# My new Rig... Finally!



## infrared (Dec 5, 2005)

Hey everyone!

I've just finished tweaking my new rig!!! My laptop blew up (lightning) and i hated the Dell, so borrowed my mum's credit card and started building.  

<= Spec is on the left!

Ok... Overclocking!!!

I didn't have a lot of money, so I went for a couple of sticks of 512mb 533mhz DDR2 ram by Vdata, which overclocked great! They're running stable at 700mhz 1.95v in dual channel mode!  

I got the Intel P4 640 3.2ghz, and that's gone streight up to 3.9ghz   With a max temp of 65*c

Went for the Club3D X800XL, which is an awsome card for the money! I've yet to put some ramsinks on it, but it seems to be performing great at the min. I'm hoping to get it up to 6000 3dmark05 points somehow, but it doesn't seem to want to go any further  I've tried turning it into a X800XT, with a bios i modified. There was 1 XT that had the 2.0ns memory, so i got that, changed the clocks, flashed... then realised the r423core bios didn't like my r430 core very much!  Flashed it back, and it's fine.  I also tried a Genuine ATI bios for it, but this actually _lowered_ the performance and max clock speeds :shadedshu 

I really need a new PSU... I had very little money, so was forced to go with a cheap'n'nasty 450w psu from a company called 'mercury.' This thing sucks soo badly. When i do benchmarks or play games, i see a 0.6v fluctuation on the 12v rail...  

I got a lovely clear acrylic case with 5 80mm fans. Seriously... there is almost a tornado forming inside!!! LOL  

Ok, benchmarks!

All my 3Dmark scores are in my sig.

In Everest, this is what my memory Did:

Read: 7364mb/s
Write: 2324mb/s
latency: 77.9ns

According to everest, the ram timings are 5-6-6-2. Not sure if this is good or not for DDR2.

Anyway, all comments/questions/tips are welcome!


I also have Sandra, but the benchmark scores are confusin as hell!


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## Solaris17 (Dec 5, 2005)

DUDE! Sick!  if you whant to try and get 6000+ in 3dmark try defragging etc..than after restart your computer CTRL-ALT-DEL and end tasks u dont need then oc your vid card and imediately start 3dmark iv noticed my scores WILL go up after this.


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## infrared (Dec 6, 2005)

I'm going to try clicking start, run, and type msconfig, and click on startup tab dissable everything (temporarily), restart, and i should have a lot more free ram to play with.

Hope i can get there! I'll tell you how it goes.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 6, 2005)

i dont know maybe that will work but doing the msconfig way the computer gets really stubborn and wont let you run somethings. but give it a go and tell us what u get.


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## infrared (Dec 6, 2005)

Ok, It didn't work!  

But i just went to change a few settings in Catalyst control center, and it seems like the graphics drivers have screwed up  

Anyway, i'm due for a fresh installation of XP, so i'll try out the omega drivers and see if i can get a few more points! LOL, i won't stop till i get to 6k  

I'll keep you posted!  

Thanks


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## tony929292 (Dec 7, 2005)

nice overclocking i need to take a lesson for you  thow 2 stick over clock better then 4 and 512 oc's better than 1gb check out sys specs  but still nice overclocking


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## tony929292 (Dec 7, 2005)

I didn't have a lot of money, so I went for a couple of sticks of 512mb 533mhz DDR2 ram by Vdata, which overclocked great! They're running stable at 700mhz 1.95v in dual channel mode! 



i dont understand your system specs say 667 and  the above say 533 which u got 5400 -5300 or 4200

_______________________________________________________
my system
p4 660 artic silver 5 tt big typoon  (oc 4.32)
asus p5n32 sli (sli 2x16)
aspire 680 watt psu
4gb ocz 5400 gold  (oc 699  4-4-4-8)
x-fi fetal1ty card
hp 640 (lightscript) and plextor px 716 dvd+rw dl drives
areogate3 fan controller
2 80gb wd rapotors (raid 0)  1 80gb mator
3 usb 3 firewire card (for bluetooth on inside case)
1 bfg 7800 gt oc for now but....(oc 480-1.5 mhz)
15 lcd sony hp allinone1350
http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/142
__________________________________________________________


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## infrared (Dec 7, 2005)

Hey tony... lets play... SNAP!!! I win!!!

I've got exactly the same. I think i should modify my sig to say 2x 512.

Umm, i also have to change my system spec then. It's 2x 533mhz, that at the time i had running at 667mhz. Its pc2-4200 on the startup screen when it's not overclocked.

