I run and have ran 3.4ghz on my Q6600 for the past 15 months. 100% stable. Acheived it within minutes of clocking, as it is very straight forward imo, with the correct match of MB, RAM & CPU Cooler.

I have just ran 3dMark06 and achieved just over 16000. That is good considering I have files downloading and all sorts of things running, on a PC that is not a new build. I am currently running an 8800GTX that I have overclocked. So far from a current crop GFX card (well it was one of the daddies when I bought it 15 months ago lol).

Stu,
Screen rez of monitor won't make any difference, as the monitor will scale not the gfx card.

 

Is Overclocking the same as tuning cars? More specifically does Neon make it faster?

 

Yea just keep trying to make it faster until something lets go.

 

Well, thinks that about all mine will do for now, could do with lowering voltages some more, but I can't be bothered atm; Need a better CPU cooler(also due for a new processor methinks ) :

12436 3dMarks (3dmark06) and 17secs SuperPI on 1M



Will be intersting see how a clean slate install affects things when I get round to it

Whats your hard drive(s) like for speed? Here's mine:



Edit: just noticed the multiplier was at x6 on the screen grab when it should be x8 (3.33Ghz).

 

Well at least my SuperPi is good - 1M in 11 seconds

How the heck can an 8800GTX match a 280GTX on 3DMark?

 

I've done no mods whatsoever n get 15s for 1M in Superpi.

Core2duo E8400 n 2gigs, good?

 

Kieran,
Don't believe the hype.... a properly configured and OC'd 8800gtx is a very good card. The advancements between that and a 280gtx is not worth the upgrade imo in real gaming terms. The graphics cards need to come on a couple of generations to be worth a swap from a well configured system using a 8800gtx imo. I won't touch Vista with a barge pole, so am still on XP. DX10 does not interest me presently.

280's are obselete now in essence, but not quite as obselete as 8800gtx's!

 

Q6600 running at 3.2GHz on stock voltage.

 

What coolers are people using?
Currently using a Titan Amanda but thinking of going for....

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Heatsink - Socket LGA775/AM2/939 - £37.95 - AWD-IT.CO.UK

Or water cooling.

Anyone got any experience of the Thermalright?

Could have the Amanda for sale shortly if anyone thinking of one...
DriverHeaven.net: Titan Amanda Cooler

 

When I get round to doing more upgrades, I will be opting for this: Scythe Andy Samuri Master Socket 478, 754, 940, 775, 939 & AM2 CPU Cooler - Ebuyer or this Noctua NH-C12P Socket 775, AM2, AM2+ Processor Cooler - Ebuyer

Mine being a HTPC case (limited space), I also want a cooler that also cools the chipset/power MOSFETS around the CPU: Which vertical coolers do not do (its funny that most CPU cooler tests don't test effective cooling of components surrounding the CPU - which are designed to rely on cooling airflow via the stock Intel cooler)

So I want a horizontal cooler that blows air down onto the board which held surrounding components; especially when OC'ing.



My PSU is also running out of steam (Xilence 480watt), its stable, but the fan is struggling to keep it cool and quiet since I fitted the ATi HD 4970.

 

I use a Tuniq Tower on my Q6600..... awesome cooler imo.

That Thermalright one above does not look very good as it has no internal fan and it is expensive.

This is what the Tuniq Tower costs and looks like: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HS-002-SB

 

i have a vantec tornado cooling mine

its noisy.

 

The fan has to be bought seperate so bumps price up even more From reviews Ive read its meant to be pretty good

Im swaying towards a water cooling setup though shame my case is short on space have to externally mount the reservoir and pump

 

I've recently upgraded my 8800GTX to a 280GTX and the difference in performance in gaming terms is VERY noticeable. I'm able to turn on all the bells and whistles in games now whereas before I had to tone things down.

I tried to OC the 8800 but it wouldn't have it. Anything over 5% caused it to lock up. I may try some OC'ing the 280 and see what happens... only I have NO idea what to set things to!

I have an 8800GTX for sale now if you want to SLI £100 to a good home

 

I've got one on my Q6600. It's a certainly a big hairy heatsink... was careful to make sure it would fit in the case before I ordered them. The fan mounting clips looked a bit fiddly to attach, but in the end I didn't bother with them and used cable ties.

Seems to work well enough; I'd use one again.

 

as to heatsinks - I was running the Tuniq tower - bloody noisy and HUGE beast. It stopped me from using my side panel fan which did not help with case cooling.

I'm now using a Zalman cooler which actually keeps the core down to less than 40 when OC'd to 4GHz as the extra fan is helping move the warm air out the case (Antec 500 gaming case)

 

Kieran,
I would be surprised if I would see more than a couple of FPS increase with a 280, as mine copes fine with everything turned to the max. Crysis for example gives me around 30fps with everything at max on DX9. If you are using Vista and DX10, you may very well see more differences. I also have dual monitor displays, one at 1920x1200 and the other at 1240x1024, so high resolutions are not a problem either (as regards to speed vs res/detail etc).

Even the cheapest 285 is over £310. For me to invest in that kind of brass, I would need to see some serious benefits. Like I said, I can not see me getting this over my current set-up.

Whilst I am not overstruck with Benchmark results, they are indicative for comparison. My 3dMark06 results compared against yours at least show that both set-ups are fairly equal, which backs up what I have said.

As regards to SLi......

I am against this at the moment as I think that compatibility and real world benefits need to come on a fair bit. With multi core cards now becoming the norm, you do need to question if SLi is really worth it (unless you want to go SLi x2 cards lol). The amount of heat and power they require is also a downside.

It's all very interesting isn't it.

