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Hiya,

The voltages were all set to auto,

I just changed them to the following:

System Voltage Control = Manual
DDR2 Overvoltage control = +0.10v
PCI-E Overvoltage control = +0.10v
FSB Overvoltage Control = +0.10v
(G) MCH Overvoltage Control = +0.100
Loadline Calibration = Auto
CPU Voltage Control - Normal
Normal CPU Vcore = 1.35000v

Going to download everest now, and see if that can provide any further info.

Thanks

EDIT PS: I just downloaded Everest and ran a report and that isnt showing any problems, is there anything in particular i should be doing with it?
2nd EDIT: Machine now has both RAM sticks in, and with the voltages listed above system is still halting :(
 
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I wouldn't get 12GB Ram unless your planning some extreme encoding and graphics work.

Simple reason being having too many ram sticks would make it extremely harder to stabalize an overclock. right now the most you can get is 2GB sticks so buy 6GB to run in tri channel then at a later date in the future when larger capacity sticks come out you can run 12GB in tri channel like you did with 6GB and ebay the old ones.

Most games run in 32bit anyway so your not even getting the most of your 6GB in the first place, 12GB is overkill.

Also for a graphics card, get the GTX 260 or the GTS 250 as directx 11 cards are probably not that far around the corner. You can pick up a 260 for 120 pounds and its a big upgrade from the 8800. You don't want to spend a lot of money on a gfx card and realise not long after its not futureproof as we will have problems with dx10 cards on 11 like we did with 9 cards on 10(probably but I wouldn't gamble a crap load of money against it)
 
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everest will just show voltages and temps, processor should show around 40ish degrees when idle.

have a look and download memtest , write to cd and run that against your memory see how it checks out.
 
Hiya,

The voltages were all set to auto,

I just changed them to the following:

System Voltage Control = Manual
DDR2 Overvoltage control = +0.10v
PCI-E Overvoltage control = +0.10v
FSB Overvoltage Control = +0.10v
(G) MCH Overvoltage Control = +0.100
Loadline Calibration = Auto
CPU Voltage Control - Normal
Normal CPU Vcore = 1.35000v

Going to download everest now, and see if that can provide any further info.

Thanks

EDIT PS: I just downloaded Everest and ran a report and that isnt showing any problems, is there anything in particular i should be doing with it?
2nd EDIT: Machine now has both RAM sticks in, and with the voltages listed above system is still halting :(

Download speedfan and check the PSU voltages in there
12v, 5v 3.3v etc and see if they are in range ie. 12v shouldnt be outside 11.8-12.2 etc. This isn't the most accurate measure but it will give us some slight idea of how it looks like. If you got a multimeter check this post http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sh...82&highlight=psu+guide+username_Admiral+huddy and do as said there at the bottom to test your PSU.

What I will also do is try to leave PC with BIOS open for around 30minute or more and see if it crashes ( this will roll out most GPU issues in example ).

Also you can try using different PCI-E lead and any other PSU leads that you might swap ( can be just a faulty lead ).
 
sods law, this problem is intermittent, and has decided to stop crashing for the meantime, i will download speedfan and keep you guys updated.

With regards to the new build Im currently inclined to go with pheonix's build at present, for the money savings for almost the same performance.

I shall ponder over all the comments that you guys have all so kindly provided me with. and hopefully ask even more questions tommorrow :confused:

Thanks again dudes.... Will update the post with speedfan results later today or tomorrow :)


By the way, this is were I have got to with my parts so far:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
*OVERCLOCKED* AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz @ 3.80GHz / Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P Motherboard / Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9DHX Bundle £369.41
(£321.23) £369.41
(£321.23)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 XT 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.) £154.99
(£134.77) £154.99
(£134.77)
OCZ Agility Series 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT60G) £151.98
(£132.16) £151.98
(£132.16)
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £137.99
(£119.99) £137.99
(£119.99)
Icy Box IB-NAS4220-B Ethernet NAS Enclosure £105.00
(£91.30) £105.00
(£91.30)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £64.99
(£56.51) £129.98
(£113.02)
Sub Total : £912.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £138.93
Total : £1,065.15

The 2 samsungs are for the ICY BOX, Having done an awesome job of selling this all to the mrs, i now have approximately £1050 to spend on the new rig excluding the NAS setup (as thats for her benefit).

