System Online!

[CosmicMight]

Finally got all the pieces and put everything together:
2500k
Gigabyte P67A-UD3
4 gig Ripjaws
Corsair A70
Nxzt Phantom w/ 140mm AeroCool front fan
Real SSD 64GB boot
VR ADFD 1500 150 GB primary storage
250 GB backup
EVGA GTX 285
Seasonic 620w Bronze

2500k is oc to 4.3 using Gigabyte Smart Tools (Twin Turbo setting)
Corsair A70:
Bios temp - 26 (stone cold)
Idle (using All CPU gadget+Core Temp):Cores range between 38-43
Passed 13 tests of Prime95:53-56 max
SC2: all settings maxed @ 19x12 - frame average went from mid 40's to high 80's :awe:

Questions:
At first, the All Temps gadget would only show the 4300Mhz speed with no apps running. Now it just reports 1521Mhz unless it's actually being stressed. Why the change?

Anyone know anything about Gigabytes Smart 6 Overclocking? I would like to know why it oc'd to 4.3 when a. bios shows a multi of 34 b. the "Twin Turbo mode" specifies an oc of 4.0 c. I turned off Turbo Mode in bios.

What do you think of these temps? This is my first oc, I believe the voltage is 1.306. Would I be better off just going into the bios and changing the multi to 43?

Here's a pic. Couldn't do anything about the 12v cable, was too short but I think it's pretty clean overall. You should have seen the clusterf**k of wires that my last system was, lol.

Comments welcome. Thanks!


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[Motorheader]

Can the cable be run under the notch for the 2 cards and then on top of the i/o ports? Does the fan spacing not allow that to happen? Either way it's a nice setup.

 

[Spike]

Dang, nice temps. My 2500k at 4.4 with the A70 (running at 1600rpm using the included resistor wires) hits 33c idle and 55-59c while gaming (BC2) and 64-67c under stress test (OCCT) load. Prime95 only got it up to 61c but still your temps are quite nice.

Did you end up using the resistor wires or are your A70 fans running at full speed?

 

[CosmicMight]

Can the cable be run under the notch for the 2 cards and then on top of the i/o ports? Does the fan spacing not allow that to happen? Either way it's a nice setup.

Perhaps - maybe I'll give that a try! And thanks!

Dang, nice temps. My 2500k at 4.4 with the A70 (running at 1600rpm using the included resistor wires) hits 33c idle and 55-59c while gaming (BC2) and 64-67c under stress test (OCCT) load. Prime95 only got it up to 61c but still your temps are quite nice.

Did you end up using the resistor wires or are your A70 fans running at full speed?

Actually the cores are running between 25-31 right now, my mistake. Perhaps I didn't do a Prime Test as stressful as the one you did, but it still wouldn't budge after 15 minutes+ at 100% from 53-55. Gaming was far lower.

Oh screw those dude, take them out, plug both fans into the y-adapter, and use them @2k. Fans on this thing are NOT loud unless you have some weird ocd or something

And thanks!

 

[Spike]

Perhaps - maybe I'll give that a try! And thanks!



Actually the cores are running between 25-31 right now, my mistake. Perhaps I didn't do a Prime Test as stressful as the one you did, but it still wouldn't budge after 15 minutes+ at 100% from 53-55. Gaming was far lower.

Oh screw those dude, take them out, plug both fans into the y-adapter, and use them @2k. Fans on this thing are NOT loud unless you have some weird ocd or something

And thanks!

Nah, I like mine quiet. I'm debating dropping the voltage further (I have them hooked to a fan controller) and seeing what temps I get as the setup is still somewhat loud. Unfortunately given how hot my office gets in the summer that will probably not suffice and I'll have to go back to the 'full' 1600 rpm speed.

I ran OCCT for an hour to get those mid to high 60's temps. I ran prime95 over night (9 hour run) and the highest I saw was 62c but that was using the asrock utility. I did not download anything that shows me all 4 core temps... what program do you use for that?

EDIT** Figured out the temp thing, just downloaded coretemp to see all 4 cores. You may want to try it with the resistor wires. I just did a quick 5 min prime run with and without the wires (so running at 1600rpm vs 2000rpm) and while the noise difference was very noticeable the temp difference was nill. My max was 59-63C (across the 4 cores) with and without the resistor wires attached.

