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First Time Overclocking Help

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bluesugar

Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Hey guys, this is my very first time building a PC and I have some questions about overclocking from people that might have a similar setup to me. The PC I just built:

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562QX6700

BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

PowerTek 750W F5-Series ATX12V 750W Power Supply

Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK2/2G

2* Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

PLEXTOR 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With White bezel,AUTOSTRATEGY,PoweRec,10X DVD+R DL Write Black SATA Model PX-755SA.

I am interested in OC'ing the processor and would love some advice, feedback on similar setups that have been OC'd to a certain Ghz, or to just be pointed in a direction to do the research on my own. I am cooling the CPU with the stock fan that came with my Intel Chip, if that helps.

Btw as I am running on stock air with the CPU and with 4 case fans, if I were to push up the multiplier to 11 or 12 what voltage would I need to increase for the CPU or Mem if at all to make this possible without melting the PC down. Sadly, my grandmother just passed away and it was because of this and an inheritance that I was able to purchase my dream PC on NewEgg, enabling me to say goodbye to my Dell training wheels PC that I practiced PC modding on. After reading the eVGA boards in detail it seems that my motherboard has problems when people increase the FSB, often times resulting in unstable memory.

You guys are pro's here and I would greatly appreciate ANY help, seeing as I am completely new to all of this as an excited newbie who also doesn't want to destroy his brand new 3,300 dollar PC that he just built.
 
I used Prime95 to do a torture test on my stock settings and the CPU hit a high temp of 77 degrees Celsius during the testing, which makes me a little nervous about raising the multiplier to 11 or 12 with my mobo. My understanding is that my PC will probably never get stressed this hard in real life applications? The system temp stayed at an even 32 degrees Celsius during testing.
 
If you want to overclock, I strongly recommend a better heatsink first. That load temp is too high.
 
77 degrees, isn't that really warm for stock everything, Could the heat sink need to be reset I wonder?

Yea do some water cooling.
 
squashfx said:
yea go buy a $400 water cooling setup for it

How about kepping out of the discussion if you have nothing to contribute? :rolleyes:


Welcome to the forums Bluesugar!

I'm afraid you might have a dodgy PSU on your hands. It has no active PFC, most likely suspect build quality (as it is dirt cheap for a unit of that size). Their websites lists MTTF as 80k hours. Industry norm is 100k hours. I would say it is probably populated by poor quality components. Newegg PSU reviews are generally inaccurate and misleading. I can't seem to find a UL number off of this, maybe you can look at the label and give me one. :)

You might want to hop in here--> (Link) and check out the various sticky's that are posted. Lots of useful information on general overclocking paradigms.

Good luck and happy overclocking! :beer:

S-N
 
Ugh, I had a sneaky feeling about the PSU after everything was paid for and OTW. Now I'm really nervous. Is it going to blow up on me in a month? I hope not because I'm a little strapped for cash until i truly get my inheritance, having paid for my PC with a new egg preferred account, and I think I got approved and maxxed it out in the same day ;p

Anyway, should I panic right now? I can probably get another one in a month or so. i have an Antec 500w in my dell that I upgraded to but I think that it's not enough to power what I currently have?

BTW thanks for the welcome. I have found some of the other forums on different sites to be filled with elitist snobs that dismiss me as a NooB, so I really appreciate it :) !
 
As you will soon see, we conduct business a bit differently out here. ;)

Do not, I repeat DO NOT use that Antec on your primary rig. It is most likely fulled with bad Fujhhuyu capacitors and is likely to blow up after about a year's continious use.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=494815

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=495380

I would be very careful right now. My advice would be that you eschew overclocking till you replace your power supply. I'd suggest that you eat the restocking fee and opt for a better unit. Given that you have spent thousands of dollars on the entire rig, I would use a quality unit to power it. I can tell you what to buy, but I think it would be more advantageous and educational if you stepped into our excellent PSU forum and did a bit of reading. This will also give you an opportunity to explore the forums. :D

http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42
 
Super Nade said:
How about kepping out of the discussion if you have nothing to contribute? :rolleyes:
wow, what is wrong with what i said??? he said somthing about his temperature looking at all the money he has inside his computer my thoughts would be he would want somthing thats gonna do a good job so i said get water cooling and 54lariat even agreed with me or do i need to ask permission next time??
 