So if you guys think with the new budget I'm better off going i7 please let me know. Also not sure if i mentioned this before but I use a dell 2407w when playing games at max res normally, so not sure if this makes a difference to the current setup, i actually use dual monitors, other one is a cheapy 19" jobby.

Thanks again
 
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Looks good so far.
You forgot the PSU tho : ).
So if you aren't going to use your old one ( which ofcourse will be fine as long as it's not faulty - which we don't really know since the PC is unstable and this can be the case).
You can always order it later however, but just in case if you wanted to get one together with all this there are two choices for you.

One is with crossfire/sli in mind and the second one is for single GPU.
For single GPU you're looking at the 450-550 range and if you want to SLI/CF you will be looking at the 700-800 range.

Either way you want a modular PSU - to optimize the airflow in the case and just so it's more tidy : ).

This will probably be your choice for single GPU.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1083
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-026-TG&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1100

You can also get away with cheaper OCZ or PC Power & Cooling but I haven't see those personally so can't give my word on how really good they are.
Also there is corsair which some time ago been the best out there regarding price/performance but I don't think they're worth it now, they're still very good but other stuff is just better tbh.

If you wanted something stronger for CF/SLI I would get one of those:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-012-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1099
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-024-TG&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1100
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-022-BQ

Ofcourse you can get away with the cheaper ones as said earlier.

--

Did you take a look at the thermaltake / lian-li cases maybe / coolermaster cases?
They seem to be less open and have better interior design than the 900/1200 antecs.
But it's just my opinion, after all it's your PC and you're the one to choose : ).
What I'll be looking for in case mainly will be removable mobo tray and HDDs mounted sideways to give more space for GPUs.
 
Thanks Pheonix,

For some reason I just dont find the appearance of the cooler master or Thermaltakes that nice, I like this lian li tho:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-116-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=187

I currently have an Antec P192 and now that you mention it the GFX card means i cant use the lower set of HDD bays :)

I now only really have 2 concerns:

1) Will the 60gb SSD be enough for Windows 7 and all my apps, most likely Office and Adobe CS4 Master Collection.

2) I've never owned an AMD, always been an Intel man..... So not 100% on that front...

I think I might leave the PSU until all my parts have arrived, if I then have problems I can buy a new one, if i do i'd probably get an SLI one, more than likely the bequiet one.
 
i'd stick with the p192.

64gb should be enough for win7 and apps, might be worth checking the hard disk forum to see what there saying in there.

deffo not worth going with the i7, if you were a heavier user with the encoding fair enough, but 20% (approx) usage doesnt make it worth while.

i'd stick with the psu long as its not faulty as per Pheonix's comment.
 
Thanks mp, problem with my p192 is that the kids broke the USB connectors on the front panel :( so I can't connect stuff on th front of the machine.
Also I just realised the corsairs come with a five year warranty so even if it's faulty I can rma it back to them.
 
Guys not sure if this helps with the crashing problem, but the sound output selector also goes mad sometimes, thinks im plugging in new speakers etc.... when im not??? Its actually happening now :( not sure if t hat has any relevance tho
 
I've done some more Reading in the hard drives forum, and it would seem that the pcs vertex comes highly recommended. So I might add that into the mix.

UPDATE ON PC PROBLEM:

Hi Guys,

My Machine wont even run memtest, I've used the bootable ISO and made a bootable CD, and it just hangs on the Loading....... whilst still in the startup screen. Would that suggest my RAM is buggered???

Thanks
 
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Another Update, I have now run Windows Memory Diagnostics and this isnt showing any problems.

Anyone have any further suggestions???

