Newbie video cooling/overclocking questions

[nullpointerus]

OK, I'm new to this. My PC was originally built to act as a PVR, but I'm moving it towards a gaming machine. No laughing.

1. Maximizing current performance

I'm stuck with a nVidia 6200TC (256 MB), passively cooled. I can get a decent stable overclock on this card (350/550 -> 400/668) with idle/load temps of 42/62. I'm not sure which clock causes the problems, but if I go any higher I get random crashes in games.

I'm also using a MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum system board which I'm happy with. nTune's automatic overclocking managed to push the CPU from 1.8GHZ to 2.0GHz (air cooling), temps below 40 I think. It took the PCIe interface to 2800MHz, too. HT/Mem did very poorly - nearly stock timings required. But I had to remove nTune because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to its automatic profiles. It keeps the system overclocked when idle and other madness. *sigh*

(Yes, this setup is abysmal for gaming, but then again only the LEDs tell me the system's on ;-)

What's the best thing to overclock: CPU core, GPU core, RAM, GFX RAM, PCIe?

2. Upgrading to a 6800GS in a few weeks

I've got these two items on my wish list (keeping fingers crossed ;-)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130258
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186133

I want to keep the PC silent. I'm thinking with all that power (relatively speaking), I could get away with underclocking the card for work and overclocking for games.

However, I'm not sure how to install the cooler. I really don't want to damage the card! Can anyone give me a few tips to make the process go more smoothly?

I'm also not sure how to properly apply the thermal paste. I've built systems in the past, but I always used a credit card to put enough on to coat the thing. Recently, I replaced the system board of a s478 celeron system and got seemingly good results just using my (clean, dry) finger to apply a barely visible coating of the paste to the chip and heatsink (22 idle IIRC). What works best?

I'm also not too familiar with these VGA coolers. I think the one I picked has the right power connector, but how is it fastened? Does it use screws, pushpins, or something else entirely? Will the original thermal paste pose a problem?

Many thanks,

- nullpointerus

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
OK, I'm new to this. My PC was originally built to act as a PVR, but I'm moving it towards a gaming machine. No laughing.

1. Maximizing current performance

I'm stuck with a nVidia 6200TC (256 MB), passively cooled. I can get a decent stable overclock on this card (350/550 -> 400/668) with idle/load temps of 42/62. I'm not sure which clock causes the problems, but if I go any higher I get random crashes in games.

I'm also using a MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum system board which I'm happy with. nTune's automatic overclocking managed to push the CPU from 1.8GHZ to 2.0GHz (air cooling), temps below 40 I think. It took the PCIe interface to 2800MHz, too. HT/Mem did very poorly - nearly stock timings required. But I had to remove nTune because there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to its automatic profiles. It keeps the system overclocked when idle and other madness. *sigh*

(Yes, this setup is abysmal for gaming, but then again only the LEDs tell me the system's on ;-)

What's the best thing to overclock: CPU core, GPU core, RAM, GFX RAM, PCIe?

2. Upgrading to a 6800GS in a few weeks

I've got these two items on my wish list (keeping fingers crossed ;-)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130258
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186133

I want to keep the PC silent. I'm thinking with all that power (relatively speaking), I could get away with underclocking the card for work and overclocking for games.

However, I'm not sure how to install the cooler. I really don't want to damage the card! Can anyone give me a few tips to make the process go more smoothly?

I'm also not sure how to properly apply the thermal paste. I've built systems in the past, but I always used a credit card to put enough on to coat the thing. Recently, I replaced the system board of a s478 celeron system and got seemingly good results just using my (clean, dry) finger to apply a barely visible coating of the paste to the chip and heatsink (22 idle IIRC). What works best?

I'm also not too familiar with these VGA coolers. I think the one I ordered has the right power connector, but how is it fastened? Does it use screws, pushpins, or something else entirely? Will the original thermal paste pose a problem?

Many thanks,

- nullpointerus

I'm not entirely sure how the AS goes on for the nvidia series, but I have a rev. 3 for my 9800pro, and it is dead silent. It comes with some thermal goop, but I put some AS/5 under there and it seems to be fine. Seems to cool well, my MSI 9800pro does 450/400, up from 380/340, and my 9800np (RIP) did 480/380 on it.

 

[Icepick]

I have this AC Silencer and have been using it since January. IMO, it sucks. For the past month it's been making noises at start up. I think the fan is wearing out. To get it to quiet back down I have to tilt the PC to the side and jar the fan back into place. The thing is, the slot the fan blows air into fills with dust and there's no real way to keep it clean. I would not recommend it. I'm currently looking for an alternative to replace it with. Maybe a Zalman.

Check out this thread where a head-to-head comparison was performed between the AC Silencer and the Zalman VF700.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1743622&enterthread=y

 

[nullpointerus]

Thanks for the replies!

I did some reading in the comments section at NewEgg, and the thermal pad problems seem to have been fixed at least with NewEgg's stock. The fan reliability does bother me, but I've been very happy with Artic Cooling in the past. Besides, I think it may have been ordered already. ;-)

Thanks for the heads-up, though. If I hear fan noise, I'll know where to look and what to replace.