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After some advice please! Wanting help with 1-2 machines.

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Blaylock said:
Congrats on your cooler purchase. I'm sure it will work much better than your stock cooler.

For your GPU there are a few questions that will need to be answered.

1. How long of a card will your case allow? Not sure how do I know/work this out?

2. What resolution will you be using? My machine is old, always running things 1024 x 768 not often I will increase.

3. How many monitors will be displayed through this card? 2 Max ever

4. Do you care if games are dropped down to medium settings to do you NEED max settings. Would prefer max settings it kinda ruins my experience otherwise.

FWIW I wouldn't get a new card with less than 3GB of vram as newer games are utilizing more and more. (Future proofing).
Click to expand...
I am just thinking pricewise to keep it abit cheap I only really intend on using this machine 6-7 more years if I need to get a new GPU not a big deal however 99% chance I will get a new machine by then. Just something to keep me ticking along for now.


Also thanks I so far am impressed with the cooler took time to make sure the thing was seated properly and not loose in the system case. Grabbed a couple of cable ties to make things abit tidier than before, at the moment have my CPU running @ 3.4GHz (With 7% overclock option in settings until I can try proper oc'ing).
 
Ok update I have now got my GPU.

Now do I need to OC my GPU first then rest of my machine?? (as in is there a certain order I have to go about OCing CPU/GPU).

Also prior to adding my GPU I was messing around in BIOS the PC managed to load windows then eventually BSD when I got into Windows at 3.7GHz. If there is a guide top to bottom or even a super dumbed down version for noobs like myself I would really appreciate it.

Regards.
 
It really doesn't matter which you OC first however I would strongly suggest that you find a Stable setting for one before moving on to the other. If you try to do to many things at one time it will be impossible to determine what is causing instability. The BSD that you expierienced is caused by system instability from your OC.

Personally I like to find a solid, stable CPU OC before moving on to GPU, but again it doesn't matter which comes first. There are stickies in the Main threads for OCing CPU's and GPU's. They are very helpful and it's absolutely neccesary to read through them to understand the terminology.
 
Blaylock said:
It really doesn't matter which you OC first however I would strongly suggest that you find a Stable setting for one before moving on to the other. If you try to do to many things at one time it will be impossible to determine what is causing instability. The BSD that you expierienced is caused by system instability from your OC.

Personally I like to find a solid, stable CPU OC before moving on to GPU, but again it doesn't matter which comes first. There are stickies in the Main threads for OCing CPU's and GPU's. They are very helpful and it's absolutely neccesary to read through them to understand the terminology.
Click to expand...

Any that you would suggest in particular for CPU and GPU ?

I also have heard of people who just use the MSI software to OC their GPU is this worthwhile ? or best to stick to a GPU OC guide?

Thanks
 
If I had a new rig that I hadn't OC'd any of it before I would start with the CPU. Figure out my max Stable CPU OC using Prime95 blend for 20mins. then I would drop my OC down 1 or 2 bumps and start OCing my GPU. MSI afterburner is the way to go. I've also used Sapphire's Trixx software. It works well also. For testing GPU stability I would use a newer GPU benchmark like 3DMark06 or newer or Unigine Heaven and watch for artifacting/freezing. Once you find your Max GPU setting bump that down a notch or 2 and you are ready to rock!
 
was tinkering around with the OC options on my machine of course my heat temps have gone up had failures etc etc so I put my machine/BIOs options back to default however my standard temps on my machine prior to changing any BIOS stuff was about 23-25 max now I'm looking at close to 30ish and can't work out what has caused the temps to go up abit higher when everything has been set back to default again (I had been keeping an eye on temps normally they were sitting around 23-26ish at the max).
 
There's alot of bad software out there and don't display proper temps and voltages. I'm not sure which one you are using but I would recommend using HWMonitor(free version). It seems to be the most acurate and displays everything that you would want to see as far as voltages socket and core/package temps ect. 30C is not a high temp so I wouldn't be to concerned. Also idle temps are usually not very acurate and honestly I don't even worry about them unless they are drasticly higher than what they should be.

You should start a new thread for OCing your CPU and we'll give you a hand. The title and post count on this one will deter others from joining in on the conversation.


