The weakest link?

RedvGreen · 4 Mar 2011 at 17:12

In my system, as detailed in my signature, what is the weakest link?

I am looking to swap my 5870XF for a 6990 on release, but aside from that, what is the weakest element in my PC?

I am tempted to say the CPU, however the motherboard is fairly old and doesn't support SATA3 or USB3.

Any tips?

ghutchison14078 · 4 Mar 2011 at 17:25

TBH, there are not real weak links in your system if you use it mainly for gaming.

You could overclock that 920 a bit more, I have the same CPU and cooler and I'm running it at 3.8ghz and it's completely stable and temps are fine.

If your feeling the upgrade itch you could get yourself a good set of headphones, your games will sound much better through a good set of cans than the speakers.

JonJ678 · 4 Mar 2011 at 18:15

The processor, it's a bit of a shame to run it at only 3.2ghz considering the performance of the rest of the system. Don't buy a new one, just let it run around 3.6 instead.

The motherboard is good. Get a pci-e sata3 card if you like.

Assuming you play games, either graphics card or new monitor look like the best choices. Or a laptop.

RedvGreen · 4 Mar 2011 at 19:10

I've only ever used the OC utilities present on motherboards - the Asus RE II which I have has the 3.2GHz as the max overclock in it's presets.

Is there an idiot's guide to securing a stable 3.6-3.8GHz overclock... like as simple as 'put value 2.1x in here'. ?

Thanks

ghutchison14078 · 4 Mar 2011 at 21:13

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

Follow the above link, scroll down to roughly halfway down the page till you see the Overclocking To 3801MHz (3.8GHz) @ 1.2v heading.

This guide has every bios setting you will need to run the i7 920 at 3.8ghz on an asus x58 mobo.

Blue160 · 4 Mar 2011 at 22:29

The only way to improve that rig would be a mobo and CPU swap to a Sandy Bridge i7 setup.

RedvGreen · 4 Mar 2011 at 23:40

Wow.

I just ran CoreTemp, CPUID and Prime95 with my current setup...

After 4mins all 4 cores were 83'C and rising roughly 1'C per 30secs. Turned it off then. Hmm.

ghutchison14078 · 5 Mar 2011 at 07:25

Can you post a screen shot of coretemp and cpu-z...maybe your cpu v-core is far too high for only running at 3.2 ghz.

cammy5477 · 5 Mar 2011 at 11:23

thats way to high for 3.2ghz...... i would reseat the H-50 and if your not running 2 fans on it then do that..... a couple of vipers sucking cold air in from the back in push pull will sort those temps right out....id say you should be in the low 60c area with that and if you clock it to 3.8ghz maybe high 60c low 70c

RedvGreen · 5 Mar 2011 at 14:14

I have a thesis to finish today, then i'm going to sort my computer out (got a few cans of compressed air etc). Will clean the radiator if it's dusty, and all the fans.

I'm quite tempted to get the H70, although that mean that I may need to remove the huge 14cm fan from my case (Cosmos S) side panel.

Will post back post-maintenance and decide where to go from there!

RedvGreen · 5 Mar 2011 at 14:24

Infact, ran prime95 and the monitoring software...

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after around 5mins; Core0 and 1 started to enter 81'C territory and continue to rise...

ghutchison14078 · 7 Mar 2011 at 13:34

You are running a v-core of 1.296 volts...that is FAR too much for running an 920 @ 3.2 GHZ.

Pushing that much voltage through at 3.2ghz will be contributing to your high temps.

Follow this link : http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html#post66636

Just write down all the settings on paper and go into your bios and enter all the settings EXACTLY as they are in the guide and you will be running smoothly at 3.8Ghz in no time.

It couldnt hurt to buy some better thermal compound and reapply the thermal paste to the heatsink on the H-50.