Now, to be fair, the temps seemed generally to hover a few degrees cooler at the higher rpm but the spikes ended with the same highs. Also, coretemp seems to have random spikes not necessarily associated with actual load so that could skew the results, though this occured in both settings equally. The slower speed wins in my book

 

[CosmicMight]

I cannot hear the cpu fan at 2k, the 200mm fan on the top of the case is as loud or louder (which is not to say it's loud by any means). The extra cooling is worth far more than any perceived changes in sound to me - if your goal is zero sound from the fans, it's your system - power to you and I wish you luck with it. :thumbsup:
edit: the big gains with the A70 are at 2k...check out legit reviews or hardware canucks, i forget which, will try to get it for you later

Still ironing out the bugs with my system. Top case fan has dead leds but at least it still works.

While sleeping, I noticed the whole system had crashed, which was fixed by a reboot or two. Took off the Smart 6 oc and tried a manual oc of 42x and a 1.29 Vcore but system only shows as 3.6? If anyone can think of why this would be I'd appreciate it...obviously I need to head to Gigabyte's site and find out why their 4.0 oc setting is actually 4.3.

Checked event viewer, lots of registry nonsense from using my old copy of Works 2000, but I can't tell what caused the crash. Might wipe entire system again and start over - don't ask how many times I've done that already, lol. Let's just say that between using my old Creative sound card and Works 2000, I have learned that using 5+ year old parts + software in your new system is NOT a good idea.

I just don't think it's the oc that caused the crash. I oc'd again using Smart 6, only this time I'm going to run Prime95 for 3 hours or more while I go to the gym and run errands. Then I'm going to contact Nxzt and yell at them because the top of my case is no longer a pretty glowing blue.

 

[Spike]

...
edit: the big gains with the A70 are at 2k...check out legit reviews or hardware canucks, i forget which, will try to get it for you later
...

Thats odd, with my quick test I saw 0 gains from going to a higher RPM, just more noise. I look forward to that review if you can find it. I'll search around myself as well.

 

[996GT2]

FYI, your RAM is not set up correctly for dual channel. They should be in alternating slots instead of adjacent slots.

Also, if you overclock, check to see if your CPU can run at its overclocked speed after coming out of sleep. Several of us with Gigabyte P67 boards are having issues with CPUs underclocking after coming out of sleep.

 

[CosmicMight]

Thats odd, with my quick test I saw 0 gains from going to a higher RPM, just more noise. I look forward to that review if you can find it. I'll search around myself as well.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1389/6/

FYI, your RAM is not set up correctly for dual channel. They should be in alternating slots instead of adjacent slots.

Also, if you overclock, check to see if your CPU can run at its overclocked speed after coming out of sleep. Several of us with Gigabyte P67 boards are having issues with CPUs underclocking after coming out of sleep.

The funny thing is that I saw you tell someone else that, and I read (and re-read) the instruction manual to make sure I didn't do the same thing. "Hah, I'm cool, I'm A+ certified, I wouldn't do that!" Wrong - I did. Re-reading it now (I've already reinstalled the memory properly in the last 4 minutes, it's a reeeeaaaal tight fit with an A70 and Ripjaws) I see that you are indeed correct. Thanks!

Yeah, like I said above, I wonder why my proc speed is only 1500 Mhz until it's actually used. However, it has been going back to the 4300 that Smart 6 sets it at once more horsepower is needed. I did a final complete reinstall, everything went smoothly (even Works!) and I will be running Prime 95 all night.

After reading thru the various effects of settings under CMOS, I turned off ALL power management functions to avoid this already. Try it out.

Would still like to know why it's 4300Mhz as opposed to the 4000 Smart 6 specified, and why my straight multi + voltage oc in CMOS (42+1.29) only showed up as 3600Mhz if anyone knows...thanks!

 

[Spike]

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1389/6/

Thanks for the link.

Lets see, at stock difference is .75c at idle and 1.5c at load. With an OC the difference is 0 at idle and 1c at load... think I'll stick with low and the WAY less noise it produces. I can live with 1 more degree c

 

[CosmicMight]

Thanks for the link.