Thanks super nade, man you guys rawk! lol Anyway, since I blew my wad on this pc by getting an newegg preferred account and maxxing it out in the same transaction, and being broke otherwise right now, I'm a little screwed. I can get another PSU and send the one I have back within my 30 day grace period, but until then I don't think I can stomach staring at a blank monitor right now or even going back to my old p4 3.2 HT, 2 gig, AGP BFG 7800 GS OC Dell for that matter. Now I'm really paranoid. It better not blow up after I type this.

I mean, that would really, really suck. I don't think it's gonna explode between now and 2 weeks from now I hope. Anyway, got some good suggestion for PSU manufacturer's like FoxConn and OCZ, just wish I had seen this before I hit send on the newegg form. Anyway, thanks for the help again.

BTW I didn't see Powertek on the avoid list in the sticky, but I guess that does'nt mean it's any good. I also don't plan on OC'ing anyway until I get a Zalman 9700 or whatever the top of the line air cooling PSU one is.
 
Another thing that has me a little worried is that in the Nvidia MonitorView, my volts for the HT(SPP-MCP)(1.4500)V and the PCI-E(1.5000)V are both showing as red, and the tool tip says that it means that they are being stressed and that it's not good. The thing is is that in my bios that's not what the volts are set at. For some reason they are different from the load up to login. Any suggestions?

BTW does anyone have a similar setup to mine and experienced having CPU core temps hitting max 77 degrees celsius DURING Prime95 torture testing? It runs at around 52-55 degrees during normal use (using TAT). I say this because I know that with my mobo ppl have complained about the amount of gunk they got on their north and south bridge chips from the manufacturer, alhough I don't know whether or not it would have any effect on the CPU temp.

When I installed the stock cooling that came with the QX6700 it already had thermal paste on it, and even though i bought some arctic thermal paste I didn't swap it out because I thought it would be fine since Intel knows what they are doing.

And, my wife would kill me if I spent another 400 dollars from my inheritance on a water cooling system right now I think, so air cooling will have to do for now. If it means that I can't over clock like crazy, then that's ok. This rig still crushes everything I throw at it. I bought it for the upcoming Vanguard MMORPG, of which I am a beta tester. I was getting 12-20 fps in unpopulated areas with my old PC, now I'm getting 140- 140! lol.
 
Umm as I am typing I noticed something. This being my first build and all and the fact that I did it slowly all day, I just noticed something. My 8800 GTX needs two 6 pin 12V plugs.

Thing is that I have one coming from the PSU plugged into one slot on the card with another coming off of that one just dangling. I have an adapter from the vid card manufacturer that is is plugged into a seperate cord coming from the PSU into the second six pin slot.

My question is, the six pin 12V that is dangling off of the one that is plugged in, can I plug that into the other slot on the vid card? I thought for some reason that it would not be good to have two plugs from the same cord going into the vid card, that it would'nt be getting enough power.

Am I retarded or did I do the right thing?
 
I don't know how clear I was, I kinda confused myself reading my post. They are both coming off of the same cord from the PSU, one coming from the other like a standard PSU cord.
 
squashfx said:
wow, what is wrong with what i said??? he said somthing about his temperature looking at all the money he has inside his computer my thoughts would be he would want somthing thats gonna do a good job so i said get water cooling and 54lariat even agreed with me or do i need to ask permission next time??
The $400 part sounded very condescending to me.

Anyway, the TT Toughpower is built by CWT without the crappy caps they use in the Antecs. Fairly decent units and you should have no problems with a single 8800GTX. However, if you wish to go 8800GTX SLI and overclock the cards, I'd look for something better, like say the Silverstone Zeus units (ST56ZF, ST75ZF and higher) or if you have the money, get the Zippy GSM series. A good PSU is an investment, which is likely to outlast more than a generation of computer components.

blue,

No need to fret, just don't overclock and keep the unit cool. Look at the label and give me the UL number so that I can determine who actually builds this unit. (This company is in the business of making EMI filters, if I'm not mistaken.)

Before you hit the buy button, ask for opinions in the PSU section. We have a lot of good people who would be very willing to assist you.

Since your unit is a single 12V rail, it should not matter. Just make sure you do not have any other components on that line (if you have a free molex on that line).

PS#
Please post here:- ;)
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697
 
That is a good choice. Note that the Etasis and Silverstone ZF units are one and the same. :) Also, 560W ST56ZF can easily handle dual 8800GTX SLI. So can a Zippy 600W.
 
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