[Steve]

A short while ago I ordered all the parts for my new pc. In the UK this is simple as I know the retailers/suppliers that I can trust, over here in Germany the situation is a little different. Being new to the country and not being fluent in Deutsch makes things a little trickier

First I couldn't find a retailer anywhere in Munich that stocked everything I wanted so I turned to the net, even here I struggled, in the end I was forced to order from three different suppliers. My case and power supply came from one, DVD writer and CPU cooler from another and the remainder of the stuff, motherboard, CPU and Hard Drive came from a third. My new memory and graphics card I had already ordered from the UK and Dave kindly brought them over when he visited recently.

The DVD and CPU cooler turned up first (3 days), the case and PSU turned up a day later 'just' 4 days after ordering and the remainder arrived the beginning of the following week. The stuff ordered from the UK was delivered to Dave’s address the next day after ordering.

Waiting for the parts was just the beginning though...
As I was opening the carton with the case in, I noticed that it had brown parcel tape across the clear parcel tape that the manufacturer had used to seal the box, this suggested that the case had at least been opened previously, something that is strange for a brand new case. My worst fears were confirmed, on close inspection the case was dusty (as in used) and was heavily marked on the top, side and front panels. The marks would not clean off and as the case is an all aluminium design it looked terrible. On contacting the supplier all we got was that a courier would collect it in about 4 days and on return to the shop they would then inspect it and advise from there. Obviously this would leave me without a case and without a case I was unable to build the new computer. I had little choice though so agreed to have it collected and in the meantime I decided to buy a replacement from a different supplier.

In between finding the case marked and the collection I was getting impatient and a little worried in case any other components were faulty so I decided to assemble the pc on my desk. Once assembled I powered it up only to find that the power supply was faulty, it worked ok but the fan (temperature speed controlled) was jamming against something inside. It would occasionally begin to spin (as the temps rose) but made a terrible sound as the blades became snagged. In disgust I boxed it up, opened the case carton and placed the PSU in there with the marked case for return to the supplier.

The next morning I went in to Munich and bought another new power supply. Later that afternoon a courier arrived with my second case (from the new supplier) and also collected the damaged one as well as the faulty PSU. I could now finally build the new pc.

Thankfully everything went well, the build was straightforward and there was no issues with bios settings. It powered up first time, Windows XP Professional installed smoothly and then all the drivers where updated. I double checked all temperatures and voltages and then ran it through a 24 hour stress test at stock settings to ensure everything was stable. It passed with flying colours.

I bought a Core2Duo E6600 CPU which at stock runs at 1.35v and 2.4GHz. All my other components where bought with the intention of overclocking the CPU to around 3GHz while maintaining total stability, low temperatures and a silent computer. The next step was to find the limits of my memory. By lowering the CPU’s speed and increasing the front side bus I was able to find my memories limit while keeping the CPU below the speed that I knew it could run at with no issues. The next step was to aim for a faster speed on my CPU. Ideally the less volts you have to put through the CPU the better it is, it basically means less stress and less heat generated, which in turn means you can run the computer with slower/quieter fans. I altered my settings and attempted to run a 2.8GHz. The PC booted no problem and I again began to run the stress tests. Again it passed with no issues. The next step was 3GHz (my initial goal) here again it booted and passed the stress tests. I was very happy at this point. Still since I had not altered the voltages at all and its was running at acceptable temperatures I was curious as to what its limits where.

3.2GHz was my next attempt (still at stock volts). Again it booted into Windows and passed the stress tests. 3.4GHz seemed possible so I altered the settings and again loaded up Windows, to my amazement once again it passed with no errors. While this is not unheard off it is very unusual to get a E6600 that will run at 3.4GHz on stock voltages. Next was 3.6GHz (still at stock volts) and again I got into Windows with no issues. The stress tests were started and passed with no problems. The temperatures however had begun to climb to about the limits I call acceptable (60 degrees on both cores under full load). I could cool the computer more by increasing the fan speeds (all apart from the CPU cooler fan are currently running on 7V instead of 12V) but that would induce more noise and I want it to stay silent.

With that in mind I have settled for 3.6GHz at stock volts in a silent computer. It has been stressed tested under full load for 24hours and passed with no errors. So despite a bumpy beginning to my new PC I am now very happy and looking forward to being much more productive in Photoshop and Lightroom (which I just installed)

Here is a quick screen grab of the basic settings at 3.6GHz, who says overclocking is not worth it






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All that is left to do now is battle with the supplier for a refund on the first case and PSU

[Dave]

So how much saving Steve for buying a 2.4Ghz chip vs a 3.6Ghz DUal core ?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Steve

Here is a quick screen grab of the basic settings at 3.6GHz, who says overclocking is not worth it

So do you want mustard with your hat Markulous ?

[Steve]

Well the E6600 is around the £140 mark currently and runs at 2.4GHz stock. Intels current fastest dual core is the Extreme X6800 which runs at 2.93 GHz and costs approx £580

[silver]

can you list the bits you used,. am curious what mboard + ram etc?