Lets see, at stock difference is .75c at idle and 1.5c at load. With an OC the difference is 0 at idle and 1c at load... think I'll stick with low and the WAY less noise it produces. I can live with 1 more degree c

Well, like I said earlier - it's your computer my friend. I don't agree with you about the noise. Doesn't bother me at all but I respect your right to your opinion.

Smart 6'd it back to 4301Mhz. Been running Lehmer primality double-check work (whatever the hell that is, I am a mathematical retard and do not understand the search for huge/strange prime numbers) for about 40 minutes now. There is one core that gets to 61, others will not go above 59.

 

[Spike]

Well, like I said earlier - it's your computer my friend. I don't agree with you about the noise. Doesn't bother me at all but I respect your right to your opinion.

Just means your case fans are louder than my yate loons running at 7v, and that case does not look as well insulated as my P180 though I bet your airflow is quite a bit better. Otherwise the noise difference would be unmistakable. Though to be fair my house is VERY quiet.

Your also taking to someone who went through 3 cases, 3 cpu coolers, and 4 different HDD's before I finally got my HPTC virtually silent. It can only be heard from ~1ft and that is only if you are concentrating on it. I value my silence

Smart 6'd it back to 4301Mhz. Been running Lehmer primality double-check work (whatever the hell that is, I am a mathematical retard and do not understand the search for huge/strange prime numbers) for about 40 minutes now. There is one core that gets to 61, others will not go above 59.

Stupid question but what is smart 6, a gigabyte tool? If you have the time (or even care) try running a 1h OCCT run which should be the default settings. With my setup that was the hottest I have ever seen hitting 67c max according to coretemp. I'd be curious for a more "apples to apples" comparison of max temps though based on your case stats your airflow should be much better. Not to mention that your build is WAY freaking cleaner than mine. I love this P180 case (had it for many years) but one area it sorely lacks (apart from airflow) is the utter lack of cabling options. It's almost impossible to make a clean build unless your way more patient than I am.

 

[VigilanteCS]

You could almost fit another motherboard in there! Very nice. Similar to my build that I just put together Monday. I like the P67-UD3 for the price. I was originally going to get a P8P67 Pro, but Microcenter was out and I wanted to leave with everything I needed to build an operting computer.

What kind of 3d mark scores do you get with your new machine?

 

[CosmicMight]

Just means your case fans are louder than my yate loons running at 7v, and that case does not look as well insulated as my P180 though I bet your airflow is quite a bit better. Otherwise the noise difference would be unmistakable. Though to be fair my house is VERY quiet.

Your also taking to someone who went through 3 cases, 3 cpu coolers, and 4 different HDD's before I finally got my HPTC virtually silent. It can only be heard from ~1ft and that is only if you are concentrating on it. I value my silence



Stupid question but what is smart 6, a gigabyte tool? If you have the time (or even care) try running a 1h OCCT run which should be the default settings. With my setup that was the hottest I have ever seen hitting 67c max according to coretemp. I'd be curious for a more "apples to apples" comparison of max temps though based on your case stats your airflow should be much better. Not to mention that your build is WAY freaking cleaner than mine. I love this P180 case (had it for many years) but one area it sorely lacks (apart from airflow) is the utter lack of cabling options. It's almost impossible to make a clean build unless your way more patient than I am.

Yes, I could tell with your first response you're a noise nut. It's all good, man.

Ran 1 hour OCCT run:

Cores 0+2: avg range 52-55, high of 56
Core 1: avg range 57-59, high of 60
Core 3: avg range 54-57, high of 58

Sorry, I closed the application before saving the charts

Smart 6 is the oc'ing app for the mobo. OCCT did show an oc of 4.090, the extra 300Mhz must be the Turbo Mode? Dunno and I'm convinced it's rock solid stable at this configuration so I don't care.

Thanks! You should have seen the inside of my old case, one of those full-tower Thermaltake Armors. Looked like someone threw a hand grenade in there. I am very pleased with the Phantom, I plan on upgrading in another 2-3 years (as opposed to 5) and will most likely be keeping the case through the next build. There are few cases on the market that cool as well (DF-85, Corsair 800, etc) and all are more expensive. The only thing I hated about it was installing the A70 with my stubby fingers...ARGH.

