[deviess]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to overclocking, never done it before and I would like assistance before I do anything.

Here's my system specs (EVERYTHING IS STOCK. I have not modified or replaced any parts and expected OC is low):
i7 950 @ 3.07GHz
ASUS P6X58D-E
Corsair TX650W
12GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz (Pt. No. CM3X2G1600C9B6)
Antec 600 Case
Sapphire Radeon HD5830 1GB

I intend to increase the performance of my computer a bit, obviously, with stock cooler not much but at least enough to make a bit of a difference.

I would rather use the BIOS settings as I know you can get more stable and better settings using that.

I assume it is best to switch off turbo boost?

My idle temp on the CPU at the moment is around 36C and the motherboard sits at about 32C.

Thanks!

(As a little extra, how do I stop Windows media player from opening at start-up? especially the network sharing sevice thing?)

 

[A1tecice]

Hello please before we go any further,

Make and wattage of your PSU?

Also if you are using the stock intel cooler i would strongly advise getting a different cooler as the standard ones are barely good enough for stock I7's.

 

[deviess]

Just so you know, the highest temp I got whilst rendering HD video and CPU being between 98-100% usage for about 5 mins at least, was 66C.

Also, I have the side of the case off, if that makes a difference. (room temperature currently at 21C but sometimes up to 24C usually more 21C thugh.

Thanks again!

EDIT: PSU is a corsair TX650W... made by corsair... and 650W.... it's stated in the specs. I know the stock cooler is a bad idea, that's why i pointed it out so much. I can't really afford to blow another £50+ on a good cooler.

 

[A1tecice]

Well most over clockers would say anything over 80C after over clocking is too high.
I have or never heard of anyone getting a substantial over clock using the stock cooler and i cant tell you how much i suggest you wait to buy a new cooler then over clock.

 

[deviess]

Ok, would 0.5GHz OC be pheasible? It's rare that my CPU actually hits 100% load as my video editing software actually only uses 60-70% and i don't tend to do much else whilst that's on. The case fans are actually only set on medium so I can turn them up and cool it more if it's necessary.

 

[A1tecice]

Well My I7 960 runs at 3.2GHz, i have overclocked it to 4GHz something like a 25% overclock. I am currently using a liquid coolant system to cool my I7 and even then while encoding HD or rendering my core can hit 75C.

Now if i overclocked my I7 by 0.8GHz and its running very warm then i would say a 0.5GHz overclock on a stock cooler is not pheasible atall no.

 

[deviess]

fair enuogh. what were your temps before OC though? and also, i say it's idle. it is running at 3.2GHz. I am assuming that it is because of the turbo mode. and a more accurate figure of temps for me is between 30C and 35C idle. under load, as i said, FULL load, was only 64-66C. The fan wasn't even spinning at full. maybe 70%? Noise isn't an issue fo me so spans spinning crazily won't bother me.

 

[A1tecice]

If your running it in turbo mode and its giving you an overclock you have already succeeded in overclocking the easy way . i would not advise pushing for more with a stock cooler though,

In relaton to your other question about windows media player.

Open your startbar

Type in 'msconfig' and open it.

now at the top there should be tabs click on services (make sure hide all microsoft services in unticked)

Scroll down untill you see 'Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service' click on that and click the box at the left side, then click apply and then ok... job done

 

[deviess]

Thanks for the media player thing. it enver used to bother me, but when i got this new rig a month or two ago, i started afresh with windows and this annoying thing happened. It killed my pc hen i still had that 100GB music on here.... cleared that off now and it uses about 40% RAM and 15% CPU... haha.

And to the Overclocking, I've read a few places on forums (googled: i7 950 stock cooler oc) that say you can get a stable 4GHz OC with the stock cooler. if all I'm after is 3.6GHz, that should be very easy should it not?

Could you help anyways? if i feel my temps get too high I will just put it down a bit.

 

[A1tecice]

Well remember what i said about 80C max!.

There is probably a very simple way to achieve 3.6GHz.

What you can try is (assuming you know about bios) is load up your Bios and in your CPU settings keep turbo on, and turn up your BCLK Frequency up in small ammounts checking each time that you can boot into windows. If you cant or it will not boot atal there are a few things that you can try, 1) turn up your Vcore (again by small ammounts were talking like0.005V at a time or turn down your RAM speeds.

But please! before you attempt to do this google around abit for your core and check how other people over-clock, yours may well be slightly different to mines.