It does overclock lovely doesn't it! Doesn't really get very warm either!

Didn't quite make it to 6k yet  Still working on it tho. I think i need some ramsinks to go on it. The only problem being that i'd have to get another heatsink for the core, as the one that's on it at the moment half-covers the chips at the front


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## tony929292 (Dec 8, 2005)

yea you win 
your p4 640 at 4.2 my p4 660 4.32
your 4200 at 700   my 5400 at 699
like i said i need to take a lesson from u  but mine idles at 29c and 100% cpu useage for a while at 48c and is at stock voltage (cpu-ram) and if u check out the case gallery i am well over the 6000 mark on 05 and i can still add anthor gpu at full bandwith in sli mode 
but  i think it cool that we went the same route when picking out our hardware


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## infrared (Dec 8, 2005)

yeah! 

I wish i could afford to get a second graphics card to put in cross-fire mode... that would be so cool!. I still havn't figured out whats restricting my card. It's soo close to 6k, but it's not quite getting the last few points 

I've just spent 3 hours trying to tidy up the cables... After that, it looks 'presentable', but i have learnt to have a lot of respect anyone with neat cables!! Anyway, that paid off, the airflow through the case is a lot better, + it looks better! 

Would it be worth putting some pics of mine in the case gallery? It's not exactly 'extreme,' lol, and it's put to shame compared to some of those machines!!

Anyway, i'm gonna see if i can floor my gpu and get those last 58points!  I'll tell ya how it goes!

EDIT:

OMG... 3 more points!!!







Can't we just round it up?? 

wow!!

SECOND EDIT!!!

I DID IT... WOOOT!!!! 6K !!!!! *starts jumping around and knocks pc off table! *






I'm soo happy!


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## giorgos th. (Dec 8, 2005)

nice job mate..well done


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## infrared (Dec 8, 2005)

Thanks  

I saw how well the sapphire X800GTO2's do, getting around 6k in the 3dmark05 benchmarks after being modded to 16 pipelines, which made me think 'I NEED to get 6000+' 

I'm very competetive like that!

ps: what's it like in athens this time of year?


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## tony929292 (Dec 8, 2005)

very cool congt i would love to see pic some of the projects in the mod gallery dont even have pics so i dont think the amiddastors would mind at all  did u check out my rig


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## infrared (Dec 8, 2005)

WOW... scary!!

I just looked at ur rig, and realised it's the one i was admiring yesterday! 

Very nice setup!


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## giorgos th. (Dec 8, 2005)

infrared said:
			
		

> ps: what's it like in athens this time of year?


it`s nice.Athens is nice during christmas.you should come and see sometime.


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## infrared (Dec 8, 2005)

hopefully one day i'll get to see it! There's so many nice places in the world tho! Anyway, i'll make it a priority! 

PS: just posted my rig in the gallery 

http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/146


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## Solaris17 (Dec 8, 2005)

very well done i like it...and congrats on the score.


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## infrared (Dec 8, 2005)

Thankyou! 

EDIT:

Just installed the new Catalyst 5.12 drivers and got this!






:-o


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## tony929292 (Dec 9, 2005)

up and up i bet u could get to 6100 but it might just be stable for 1 run


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## infrared (Dec 11, 2005)

Just hit 6092... but i think i'd need to do a volt mod to get it any higher at stable clocks. :shadedshu

I think i'll get myself an aftermarket cooler on it, with some decent copper ramsinks, then i'll do a pencil voltmod and really crank the clocks up.


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## BIOHazard87 (Jan 2, 2006)

hmm.... thats ok for an XL, i thought an x800XL would about tie my x850 pro, i guess an x850 pro on 16 pipes ownz it, and a XL pwnz it if the x850 pro has 12 pipes 

anyways congrats on 6k  , i just did a run on my Intel 2.8E @ 3.33 rig, i got 6200 @ 533/567 16 pipes


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## infrared (Jan 2, 2006)

i just finished testing my P4 @ 3.85ghz now i've got my new cpu cooler.

I left it for 8 hours with 2 instances of prime 95, while watching temperatures and Throttlewatch and it's completely stable, so i think it's time to try for 3.9ghz!

Lately i havn't been able to get to 6k, i think it's because i slowed down the ram while the cpu's overclocked... I'll have to have a tinker with that. I'm still waiting on my ATI silencer! That should help me get the clocks up to around 500/570mhz!

The R430 core sucks for overclocking though, i need to get something with the R480 and 1.6ns memory! that would own!


