Slider46

So here's my second attempt at a watercooled PC. This time, the PC was built from scratch, no upgrading

And no, I dont have money to just buy parts and build PCs non-stop, I just have friends with money who want PCs lol (just upgraded my own with a watercooled GPU)

Im hoping to get some comments and some help with this rig. The actual build went pretty much perfectly. The issue we seem to have is when trying to OC the CPU and GPU, the PC crashes. Even with the slightest OC (10% for the CPU just using the MoBo utility)

I'll list the components and then elaborate on the issues:

PC:

- Antec 900
- ABS Tagan 700w Modular PSU
- ASUS M2N-E - nForce 570 Ultra chipset
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0Ghz AM2
- 4GB G.Skill DDR2 800 5-5-5-15
- EVGA GTX 260
- Seagate 250GB 16mb cache
- Dual 12" UV cathodes

Cooling:

- Thermaltake AquaBay M3 Res.
- Thermaltake Flow TX Plus
- Thermaltake P500 pump
- Danger Den 120mm radiator
- EK-FC280 GTX SLI- Block for GTX200 series
- Alphacool Nexxxos CPU Block
- Koolance fittings/wrap, primochill tubing, UV Green PC ICE

Coolant temp averages about 32-35c.

Ok so after letting the system idle and checking for leaks (need pretty thick O-rings for the thermaltake pump!), we install XP professional - 32bit, MoBo drivers, EVGA drivers, 3DMark06, Rivatuner.

Out-of-the-box-stock this machine gets over 11,600 in 3Dmark06.

We reboot into the BIOS and use the MoBo overclock utility to do a 10% overclock on the CPU.

Boots fine, then we start Rivatuner. I step the video card up from the stock clocks (576/2000). I settle on 620/2200. The machine idles fine. We proceed to start 3Dmark and then it crashes. CPU and GPU revert to stock settings.

After deciding we'd work on the OC'ing later (it was late) my friend tries to play Call of Duty 4 and has another crash. Now i'm starting to wonder if we've chosen a bad mixture of hardware.

I know the GTX 260 is capable of overclocking at least to the specs of the "FTW Edition" (666/2214). If EVGA can do it, why can't I?

I think the Motherboard is holding the system back. Is this MoBo notoriously horrible at OC'ing? Any thoughts? Can anyone point me to a thread that could help?

Some Pics:

Attached Thumbnails

         

evilspongebob72

Hmmm...I think that cpu is bottlenecking the 280

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Slider46

Well it's a 260.

And could you elaborate on how the CPU is affecting the GPU? I just want to learn! lol

Cukies

Nice setup. Where did you get your water block for your GTX 260?

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Slider46

Performance-Pcs.com

Although they are sold out atm.

It fits the 280/260. The heatsink and backplate that come on the GTX 200 series are sorta difficult to get off. Take out all the screws, pop the back plate off with a small screwdriver (it's clipped together) then CAREFULLY pry the heatsink off the top. Make sure all screws are out! (there are some below the fan!)

billbartuska

Overclocking with BIOS utilities is not usually successful, and even if it works, you can do a lot better by setting individual settings. You may want to try only 5%

Learn to oveclock......

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Slider46

Yea I think we'll run a few benchmarks/burn-ins at stock speeds before starting to OC again. Might have rushed a bit too much.

hout17

Yeah, you want to OC your PC from the bios itself. In my experience doing an OC with utilities really is not the way to go.

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MCBrown.CA

I agree. I find overclocking utilities do not offer the level fine-tuning that is required to successful push a CPU to its limit.

Manual BIOS overclocking can be very intimidating for people who are new to the process. It may seem that the BIOS is written in some foreign language (certainly felt like that to me when I started)... I have found this BIOS guide to be very helpful in figuring out what some of the BIOS options mean and their function.

Also remember that, in theory, overclocking AMD and Intel CPUs is a relatively similar process. However, there are some subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in the way that AMD processors overclock and they will almost always require more fine-tuning and tweaking to produce a stable OC. You might find this guide helpful as it is written specifically for AMD processors.

Good Luck!

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Slider46

I've been reading (i'm sure its mostly fan-based opinion) that Intel overclocks better than AMD.

Is this true?

I've always liked AMD because of their generally lower price-points but it seems like they are starting to lag behind Intel. I am somewhat brand-loyal but if i'm gonna pay for something, I want the best performance for my $$.

All the best 3DMark06 scores always have a quad-intel at like 4.5Ghz. I've never heard of an AMD going that high.

I might start looking at Intel processers....hmm lol.