Thanks,
Sil

[Dabhand16]

Sil - I think steve has already posted the spec somewhere - I just can't find it at the moment. I think it was in one of Charlotte's threads where computer specs were being discussed.

[Dabhand16]

Found it!

[silver]

Originally Posted by Dabhand16

Found it!

thanks

Case: Coolermaster RC632 Mystique (in black)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P Rev3.3 ... I struggled with this as I wanted the latest rev3.3 version and most retailers couldn't guarantee it would be that version. In the end I found a dealer that could supply.
CPU: Intel E6600 Core2duo
CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja with xilence 120mm 19db fan (this should be silent and still cool really well)
My main HD is going to be my current 320GB 16mb Samsung sata II
Second drive is a 500GB Samsung HD501LJ (again SATAII and 16MB)
Also have another external 500GB Samsung 16mb running on firewire.
DVD writer is also Samsung SH183L (this is also lightscribe)
Memory : 2GB of Crucial Ballistix (2x1gb) PC5300 DDR2 (known to overclock very well and has a lifetime guarantee. (bought from the Uk as not available here)
PSU : Seasonic M12 Modular 500W Silent Power Supply
Graphic Card: Geforce 7300GT 256mb PCI express.

what speed is the fsb / ram running at when unclocked and overclocked,. is the ram running 1:1 with the cpu or is it 4:3 or something,.

I put a core2duo box together for my wife when they first came out (even tho it's a 6300 and it's not overclocked it's still pretty quick) but at some point I need to upgrade my lowly p4

Thanks,
Sil

[Steve]

Sorry for the slow reply, I had to nip out.

The above spec is correct apart from due to the PSU issue I had, I have now got a different model. The CPU heatsink cooler fan is also the ‘stock’ one that comes supplied with the Scythe Ninja rev B. and not the Xilance one listed.

To underclock the cpu is no problem as you can lower the multiplier via the bios, all overclocking upwards needs to be done on the FSB though as the multipliers above default are locked (unless you have an engineering sample CPU). That’s how I underclocked.

I manually set up all the voltages and other settings including memory timings (leaving nothing on auto) and then set the multiplier at 6x (instead of its default of 9) and then increased the FSB in small steps, each time I rebooted the PC and ran Memtest through the first 6 sets of test to ensure a good basic stability. The memory was set at 2.5 times to ensure that any errors I got where definitely due to the memory hitting its limits before the CPU. Once I found its limits I backed it off a little bit and ran memtest overnight to make sure it was totally stable.

Once I found its limit I then adjusted both the memory timings and ratios along with the CPU multiplier until I found the limits (or in this case the temp limits). In my setup I am now running at 1:1 450x8 default voltages on everything. The memory timings are 5.5.5.15 2Twith their default Voltage of 2.2. My next step is to try to tighten the timings a little more.

One very important ‘modification’ I did whilst building the pc was to cool the northbridge on the MB by adding a small 40mm fan. It’s a well know fact that the 965 chipset gets very warm and despite it having a passive cooler if you are going to be overclocking via the FSB then it needs to be cooled efficiently.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by silver

I put a core2duo box together for my wife when they first came out (even tho it's a 6300 and it's not overclocked it's still pretty quick) but at some point I need to upgrade my lowly p4

Thanks,
Sil

You may be very lucky with that chip...some of the early production runs where very capable chips...ie speed binned from the top silicon. it could well be that you have a 'crippled' E6600 or E6700 with some of the cache disabled. I would be tempted to remove that from the rig and give it a decent run in your new build when you get around to it as it may well surprise you.

If you don't fancy that and can find a supplier that will hand pick a CPU from a batch then the L630A and L630B steppings are supposed to be the best (but hard to come by). My CPU is from a much newer batch and there has been a many reports of the newer batches generally being worse than the older, probably due to Intel keeping the best silicon back for the imminent increased demand of Q6600 cores (likely due to the coming price drop).

Its seems that I fell lucky with mine though, the full stepping is L646G404 in case you want to try to pick one of those up.

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Dave

So do you want mustard with your hat Markulous ?

What I said was (with a hint of desperation and, dare I say it, exasperation!) that the perceived gains were far less nowadays than they used to be (and no, not talking benchmarks! ). But I also added that if that's what you want to do you'll hear no argument from here!

French, please! Dijon, by preference!

[silver]

thanks yep, that is likely my plan buy a faster chip for her box and o/c the 6300

Sil

[fionaB]

ok i understood EVERYTHING.. perfectly well........... until u built your computer.......... then i think the word "woosh" and the gesticulation of something flying way over my head comes to mind............. read it. didint understand it. read it again....... STILL didint understand it. and decided i will stay THIS side of a computer and not even venture into the dark depth of the insides............Steve.. will u build mine when this one dies pls! ? lol

Fi