As regards to what to change on your 280.... just slowly crank up your core settings and then your ram settings. ATiTool is a good application to check soak tests for artifacts. I use RivaTuner to overclock Nvidia cards. Very easy to use.

 

Shaun - my 280 cost £200 so I figured it was a good price and worth the upgrade

I'll have a fiddle tonight and run the Crysis tests to see what I get (oh i run 1680x1050 on my 22" monitor) I have a 19" lcd lying around I could set up as a second screen but I can't find the damn power supply.

 

Unfortunately Overclockers only sell a 280 water cooled unit, hence why I quoted the next one up which is the 285.

I will bash mine through the Crysis benchmark tool and let you know what it does at 1680x1050 on DX9.

 

Kieran,
Just ran the Crysis Bench Marking tool with the following results on DX9. I have not played it for a while so was slightly out on my FPS quoted before.... it is actually more. This is on a PC running other processes at the moment and the NVidia drivers are about 5 months out of date, so I suspect I could squeeze another 1-2fps on top of this.

Anyway... same resolution as you and here is what it gave:

19/01/2009 17:36:55 - XP
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX9 1680x1050, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: High
================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 59.36s, Average FPS: 33.69
Min FPS: 26.14 at frame 138, Max FPS: 41.39 at frame 1015
Average Tri/Sec: -32740178, Tri/Frame: -971711
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.94
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 55.91s, Average FPS: 35.77
Min FPS: 26.14 at frame 138, Max FPS: 42.39 at frame 1008
Average Tri/Sec: -34344676, Tri/Frame: -960022
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.95
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 55.90s, Average FPS: 35.78
Min FPS: 26.14 at frame 138, Max FPS: 42.70 at frame 995
Average Tri/Sec: -34334896, Tri/Frame: -959659
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.96
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

19/01/2009 17:36:55 - XP

Run #1- DX9 1680x1050 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 35.775

Would be interested to see what your set-up gives. If you only have DX10, then run it with quality of HIGH, as that is comparable.

This set-up is my normal config, so no benchmark "special" that will blow up after 30mins of use!

 

I'm on XP (Vista = spit )

I'll let you know as I'm still stuck at work....

 

roflol about Vista!!!

Cool - As direct as can be then!

 

I don't have results similar - as in my GPU test doesn't show the options set

However, manually setting mine to same as yours gives:

================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 47.63s, Average FPS: 41.99
Min FPS: 32.25 at frame 1964, Max FPS: 52.63 at frame 993
Average Tri/Sec: -36646232, Tri/Frame: -872772
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.05
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 46.27s, Average FPS: 43.23
Min FPS: 32.25 at frame 1964, Max FPS: 53.84 at frame 1007
Average Tri/Sec: -37170296, Tri/Frame: -859916
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.07
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 46.28s, Average FPS: 43.21
Min FPS: 32.25 at frame 1964, Max FPS: 53.84 at frame 1007
Average Tri/Sec: -37121412, Tri/Frame: -859066
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.07
!TimeDemo Run 3 Finished.
Play Time: 46.28s, Average FPS: 43.21
Min FPS: 32.25 at frame 1964, Max FPS: 53.84 at frame 1007
Average Tri/Sec: -37155816, Tri/Frame: -859850
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.07
TimeDemo Play Ended, (4 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============
Press any key to continue . . .

 

I wanna play! Where do i download this from chaps?

 

Kieran,
Are you running the same benchmark tool as your run times are a lot less than mine, also the fact that your results format is not the same?

This is the latest version released that I am using:

Crysis Benchmark Tool 1.05 Final download from Guru3D.com

Stu,
UP!

 

Dammit, gotta install Crysis. Gimme 20mins fellas.

 

Oooooh

You're gonna regret telling me about that, 8800 fan boy


19/01/2009 22:13:30 - XP
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX9 1680x1050, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: High
================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 43.25s, Average FPS: 46.24
Min FPS: 36.83 at frame 141, Max FPS: 61.44 at frame 979
Average Tri/Sec: -44823108, Tri/Frame: -969369
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.95
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 38.53s, Average FPS: 51.90
Min FPS: 36.83 at frame 141, Max FPS: 65.37 at frame 104
Average Tri/Sec: -49628248, Tri/Frame: -956200
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.96
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 38.54s, Average FPS: 51.89
Min FPS: 36.83 at frame 141, Max FPS: 65.81 at frame 80
Average Tri/Sec: -49579424, Tri/Frame: -955511
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.96
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

19/01/2009 22:13:30 - XP

Run #1- DX9 1680x1050 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 51.895


Read 'em and weep

 

Oh not this crysis bench again




Hang on

 

Here we go... seems the machine is being strangled by information Access as it keeps stopping and the disk light and screen icon are going crackers!


19/01/2009 22:21:24 - XP
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX9 1680x1050, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: High
================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 45.40s, Average FPS: 44.06
Min FPS: 30.78 at frame 143, Max FPS: 67.17 at frame 885
Average Tri/Sec: -31662712, Tri/Frame: -718684
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.28
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 36.76s, Average FPS: 54.40
Min FPS: 30.78 at frame 143, Max FPS: 69.71 at frame 88
Average Tri/Sec: -38932700, Tri/Frame: -715611
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.28
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 36.57s, Average FPS: 54.69
Min FPS: 30.78 at frame 143, Max FPS: 69.71 at frame 88
Average Tri/Sec: -39062316, Tri/Frame: -714277
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.28
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

19/01/2009 22:21:24 - XP

Run #1- DX9 1680x1050 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 54.545

 

Kieran,
I am genuinely surprised. Excellent figures.

Just downloading the latest drivers and going to give it another bash.

Maybe I need to upgrade to a 295 then, but based on Stu's 4870x2 figures I think you have chosen the right card being only £200!!!!

I take it all back!