New build advice please

deconduo

PSU is way way overkill, you won't use anywhere near 850W for a single 6950. Something like this would be all you need:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-silverstone-sst-st50f-es-strider-80-plus-80-eff-sli-crossfire-34db-eps-12v-120mm-fan

Also this is probably a better case:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-haf-912-plus-black-mid-tower-case-w-o-psu

The Antec 600 is pretty dated, and wasn't the greatest choice even when it first came out.

Monotype

I would advise against the vertex 2 because 1) the vertex 3 will be out very soon (listed at £238.94, but it should push down other prices even if you don't want it) and 2) because it is only 115GB.

If you need an SSD now, the crucial 128GB is the same price, more than 10GB more and it has fantastic read speeds (write speeds are worse but it's the read that you will definitely notice/use the most).
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb-crucial-realssd-c300-mlc-flash-25-ssd-sata-6gb-s-read-355mb-s-write-140mb-s

C400 AKA M4 will be out soon too.

+1 about the PSU - do you plan crossfire?

Dcully

Thanks guys.

Fnz

That Gigabyte motherboard is not suitable for dual GPU setups, should that matter to you. Also Gigabyte have held onto the old-school BIOS whereas most other manufacturers have gone with, arguably, the more user-friendly "UEFI".

The Asus P8P67 Pro Rev3 reviews well, features UEFI, and is suitable for dual GPU systems. It's slightly cheaper than usual (£138) on Scan's "Today Only" page. A £125 alternative would be the MSI P67A-GD55 B3.

You can compare features between the P67 boards here: [Link]

Dcully wrote: »

Any thoughts on a cooler for the cpu?
Something not too big and i suppose easy to install

One that will fit over that ridiculous RAM heatsink... not that I can talk.

The height of the ram may obstruct after-market coolers. Speaking of which, I've heard good things about this one: [Link]

Dcully

Just to update on this and thanks to all for advice.
Final spec below.
Im wondering what temps are deemed safe for my cpu under 100% load?
Currently OC`ed to 4.7 ghz
After about 5 mins running prime 95 im seeing temps reach max of 85c @ 100% load [only on 2 cores , about 75 on other 2], 25-30c @ idle.
I realize ill rarely hit max load while gaming anyways but id like to know whats a safe temp under 100% load.




Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case
600W Corsair CMPSU-600CX Builder Series 80% Eff'
Asus P8P67 Rev3 P67
Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked 1155 Sdy Bridge QuadCore OCed to 4.7Ghz
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus 4 Heat Pipes with 120mm Quiet Fan
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered CAS 9-9-9-24 XMP 1.50V
XFX ati radeaon 6950 2 gb
Pioneer DVR-S19LBK 24x DVD±R 12x DVD±DL DVD+RW x8/-RW x6 RAM x12
120GB OCZ Technology Vertex 2E 2.5" Sandforce SSD
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 SATA 3Gb/s 7200rpm 32MB Cache 8.9
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Some pics here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=71931743&postcount=738

Serephucus

Intel says 72.6°C, so I'd say 75 under Prime95 would be your target.

game4it70

After 5 mins only of prime there to high.What Vcore are you using?

Dcully

Serephucus wrote: »

Intel says 72.6°C, so I'd say 75 under Prime95 would be your target.

Cheers mate,seems i might try drop it to 4.5ghz to see how that goes.

Scan built it in the end and done the overclocking.
Long story but basically there was a delay with my order and no replies to my many query emails so i cancelled the order only for some system build manager to email me to ask if he could ring me to apologize and offer a reduction,i decided to hear him out.
The upshot of which was they offered to build,overclock, and deliver for
€910 inc VAT.
I had decided to get them to build it which came to a total of €1250, as an apology they knocked off €340 and shipped it on day of chat with the manager.
Fair play to them in fairness,im happy anyways

Dcully

game4it70 wrote: »

After 5 mins only of prime there to high.What Vcore are you using?

Im not sure , ill take a look i the morning and reply.
With that mobo it looks like OC`ing will be simply enough even for a noob like me :P

Serephucus

If you're not sure what vCore you're running, download HWMonitor, and it'll list VCORE under Voltages. If we know what that is we can help you. Odds are the Scan people were lazy and just maxed the vcore from the start.

game4it70

Dcully wrote: »

Im not sure , ill take a look i the morning and reply.
With that mobo it looks like OC`ing will be simply enough even for a noob like me :P

Yeah do that as tbh from what i have read the SB cpus seem to pretty cool even at high clocks so it looks like Vcore could be high or termal paste application isn't quite right.

Dcully

HWMonitor is showing CPU VCORE of 1.14V min 1.52V max and 1.14V current.

game4it70

Dcully wrote: »

HWMonitor is showing CPU VCORE of 1.14V min 1.52V max and 1.14V current.

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if true) :eek:

Very bad for your cpu's health at that.

Try cpuz to see what that says.

Serephucus

And that's with vdroop... Jesus. You shouldn't need anything above 1.4 for 4.7.

Dcully

CPUZ is showing core voltage of 1.152v but changes to 1.160v at times.

Can you explain why the Vcore shown by HWMonitor is bad please, like i say i never really overclocked before.

game4it70

Dcully wrote: »

CPUZ is showing core voltage of 1.152v but changes to 1.160v at times.

Can you explain why the Vcore shown by HWMonitor is bad please, like i say i never really overclocked before.

have you run prime while watching cpuz?
Hwmonitor may still be right but sometimes software readings can vary between programs.

Dcully

Now HWMonitor is showing CPU VCORE of 1.15 currently beside it it says min 1.15v and ax 1.38v

Dcully

1.520V on CPU-Z while running prime 95

Serephucus

When you overclock, you push a chip past what its usual speed is. This speed increase gives you increased performance, but it also gives you increased heat, and increased instability. These two things need to be countered.

That's where a good cooler comes in. It can disappate the heat a lot better, resulting in cooler temperatures. To counter the instability, we have to increase the vcore (this is basically just the voltage supplied to the processor), doing this however increases the heat, and we're back to the good cooler again.

As you can imagine, OCing is all about finding a balance. You're either going to be limited by heat, voltage, or something external, like cheap memory or a bad motherboard. The latter two aren't too common, so they can be ignored.

For instance, the heat limit for your processor specified by Intel is 72.6°C. This means that if you see anything about 75° in Prime95, you should either invest in a better cooler, faster fans, or dial back your overclock (be that with speed, or voltage).

Now, one thing you have to keep in mind, is that there is a minimum voltage for every speed. Usually, Intel overestimates voltage - which is why some people can get to almost 4.0GHz on stock voltage. If you get an error when stress testing, you need to either increase your voltage, or lower your speed.

The two most important pieces of advice I can give you for OCing are:

1) Take your time. Don't rush it, and remember to test properly.
2) Only change one thing at a time. Believe me, you'll save yourself a lot of hasstle this way.

game4it70

Dcully wrote: »

1.520V on CPU-Z while running prime 95

Ok then you need to lower Vcore as that may well do alot of damage and worst case kill it.

Thats a good post by Serephucus and to add to it here is a good post/voltage guide.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227651&highlight=max+safe+temp

Monotype

That's very generous of scan. I hope they delay my stuff next time and give me a similar deal!

Dcully

Currently OCed to 4.4Ghz and temps dont rise above 65c.
I used one of the presets in the neat utilities that came with the mobo, im sure if i do it manually i can get more out of it while keeping temps near the sweet spot but for now im happy to sit on 4.4ghz.

game4it70

Thats much better and safer too