ThePotsy

Any critiques?

MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
CPU: Intel C2 Quad Q9550 2.83ghz
Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9500
GPU: Asus EN9800GT 512mb 256bit
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 (2x2gb)
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750w
OS: Windows XP Pro 64
Case: Lian Li PC-7B plus II

Fans:
120mm Front Exhaust, Low
120mm Rear Intake, High
Heatsink Fan, Pushing Towards Rear Intake
PSU Fan, Intake Above Heatsink




(Here you can see the large PSU fan intake above the heatsink)


Factory Clocking
Idle Temps
Core 1: 27
Core 2: 31
Core 3: 32
Core 4: 32
GPU: 55

Stressed Temps w/ OCCT
Core 1: 63
Core 2: 58
Core 3: 61
Core 4: 57
GPU: 78

@ 3.0ghz (8.5 x 353mhz @ 1.3v)
RAM @ 706mhz 5/5/5/18 @ 2.1v
Idle Temps:
Core 1: 34
Core 2: 33
Core 3: 35
Core 4: 33

Stressed Temps:
Core 1: 60
Core 2: 57
Core 3: 59
Core 4: 55
* averaged mid 50's

@ 3.5ghz (8.5 x 412mhz @ 1.3v)
RAM @ 824mhz 5/5/5/18 @ 2.1v
Idle Temps:
Core 1: 39
Core 2: 39
Core 3: 39
Core 4: 37
*Average high 30's

Stressed Temps:
Core 1: 71
Core 2: 65
Core 3: 68
Core 4: 65
*Average mid 60's, but saw anywhere from 60-70

@ 4.0ghz (8.5 x 471mhz @ 1.3v)
RAM @ 942mhz 5/5/5/18 @ 2.1v
Idle Temps:
Core 1: 45
Core 2: 44
Core 3: 44
Core 4: 41

When I stress tested this, OCCT said it detected an error on core three, temps were okay, in the mid 60's, nothing out of the ordinary in the logs. Any ideas? I don't really plan on running @ 4ghz, but I was just curious what this thing was capable of.

My fan setup is wrong at the moment right? What I wanted was the rear fan to exhaust, and the front fan to intake. I thought it was backwards, so I flipped the fans, but they were right in the first place. I'm planning on adding an 80mm to the top of the case.

And also, from what I've read, the 9800GT runs a bit hot? Sometimes @ mid 80's? Is there any way to make it run a bit cooler?

Thanks in advance.

Phædrus2401

Try raising the VCore when at 4.0GHz, the Wolfdale chips are rated for 1.35V and some people run them at 1.38-1.4V (though I personally wouldn't take the risk).

4.0GHz would be a pretty good overclock, doubt you'd get a lot higher than that without going over 1.35V. The average seems to be between 3.7GHz (445x8.5) and 4.0GHz (475x8.5).

greenbrucelee

try stressing with prime 95 for 7 hours whilst monitoring the temps. Seems like your doing quite well with your overclock.

greenbrucelee

you could buy a gpu cooler to replace the stock fan on the card although mid 80s isn't that bad imo.

linderman

nice looking job!!

personally I think 4.0ghz is pushing your quad a tad hard, for 24/7 use I would stick to 3.6 or 3.8 I highly doubt you will see any diff in REAL WORLD use between 3.6 and 4.0

ThePotsy

Thanks, nice to hear considering this is my first build ever.

I'm actually going to drop it downtown 3.2ghz, everything is running awesome so I figured why stress the CPU when don't need too.

I also fixed my fans, so the intake is in the front, exhaust in the rear, and the Zalman is pushing the air TO the exhaust, instead of having it exhausting into the intake air.

Next up is an 80mm fan on top, and two more sticks of OCZ.

And that wil be it.

For now...

greenbrucelee

you may get issues with adding two more dimms of OCZ you may have to tweak voltages, it's generally better to just use 2 dimms.

linderman

as stated above / overclocking = two sticks of memory anymore than 4 gigs of memory is a waste regardless of 32 or 64 bit OS



unless someone can some me a "viable" senario of the task manager showing more use than 4 gigs ?

we had a staffer who ran an insane number of programs simultanosuly (something like 23) to achieve 3.25 gigs used with a quad core cpu...........who in real life would ever do that as a normal working environment?