cdb000

For Christmas, my wife gave me a kit of parts to upgrade to a i7 -- the Maxtors are old, as is the VGA, but the rest is shiney new and it seems to do pretty well.

I have experimented a bit with overclocking, and the machine seems stable at 3.8GHz, but is currently running with the side panel off as the airflow through the case is poor. To remedy this, I have ordered a Scythe Kama Bay which should arrive on Monday. I have also ordered a Delta FFB1212EHE fan (the 4000 rpm model) so I can play a bit.

Something I noticed while experimenting - I was able to push the uncore to quite a high speed (133*32 started up OK, 133*33 failed after a few seconds) so I experimented with running the uncore at the same speed as the cores with both at 175*21. This worked, but the temperature went up quite a bit, reaching about 82 degrees, so I decided to run the uncore and memory at quite low speeds and spend my 'thermal budget' on high core speed as this gains more performance than faster uncore and memory.

Currently I am running the memory at 181*6 (1086MHz) and the uncore at 181*14 (2534MHz) with the cores at 181*21 (3801MHz, *20 multiplier + ReadyBoost)

I will post an update next week when the new parts arrive.

meticadpa

The i7 720 doesen't exist... Get a new graphics card that's one of the biggest bottlenecks I've ever seen in a computer.

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cdb000

Please excuse the typo - I meant 920 of course.

A new graphics card is definitely on the shopping list, but I am unsure what would be a good choice. I tend towards Nvidia cards because they have worked well for me up to now and have a budget of about £150, maybe a little more. What would you reccomend?

coffeejunky

Hullo
Nice system you have there. Just need a GPU upgrade now
I would reccomend a GTX260 - worth the extra cash. Failing that you can get an ATi HD4850 pretty cheap, decent card.

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cdb000

I would prefer the Nvdia, so I will try to talk myself in to buying the GTX260...

Devil: Get a '260, you know you want to.

Angel: Yes, but it costs too much. Over £200!

Devil: Look at it this way, it's only about £55 more than you were planning to spend. £55 isn't that much money. You would spend that if you took Elena out for dinner. All you have to do is cook her a nice meal at home instead.

Angel: That's mean! She bought me the rest of the kit!

Devil: She'll be happy that you are cooking for her! You get to please your lady at the same time as getting yourself a decent graphcs card. Did I mention 216 stream processors. 216!

Angel: Well...

Devil: Try http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...V-plus-FarCry2

That seemed to work. I'll order it next week.

coffeejunky

I hate to be playing devils advocate here, but this is the improved 55nm version for a little more -
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

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cdb000

A good point, but it is on pre-order with an unknown ETA.
It also seems to have lower clocks, 576, 1242, 1998 against 666, 1440, 2300.

Swazi88

welcome to overclock.net glad to have another i7 here with us

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Gaming, moding and Everything to do with the puter is my bag baby

We Are Gr33n Machine

1337guy

Welcome!

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cdb000

After some browsing, I spotted this: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV which looked so much like a good idea that I ordered it.