers,
Frank

 

Interesting, because the reviews I've seen of the Ultra 120 Extreme show it doesn't even break 50C all the way up to 3.8Ghz. I do however know that upping the Vcore makes a huge difference, my case has a lot more hot air to expel since upping to 3Ghz and needing to raise the Vcore to 1.42.

 

fasfrank

there are 2 major factors that come to mind when trying to analyze your setup and they are as follows:

1. i would surmise that your particular stepping for your cpu has been "nerfed" in a way compared to the older Core 2 duos, ie. meaning, the OC' potential might not be as high as the older revisions/batches AND it might require more vcore to reach those higher speeds, as it's been reflected by your findings...

2. you MAY want to consider lapping your cpu AND the base of your ultra-120 extreme (if you feel adventurous of course, as it definitely VOIDS your cpu warranty and is time consuming) most people don't take it to that extreme and i haven't lapped my own cpu at this point yet either because my own batch/binning is good enough to hit 4ghz without the procedure, but if done correctly, you could take 4C-10C off your cpu temp by doing so...i am going to try it on my future builds once newer chips are released and see if it proves advantageous in lowering temps.

here is a lil guide written and made by a friend of mine, his overclocking "extremeness" actually puts MY OWN efforts to shame, i've learned a lot from him and when we've spoken on the phone, he's given me tips and advice to get me to the 4ghz mark on the C2Ds

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=71

i suppose you could say he's been MY "mentor" of sorts in helping me push my rigs. past the norm and closer into the range of the "phase change OC'ers" out there~ i obviously can't hit the numbers and temps that phase change users do, but i can easily surpass MANY water-cooler OCer's on my own custom H2O system~

hope that gives you something to consider on your own system, as i mentioned before, your vcore is a bit high for a c2d (even if that is what is required to keep YOUR cpu stable) and the temps of a Conroe that you've given is closer to the temps of my quad-core...

i HAVE lapped my heatsink/fan unit (ultra 120-extreme) though, it took me like an hour using 220grit sandpaper first...then followed by 400 grit, then i simply went 800--->2000---->finished with 2500grit at the very end. i bought the small packs of various grit sandpaper very inexpensively @ Home Depot here in the U.S. and have plenty leftover for future heatsinks, total cost < $7

since my camera is still in the shop for repairs, this is a picture i found showing what the end result looks like, it's almost identical to my own ultra-120 extreme with the shiny COPPER finish.



there ya go

docTY

 

I can understand smoothing down the heatsink base, but the CPU too!

 

hmmmmmmm, so tasty, Buffalo Firestix ram is a must for gamers, i had 2gigs upgraded to two 2gigs of firestix and..... the difference is out of this world, therE!!!!! GREAT

 

Can't say I've ever heard of it. It could just be you've upped to lower latency high speed RAM, in which case any brand would do.

 

that is EXACTLY the case, the Firestix are made no better than ANY of the other brand of manufacturers (ie. Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin, Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, Patriot, etc...) i am willing to guess that perhaps you went from pc2-5300/5400 (ddr2-667) to pc2-6400 (ddr2-800) in your upgrade tripplite, 2gigs or not of equal size, but higher speed and possibly lower timings as sammorris stated

im glad they work well for you and that you are so ecstatic about them, if they make you happy, that's what counts.

 

As for me, I think I'll stick with Corsair.

 

as will I

 

Hi Doc,
I lapped the Thermalright Ultra 90 on my quad core rig a few days ago and used some carefully applied AS Céramique.
It made it a couple of degrees cooler. Kinda dissapointed. I'm not going to lap the cpu though just because I'd rather not get it around water mixed with finely ground metal particles. I've got enough problems, lol.

Hey Doc, I'm going to continue this over in the overclocking thread... Seems I'm getting off the Dream Computer topic. Hope to see you there.

 

FasFrank
You're working with the renowned doc, so you appear to be in good hands. There's nothing wrong with savoring the build experience.

The ceramic improves a bit as it cures, but you probably won't get over 1 or 2 degrees C improvement from curing. If you already have an improvement of a couple degrees, then you're not doing too shabbily. It's all the little things you do that add up in the end.

As for myself, I still prefer the regular AS paste or the new Zalman liquid. The regular AS cures faster and transfers heat as well. The difference is that the ceramic isn't conductive. So be careful and don't use a gob and you get the cooling results faster with the regular AS. Some beginning builders have used too much compound and allowed it to ooze out onto circuits (causing problems). With ceramic it only looks a little messy. From what I've seen ceramic is more a safety precaution than a more effective heat transfer material.

Lapping? I can see where it would be useful, but I've not needed it yet. The top end coolers are already smooth and shiny and I've not met any CPUs that needed lapping. I've not been building any exotic water cooled units or using phase change.

On the memory, I'll stick with docty and sammorris. Corsair is a well liked brand for a reason. I'll have to say I like some of the offerings by OCZ as well.

 

thanks for the compliment PacMan777, i also like some of OCZ's memory offerings as well and STILL use a few kits of their DDR models today for my AMD socket 939 rig i actually tested their "flexXLC" model (with the built in water cooling heatsink that you can choose to hookup if you have a water cooling rig. or just use passively on air) on their DDR2 kit, it's very well built and has decent timings that remain stable, but when dealing with HIGH end memory kits, i still prefer Corsair Dominators on air or G.Skill kits for their even MORE aggressive timings "out of the box"

OCZ's FlexXLC kits are very innovative and i give them credit where credit is due, but personally when dealing with high end memory, i would prefer more aggressive timings using specially binned/picked Micron chips...over that of exceptional cooling to the memory itself

@fasfrank

i just popped up in the overclocking thread, been very busy over the past week, let's see what we can do with your current setups

 

You're welcome, but your rep usually precedes you here at AD.

Your comment as to the "why" with the RAM was well put and to the point.