Bored on a Saturday night: upgrade me!

Fuggan · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:15

Hello all, built this rig back in 2009 and I feel it needs some new life breathing into it. It's not particularly slow, I only really play a couple of (old) games and do some light coding/design work so it's nothing special.

Here's how it stands:
Intel Core i7 920 Bloomfield @ 2.67GHz
ASUS P6T Deluxe
12GB DDR3 RAM
2x 1 GB Radeon 4890s
Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue
Corsair 850w TX PSU

What can I stick in this machine which is going to bring it into 2013? Naturally I'm thinking an SSD. Probably one of the 128GBs Samsung jobbies. Would that be the best upgrade option for around £100? Been reading on overclocking too so might try and squeeze some more firepower out of my CPU.

Thanks.

stulid · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:29

Yeah a SSD and aftermarket cooler to help overclock the CPU.

Fuggan · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:34

Great, thanks. Forgot to list the cooler I had: Noctua NH-U12P. Should do the job? From what I've read the new Samsung EVO SSDs are the 'go to' choice?

stulid · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:39

They are indeed the SSD to get.

The cooler should do well.

Fuggan · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:40

Cool, thanks!

Skynet5 · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:45

Overclock that processor!

Fuggan · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:46

lnoton said:
Overclock that processor!

Haha yeah, been thinking about it for a while so just started reading about it. Bit nervous with stuff like this!

Skynet5 · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:50

I had the deluxe version of that board, so not sure what OC capabilities it has in comparison.

I got my c stepping to 4.11 with HT off, 3.8 with HT on.

1.25v
Mutli 19
Bclk 190

Dram voltage 1.65

That should do it.

Fuggan · 31 Aug 2013 at 23:56

Nice one, thanks. Will hopefully give this a crack and let you know how it goes.

Skynet5 · 1 Sep 2013 at 00:00

Prime it for 20mins and make sure temps don't go above 85c.

If its stable just use the pc for what you normally do.

Kill_Phil · 1 Sep 2013 at 08:58

If you're worried about changing the volts an overclock of 3.6 / 3.8 is easily obtainable without

Fuggan · 1 Sep 2013 at 09:47

Thanks for the advice chaps!

setter · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:12

Have a read through this guide here, really helped me when clocking my 920.

http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

Fuggan · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:52

Ha, was literally just reading that thread, cheers.

It all seems a bit daunting to me, so many different variables that need/can be changed. Is it possible to just jump in and input the values that Inoton has listed and test for stability?

setter · 1 Sep 2013 at 12:55

Unfortunately it's not just as easy as that as each chip will differ. Also as your using 12gb of ram. This places more strain on the cpu's memory controller, youll need to increase qpi dram voltage a bit. This and vcore are the most important voltages on bloomfield clocking.

Fuggan · 1 Sep 2013 at 13:11

I think I'm going to hang fire with it for a bit until I'm fully up to speed. Want to get my head round everything before I charge into anything, I don't really need the extra power, just wanted to give it a shot! Thanks again all, might put a post in the OC subforum when I come round to doing it.