Somehow I built a computer and it runs. Now to get the 6100 at its best

[devilsdic]

I went to partspicker and made a computer with my own random parts and ended up actually building it with zero experience or knowledge (had people look at my build and they all complained and wanted me to add an SS) and lo and behold it runs!

Now, I played around with AMD Overdrive a little upping the multuplier and voltage slowly and doing only 1 minute tests to see the differences. I was able to hit 4091 with a little over 50 degrees.

Then I stopped. Read some threads here and now I'm ready to take this seriously.

All I know is to keep raising the multiplier and stress testing (2o min instead of my 1) until I hit a comfortable temperature (anything over 50 makes me nervous!) and then to run stress tests an hour or two.

Anyhow, here is my mobo: ASRock 970 Extreme 3

And my chip is the FX-6100 aka Zambezi aka bulldozer. Whatever those mean.

I am using an Inland Gold Series ILG-550E 550 Watt ATX PSU (which I hope I didn't screw up getting)

Oh and my GPU which I'm told you can also overclock? It has oc in the name. MCI Radeon 7850-Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC

 

[Johan45]

Welcome devildisc.
We will want to see shots of HWMonitor, CPUz processor, spd and memory tabs. Windows snipping tool works well for the pics. Running p95 see how hot it gets.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Welcome to the forums, I congratulate you for having the gumption to take the task of building a pc yourself.

You say you read some threads here about overclocking, was this one of them? What cpu cooler are you using? What case and ram?

The more experienced overclockers here overclock their cpu through the BIOS. Please become comfortable with yours. Do some research on what the settings mean.

To start off I would uninstall AMD overdrive, download at CPUID.com, CPU-Z, HWmonitor "not the pro one" and then download Prime95. Set everything to default settings, then open HWmonitor and run Prime95 "blend" test for 20 minutes to see where you are at. Then post the following pics using the windows snipping tool and the forums attachment tool. Hwmonitor and the following tabs in CPU-Z, cpu,spd and memory.

As far as your PSU goes, I couldn't find a single review on it which concerns me. If you don't start running into problems then I wouldn't worry about it.

You gpu is a very nice unit, yes it should overclock nicely. Though the OC in the name only means that it is factory, it doesn't guarantee it will OC further. Lets not worry about GPU Oc'ing at the moment though and concentrate on the CPU.

 

[devilsdic]

Welcome to the forums, I congratulate you for having the gumption to take the task of building a pc yourself.

You say you read some threads here about overclocking, was this one of them? What cpu cooler are you using? What case and ram?

No, that thread looks amazing!

Ok well I am uninstalling AMD Overdrive (I just noticed it says 'beta' which makes me more nervous about a program that already freaks me out. Auto-overclocking? The noob slider? That can't be safe).

I already have CPU-Z (a must for me) but I will gather the rest shortly.

My case is the CM Enforcer and my CPU Cooler is stock. I almost got another 200mm fan when it was on sale but I cancelled the order. My friend has some extra ones though so I can always add more to the top.

 

[Mandrake4565]

You case is decent so I'm not concerned there. A stock CPU heatsink probably isn't going to get you far though. Well see and if you decide you want to push further, you can always upgrade when the time comes.

 

[devilsdic]

You case is decent so I'm not concerned there. A stock CPU heatsink probably isn't going to get you far though. Well see and if you decide you want to push further, you can always upgrade when the time comes.

Well I am not 100% convinced I will even stick with an OC now. Not if it ends up not being worth it. I did not intend to do this a week ago when I built this PC but after reading about my chips it seems important to at least try.

I did make this a "budget" build although it has already topped $700 easy with OS and lighting and all the cables I bought.

But still, how much do I need to spend on a cooler? They seem pricey. I saw that Newegg has some on clearance.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Overclocking being worth it depends on what you use your system for. Buying a cpu cooler depends on how far you plan on taking those overclocks. I never planned on going to the extremes that I do now, when I first built my system. My first 955be I thought I was happy with a 400mhz over stock overclock. Then I bought a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ brought it to 3.9. Then I wanted more so I went custom water cooling and brought it to 4.3. So the moral of the story is you never know. Like I said earlier lets start out slow, we'll see what you can get on the stock heatsink. If you decide you want more we'll figure out what to get. Don't just go out buying one on a whim or because one is cheap.