Cooling / Overclocking - Just getting started!

[Mancry]

So I pulled the trigger on a new i7 950 rig today....I've never taken my machines speeds past stock (save for when I used RivaTuner to OC my GTS250)....But now I want to push the limits on my new machine. I have some questions about cooling, and overclocking, thanks ahead of time for all the input and information.

Firstly, I keep hearing the terms; on air, on water. I'm assuming on air means a non-liquid cooled machine that's cooled exclusively by air, and on water means a liquid cooled machine? Would love to have that cleared up!

As for my specs;

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - 64-Bit
ASUS P6T SE
Intel® Core™ i7 950 Processor (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System
Enermax Dual Silent High Performance Fans (Push-Pull Airflow)
12 GB DDR3-1600
ATI Radeon HD 5970
850 Watt -- Thermaltake TR2 W0319RU Power Supply
1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s
2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s

I hope that's enough information.

I want my i7 950 to sit at around 4.5ghz, is that possible with the cooling system I've purchased? Is that a realistic number, and could I safely go higher?

Is the ATI Radeon 5970 worth overclocking, if so, what kind of additional speed am I looking at?

I've been out of the PC building game for a couple years now, and the last machine I built was a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 3gb DDR2-667 and a Nvidia GTS250. I'm hoping this new machine is a huge upgrade, and with overclocking, even bigger!

Thanks again for your time, I'm looking to become an active member here.

 

[Twigbutt]

Firstly, I keep hearing the terms; on air, on water. I'm assuming on air means a non-liquid cooled machine that's cooled exclusively by air, and on water means a liquid cooled machine? Would love to have that cleared up!

Yes "on air" means just that and "on water" means liquid.

I want my i7 950 to sit at around 4.5ghz, is that possible with the cooling system I've purchased? Is that a realistic number, and could I safely go higher?

I'm afraid your aspirations outway reality as far as what you want to achieve. That cooling system is subpar at best as far as water cooling. 4.5 ghz is hard to reach with really good cooling. Start lower and work your way up. If you hit 4 ghz with reasonable temps it's a good day. Read this and follow what it says and you'll find out what kind of overclock you achieve.

I'm an nVidia guy so can't help with the videocard.

 

[Mancry]

Darn, I wish I would have gotten a better liquid cooler! What do you mean subpar at best, is it better to not even use it?

 

[trents]

The best air cooling is actually a little better than the all-in-one, self-contained budget water system. Really effective water cooling comes at about $250. Then you're starting to beat air.

 

[Mancry]

The best air cooling is actually a little better than the all-in-one, self-contained budget water system. Really effective water cooling comes at about $250. Then you're starting to beat air.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Is there anything I can do to improve what I already have? Additional fans? I want to break 4ghz on my i7.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Firstly, I keep hearing the terms; on air, on water. I'm assuming on air means a non-liquid cooled machine that's cooled exclusively by air, and on water means a liquid cooled machine? Would love to have that cleared up!

you may also hear under air and under water, that's the same thing.

As for my specs;

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - 64-Bit
ASUS P6T SE
Intel® Core™ i7 950 Processor (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System
Enermax Dual Silent High Performance Fans (Push-Pull Airflow)
12 GB DDR3-1600
ATI Radeon HD 5970
850 Watt -- Thermaltake TR2 W0319RU Power Supply
1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s
2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s

why the dual hdd's? I'd drop those from the build if you don't need pretty close on that space and just hold there...2tb should be more than enough. Also 12gb of ram is overkill, 6 is just fine and it makes your system more overclockable...I'd also start to worry about power draw on that system, see what this recommends. As others have said, the cooler is underpowered and for about the same money you could get a d14, megahalems, true, or venomous x, all of which outperform it.

I want my i7 950 to sit at around 4.5ghz, is that possible with the cooling system I've purchased? Is that a realistic number, and could I safely go higher?

if you want 4.5, you'd better a)hope you have a good batch, some of the worse ones won't make it there, and b)get some better cooling, because you will be well above where i'd be comfortable running my gear in terms of temps.

Is the ATI Radeon 5970 worth overclocking, if so, what kind of additional speed am I looking at?

