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Where to go from here?

joeperson

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
236
I recently put together my first system from scratch. Consisting of the following:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor (running at 3ghz, stock voltage)
Palit Radeon HD 4850 512MB (stock cooler works, just a little to loud, looking to replace with Thermalright HR-03 GT)
Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower Gaming Case 300
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R
OCZ StealthXStream 600W
OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
Scythe SHURIKEN Low-Profile CPU Cooler
LG W2242TQ-BF 22" Widescreen
HDDs and CD/DVD recycled from various places
+some artic silver stuff (I goofed adding grease the first time round)
All for less then $1000

I use the system for everything from gaming to word processing and probably won't change it significantly anytime soon. That said I am interested in what people around here think about the system and what sort of things I could do with it to upgrade in future.

Cpu overclock note: pretty sure there's more speed to be had but I think the graphics card or the memory are more likely to bottleneck performance. Running the memory and the cpu at 333 times their multipliers for what I'm told is synchronized and therefore the most benificial arrangement. (9 on the cpu and something unmemorable on the memory)
 

tzetsin

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Joined
Jan 1, 2008
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Location
US
Looks like a great machine you've got there. It should last you for quite a while i think. (cpu and memory anyway... a graphic card's lifespan is always questionable)

Your right about the cpu not being a bottle neck for you, unless your water cool and go upwards of 4 ghz with it, your not going to see much if any performance increase overclocking it anymore than that. Running syncronized is always good, if you can. but if you cant and still maintain your CPU overclock, i wouldnt worry about it.

FYI though, i very much doubt your running 3.0 on that Q6600 with stock voltages. Its very likely your board has "smart" overclocking features that will bump up the voltages automatically for you when you raise the fsb. most boards do this, and are very good, up to a point, then you'll have to take over manually to push the cpu further. When i had my 6600 i could hit 3.2 with the volts setting on auto, but anything after that i had to manually adjust the voltages, for an overclock of 3.62 (not stable) 3.5 stable. on air.

and to get all that for under a grand? awsome rig.
 

joeperson

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Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
236
Aw, and I thought I had done something special. To list what I can, at 4am, the vcore is set to the bios default (1.23750V) which probably doesn't mean exactly what I think it does. The CPU Termination, PLL, and Reference are set to auto however. Looks like I'll have some fun trying to down volt those setting some time in the future. (from auto to w/e the lowest stable I can find) On that sleepy note any good none googled resourses for down/undervolting?
 

tzetsin

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Jan 1, 2008
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Location
US
what does CPUZ say your voltages are at? If you have your BIOS voltages set to anything but "auto" it should be "that" voltage (or a little less, because of vdroop)
 

joeperson

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Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
236
It bounced around a little, 1.17 when I beat on it a little with occt, somewhere around 1.12 after boot, and 1.120 post occt in cpuz. Stop asking sleep depriving questions :p
 

tzetsin

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Jan 1, 2008
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hehe. yes, sleep is good... for some. I'm a tad nocturnal myself. have you C1 still turned on? does cpuz say that you'r running 3000 or much less, having 1.17 vcore sounds like its been underclocked with speedstep. Have you run any stress tests on that OC yet? 1.23 does sound like a good voltage for 3.0 though But anyway, if it works, dont mind me ;)
 

Xilikon

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Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Messages
447
Location
Quebec City
3 GHz at stock voltage is doable. One of my Q6600 can do that without problem and is able to do 3.8 GHz with just 1.5v fully stable (it's watercooled).

Seems like it's indeed 1.17v under load but when you beat a little, how much time did you leave OCCT running ? I also think you can push it a bit to 3.2 GHz with 8x400 so it's 1:1 with your RAM at max speed (you might need to bump the voltage to 1.3-1.4v but it's not a problem).
 

sswilson

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Staff member
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
24,652
Location
Moncton NB
Looks like a great system especially coming in under $1000.

Since you're asking about possible upgrades in the future (it never ends.... :) ) my first suggestion would be for a higher quality PSU. It's probaby the least sexy upgrade a person can do, but since it's at the core of your system it can make a huge difference in both overclocking ability and component longevity.
 

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