New PC check(update 2 w/ pics)

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-09-07 12:07pm

Ace Pace wrote:Source for UT2K7 having DX10 out of the box? I've heard about PHYSX support, but not DX.

I know at the very least it will be patched in (that was in one of the E3 interviews, IIRC), but since the game has been pushed back into 2007, and based on the rumor mill (take with salt) has been saying, it might ship with DX10 support. Like I said - its possible.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-07 08:48pm

Just going w/ the 500Watt PSU, might get graphics card later- I'll just limp along w/ a PCI Radeon 9250 until G80 based cards come out(which I hear will suck a large amount of power), after which I'll just transfer that card to an older machine. I do need a machine to do work on, but probably won't be gaming this semester due to workload anyway.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-17 06:17am

Well, it arrived- also got a 1999 IBM model M keyboard w/ trackpoint aswell.

Unfortunatly the IDE controller isn't compatible w/ Ubuntu, so I'm now a gentoo user

Rather concerned about overclocking- motherboard sensor reports a temperature of 60C while idle... the heatsink does seem cool to the touch though. I hear these sensors are inaccurate anyway. Motherboard temp seems to be a reasonable 40C

Regardless of it's cooling ability, it's still rather loud. Any recs for a cooling solution? Looking at Scythe Infinity.

Pezzoni · Post by **Pezzoni** » 2006-09-17 07:44am

Pu-239 wrote:Rather concerned about overclocking- motherboard sensor reports a temperature of 60C while idle... the heatsink does seem cool to the touch though. I hear these sensors are inaccurate anyway. Motherboard temp seems to be a reasonable 40C

See if there is a BIOS update avaliable - they somtimes fix innacurate sensor readings?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-17 09:45am

BIOS update should fix it.

If the CPU fan is noisy, check if it has a variable speed configuration, either go for one that changes acording to tempature, or manual control.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-17 09:38pm

Already at the latest bios. I suspect this could be the actual temperature (Core Temp gives the same readings). Just running at stock until I'm more sure about the temperature status (I'm getting compile errors trying to compile STLport, and kind of leery of increasing voltage until I can get better cooling). Setting fan at maximum only reduces the temp by ~4C, but leaving it there for safety.

EDIT: Just went ot 333, upped vcore to 1.4, seems to compile STLport stably now.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-17 11:43pm

Can you post your exact specs now, including memory speed? You should be lowering your HT multiplier to keep HT speed below 1000mhz and DDR straight at 400mhz.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-18 02:30am

Huh? There's no hypertransport on an intel machine.

Anyway,
E6400 Core 2 Duo, 2.13GHz, stock HSF
OCZ Platinum DDR-800 rated for 4-4-4-15
Asus P5B Deluxe
Radeon 9250 PCI, 256MB RAM (yeah, old, waiting for G80, and meanwhile the 9250 is the best card w/ open source Linux drivers, and was cheap to boot).
250GB Western Digital SATA
500Watt Enermax PSU (overkill too, but looking for expandability)
Lian Li PC-61 case (decent cooling)

Reset everything to stock now.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-09-18 06:29am

Pu-239 wrote:Huh? There's no hypertransport on an intel machine.

Anyway,
E6400 Core 2 Duo, 2.13GHz, stock HSF
OCZ Platinum DDR-800 rated for 4-4-4-15
Asus P5B Deluxe
Radeon 9250 PCI, 256MB RAM (yeah, old, waiting for G80, and meanwhile the 9250 is the best card w/ open source Linux drivers, and was cheap to boot).
250GB Western Digital SATA
500Watt Enermax PSU (overkill too, but looking for expandability)
Lian Li PC-61 case (decent cooling)

Reset everything to stock now.

Actually, IIRC, the nForce Intel machines do use hypertransport for northbridge-southbridge communication.

Anyway, I'd double check that you got all the mounting pins in on your heatsink. On the stock heatsinks, they can look and feel like they're in when there not, and that would also cause the high temperature reading your seeing. I had the same thing happen on a P4 system at work.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-18 06:37am

If you're using an nForce based intel machine, you should HT and that is another bus to watch for when overclocking. And regarding DDR2, then just try to keep it within stock speed even while moving stuff around.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-09-22 01:25am

Well, got my Scythe Infinity- that thing is huge (large enough to obstruct removal of motherboard tray and cables w/ it attached). Huge lowering of temperature.