You could almost fit another motherboard in there! Very nice. Similar to my build that I just put together Monday. I like the P67-UD3 for the price. I was originally going to get a P8P67 Pro, but Microcenter was out and I wanted to leave with everything I needed to build an operting computer.

What kind of 3d mark scores do you get with your new machine?

Thanks man! Haven't tried it, maybe that'll be the next suite I do.

 

[airdata]

Nice build. Looks very clean.

 

[Spike]

Thanks for the info and the run! Your definitly getting lower temps then I am by a good 7 degrees, not bad at all. I'm sure some of that is due to running at 2000rpm, some from airflow, and I also wonder if some is simply from running 100mhz slower? Otherwise I do wonder if I used too much AS5 on my cooler install. I filled in the groves between the heatpipes and the base of the HSF, which was as shown, but I then put rather thick lines on each of the heatpipe bottoms as well. This was also shown but the lines they had were a little thinner so I may have used too much.

Oh well, if I start having issues come summer I'll remount then. At that point I will hopefully have a new case. Those Antec DF-85's are really tempting, especially if I could get it on sale for $100-$120, that would be quite nice...

Anyway, thanks again for running OCCT and all the info!

 

[CosmicMight]

Nice build. Looks very clean.

Thanks!

Thanks for the info and the run! Your definitly getting lower temps then I am by a good 7 degrees, not bad at all. I'm sure some of that is due to running at 2000rpm, some from airflow, and I also wonder if some is simply from running 100mhz slower? Otherwise I do wonder if I used too much AS5 on my cooler install. I filled in the groves between the heatpipes and the base of the HSF, which was as shown, but I then put rather thick lines on each of the heatpipe bottoms as well. This was also shown but the lines they had were a little thinner so I may have used too much.

Oh well, if I start having issues come summer I'll remount then. At that point I will hopefully have a new case. Those Antec DF-85's are really tempting, especially if I could get it on sale for $100-$120, that would be quite nice...

Anyway, thanks again for running OCCT and all the info!

Definitely sounds like too much AS5 to me. I went pea-method. Once the A70 is crimped on, it spreads it quite nicely. Would I benefit from spreading it evenly, or a pre-wipe with alcohol? Maybe a degree or two - not enough for me to take that rat bastard cooler off again. You need elven fingers to screw in the lockdowns for the side nearest the back, and if I have my way I will not touch it again for another 2-3 years when I upgrade (if even then, will make a nice gift pc for a friend or relative at that point).

 

[Spike]

Thanks!



Definitely sounds like too much AS5 to me. I went pea-method. Once the A70 is crimped on, it spreads it quite nicely. Would I benefit from spreading it evenly, or a pre-wipe with alcohol? Maybe a degree or two - not enough for me to take that rat bastard cooler off again. You need elven fingers to screw in the lockdowns for the side nearest the back, and if I have my way I will not touch it again for another 2-3 years when I upgrade (if even then, will make a nice gift pc for a friend or relative at that point).

There are a number of sites that said the single pea method is not the best for a direct heat pipe contact cooler and instead to put several lines on there. Obviously your pea method still worked well otherwise your temps would not be as nice as they are.

Like I said, I may remount but not until summer or if I'm forced to. While I agree the cooler was somewhat of a pain to install I put it on outside of my case so the screws were easier to get to

 

[CosmicMight]

There are a number of sites that said the single pea method is not the best for a direct heat pipe contact cooler and instead to put several lines on there. Obviously your pea method still worked well otherwise your temps would not be as nice as they are.

Like I said, I may remount but not until summer or if I'm forced to. While I agree the cooler was somewhat of a pain to install I put it on outside of my case so the screws were easier to get to

Based on what you said, sounds like you put a little too much on is all.

Eh, it's 6 of one, half dozen of the other, I've read several (including the instruction manual) that says it's fine. Had to re-do it once, and when I lifted the fan it seemed like the grease had spread quite nicely and evenly. I'm a fair judge of the proper volume to put down. Based on what people are saying and other temps I'm seeing, I'm comfortable with the temps given the overclock. My old proc was 50-53 at idle, lol.

You're right - that would have been better, but my mobo tray isn't removable.