Budget 2500K First Time Build

Borsch · 6 Mar 2012 at 20:41

Great results, your PC is fine after all!

You could try a higher multiplier or drop DVID a touch if you are content with x43.

SMed · 6 Mar 2012 at 20:51

At the moment, even stock was more than enough. I think OCing both CPU and GPU has helped Deus Ex slightly, as it would stutter slightly sometimes (very infrequently). For everything else, I can't tell a difference.

Borsch · 6 Mar 2012 at 21:56

I have only overclocked because I play Rise of FLight and IL2:Cliffs of Dover games - it really does make a difference in them. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered to be honest

phill9800 · 7 Mar 2012 at 07:58

From the amount of benching I used to do, I can say that overclocking really does help with everything in a PC... I'm just running my i7 920 and 580 at stock just to get a comparison from what it's like at 4.5Ghz.. The results for most things have been a big to massive difference..

I think the higher the res you go up, the more you will notice

Borsch · 7 Mar 2012 at 13:45

In general Windows use I didnt even notice that my BIOS has reset itself (loosing all OC settings in the process) 10 days ago- it was only when I started playing RoF that I felt something is really not right (but blamed new nvidia drivers at the time

)...

But, another important point in favour of OCing is - we paid for our "K" chips, so might as well use what we paid for, otherwise what was the point of paying extra and buying eg i5 2500K instead of a plain i5 2500. Its like finishing a meal at a restaurant- you're not hungry already, but whats paid for needs to be eaten

SMed · 7 Mar 2012 at 13:58

Yeah I just realised my BIOS also reset my OC. I put the multiplier to 45x, now it's on 35x... unless I put 35 by mistake? I haven't even rebooted, weird.

Also, I used Kombuster benchmark on my GPU. I ran it at 740MHz and got a score of 3770 (72FPS). Ran at 950MHz (1233mV, memory clock 1100MHz) and got a score of 3783 (73FPS). WTF?

SMed · 7 Mar 2012 at 14:18

Nevermind, just ran it again, making sure the CPU was still overclocked at 4.3GHz (multiplier only). GPU at 950MHz (1233mV, memory clock 1100MHz), got Kombuster score of 4522 (81FPS).

Phill, I don't even want to know what yours gets.

SMed · 7 Mar 2012 at 23:35

I keep hearing ticking coming from my case. Really annoying. I have no idea where it's coming from, I haven't tried to trace it yet, but it's not all the time. I don't notice it when gaming.

Borsch · 8 Mar 2012 at 10:31

SMed said:
Nevermind, just ran it again, making sure the CPU was still overclocked at 4.3GHz (multiplier only). GPU at 950MHz (1233mV, memory clock 1100MHz), got Kombuster score of 4522 (81FPS).

Phill, I don't even want to know what yours gets.

Hm, i get 430 FPS in Kombustor:

SMed · 8 Mar 2012 at 18:37

Borsch said:
Hm, i get 430 FPS in Kombustor:

I was doing the benchmark, not the burn in. Even with similar settings to yours though on the burn-in, I was only getting about 250fps. :\

SMed · 8 Mar 2012 at 18:44

Run the 1280x720 benchmark and give your settings.

Borsch · 8 Mar 2012 at 20:58

It doesnt have any settings for Kombustor- i just press the "K" button in Afterburner interface and Kombustor launches automatically. "File" menu only has exit option, "About" does not have settings either. :confused:

SMed · 8 Mar 2012 at 21:45

Oh. I've got this for Kombustor(DX11):

Borsch · 8 Mar 2012 at 22:01

Ah, you've got newer version, mine is this:

SMed · 8 Mar 2012 at 23:30

SMed · 11 Mar 2012 at 18:11

The top stock Antec exhaust fan (I think it's a 140mm?) was the culprit for those mysterious annoying clicks I've been experiencing the past week or so. I've unplugged it now and the rig is drastically quieter. I can barely hear it under my desk. But I now I have just 1 single 120mm exhaust fan at the back which is on the lowest speed. Idle temps are still under 30 degrees. I haven't gamed with it yet like this, but the CPU never went over 40 when gaming anyway.

Borsch · 12 Mar 2012 at 10:29

Did you have 140mm fan on the bottom of the case blowing IN? wow :eek:

How's your case doing dust wise?

SMed · 12 Mar 2012 at 15:41

Borsch said:
Did you have 140mm fan on the bottom of the case blowing IN? wow

How's your case doing dust wise?

No? I had a 140mm fan at the top of the case blowing out. I have no intake fans at all, and never have. Now I just have one 120mm exhaust fan at the back. I blocked the opening for the side fan to get better front-->back flow through front dust filter. It is somewhat dusty, but not too bad I suppose. I have nothing to compare to though. The front filter was fairly dusty but I cleaned that about 2 weeks ago for the first time since building. Should clean it more frequently.

I'm going back and forth between getting the Bitfenix Raider and the Fractal Design R3. :confused:

Borsch · 12 Mar 2012 at 17:57

SMed said:
No? I had a 140mm fan at the top of the case blowing out. I have no intake fans at all, and never have. Now I just have one 120mm exhaust fan at the back. I blocked the opening for the side fan to get better front-->back flow through front dust filter. It is somewhat dusty, but not too bad I suppose. I have nothing to compare to though. The front filter was fairly dusty but I cleaned that about 2 weeks ago for the first time since building. Should clean it more frequently.

Oh, I see. Yeah, I guess if your temps are as low as yours are, you dont need intake fans

The usual setup (as I understand it) is to have a bottom-front 120mm blowing in and top-back/top 140/120 blowing out ...

Dust wise- I just wanted to share that I have either sealed or glued pieces of fine mesh over every single opening on the case (apart from vent that blows out from the case) and for the first time in my computing, insides of my PC have as close to zero dust as I can imagine they can have!

Its been two months since I put it together.

SMed said:
I'm going back and forth between getting the Bitfenix Raider and the Fractal Design R3.

I dont understand med range PC cases- expensive cases are cool (in both ways) and can look really good. But paying for med range... Why not just buy some cheap £20 Casecom 6788 that has all the features of "Big Brand" case like black painted inside (remember black body radiation Physics lessons? Black is the right colour for PC case), quick release mounts, mobo cutouts, water coolong grommets, lots of vents to fit 140 and 120 fans... And spend the rest on new sound card or something... imho

SMed · 12 Mar 2012 at 21:03

Borsch said:
Oh, I see. Yeah, I guess if your temps are as low as yours are, you dont need intake fans The usual setup (as I understand it) is to have a bottom-front 120mm blowing in and top-back/top 140/120 blowing out ...

Dust wise- I just wanted to share that I have either sealed or glued pieces of fine mesh over every single opening on the case (apart from vent that blows out from the case) and for the first time in my computing, insides of my PC have as close to zero dust as I can imagine they can have! Its been two months since I put it together.

Might have to try that.

I dont understand med range PC cases- expensive cases are cool (in both ways) and can look really good. But paying for med range... Why not just buy some cheap £20 Casecom 6788 that has all the features of "Big Brand" case like black painted inside (remember black body radiation Physics lessons? Black is the right colour for PC case), quick release mounts, mobo cutouts, water coolong grommets, lots of vents to fit 140 and 120 fans... And spend the rest on new sound card or something... imho

Well, they look really good.

But also, the R3 is supposed to be very, very quite. I like understated quality looking cases, the R3 is almost too understated though.