Very much so, get yourself a copy of msi afterburner, currently my 480's running at its max memory clock and pretty close to the max core clock, and i'm 150/238 above stocks on those (stock at 700/1900)

I've been out of the PC building game for a couple years now, and the last machine I built was a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 3gb DDR2-667 and a Nvidia GTS250. I'm hoping this new machine is a huge upgrade, and with overclocking, even bigger!

should be a pretty good upgrade, especially on the gfx end.

 

[Mancry]

why the dual hdd's? I'd drop those from the build if you don't need pretty close on that space and just hold there...2tb should be more than enough. Also 12gb of ram is overkill, 6 is just fine and it makes your system more overclockable...I'd also start to worry about power draw on that system, see what this recommends. As others have said, the cooler is underpowered and for about the same money you could get a d14, megahalems, true, or venomous x, all of which outperform it.

I always run out of room! I have multiple single VST's that take up 50-60gb themselves, raw .wav's also take up a lot of room and when doing HD video editing a terabyte doesn't go nearly as far as you'd think. My four externals (each 1tb) are all full, I'm hoping these new drives will last me until the end of the year, maybe even longer.

The ram is for audio, video and graphic editing. The VST's (virtual studio instrument) I was mentioning that are 50-60gb for a single synth require a tremendous amount of ram to have open and running live, not to mention numerous midi outs, and various effects that will make your computer become crippled when you press the playback button.

I do a lot of composing that requires huuuuuge synths and tons of them.

You can hear some of the work I do below!

http://www.soundcloud.com/aker
http://www.myspace.com/aker

Also; thanks for the link, I checked it out and filled out the information, it suggested a 550-600w Power Supply, I got an 850w so I think I'll be ok.

Why is 12gb bad? And why would it hurt overclocking? If it'd be better, I could just take half of it out and bring it down to 6gb.

if you want 4.5, you'd better a)hope you have a good batch, some of the worse ones won't make it there, and b)get some better cooling, because you will be well above where i'd be comfortable running my gear in terms of temps.

So what do you think would be an agreeable temp for my processor? And given my current cooling system, what's the most realistic / likely overclock I could achieve. 3.5ghz, 3.8ghz?

Very much so, get yourself a copy of msi afterburner, currently my 480's running at its max memory clock and pretty close to the max core clock, and i'm 150/238 above stocks on those (stock at 700/1900)

should be a pretty good upgrade, especially on the gfx end.

Do I need additional cooling to OC my Radeon 5970? Thanks so much for your time and information, very much appreciated.

 

[m0r7if3r]

I always run out of room! I have multiple single VST's that take up 50-60gb themselves, raw .wav's also take up a lot of room and when doing HD video editing a terabyte doesn't go nearly as far as you'd think. My four externals (each 1tb) are all full, I'm hoping these new drives will last me until the end of the year, maybe even longer.

The ram is for audio, video and graphic editing. The VST's (virtual studio instrument) I was mentioning that are 50-60gb for a single synth require a tremendous amount of ram to have open and running live, not to mention numerous midi outs, and various effects that will make your computer become crippled when you press the playback button.

you crazy graphics/music people...

Also; thanks for the link, I checked it out and filled out the information, it suggested a 550-600w Power Supply, I got an 850w so I think I'll be ok.

ah, ok...long as it says you're good, I couldn't remember the power spec for a 4.5 oc

Why is 12gb bad? And why would it hurt overclocking? If it'd be better, I could just take half of it out and bring it down to 6gb.

more sticks of ram means more chance for failure, you're only as good as the slowest component, it also puts more stress on the imc, so you may hit limitations on your bclock with 12, see how far you can go on 12, if you can't hit what you want, pull it, then see if you can get where you want. There's no substitution for experimentation on the hardware you've got.

So what do you think would be an agreeable temp for my processor? And given my current cooling system, what's the most realistic / likely overclock I could achieve. 3.5ghz, 3.8ghz?

tjmax is 100c, but for longevity I recommend 75-80c as a max sustained (that is for an hour or 2, gaming temps etc...some will disagree, make your own decision...on that I'd say you could hit around 4ish depending on your batch, after there it's gonna take a lot of voltage to get where you're going.

