My upcoming super Gigabyte PC

[bhavv]

I need to dual boot because I still play a lot of old games that dont work on Vista

Everything is working and stable at stock frequencies



But I cant seem to be able to manually adjust the timings on the ram? When I select a manual number, it doesnt override the default settings. I have the latest bios, the default bios wouldnt even boot when I activated the XMS profile in Bios. Now it works with XMS, currently testing 160 MHZ FSB with 3.2 Ghz on the CPU with 1.275v, and 1600 MHZ on the ram with XMS settings enabled and a lower multiplier.

XMS ram makes it really easy, just activate the profile and it autosets all your settings

[bhavv]

3.2 GHZ reached, and core temp is lying to me !!!

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2139/coretemplies.png

Easy tune 6 shows a nice solid load temperature of 43 degrees at 3.2 GHZ in all of the orthos tests, but core temp shows 67 degrees lol !!!

My ram wasnt stable in super pi though, although Orthos was stable for 30 mins, and so were 3D mark 06 and vantage.

Graphics cards are both 100% stable and artifact free at 790 / 1050, and benchable in Vantage with 1075 MHZ ram, but they crash in 3Dmark 06 so I have to reduce it to 1050 MHZ.

That's still top quality for 4870's

I am reading the overclocking guide for the GA-EX58-Extreme for pointers on how to get up to 200 MHZ bus speed and 4.0 GHZ on the CPU, it doesnt boot when I try, but for now, 3.2 GHZ is fine and I want to start playing my games again.

Heres a picture of stressing all four cores as the Gigabyte overclocking guide showed me how to do:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/91/coretempliesallcores.jpg

55 degrees. This is the first time I have gotten a guide on how to overclock from the motherboard manufacturer!!!

This motherboard, and my graphics cards are really really nice, I think I might be converting to a Gigabyte fanboy now

I dont want to go any higher then 4.0 Ghz, that will be more then fast enough, but for 24/7 use I will stick to 3.2 Ghz.

[runn3R]

(...)
This is the first time I have gotten a guide on how to overclock from the motherboard manufacturer!!!
(...)
This motherboard, and my graphics cards are really really nice, I think I might be converting to a Gigabyte fanboy now     
(...)

i'm REALLY    glad to hear it. thanks m8 for provided pictures and results, i think they will be also useful for a lot o people.

[bhavv]

Ok, no matter what I try, I cant get my PC to boot at either 166 or 200 MHZ frequencies on the motherboard

However, my previous MSI motherboards were also like this, I had to gradually increase the motherboard frequency very slowly, so I will keep on trying, but for now I'm happy with 3.2 Ghz.

I'm sure this motherboard should be able to reach 200 MHZ, I'm probably doing something else wrong, but I have increased votages and underclocked the ram, I maybe need a different bios.

i'm REALLY    glad to hear it. thanks m8 for provided pictures and results, i think they will be also useful for a lot o people.

Ive had two S939 Asus motherboards (A8N-SLI, A8R32 MVP deluxe), then upgraded to MSI P35 Neo 2, and later X48c Platinum (should have waited for P45 version of the Neo 2, much cheaper and just as good), and now this Gigabyte EX58-UD5, which I doubt I will need to upgrade again for at least 2 years =D.

My A8N-SLI died from too much overclocking (oops), then I decided to get rid of the P35 because it was rubbish for crossfire.

For graphics cards I always went for the cheapest one of the type I was looking for, and upgrade and sell the old ones very regularly as prices drop on higher up cards. This time Gigabyte 4870's were reduced as well so I grabbed them . Normally I get whatever I find on offers, usually powercolor, club 3D, and a one of Triplex (support from Korea in spanglish !!!) and other low profile brands, never top brands like Gigabyte, Sapphire or HIS . I always said I would get a Sapphire or HIS card one day, but instead I got Gigabyte which is just as good.

A week later, the price fell some more

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-046-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

That always happens to me.

[Badbonji]

BTW is HT on?
Check RealTemp too, as 67C sounds much more likely than 42C on a core i7, these run very hot!
Mine hits 74C with a relatively cheap water loop at 4.35Ghz, need better cooling...

