Lots and lots of questions!!

budget_gamer · Jan 14, 2012

Hi guys. I'm pretty new here and this is my first post.
I have a crap load of questions that I need answering. I figured I will just start out by listing my specs.

OS: Win 7 32bit

CPU:Intel E6500 @ 2.96 per-core (dual)

RAM: 2GB DDR3 @ 533 (I have 4GB of corsair DDR3 @ 1333 coming in the mail(I plan to make a ramdisk with the left over RAM( Someone plz tell me which parts of a game to put on the RAMdisk to make it run faster)))

MB: Gigabyte G41MT-D3

GPU: nVIDIA GT 430 1024mb VRAM

Monitor:ACER X193W @ 1440/900 (I know its an old and ****ty monitor)

additional info: I live in australia so overheating might be a bit more of a problem for me cuz it gets pretty hot down here

question #1
I wish to overclock my CPU and this being my first OC im a little nervous. Is it safe to OC this CPU? How far should I go? What is a safe temperature? at the moment it sits at 35C but it is a rainy day so I wouldn't be able to say how hot it gets on a normal day

question #2
almost exact same question as #1 but about my GPU.

question #3
Which OC software would you reccomend

question #4
I have the Gigabyte ATX midtower Case. Am I going to need extra cooling things?

question#5
If I were to do another upgrade. Which part should I do first?
(nothing uber expensive seeing as I don't have a whole lot of money)

question#6
can someone plz help me with a RAMdisk?

thank you for reading! :grouphug:

E-Ninja · Jan 15, 2012

question #1
I wish to overclock my CPU and this being my first OC im a little nervous. Is it safe to OC this CPU? How far should I go? What is a safe temperature? at the moment it sits at 35C but it is a rainy day so I wouldn't be able to say how hot it gets on a normal day

Not sure. you need to google information like this. would have saved you alot of time.

question #2
almost exact same question as #1 but about my GPU.

Google it.

question #3
Which OC software would you reccomend

If your asking about OC software, you probably dont have enough knowledge to be overclocking. 99% of overclockers will tell you the BIOS is where you want to do your CPU overclocking.

question #4
I have the Gigabyte ATX midtower Case. Am I going to need extra cooling things?

That depends, what kind of cooling does it have already? in the event your CPU is overclockable, i would have a good quality water cooler.

question#5
If I were to do another upgrade. Which part should I do first?
(nothing uber expensive seeing as I don't have a whole lot of money)

Cpu if at all possible. maybe look into AMD solutions. they have the best price/performance.

question#6
can someone plz help me with a RAMdisk?

Info for how to install ramdisk can be found on youtube, google, i think even in the readme as well.

all in all. you may want to be careful overclocking you can screw things up if you dont know what you are getting into. if you dont have the money to spend on parts that you burned up like a graphics card that you overclocked to much. or a CPU that you fried because you didnt understand the temps and cooling.

EDIT: Click http://bit.ly/z1Zlw7 to find out how to overclock your cpu

checkeredhat09 · Jan 16, 2012

budget_gamer said:
question #1
I wish to overclock my CPU and this being my first OC im a little nervous. Is it safe to OC this CPU? How far should I go? What is a safe temperature? at the moment it sits at 35C but it is a rainy day so I wouldn't be able to say how hot it gets on a normal day

EDIT: Also you should read this C2D overclocking thread a few times to grasp the basics

What cooling are you using? Stock fans? 24/7 operation for those should be in the low 60's. Max load temps shouldn't exceed ~70C. I've never owned one of these, but 3.6 Ghz seems like a number a lot of people are able to achieve, not sure how well that mobo clocks though.

question #2
almost exact same question as #1 but about my GPU.

The 430 is a lower end card, but you can definitely squeeze a bit more out of it. First, download Furmark or MSI Kombuster. Then, using your selected software (this is just for the GPU) slowly adjust core speed up. Eventually you will get to a point where your screen will freeze or you will get weird artifacting. Back off a few Mhz, and then test again. Long story short, temps should stay sub 90C during stress testing. Rinse and repeat until you have a balance of performance/fan noise/ heat that works for you

question #3
Which OC software would you recommend?

MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision. Both are free and easy to use

question #4
I have the Gigabyte ATX midtower Case. Am I going to need extra cooling things?

Specifically, what model do you have? Or just how many fans (and what size) and where are they located? In all likelihood you wont need any extra cooling. But even if the cooling is less than ideal, that just means you wont be able to be as aggressive on your overclocks.

question#5
If I were to do another upgrade. Which part should I do first?
(nothing uber expensive seeing as I don't have a whole lot of money)

What is the system mainly used for? RAM would have been my first choice, but you beat me to it so I'll pick something else . If it were me, I would go for a quad core cpu, as you already have a socket 775 motherboard, there are some very inexpensive options out there. I would think that you could pick something up in the 60-80 USD range, but then again aren't hardware prices in Australia pretty high? Moving on...

question#6
can someone plz help me with a RAMdisk?

I know nothing about this Buuuuuut, if you are on a budget, some earlier ssd's are becoming affordable for budget computers (think a 32 GB SATA II)

thank you for reading!

budget_gamer · Jan 16, 2012

Thanks checkeredhat. (Your comment was acyually quite useful(compared to others))
I do a fair bit of gaming, but I also double as a dev. I havn't mannage my own engine yet so I just build in hammer. If anyone wan'ts to help that would cool (we have a very small team one guy for texturing who barely does anything, one guy who models in blender and me who maps and codes. It's not a very resource consuming engine so thats not at all a problem. I spend most of my gaming time either playing Trouble in Terrorist Town or playing bad company 2. I really don't need anything done yet until I get skyrim (which I heard was amazing(Im a massive fan of all of the TES games).
Ya the computer stuff down here is waayyyyyyy too expensive. Especially Games ($110+ on release)
I really think Ive got the cooling under control. 1 CPU fan that is good, 1 back of the case fan, 1 power supply fan, 2 GPU fans and circulation holes opposite to the cpu fan (with a shroud)
My GPU is going to fine I reckon cuz it rarely goes above 35 on idle. I havn't seen the actual number while im playing something graphicly straining like BF:BC2 but I did put my hand on the side of it and it was pretty cool.
I think ill only take it to 3.5 or 3.4.
Thanks again

Mario1 · Jan 16, 2012

CPUs are safe to overclock, c2ds are safe up to 65-67c (will run fine on 70, but it wouldn't hurt if you play it safe).
OC Software - RivaTuner for graphics card and BIOS (which is obviously not a software

) for CPU.
RAMDisk idea is pretty much useless, same goes for a SSD.
You will be bottlenecked by other components, not the HDD.
I'd focus on graphics and processing power.
You can get a sweet combo on newegg, something like an i3 and a board for it, would do perfectly in games/tasks, you'll definately see a performance gain AND you'll have space for upgrading in future.
There's some ways of getting games that can't be discussed on here so I can't really solve the high cost problem.

budget_gamer · Jan 16, 2012

Ty
and lol at your GPU

Lots and lots of questions!!

budget_gamer

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E-Ninja

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checkeredhat09

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budget_gamer

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Mario1

Grammer, its my favoriate thing

budget_gamer

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