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## Solaris17 (Jan 2, 2006)

well even if the rams slow.....since its running slow try to tighten the timings that might give u some beching preformance.


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## infrared (Jan 2, 2006)

yep. I'm still trying to find my cpu's max at the moment, it's running at 560mhz atm.

I'm now testing my cpu @ 4ghz!!! It's been running 2 instances of prime 95 for 30 mins so far and is looking good. Max temps i've seen so far with my new cooler is 67c, which i don't think is bad for 4ghz, 1.41v with HT enabled. I'm also keeping my eye on Panopsys ThrottleWatch and there has been no throttling since i got my new cooler!

Also, i've played with the timings a little bit... but each time i do it, my pc crashes. Do they have to all be sincronised? What i mean is... If i lower one, do i have to lower them all?


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## Solaris17 (Jan 2, 2006)

not that i know of...like i was running 3,3,3,8 but when i put a divider in i ran 3,3,3,6 because i changed 8 to 6 however the other 3's i dont know maybe but iv seen 2.5,3,3,6 so maybe its just the 2 middle u need to keep the same.


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## infrared (Jan 2, 2006)

hmm, that's interesting. I'll have a play tonight maybe. Thanks


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## BIOHazard87 (Jan 2, 2006)

3dmark05 is mainly GPU, so a higher CPU wont make THAT much of a difference


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

true, i'm working on getting my Aquamark3 scores up now.

Hmm, this is sweet! I have just done a 3 hour torture test with 2 instances of prime 95, while watching Throttlewatch and monitoring the pemperatures, and my cpu is rock steady @ 4ghz with my new cooler! Temperatures are around 65c - 67c, which is fairly good for a prescot in my opinion! I've bought it back down to 3.85ghz for the moment since i don't need it any quicker, but it's nice to know i've got some extra there if i need it!


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## BIOHazard87 (Jan 3, 2006)

no , 55c is max safe load for a prescott, above this can harm your CPU and shorten the life by a lot, even at 3.8 i can only hit low 40's (with a Thermaltake Typhoon)


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

i really don't know where you read that, but that isn't correct. The prescot idles around 55c on stock cooler and is rated at 80c as the absolute max temperature. And like has been mensioned in previous threads, who gives a crap if you reduce the cpu life by a few years, since they're rated at 10 years on stock anyway... i'm not gonna be keeping it that long! Maybe a year tops.

I think you might have got confused with the other P4s like the northwood or dothan. The prescot is designed to cope and run at higher temps.

Trust me, there is no way even running at stock 3.2ghz you'd be able to make the prescot run at low 40's with a stock cooler. If it really is a prescott you have, there's no way that HSF would keep it in the low 40's at that speed, either that or the temperature sensor's f'ked. Only water cooling would keep this chip that cool.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=55580&postcount=30


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

Ok, just did a 2 hour torture test with 2 instances of prime 95 @ 4.1ghz!!!! with the heating off in my room, so the temps are considerably lower @ 58c! This new cooler's really doing it's job! I've also used the burn-in wizard in sisoft sandra and run the memory benchmarks in everest, and everything is rock stable!

I found it was unstable until i nudged the voltage up a little bit, and after that it's running like a gem!!

Do you think this is right though? i'm still wandering how this is possible without water cooling. It's insane!


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## wtf8269 (Jan 3, 2006)

You usually want to run for atleast 6hrs or so. 8hrs is generally considered the "standard". However some people will run it for more than a day. I personally just start it up before I head off to school and then check it again when I come home. By the way, I have to ask: is that ThemeXP you're running or something? I really love your theme.


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

It's called 'StealthOS' and the program i used is Windows blinds 5 

Thanks for the advice, i'll leave it running prime 95 overnight i guess, and see what happens.

I really can't believe it's done this on AIR though... for those temperatures after 2 hours @ 100% i'd have thought you'd need watercooling.

What overclock can you achive with your rig?


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## wtf8269 (Jan 3, 2006)

Hmm if I really knew my way around RAM timings I could probably get it to be stable at 3.2ghz but it's at 3ghz right now with the ram at 250mhz (PC4000). Thanks too, this is a sweet program. Probably hogs a fair amount of memory but oh well.


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

no probs... yeah, does use quite a lot, but i think if you've got lots to spare it's well worth having!


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## wtf8269 (Jan 3, 2006)

Yeah but I don't have the cash and there's no point in my mind in installing a trial.