Thanks in advance :)

ANother Update: Have just installed Speed Fan and these are the reported Voltages:

Vcore1 : 1.17v
Vcore2: 1.94V
+3.3V: 3.33V
+5V: 4.92V
+12V: 0.00V
-12V: -16.56V
-5V: -8.68V
+5V: 5.08V
Vbat: 3.30V

Is the -12V still ok?? it seems to be out by -4.56V???
 
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i'd stick with the p192.

64gb should be enough for win7 and apps, might be worth checking the hard disk forum to see what there saying in there.

deffo not worth going with the i7, if you were a heavier user with the encoding fair enough, but 20% (approx) usage doesnt make it worth while.

i'd stick with the psu long as its not faulty as per Pheonix's comment.

We yet don't know what's causing the problems - can just as well be the PSU : ).

Another Update, I have now run Windows Memory Diagnostics and this isnt showing any problems.

Anyone have any further suggestions???

Thanks in advance :)

I really bet it on either PSU or mobo tbh.
If it's memory or CPU it usually doesn't boot up at all or crashes during any stress.

Another thing you can try doing is taking out all the components and mounting them outside case ( preferably on wood/rubber ) just to make sure that it's not the case shorting something somewhere and causing the problem.

Regarding the case now, the antec p192 is very nice one and I would keep it if the USB doesn't bother you so much, you can always buy and external USB panel and just put it on top of it or stick it to the side or just put on your desk.

If however you really wanted a new case and was about to spend around ~150, I would stretch the budget by another 10quid and get this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-068-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=187
 
Pheonix that case looks sweet, I like it especially in Black, trying to find a video review of it now. Would this case be suitable for Water Cooling if I chose to go down that route at a later date?? (Only thing I dont like about it, is that it doesnt have an front Sata port :( )

Also not sure if you saw but I edited my previous post to include the voltage results from Speedfan :)

Thanks dude :)
 
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Pheonix that case looks sweet, I like it especially in Black, trying to find a video review of it now. Would this case be suitable for Water Cooling if I chose to go down that route at a later date?? (Only thing I dont like about it, is that it doesnt have an front Sata port :( )

Also not sure if you saw but I edited my previous post to include the voltage results from Speedfan :)

Thanks dude :)

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/lian_li/PC_S80/index.asp

Found short review here.
Yeh it's a small full tower so should be fine for watercooling as well.

Regarding the speedfan volts, if they're correct than your PSU is pretty much messed up.

The cpu voltage looks rubbish as well... 1.17v??
Your mobo is undervolting a lot..
Can you give us a screenshot of CPU-Z with the CPU tab if possible and see the voltage there? Both on idle and load?

I would increase it to about 1.35v and see if that helps with the stability.
 
I know this is probably a really stupid/noob question, but how to i post a picture into this message?? It wont let me paste it in :(

But in the meantime when system is under stress CPU-Z reports: 1.328V as core voltage, and under no stress 1.168V
 
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Quick update: I set the core voltage in the bios screen to 1.35v and the machine is still crashing. Would you guys the problem has now been narrowed down to either the mono or psu?
 
Hello again,

Just read this over at Toms Hardware, and think that I may in fact go with an i7 build, I think I'd rather spend the extra cash and think to be happy, rather than wondering if i made a mistake...

For those interested:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/phenom-versus-i7,review-31630.html

I'll go and select some i7 parts and hopefully some of you will have a gander and advise me accordingly.

Thanks all

****************UPDATE WITH BUILD**********

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
*OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz @ 4.20GHz Max / Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 Motherboard / Patriot Viper 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz DDR3 Bundle + World in Conflict Game £569.99
(£495.64) £569.99
(£495.64)
Options applied to the above product:
4.00GHz Overclock £17.24
(£14.99) £17.24
(£14.99)
Gainward GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99
(£304.34) £349.99
(£304.34)
OCZ Vertex Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX120G) £286.99
(£249.56) £286.99
(£249.56)
Akasa AK-ICR-08 InterConnect Drive Bay Data Panel £14.94
(£12.99) £14.94
(£12.99)
Sub Total : £1,077.52
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £163.13
Total : £1,250.65
 
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