Overclocked my FSB to 400MHz, so CPU now running at 3.2GHz (stock was 2.13). It does appear that the Asus motherboard sends too much voltage by default, even at stock speeds, hence the high temperatures. I seem to be stable at 1.30V.

Anyway, running Orthos (http://sp2004.fre3.com/) for 20 minutes so far, temp seems stable at 58C.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-09-22 01:55am

There's no nForce on this Intel machine. It's a intel P965 chipset.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-22 03:23am

That case is pretty....

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-13 04:33pm

Well, after RMAing CPU and motherboard, much much lower temps (15-20C!)- last one must have come from a bad batch (60C and occasionally over on stock cooler at stock speeds when maximum safe limit is 61 is unacceptable). So now have it OCed to 3.2GHz, w/ heat maxing out at 57C when using the thermal analysis tool - it's ~52-53 when just maxed out as opposed to being deliberately heated w/ the TAT
I'll probably downclock it to 3.0GHz to reduce noise though.

Now, waiting for DX10 cards to come out- the Radeon 9250 (PCI ugh) is noticibly inadequate for running AIGLX .

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-13 04:34pm

Ace Pace wrote:That case is pretty....

Unfortunately the blue LED is excessively bright- like staring into the sun - you can see it project a blue circle 2 feet away in daylight. And the buttons are painted gray plastic, so a nick looks gray (nothing black paint can't solve).

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-14 12:56pm

Well, Orthos on blend fails after 9 hours- should I bother increasing voltage or is 9 hours good enough?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-10-14 12:58pm

Increase voltage. Because 9 hours means at some point, it will use some part of the chip that will crash. Possible steps:

Lower OC by a few MHZ, rerun tests, if stable, go back up with increased voltage.

Monitor the rest of the system, is the memory in sync as much as possible, maybe the chipset is at blame.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-14 01:56pm

Memory is at 750- it's rated for DDR 800 (as the next highest setting is >900 , and I'm being conservative) . At new voltage, TAT maxes out at 57C . Northbridge (I assume this is the "motherboard" sensor) is running at 36C.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2006-10-14 01:59pm

Which memory did you go with again? I have Corsair XMS DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 2.1v running at DDR2-890 4-4-4-12 at 2.15v. I've seen people push Corsair, OCZ and GSkill RAM up to DDR2-1000 at these timings with just slightly more voltage (upwards of 2.25v or 2.3v, at which case you'll need to insure air is moving over the heatspreaders).

Something to keep in mind once your CPU is stable.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-10-14 02:00pm

Try going down the memory, do you have a reason for crash or were temps stable all around? It could be the memory dying.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-10-14 02:35pm

Goddamn that's a huge heat sink

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-14 02:58pm

Arrow wrote:Which memory did you go with again? I have Corsair XMS DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 2.1v running at DDR2-890 4-4-4-12 at 2.15v. I've seen people push Corsair, OCZ and GSkill RAM up to DDR2-1000 at these timings with just slightly more voltage (upwards of 2.25v or 2.3v, at which case you'll need to insure air is moving over the heatspreaders).

Something to keep in mind once your CPU is stable.

OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 Rev 2 rated for 4-4-4-15

I don't feel like overclocking the RAM and sticking a fan on, the case fans are loud as it is.

I think it's the CPU, I'll run orthos w/ the CPU at 1.4v then I'll check the RAM.

Temp at load is around 53C, idle is 42C (this is w/ speed control enabled and stock scythe infinity fan).

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2006-10-18 10:55pm

Well, runs stable for 15 hours running dual prime torture test on Linux- CPU rather hot though at 3.0GHz, but I do have my fans turned down (and my Scythe is using the stock fan- I'll upgrade that when I get a new GPU a few months down to save on shipping so I can clock to 3.2- the 120mm fan doesn't make any noise while maxed out, it's the 4 80mm case fans that do).

CPU is at 1.4V, FSB at 377MHz (so CPU is at 3016MHz), PCI locked to 33MHz, PCI-E at 100, Speedstep is disabled (Linux has issues w/ this enabled and overclocked simultaneously), RAM set to 4-4-4-15, running slightly below spec but 1:1. RAM running at 1.95, probably could/should be set lower or auto since it's running underspeced. Everything else is on auto.