My Results.

[Pez D Spencer]

Heres my results. My system specs are:

Asus A8N32-SLI mobo
Opteron 170 cpu @ 2.5GHz 1.425vCore
Zalman CNPS9500 HSF
2GB Corsair XMS PC3500 @ 250MHz 2.5-3-2-7 2.7vDIMM
Dual eVGA 7800GT video cards
Ultra X-2 Connect 550w PSU

I really haven't overclocked anything in the past except my video cards so a couple of weeks ago I was totally new to overclocking. I have built quite a few systems in the past and worked as a PC tech for awhile but overclocking was and is still a new frontier for me.

I understand how the process of overclocking works now, but I will admit that I didn't try setting after setting to find the best overclock. Someone on here responded to a post of mine awhile ago and said that they have the same mobo/cpu/memory setup as me and told me their results. At first I went about overclocking my system in the normal way but I soon realized that it was going to take a LONG time to do it that way. Finally I just decided to jack my system up to what he is running. I guess that proably wasn't the smartest thing to do, and I could probably get more out of this system than I have, but Im satisfied with a 25% OC. I mean, Im not gonna sweat 200 or 300MHz more. FEAR, Doom 3, and Quake 4 run maxed out and thats all that really matters to me anyway. Of course, I probably could run all my games at max even if I didn't overclock a thing but I didn't drop all this cash to run at stock speeds. I'm by no means an expert when it comes to OC'ing but I would guess that if I jack things up any higher than I would have to sacrifice my RAM timings. Plus I didn't jack the vCore up any so I didn't think that I would really damage anything by just plugging the other guys settings in.

As far as the vCore voltage thats what the mobo was running by default. I just lowered the HTT multi down to 4x, cranked the HTT up to 250MHz, put the vDIMM to 2.7 like the other guy did, (I don't know what the vDIMM was before I set it to 2.7 but the BIOS said to not go beyond 2.9 so I assumed it was safe), and put my timings the same as the other guy at 2.5-3-2-7.

I haven't ran Prime95 or Memtest at all but I've played a few hours of FEAR and Quake 4 and had no problems whatsoever. I guess it's all good. I might run Prime95 or Memtest later but as long as my games run smoothly then I'm not really gonna worry about it too much.

I have a Lian-Li PC-65 case with 4 80mm fans in it and I think that is keeping my temps a little high. When I take the side of the case off the temps drop a good 4 or 5 degrees. I'm idling at about 41 or 42 but when running FEAR it only goes up to about 45. Im using Arctic Silver 5 and at the suggestion of a person who responded to another one of my posts, I took the heatsink off, tweaked the retaining bracket a little so I would get better pressure, cleaned the AS off and reapplied. No difference. It was worth a try though. I read a few reviews before getting this heatsink that said some of them were concave. I checked mine and its not concave. Im still saying its the case driving the temps up a little. The same dude that told me to tweak the bracket claims that he has a CNPS9500 and was idling at 25 and 40 under load with an Opteron 170. Im no expert but I find 25 a little hard to believe but thats what he said.

In my case, even though it has 4 80mm fans, the front two are blocked by the drive cage and the top fan is blocked by the PSU wires. The rear fan is pretty much all that is wide open. For this reason I regret getting this case but is a badass case and I love it. Its beautiful. I will never buy anything but Lian-Li cases in the future.

Anyway, like I said before I could probably get more from this system but I ain't gonna lose sleep over it. a 25% OC is good enough for me especially since I can keep my RAM at 1:1 and have such low timings.

A few people have trashed my PSU choice and say that its no good. All the reviews I read before getting it said it was a good PSU. Plus its chrome and modular. Not to mention the UV reactive flex-force cables. I know that it all boils down to the performance of the PSU and asthetics aren't what matter but I've had no problems in the several days I've been using it. Asus Probe reports steady voltages.

So I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks to all the people who gave me advice/help before and after buliding this new system. Especially you keldog7.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Markbnj]

Not a bad result. There is no way to know whether your vDIMM really has to be that high. The normal best practice here is to find out the limits for the important subsystems, i.e. how high will the cpu go, how fast will the memory run, independently, and then consolidate the results. You do this by tweaking one component up while keeping the multi/divider low so that the other component isn't stressed.

 

[Pez D Spencer]

Well, the rig passed Memtest and stayed stable for 10 hours of Prime95. I used the torture test with small FTT's and ran two instances of it then set the affinity for each CPU with task manager. Still running a little hot at 42 idle and 50 load but Its just the case. My Prescott runs over 60 with a load on stock cooling so 50 aint that bad IMO.

Heres a pic in case anyone wants to see how it turned out.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/273/rig8nf.jpg

 

[Markbnj]

Beautiful build, man. :thumbsup:

Very nice job.

 

[Pez D Spencer]

thanks.

 

[Markbnj]

By the way, you'll get quite a few comments if you post this under something like "My new build (with pics!)"

"My results" could refer to anything from a blood test to a date.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Nice build!

I'm not a fan of the UltraX connect, I've seen too many of them crash and take a lot of expensive equipment with them. There is a reason you can get them for $20 bucks after rebates. A lot of people have had no problem with them, but I wouldn't trust it, I suggest you upgrade it when possible

 

[lopri]

Pez, your rig is absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had the skill and patience to do a cabling job like that. heh.. Oh yah and I agree with other people on your choice of PSU.
Have you thought about water-cooling? I think your rig is perfect for water. (especially since the case has 80mm fans)

 

[Pez D Spencer]

I thought about water but I don't think I'm gonna sink anymore cash into this sytsem. I already spent about 1800 or so on it as it is. In about a year and a half or so I will build a new system and that one will definitely be water cooled. Im by no means a rich dude, I just like to blow cash on computer stuff. My wife who knows zip about computers said "all the money you spent on that thing, it should last at least five years". I had to laugh. Typically I just build a whole new system every year or so instead of upgrading little by little. I just like getting a whole new PC I guess.

My "old" system has a 3.0GHz P4, 1GB of PC4200 DDR2, an Intel D915GEV mobo (not overclockable but a good stable board), and an X600 Pro 256MB PCI-E card. I probably could have put a little more RAM in it and a better video card and had a decent system for some time to come, but like I said, I just like the "new PC" feeling. Im new to overclocking with this new rig and when I built the P4 machine I didn't really care about overclocking I just wanted a solid, stable machine. Thats why I went with the Intel board.

But anyway, thanks for the compliments lopri. At first I went with braided sleeving but found it too much of a hassle with the heat shrink and removing all the connectors. I said screw it and got the wire loom instead. It's a little more bulky but I like it and its MUCH easier to work with. I really dig flashy, loud colors so thats why I went with hot pink and neon green. I have a lavender/purple case for my other P4 machine and my wife says its "gay" but I like it. Even if it is "gay".

PS - I took your suggestion markbnj.

 

[bdww00]

i dont like the sli bridge looks phony asus gave you that? bsist lookin thing ive seen since sli came out besides those paddle cards

i have no room to talk i have 32bit 3000 9600se lol 1gb

nice 9/10 nothing handbuillt looks wise but as i said look at my specs