EDIT: I wouldn't expect to large of an overclock from this motherboard though. It "looks" like it has a 4+1 power phase (can't find actual specs) and it has no VRM heatsinks being a budget board.
 
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Blaylock said:
You should start a new thread for OCing your CPU and we'll give you a hand. The title and post count on this one will deter others from joining in on the conversation.
Click to expand...

Good call there "blaylock". Narrow the board and cpu in use and other parts and pieces down to what parts are now really in question and are now in use. Then testing according to manner suggested and with the four image captures we use to help with an overclock, being input to that newer thread, will make life a great deal more accurate and make suggestions more relevant. This thread has just about lived its' usefulness as you suggest "blaylock".
RGone...ster.
 
Thanks guys, Yes I am currently using HWMonitor for checking out my temps. I will make a new thread for my OC however if I fail to get a decent overclock is there a board that is super and not rubbish I could get where I would not have to replace anything ? something that will work with DDR2??

Thanks guys.
 
Typically for the price of a "good" used board, you'd be further ahead getting something newer that will use DDR3 IMO. I realize it would end up costing more because of the ram but would leave you an upgrade path if you were so inclined. To be honest most of the AM2 boards are built a lot like yours is so unless you're missing options in BIOS it's most likely as good as any other board. From what I have seen they didn't really start packing the power into boards till AM3
 
There are some solid AM2 boards out there. The ASUS M3A79T-Deluxe in my Bencher sig has 8+2 Power phase. I believe the DFI Lan party does too, but don't quote me on that. Also you're still going to pay top dollar for the high end AM2 stuff. I found that out with mine. That said I completely agree with Johan. you're better off getting a quality AM3+ board. and Upgrading your RAM to DDR3. You wont need anything crazy. Just a set of 8GB 1866 with a CL9 at 1.5v is all you need.
 
Not to split hairs Blaylock but I was speaking to AM2 which would be the more reasonable boards price wise. AM2+ yes they started beefing things up I have an M3N deluxe with 8 phase but those are pricey even used you're looking at $100+ with shipping in. For that money you could get a decent 9xx board like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651 and be ready for an FX if you so choose later on.
 
Right you are, I forgot the + sign. But I think we agree that an AM3+ board is his BEST option.

Another option that just came to mind, there are AM3 boards that accept DDR2 and DDR3 (not at the same time of course) like the Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P. of course that's gonna be around $100 + shipping on Fleabay. But he could upgrad his ram later. But this is still not the BEST option.
 
Sadly no. That boards only supports up to 95w CPU'S. YOUR 955 is 125w and if your looking into upgrading to an 8 core they can draw up to 220W when overclocked. You will need a very stout board.

Edit: in fact if you're planning on getting an FX8XXX chip you should go straight to DDR3. I don't believe the board I posted earlier supports AM3+.
 
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RGone said:
...not much to that cheapO mobo as that user found out.

FX 6300 stuck at 1.4GHz ASRock 960GC-GS FX
RGone....
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know. I will have a go with what I have for now.

I was looking at the options in my BIO's at the moment everything is left at auto the only things I have adjusted manually are multiplier 16x and FSB (I think thats the right name) at 220.

So far its running ok is it ok to now perform stability testing or is it alot safer to put everything in the BIO's to an exact setting rather than leaving it at Auto for everything else?

Also will the current values I need to manual adjust show in CPU-Z (if having auto on for the other stuff isn't ok)
 
Sure you can perform stability testing at any time. There is never a reason n0t to perform stability testing. Unless you already know it is too hot and hesitate to put it under load.
RGone...ster.
 
RGone said:
Sure you can perform stability testing at any time. There is never a reason n0t to perform stability testing. Unless you already know it is too hot and hesitate to put it under load.
RGone...ster.
Click to expand...

Is it ok to have my computer running as it is with most BIOS settings on auto that's the one thing I am concerned about (as mentioned just multiplier and FSB have been changed).

I already know from earlier testing pushing up the voltage puts the temps up abit too much for my liking and also causing the image on screen to become distorted etc I think I will be happy with 3.6GHz and not push my luck further to be honest.

Regarding Prime95 testing when it opens do I just select the blend option and leave it alone for a certain period of time or do I have to wait for it to finish all tests (eg 1-10 tests all testing different things) or does Prime95 just keep going and going until the user stops it??
 
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