New to this... now what?

[Bolas]

Ok... so my system powers up. Now what?

How do I check temperatures? I don't have any flow rate or temperature monitoring equipment other than what is built into the motherboard and windows, currently, but I'm not opposed to buying something, if needed.

I'm interested in over-clocking as well, but have never done so yet. Supposedly, my Gigabtye UD7 is noob-friendly for this task, with some pre-sets, but I don't really want to start poking around in the BIOS without some guidance from someone that knows what they are doing.

Any advice or links would be appreciated. I did check the stickied guides in this forum, and they were mostly equipment selection guides. The one "how to water cool" guide didn't give a lot of info on checking temps or basic overclocking.

[Major]

Everything you ever wanted to know about OCing your mb http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=240276

About a weeks worth of reading! lol

And Google results for Overclocing i7 http://www.google.com/search?q=guide...e=utf8&oe=utf8

[Vinas]

Unfortunately there are no real shortcuts to getting a good OC. You should use RealTemp or Core Temp to monitor your CPU temperatures. Use linx or Intel Burn Test to test the stability of your CPU... Look out, it gets toasty (kinda like the heat on the surface of the sun)!

[Bolas]

Unfortunately there are no real shortcuts to getting a good OC. You should use RealTemp or Core Temp to monitor your CPU temperatures. Use linx or Intel Burn Test to test the stability of your CPU... Look out, it gets toasty (kinda like the heat on the surface of the sun)!

RealTemp or CoreTemp... not familiar with those. Are they DOS commands? Programs that I download from the web? In the Accessories folder in Windows?

I assume Linx and Intel Burn Test are things I can download from the web somewhere?

[Bolas]

Everything you ever wanted to know about OCing your mb http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=240276

About a weeks worth of reading! lol

And Google results for Overclocing i7 http://www.google.com/search?q=guide...e=utf8&oe=utf8

Thanks for the links, I'll read up on that this coming week.

[Rob_B]

RealTemp or CoreTemp... not familiar with those. I assume Linx and Intel Burn Test are things I can download from the web somewhere?

You can download all 4 programs.
They are easy to find with Google. Except for LinX, that one didn't show up on the top of the list on Google. You find that here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=201670

[Bolas]

Unfortunately there are no real shortcuts to getting a good OC. You should use RealTemp or Core Temp to monitor your CPU temperatures. Use linx or Intel Burn Test to test the stability of your CPU... Look out, it gets toasty (kinda like the heat on the surface of the sun)!

LOL I'm not looking for "shortcuts". I'm looking to figure out how to do it at all. I've never done over-clocking before, totally new to me. I guess I need a bit more research for how to do it, but I'll get there.

[Bolas]

Ok, in case there are other noobs out there like me... here are the links.

RealTemp

http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

Core Temp

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Intel Burn Test v2.4

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...BurnTest.shtml

Linx

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=201670

[Bolas]

Looks like my core temps on the cpu range from 16 to 24 degrees C, at idle. So far so good.

[Bolas]

Just curious, is there a widget version of the temp monitor programs?

[Bolas]

Here we go... first benchmarks and first temps, stock clocks.





Temps on some cores got up as high as 41 degrees C during burn in, but I forgot to take a screenshot of that.

[Bolas]

So which bench mark programs are worth getting? Presumably, Super Pi because it's free. What other programs and which versions?

[Bolas]

32M digits of Pi calculated in 10 min 42.425 sec.

[Bolas]

Stock cpu and gpu clocks is giving:

P25962 3DMarks

CPU Score 32302

Graphics Score 24368

[Bolas]

GPU-Z seems to lock up my system when I tried to run it. Hmm... wonder what I'm doing wrong?

[Bolas]

I like the Core Temp program and the RealTemp program, those are great for monitoring the cpu core temperatures.

Is there something like that for monitoring northbridge, southbridge, gpu, mosfet, and other temps?

[ascl]

Try hwmonitor or everest.

[Bolas]

Try hwmonitor or everest.

Thanks!

Just had my first crash from attempted overclocking. I tried out Gigabyte's overclocking utility, and the memory profile didn't combine well with it and it pushed the memory too far over rated speeds. Fixed it though and now I have a more modest overclock that is stable.

[ascl]

Use Prime95 and Intel Burn Test for stability testing, and take it slow. Change one thing at a time (ie under clock your RAM while you are messing with your CPU. Use a low multiplier while you are bumping the bclk etc). Be careful using gigabyte's overclocking tool, it tends to over volt (ditto with the 'auto' settings in the bios).

[Bolas]

At my current 4.16GHz overclock, I'm seeing idle temps at around 31 degrees C and full load temps at around 54 degrees. What are reasonable temps for 24/7 operation? In other words, how much more can I push my system's speed, or should I be happy with what it's at now?

[ascl]

This is core temp or "CPU" temp? You should be ignoring CPU temp, just worry about core temps. If you are getting 54c after 10 passes of Intel Burn Test, or a couple of hours of Prime95, then you are getting very good temperatures. Personally, I don't like my CPUs to go above 75c during IBT.... 100c is where your CPU throttles, and you want to avoid hitting that, so 75c allows some room for hot days.... and nothing (outside of these tests) will generate the same heat as IBT... in fact, most things don't generate as much heat as Prime95.

You really need to run Prime95 small blends test for a number of hours, ideally 12+ to call your system stable.

[Vinas]

At my current 4.16GHz overclock, I'm seeing idle temps at around 31 degrees C and full load temps at around 54 degrees. What are reasonable temps for 24/7 operation? In other words, how much more can I push my system's speed, or should I be happy with what it's at now?

Show us another 20 pass linx screen shot so we can take a look at your temperatures. If everything is in order temp and stability wise then you should be good to go at that speed. It seems like a 20 pass linx is pretty stable for most people.

[ascl]

Oh make sure you select the highest amount of memory possible when running linx. 20 passes should me longer than 5 minutes for a good test!