New here, new setup, pretty new to clocking etc

[D-Worx]

Hi all!

My name is Joni and I've been looking around the forums a while now.

I have just about finished my first complete build from top to bottom. I'm no way new to computing, but i just haven't had the time and interests before to maker a custom build.

But things change. I've been a console player for my life really, but i have also played with my pc's a little. Now when i planned this setup, the first thing i needed was to get a pc that performs pretty much all i can throw at it with little cost.

The main thing i do with it is photo editing. Hard photo editing. Meaning that i constantly have at least 3 programs running and throwing my files around.

I know some may say why did i get amd, but i just somehow prefer that. Mostly for the costs.

Another reason for this build was the fact that i always loved those freaky looking pc's people had when water cooling came to mess the deck

The situation now is that i have blown my budget BIG TIME, and i'm still waiting for fan controller etc from the post to drop in. The original budget was set to 600€ to update my old system

I have been reading ALOT of those tutorials of overclocking, and i really want to take full advantage of the stuff i have. The problem is that i want a system that can run every day for several hours without the need to change a burned cpu in weekly basis.

I saw this one tutorial here too, but still i'm not sure where to start and what benches to get and how to run them to be on the safe side.

I tested the AMD overdrives auto function, just to see what happens, with the old cooler i had in a week or so (Antec Kühler 902 h2o) and the program managed to jump up to 4.3ghz before crash. I then used the multiplier and settled to aroung 4.0ghz, and it was running very well with that and everything was fine. I just didn't want to keep the clock there because I'm just not sure if that was still a good thing to do. Even tho the temps ever crossed 45 celsius, not even during gaming (MW3, all full on)

Could you people share some basic advice on the system if you know some tricks and maybe help me a bit so I can go on, get the correct stuff (SW) and get started.

The system has now the following hardware on it.

MB: Asrock 970 Extreme 4
CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6850 Dual Fan
MEMORY 1: Kingston HyperX RED 2 x 4GB (1600)
MEMORY 2: Kingston HyperX T1 2 x 4GB (1600)
EK WaterBlocks H3O 360 HFX Kit
Case: Thermaltake Armor Revo
MAIN HDD: OCZ Vertex 120GB (this has win7, and ALL software in it)
SEC. HDD: 3 x basic HDD's to store stuff.

All i have really done now is that i fitted the EK kit few days back and threw the Antec away. I have tested some multiplier clocks, and none have crashed the system. Now i'm back at zero and would like to do a proper job.

here are some pics at my FB page. I can get more if needed.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.375776375825676.82807.374005736002740&type=1

 

[Mandrake4565]

Welcome D-Works, here are a few posts you can read to help you along. There are plenty of people here with experience on AMD CPU's that will be more then happy to help you.

A good idea is to start is download Cpuid-Cpuz and HWmonitor as well as prime95 to test the system for stability. Post individual pics of the CPZ, CPU, SPD and Memory tabs as well as the HW monitor, using the windows snipping tool, with the system at stock clocks. So we can see what is going on with the system and your temps.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023
http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

 

[Conumdrum]

We have a sub forum for overclocking the AMD, it's the CPU/AMD forum. Depending on your GPU you can find overclocking help there in the appropriate forum.

 

[D-Worx]

Welcome D-Works, here are a few posts you can read to help you along. There are plenty of people here with experience on AMD CPU's that will be more then happy to help you.

A good idea is to start is download Cpuid-Cpuz and HWmonitor as well as prime95 to test the system for stability. Post individual pics of the CPZ, CPU, SPD and Memory tabs as well as the HW monitor, using the windows snipping tool, with the system at stock clocks. So we can see what is going on with the system and your temps.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596023
http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_Dragon_AM3_AM2_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

Yep i read those both actually a few times this week

I'm not too fancy about the AOD I think. I have tested the automated system to see where it goes, and noticed that it tends to ramp up the voltage of the core, even at lower clocks.

Anyways, i have tested it and it goes to 4300ghz and stops there, with nothing else made. I also have tested to ramp up the multiplier to a solid x20, which gives me quite accurate 4ghz. It won't crash at that while playing MW3 or doing some HARD photo editing like i mostly do. (i have three programs running and jumping big RAW files to each other etc)

I finally got the AKASA fan controller today and have fitted it to my 3 radiator fans, because the damn mb couldn't adjust them, and they were running at full 1600ish rpm, making some annoying noise that made watching movies almost impossible. I'm a huge pc movie watcher


I have now tested the fan controller today and found out that setting the fans toi around 1200rpm, the Core Temp seems to give me around 28-30 degrees celsius, and there is no noise really. I still have room for another 200-250 rpm on the controller, but the noise of course jumps up aswell.

The graphics card it XFX Radeon HD 6850 Double Fan. (775mhz/1000mhz)

I'm planning to fit another one later on to make a crossfire setup tho.

But for now, here are some shots from the programs (I actually had them all, not including the prime ) I have tested the system for the 1 hour tests with the OCCT and had zero erros on cpu and gpu

 

[Mandrake4565]

Glad you read those stickies and sorry I wasn't more imformative before. Using the bois is the most advised way to OC here. Could you do two things, one put your system specs in your signature it makes it easier for us when we need to refer back to whats in your system. Two can you put the system under load using prime 95 so we can see the temps under load.

Finally, this is more of an FYI, having 4 sticks of ram, depending on how hard you want to push the CPU may lead to instability, due to the IMC. If you are planning on pushing it to it's limit you may want to remove 2 sticks. Up to you.

 

[D-Worx]

I'm going to run the Prime and see how it goes. Any tips for the settings at it?

 

[Mandrake4565]

just run prime blend

 

[D-Worx]

Allright. I did some testing and seems to be all good'n cool.

I had the Prime running at the mixed torture test for 1 hour and 21 minutes with no problems at all.

I recorded the temp etc data with the HW monitor so i can see them and post up.

The problem with the monitor is the damn sampling rate. It seems to throw a hard to read graph out, but it will give you the idea.

The rad fans were all running at around 1350 rpm, giving me a 100rpm ish to add if needed.

Here are some graphs now

Core 0 Temp



Core 1 Temp



Core 2 Temp



Core 3 temp



VCore Voltage



OVZ Vertex 3 Temp