Also when you are happy and your PC seems stable there are a few tests you should run.

Download and run Prime95 in 'blend' mode for at least a few hours.

 

[deviess]

thanks! could you paste a link for prime95 please?

Will google a bit more but will then try fiddling around. Thanks for the tips. If anyone has more info, please share it.

 

[A1tecice]

Here you go.

http://mersenneforum.org/gimps/p64v2511.zip

 

[deviess]

Thanks. Haha! i was going to say something like: i like the way you just assume i have 64 bit. but then i thought... wait, i told you i have 12GB of RAM... 32 bit would not be stupid, it would be ubelievably dumb! haha!

Anyways, the figures are looking good. I tried an OC up to 3.56GHz and that looked very good. I had BCLK at 155 and the multi as 23. then i pushed that up to 160 and 24 and I have a so-far, stable looking 3.84GHz. Now to test it with prime95. a few hours should be nice to heat up my room a bit! hehe.

a couple of pics to show what i'm getting atm.

EDIT: ok, looks like prime95 killed it. I was out of the room when it happened though. Should I increase the Vcore or just lower my other settings?

 

[A1tecice]

trying bumping the Vcore up a little and rerun the test, also check to make sure you RAM isisnt running at stupid speeds i only managed to get mine from 1888 to 2000Mhz max and i have 12gb dominator as well .

If it still fails under-clock down until it gets stable.

 

[deviess]

What I did was underclock for now, it died on me whilst blowing up 100k tnt in minecraft. hahaha. though when I underclocked the processor, I actually overclocked my RAM. It was running at 1604MHz with the 3.8GHz OC but it's now running at 3.4GHz with RAM at 1700MHz. That's a 100MHz increase on stock. Is this acceptable? or will my RAM burn out? RAM voltage is set to 1.65V btw. I think this stuff runs at 1.5V but I'm not sure. It is certainly rather hot to the touch, but it has ALL been used a lot for a bit and it always used to be quite warm.

Anyways, i will try bumping up the Vcore a notch at a time and see what happens. hopefully I won't burn out my CPU. it hit 73C after quite a while on the test, then it failed about 20 seconds later. unfortunately, that's when i'd left my room.

Also, does this look good? i've read good stuff about it and it isn't that expensive.

Cooler Master V8 and will it fir in my antec 600?
Could you suggest the best thermal paste too please?

 

[deviess]

Well, I have now overclocked to what seems to be a stable, 3.8GHz. The screenshot was with prime95 running for 2 and a half hours. It may not be long enough to be certain it's stable, but i'm happy with it. I added 2 notches onto the Vcore voltage and that has kept it going nice, i assume that this will not have much of a long term affect on my processor? althugh I am going to buy the V8 and then OC a bit more.


Could I maybe get a hint on how to OC my GPU a little bit more?

I have a sapphire 5830 and the AMD overdrive thing just causes countless problems.

 

[A1tecice]

No 100Mhz is fine for your ram, i have overlocked mine by like 200, if its stable enough for you then i dont see a problem with it.

As with any overclocking it will shorten the lifespan of your ram and cpu depending on how much you overclock will determine by how long you have shorted it. I know people who have overclocked there dual cores to 4GHz and have been fine for 4 years.

Yes that coolermaster V8 seems good, for thermal paste you get what you pay for basically .

With your GPU i dont know i never overclock my GPU's as i feal you dont ever need to.

 

[deviess]

Thanks. I forgot to add the screen so it is on this post.

The v8 is ordered, should get here by the 20th. for thermal paste, it comes with some, but will it be good enough? or should I go out and buy some proper stuff. To clean the old intel stuff off, should I buy some proper cleaner for that or would something else suffice? like nail varnish remover or something?

A 5830 is a very good card, unfortunately, it's not up to par with the similarly priced new cards. I was just wondering if it's possible to OC it to make it just a little bit better.

 

[A1tecice]

Yes it is possible to to OC your GPU but if your software wont let you do it, take the hint

Yeah go out and buy proper thermalpaste

 

[deviess]

I'll check out some good thermal paste, what stuff do you advise? there's so much out there and i'm no expert with this stuff.

The GPU OC problem is that if you even have AMD overdrive enabled, there are a lot of glitches on the screen. and if you have dual screen set up it's worse. what use is the pci-e frequency change thing for? is that something to do with GPU OCing? ah, too many options in my BIOS. haha, good thing though.