Upgrade for my gaming computer

[Veriitas]

Yeah, I got the G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Placed an order today, hope to receive them on thursday!

Is it easy to overclock an i5 2500k to 4.5 ghz?
And should a cooler like this do the job?:
Cooler master hyper TX3

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Coolermaster 212+ will do the job

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, I got the G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
Placed an order today, hope to receive them on thursday!

Is it easy to overclock an i5 2500k to 4.5 ghz?
And should a cooler like this do the job?:
Cooler master hyper TX3

It's very easy to get to 4.5. Just go into the BIOS and set the multiplier to 45. If you notice throttling under Prime95, give it some more volts.

The TX3 will do the job, but will probably be louder than you like.

 

[Veriitas]

Thanks, the width of my case is 18,5 cm... 7.3 inch.
Should it fit? I think the cooler master 212 plus is a little bit bigger than the TX3?

and if both fit, should I go with the 212 plus or TX3 regarding the noise

 

[mfenn]

Thanks, the width of my case is 18,5 cm... 7.3 inch.
Should it fit? I think the cooler master 212 plus is a little bit bigger than the TX3?

and if both fit, should I go with the 212 plus or TX3 regarding the noise

The 212+ is quite a bit bigger than the TX3 because it uses a 120mm fan instead of a 92mm one. Based on the width of your case, it should fit. The fan on the 212+ will not need to work as hard as the fan on the TX3, so it should be quieter as well.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yeah, bigger fan=more air flow which means shorter times that the fan will be on and at a lower RPM

 

[Veriitas]

I went with the TX3, and I am glad I didn't buy a bigger fan.
Don't think it would fit. If it makes too much noise, or if the airflow sucks,
I'll just buy a new case with a new fan. The TX3 was only 10 dollar.

I didn't install it yet tho, I'm scared haha!
Don't wanna screw it up with the thermal paste.. first time..
Any tips, I tried the internet but nothing real usefull... they say a real thin layer?
But the paste looks so nasty when I look it up on youtube... how should I spread it over the heatsink?

 

[Puppies04]

I use a piece of cling film on the end of my finger (although i have never heard anyone else do this, i must be weird). Make sure you clean off any existing TIM from the CPU and the heatsink and apply an amount about the size of a grain of rice. Remember all you are lookng to do is even out any irregularities in the joint, you aren't making a jam sandwich .

 

[Googer]

Bulldozer should be released sometime in mid October, so keep holding out.

 

[Veriitas]

I use a piece of cling film on the end of my finger (although i have never heard anyone else do this, i must be weird). Make sure you clean off any existing TIM from the CPU and the heatsink and apply an amount about the size of a grain of rice. Remember all you are lookng to do is even out any irregularities in the joint, you aren't making a jam sandwich .

Haha thanks! I'll just give it a go!

@ Googer, I snapped and bought the Z68 and 2500k!:|

Someone offered 160 dollar for my Asus P5Q and Q8300, I couldn't say no^_^

 

[Googer]

Haha thanks! I'll just give it a go!

@ Googer, I snapped and bought the Z68 and 2500k!:|

Someone offered 160 dollar for my Asus P5Q and Q8300, I couldn't say no^_^

I would'nt have turned it down either!
i'll give you $170 for it all!

 

[Veriitas]

I would'nt have turned it down either!
i'll give you $170 for it all!

Soooorry, I sold it to a guy that lives in my town.
Aaaand I am from the Netherlands, so sending it to America, that's a no go:biggrin:

 

[mfenn]

I went with the TX3, and I am glad I didn't buy a bigger fan.
Don't think it would fit. If it makes too much noise, or if the airflow sucks,
I'll just buy a new case with a new fan. The TX3 was only 10 dollar.

I didn't install it yet tho, I'm scared haha!
Don't wanna screw it up with the thermal paste.. first time..
Any tips, I tried the internet but nothing real usefull... they say a real thin layer?
But the paste looks so nasty when I look it up on youtube... how should I spread it over the heatsink?

Don't try to spread the thermal compound out by hand. Just put a pea-sized amount in the middle and let the pressure of mounting the heatsink spread it out for you.

As a side note, the HSF might come with a pre-applied thermal pad. If it does, just use that.

 

[Veriitas]

I need some serious help this time!
I tried to install all components by myself...
But the motherboard did not come with additional adapters like my old P5Q..
The problems is, I don't know where to put my power button cable in..

I made some photo's to make it easier:

This is the powerbutton wire (click to make the photo bigger):


In the manual i received with the motherboard, it clearly indicates it's meant for only 1 pin.
But my case needs 2 pins to make the power button work.

Here is a photo of the manual:




Here are the pins on my motherboard that I need to use:





I got the same problem for my reset button... but the power button is the most important right now.. do i have to connect all the wires? Or should it also work with only the power button conncted

ALSO one last problem for now... Where do I connect my dvd drive?
I can't see anywhere on my motherboard to connect this wire:



Also is the one with the arrow on the wire a + or a -?
Thanks in advance!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Most motherboards have similar pin connectors. Two pins for Power SW, two pins for Reset, two pins for HDD LED, and some have three pins for Power LED, some have two pins.