[bhavv]

BTW is HT on?
Check RealTemp too, as 67C sounds much more likely than 42C on a core i7, these run very hot!
Mine hits 74C with a relatively cheap water loop at 4.35Ghz, need better cooling...

Hyperthreading? Yea its on.

If you see my second link with all of the cores under 100% load using a quad orthos run, you will see that the temperature is 55 degrees when all of the cores are being used.

[bhavv]

=D

I disabled hyperthreading and increased the bus speed in 5 MHZ increments, got to 200 MHZ, but it froze up at 1.515v, but was stable at 1.555 (CPU is at 1.3v, Ram on XMP profile with 1.65v):

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6442/200bus1.jpg

Is a motherboard voltage (Q something) safe to leave at 1.555v? It goes pink so I dont think it is safe for 24/7 use?

4.0 GHZ @ 1.4v done, EasyTune6 shows 62 degrees:

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8845/200bus4000.jpg

Nice

[bhavv]

Ok, core temp wasnt lying about my temperatures. Real Temp says the same thing, 70 degrees at 3.33 Ghz

Its the gigabyte utility and bios that detect a far lower temperature.

[Badbonji]

They are not necessarily detecting a wrong temperature. Is it just called CPU temp? BIOS will only show the cpu temp, which is not the same as the core temperatures.

That is a nice overclock, but it is a D0. I think it can do better! (seen 1.26Vcore on ocforums for 4.2Ghz)
These D0's run quite hot even at lower voltage. 1.55V qpi is a bit to high, I wouldn't go over 1.45V, and my 965 is only on 1.3V.

Try to keep load temps under 80C (from coretemp/realtemp)

[bhavv]

So what is the difference between core temp and CPU temp, and why are they so different?

I could go higher, but I dont want to ... Yet :p

[Badbonji]

I found this explaination:

Heat originates within the Cores, where Tjunction sensors are located on the hot spots of each Core. Most of the heat dissipates from the top of the Cores through the Integrated Heat Spreader and CPU cooler to air inside the computer. Some of the heat dissipates from the bottom of the Cores through the CPU case, which creates a 5c thermal Gradient toward the center of the substrate, where the Tcase sensor is located. This heat then dissipates through the socket and motherboard to air inside the computer. Safe and sustainable temperatures are determined by CPU cooling efficiency, computer case cooling efficiency, Ambient temperature, Vcore, clock speed and Load.

So the CPU temp is Tcase, for which 65C is the safe max for Core i7's, and cores are Tjunction, and I think that is 105C (that is TjMax, not max safe temp, I wouldn't go over 85C 24/7 use for 100% load then you will be fine)

[bhavv]

I decided to go ahead with modding the graphics cards:





















Idle temp on the first card reduced from 63 to 58 degrees, but it still fires up to over 100 degrees in Furmark

It remains at 79-85 degrees under normal load in 3D mark and games though, which is just the same as the stock Zalman ones were, so it seems that both the Zalmans and the Thermaltakes are pretty much Identical. The second card doesnt go any higher then 70 degrees, it stays put at around 68. The ram on both cards is now 100% stable and artifact free at 1100 Mhz


I should have gotten these instead, 4 heatpipe versions of the Zalman one that came on the cards with a blue LED:


http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-7687-view-Zalman-VF2000-LED.html









. Never mind, the current ones are fine outside of Furmark.


My cable management is a little better now, I havnt got a new picture though with the molex fan cable tied around the ones behind the CD drive.

Navigating the pictures is crappy on this forum 

[runn3R]

i like cooling on memory, how did you connect cooper heatsinks with aluminium ones ?
p.s. about navigating the pictures - just remember to keep the pic width under 600 pixels, that's all

[Badbonji]

Those cards look very nice, make me want to water cool my GTX295 (or try to haha).

Is your case really that bright or just the exposure of the picture?

[krazycommando]

Hi bhavv

You can dual boot in a raid but if you are using xp and vista you will be better installing xp first then vista. You will then get a start up optionwhen you boot up for the first 30 seconds normally to eithe boot straight into vista or alter it to xp. i dont bother with raid these daysas its a bit of messing about with drivers i use an icydock trayless caddy for sata just fits in 5.25 bay and you just open the door and slide the bare drive in so got windows 7 on one drive and vista on another

 Cheers
 Krazycommando