Help for my new computer

[rabakill]

ok so there are a bunch of things I'm wondering about my new computer now that I've had it running for a while.

1. so I've got a tuniq tower aftermarket air cooling unit for the cpu. It's loud and big and lets the system idle around 36 degrees celsius which I hear is not great but ok. I'm generally worried about leaving my computer on over night because the thing works so hard all the time. So I'm unsure what's the best thing to do for my computer, put it in hibernate, turn it off everytime I don't use it, or leave it on for extended periods. I'm worried about the parts wearing down which leads me to #2.

2. The cpu cools ok but the system temperature idles around 52 degrees which I hear is too high. I'm wondering what methods I can use to cool the motherboard better. Buy some more case fans or something? One problem is the tuniq tower can't plug into the normal cpu fan power because it won't run if I do and has to be plugged into a case fan power supply so as it is all the power is used up at the moment so I need some method of cooling the system better

3. I'm looking into overclocking now, however there are a few things I don't know:

I: I'm worried that overclocking will wear the system down really fast, when messing around with the settings could I screw up my computer really badly?

II: In the bios I know I need to change the ram voltage for overclocking, however, it only displays the settting as default and then +.1v, +.2v etc... is there a way for me to see what my motherboard is actually using as the voltage because the ram requires 2.2v and I have heard people saying that my motherboard(p35-ds3r) sets the default voltage(what it's at now) to 1.8 so I don't know what to do about that one.

III. I have also heard that some programs are really inaccurate at telling temperature readouts for the system/cpu/video card. What programs should I use to monitor temps while in windows so I can see I'm not destroying my computer.

IV. Finally, what are ok temperatures to keep all my parts at?


I know it's a lot so if you could answer maybe one or two I'd be greatful, I'll post this on some other forums too. Btw my system is all stock settings:

-8800 ultra
-q6600 at 2.40(stock)
-2 gb crucial ballistix ram(800)
-centurion coolermaster case
-corsair 620w modular power supply
-p35-ds3r mobo
-seagate barracuda 7200 500gb hdd
-tuniq tower
-vista 64bit

 

[onlyCOpunk]

As far as your current temps go, I don't think that's too high. My system idles in the 50's as well. As far as heat thresholds for the rest of your system, check with the manuals or the manufacturers website.

There should be no qualms about leaving your computer on overnight, it's a machine afterall, it's not just going to say to itself one day "hey I'm tired" and turn off. If you are annoyed by the noises it makes or just don't need to keep it on all night then by all means turn it off.

And with overclocking you wont unnoticeably ruin your system. If it doesn't like a setting it will let you know either by turning itself off, or not posting, or just acting funny. It appears you have a beast of a machine, why you want to overclock is still a mystery to me, but it sounds like you need to do a little more research into the subject before you step into anything over your head.

 

[rabakill]

yeah I'm just testing the waters right now before I actually change anything. The system runs pretty good except for of course.... on crysis. I'm getting max 25 fps and extreme stutter at 1280x1024 so I'm trying to optimize my computer as much as possible.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

The stutter is normal. From what I've heard and read, hardware that can play Crysis flawlessly hasn't even been released yet so as far as consumer hardware it's still got a ways to go.

Just make sure you are know what you are getting yourself into. You have no idea how freaked out I got the first time I pushed my system too far and it refused to post. It was a pain in the ass to get it working correctly again, I had to open it up, switch the BIOS jumper to Clear CMOS and remove the battery. After that I decided all that trouble wasn't worth the 2-5% gain in performance. But I'm not sure about your hardware and it's OC limits. It would be good to know so that you at least have ocing "guidlines"

 

[rabakill]

I've heard of the q6600 going beyond 3 ghz on the p35's. As well I think I'm going to get 2 more gigs of the same ram from ncix, it's 50$ right now. If I overclock gpu/cpu/ram all a little bit I think I should be able to get up to atleast 35fps in crysis.