Power SW and Reset SW are generally not polarized, although some are.
HDD LED and Power LED are polarized.

Board should have some markings which pins are which, and a + next to the ones that are polarized. Wires coming from case, colored wires are +, white or black wires are -.

If the cable from the optical drive is a wide, 40pin/80wire cable, then that's an IDE cable. Most Sandy Bridge/1155 mobos do NOT have an IDE port. (A few do.)

If yours does not have the IDE port, then you will just have to spend some money and pick up a SATA optical drive.

 

[lehtv]

The problems is, I don't know where to put my power button cable in..

For the power wire, put the arrow side into PWRBTN# and the other side (which should correspond to the white wire) into the GND next to it. For the reset switch, put the arrow side into REST# and the other side into the GND next to that.

ALSO one last problem for now... Where do I connect my dvd drive?
I can't see anywhere on my motherboard to connect this wire:

That's an IDE cable. It's not in use anymore except for legacy hardware compatibility. You need a DVD Drive that uses the SATA II interface.

Also is the one with the arrow on the wire a + or a -?

Arrow should be +ve. You can also look at the wire colors - white wire should correspond to -ve ( = ground on connections that don't use + and -, like power and reset switches).

 

[mfenn]

For the power wire, put the arrow side into PWRBTN# and the other side (which should correspond to the white wire) into the GND next to it. For the reset switch, put the arrow side into REST# and the other side into the GND next to that.

That's an IDE cable. It's not in use anymore except for legacy hardware compatibility. You need a DVD Drive that uses the SATA II interface.

Arrow should be +ve. You can also look at the wire colors - white wire should correspond to -ve ( = ground on connections that don't use + and -, like power and reset switches).

:thumbsup:

OP, for some more information, power and reset buttons are momentary switches, so the polarity doesn't matter, just that circuit is completed. This is why you can start the PC with a screwdriver. The LED's are diodes, so current will only flow in one direction, which is why polarity matters for those.

 

[Veriitas]

Thank you so much!!!
It worked! But the next problem showed up!

My videocard doesn't seem to work, the fan starts, but my monitor doesn't seem to recognize my videocard.. and when I look at my dvi connecter it seems some pins are missing..

I don't know how I lost them tho... or is this normal?:
Or did i just broke my motherboard/videocard??



EDIT: Googled, i got a DVI-A.. so not missing pins, but why doesn't my videocard work

 

[Veriitas]

On board videocard works tho! So it has to do something with the GPU.
I tried to put it in the second slot, but my GPU doesn't fit there (hard disk in the way)

>> sorry forgot to edit my earlier post.

Fixed! How?:
I bought a new dvd drive today, and moved a few SATA connectors.
I found out that one of the hard disks wasn't being recognized..
I switched a sata connector between hard disk and dvd drive and it worked!

 

[lehtv]

You're supposed to use a DVI-D cable. D as in Digital. The videocard DVI port outputs a digital signal which won't work with a DVI-A cable.

That DVI-A cable looks the way it should.

 

[Veriitas]

You're supposed to use a DVI-D cable. D as in Digital. The videocard DVI port outputs a digital signal which won't work with a DVI-A cable.

That DVI-A cable looks the way it should.

I have always used an DVI-A connector.
I got it with my videocard.

The cable from my monitor is actually blue, without pins..
The standard one... but I can't use that on my videocard, so I use that between the cable and the videocard.

 

[Veriitas]

Ok, everything works now!

Now I am ready to overclock. I wanted to just put the Ghz to 4.5.
But I've read that's not the way to go. I've googled to see how to do it.

Everyone is talking about voltage tho. I found this video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e04-5hjk-I&feature=channel_video_title

It sounds fine, but hey I have no clue. I just wanted to copy hes settings.
Is that ok? How do I found out if I have enough voltage?

 

[lehtv]

Is that ok? How do I found out if I have enough voltage?

By increasing the the multiplier incrementally, stress testing for a while (say, 30-60min Prime95), increasing again if it's stable, stress testing, etc. until you get errors at your voltage. At that point, you may already be at well over 4GHz with a 2500K (IIRC). If you know, from other people's experience, where the limit for a safe stock voltage OC is usually, you can set your multiplier to that right away.

When you get errors, you have two choices: 1) Increase voltage and stress test again, increase MHZ again, stress test again, increase MHZ and/or increase voltage.. etc. You shouldn't increase voltage by too much - someone else can help you with what too much means, exactly. 2) Decrease your overclock until it's stable.

The final stability testing will need to be a lot longer than just 30-60min. Several hours or even overnight. And if there are errors then you need to fine tune your overclock or voltage.

 

[Veriitas]

Oke... My temps are now (3.3 ghz no overclock):



It's only been 15 min, slowly increasing.. really slow.
Is this normal?

Edit: stable at 53 C now.

 

[lehtv]

Yes, temperature will increase fast in the first couple of minutes, then it'll start to slowly reach a plateau. 52C normal for a 2500K @ stock @ load.