Do I need additional cooling to OC my Radeon 5970? Thanks so much for your time and information, very much appreciated.

shouldn't need any additional cooling for a decent oc...might want one if you take it to it's very max, depends on what you want out of it and your budget...there's a price level out there for just about every desired performance

 

[Mancry]

I have a chance to go up to a 1,000w Power Supply and SLI GTX 480 instead of the 850w Power Supply and Radeon 5970.

Are the 2x GTX 480 >> x1 ATI Radeon 5970?

 

[Bobnova]

Generally speaking, yes.

What brand 1000w PSU?

 

[Mancry]

Generally speaking, yes.

What brand 1000w PSU?

Thermaltake TR2 TRX-1000M

http://www.eworldsale.com/ews_product_6159_53536.html

Is that one alright?

EDIT: It's between the Thermaltake and this one; SilverStone ST1000-P

http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-ATX12V-EPS12V-Modular-ST1000-P/dp/B00307RLZC

 

[Bobnova]

I have that exact PSU. It's a good one, there aren't many that I would take over it really.

It'll definitely do 2x480.

 

[m0r7if3r]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/25/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/

the 480's have gotten even more of a lead with the 257 drivers and a bit more of a boost + surround and 3d surround with 258.69whlq's that are still sorta fresh (they're about due for some new ones I think...)

 

[Mancry]

Ok, I called up and made some last minute changes, here is the final build:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 950 Processor (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling: Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System (Intel) w/ Enermax Dual Silent High Performance Fan (Push-Pull Airflow)
Memory: 12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1600
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 - 1.5GB - SLI Mode (Dual Cards)
Motherboard: [SLI] MSI X58 PRO-E
Power Supply: 1000 Watt - Thermaltake TR2 TRX-1000M
Primary Hard Drive: 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive

I'm confident that this is the best one for me!

 

[m0r7if3r]

Have you compared the asetek to high end air? High end air wins, if you're going for looks it's fine, but if you're going for performance, it looses. Also, be aware that 12gb of ram is going to inhibit your ability to overclock.

 

[psionic98]

imho the 950, unless the 920 or 930 were not even options, is a total waste. even bad 930s can get to 4.0 on midrange or better air cooling, the 950 is just a factory overclocked 920.. there are no extra multipliers etc and is just an overpriced chip..

and the 12gb of ram, as m0r said will most likely inhibit your overclock, but it is still very possible to hit 4.0 at least.. 4.5 with 12gb would be a stretch.. especially as a 24/7 build

 

[Mancry]

I'd have gotten an i7 930, but they upgraded me to an i7 950 for free, so heck, why not!

Also, I'm aiming for a more realistic OC number now, instead of 4.5ghz, I want each core to sit around 3.5ghz / 3.8ghz! I figure that's a healthier number and more realistic with my build.

EDIT: You guys have been a great help, thanks a lot! I have one last question, is the PSU I'm getting going to be able to properly OC both of my video cards and processor? I heard the GTX 480's SLI (non-OC) use like 850w+! Damn, lol, that's insane.

 

[m0r7if3r]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/25/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/7

same review i linked earlier...different page.

 

[Mancry]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/03/25/nvidia_fermi_gtx_470_480_sli_review/7

same review i linked earlier...different page.

His went up to 95c? Is that going to fry my cards!? That sounds incredibly hot, like, ridiculous, that can't be normal can it?

EDIT: What is the best way to cool down the 2x GTX 480 setup? Something exclusively for the GPU's and that's all?

 

[m0r7if3r]

His went up to 95c? Is that going to fry my cards!? That sounds incredibly hot, like, ridiculous, that can't be normal can it?

EDIT: What is the best way to cool down the 2x GTX 480 setup? Something exclusively for the GPU's and that's all?

thermal limit is 110c on them...my single 480 maxes at 80 on my custom fan profile, that's under kombustor at 99% load. His maxed at 92, so clearly there's some disparity there...that said, a friend of mine is running dual 470's and (on dual monitors, which raises temps a good bit) and his max at around 90...gpus will take a lot of heat...