contactadam2002

Can I attribute my poor overclocking to the fact that at present, my PSU is 200w short of the necessary 700w power for this kind of system and is not a high quality PSU able to provide steadier voltages?
Assuming that for a successful overclock I need to increase the voltage beyond what this psu can supply. I have an OCZ midstream 700w on order. I know temperature can be an issue, but I turn the case on it’s side and remove the side panel (as this is not a permanent solution but increases airflow massively) just to see if it’s stopping me and it appears not to be a strong causal factor in this situation.

Am I supposed to have access to the CPU clock on my motherboard as I now have access to everything else?

Why does my motherboard only see the RAM as being 800mhz and not 1111mhz as is stated on the box (I thought there was a way to make it see this for 680i motherboards) and furthermore if I try to increase it to 1111Mhz it asks me to lower the settings by quite a bit. The overclocking potential for the RAM and possibly FSB is extremely mild whilst the CPU’s (via the multiplier) is based on the lack of airflow and overall heat..

How capable is my Zalman CNPS 9700 LED at overclocking a quadcore CPU (as it was not included on it’s CPU cooling list and at best is 52c idle) but I’m thinking of going for a more up to date cooler?

These are all my components and setup:
BFG Nforce 680i motherboard Intel QX6700 Quad core
4x1gb Corsair Dominator CM2X1024-8888C4D
Inno3D Geforce 8800GTX 500w
Xlico PSU
Zalman CNPS 9700 LED
4 regular sata HDD 2 DVD drives
1 front 12cm intake fan and 1 rear 12cm exhaust fan
WinXP SP3

A photo of my setup (in need of some extra cooling and cable tidies)

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/computer.jpg

My bios screen (CPU speed inaccessible)
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...0920091756.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...0920091757.jpg

The bios bootup screen
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...0920091764.jpg

greenbrucelee

First of all if you have crap psu the yes it could cause you issues.

second taking the side panel of the case actually creates more heat because the air flow doesn't have a proper direction to go in so its all over the place

Third There should be an option to set you ram (if your mobo can handle that speed in the BIOS.

Fourth 52 degrees c is too high, I get just past that with my core 2 duo overclocked to 4GHz

Fifth In your bios where you have it selected on the multiplier you generally just type the number i.e 09 or whatever you do not press enter or anything to select it. You will be ble to open those options somewhere along the way but maybe not in the parts you are looking in.

Sixth Have you bought ram that actually works on this motherboard?

Seventh You definetly need more cooling

Eigth you really need to get a decent cooler and not that one plus more wattage is essential.

Tyree

I would be cautious OC'ing that Mobo. Intel CPU's prefer Intel chipsets and very often do not play well with nvidia chips.
Filling all of the RAM slots can cause voltage issues.
The Zalman 9700 cooler you have should be quite capable.
What Xclio PSU (Model) are you using?

contactadam2002

With regards to the zalman cooler, the particular one that I have (9700 LED and not 9700NT) has been said by many people to be inadequate and looking further into this myself I tend to agree with them. My PSU is the 500W XCLIO X12P2S4.

greenbrucelee

you definetly need a better PSU corsair o seasnic and go for atleast 650 watts

contactadam2002

Gone for a 700w OCZ modstream pro and a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus cpu cooler. The case will soon be tidied with Velcro cable ties and all HDD's reclocated into a 4 in 3 5.25 bay with cooling.

greenbrucelee

OCZ aren't best PSUs but it should be ok. You should never skimp on a PSU as having a bad one can damage your system

contactadam2002

Well it got some good reviews, but it's better quality and more powerful than my xclio.

greenbrucelee

thats a definet