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## infrared (Jan 3, 2006)

I'm just using the trial, I think the countdown is faulty, because i've been using the trial for a long time now and it never seems to expire. The only down point to having the trial is that there is 1 (only one) pop-up that shows up as you log into xp, but you just hit the continue button and it doesn't bother you agian!


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## tony929292 (Jan 4, 2006)

what about your ram we r running close to the same rig just want to compare  here is mine


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## infrared (Jan 4, 2006)

hang on a moment, i'll just find out.

Right, one of my 4 sticks was faulty and i'm waiting for a replacement, so i had to take another stick out to even out the slots and get my 700mhz back again... but for some reason i was having a nightmare posting with the forced 14x multiplier, it just wouldn't start up if i tried bringing the ram over 633mhz. I've tried changing the ram timings, but every time i do, it won't post either 

I'm surprised by this stuff, it's only cheap stuff. Vdata 512mb £40/512. Your OCZ stuff should be going a lot quicker! Try lowering the cpu multiplier and ramping up the fsb, while watching the RAM speed go up in cpu-z. You may have to slacken off your timings a little bit though.

Yours kicks my ass in the 3dmark05 tests! What did you get in Aquamark3? I'm getting my ATISilencer asap, so i should be able to get a little more in 3dmark05 soon!

Anyway, i had to bring back the 16x multi and bring my cpu up to 4.2ghz... and here are the results:

EDIT: the cpuz frequency is lower because intel's speedstep kicked in when the cpu wasn't loaded. During benchmarks etc it was running at 16*263mhz and the cpu voltage is actually 1.43v not 1.48v lol


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## tony929292 (Jan 4, 2006)

yours is 350 x 2 right why is mine 183.8 x4 (735 mhz)shouldnt it show up as the same on cpu z


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## tony929292 (Jan 4, 2006)

BIOHazard87 said:
			
		

> 3dmark05 is mainly GPU, so a higher CPU wont make THAT much of a difference


yes but u can add a couple hundred with your cpu and another hurderd with your ram addjust a tip incase someone doesn't know  when trying to get the best score restart your rig turn off all background proccesses  and run it 3 or 4 time in a row this way your filtering and texturing is all ready loaded in your memory and you will recive a nice gain for me it a good 20 to 30 points over first run


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## infrared (Jan 5, 2006)

After loosing a stick of ram due to failure (yes i know... it's what you get for buying cheap stuff) i've had to back the memory speed back to <633mhz, and my 3dmark05 score went from 6095 to ~5950, so it really goes to show what a difference every part makes!

I'm still waiting to see how much difference the ATI Silencer will make when i install it. I'm hoping for 6200points when i've got my 4th stick of RAM replaced!


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## tony929292 (Jan 5, 2006)

update did losen timings not bad though blank says 23 but its still at 12 move it back down  and still stable i set it to auto in bios but changed it back to 12


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## tony929292 (Jan 5, 2006)

i was running 700 mhz scince i bulit this intill last night i saw your rig a did some tweaking now up to 776 mhz if i set the cpu at 800fsb and the losein the timings and set the memory to 800 mhz that would be 1:1 on ddr2 ram


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## infrared (Jan 5, 2006)

oh sweet, that would kick ass!

LOL, just spotted your crazy fsb:dram ratio! 

Hey, i managed to tighten my timings up to 4-4-4-10 @ 550mhz, which is what i'm running until i get 2gb again. Still pretty sluggish though! I might see if i can tighten them a little more later.


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## infrared (Jan 8, 2006)

*One cool prescott!!!*

WOW, i just decided to play with the vcore voltage while i was bored...

Bought it down from 1.4 to 1.3v and it's now idling @ 37c!!!!!! Previously it was idling at 45c! And the max temp @ 3.85ghz is 52c! where it was previously ~60c I've just done a quick 2 hour torture test with 2x prime 95's, but i'll leave it on overnight to check that it really is stable.

EDIT: ignor the clock speed there, it's actually running @ 3850mhz, 275*14, 1.3v (all set in the bios)
2nd EDIT: after leaving it on overnight, cpu temp was @ 35!!!!!!!


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## Velocity (Jan 9, 2006)

nice temps... and nice system.. im jealous lol


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## infrared (Jan 9, 2006)

lol, thanks


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## tony929292 (Jan 9, 2006)

just thought i would do so braggin of my own


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## infrared (Jan 9, 2006)

Nice! I like the desktop!

That idle temp is amazing!


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## infrared (Jan 9, 2006)

*Shivering Prescott!!!*

Ooops, forgot to close my bedroom window. Came upstairs after watching the matrix, and saw my pc idled @ 31c!!!!


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