Your memory is clocked at 1300. Google your part memory number and see if it should be at 1600. If you can't select 1600 for your RAM clock then bump your CPU ratio by a single granule. Also check your DRAM timings and manually put them in. At this point nothing has been overclocked and you won't void warranties or anything like that. Be careful with the ratio though. Don't go more than a single step in either direction.
Take note that memory only goes as fast as the slowest stick. So if you 3x 2gb sticks at 1600mhz and 1x 2gb at 800mhz then all 4 sticks will perform at 800mhz. Also this has to be said. Very first thing you did was open up your case and blow out every single moving part and heat sink in the computer. Of course it was.
It looks like you have a pretty decent motherboard but just for grins grab the part number and Google it. Make sure that your PCI-E lanes are 2.0 16x as Dem went through this one time long ago and it turned out his motherboard indeed supported pci-e but it was 1.0 which I think is either 1x or 8x lanes.
I agree 58 is high. I would climb to that on a stock fan/heat sink after hours of gaming. Do NOT touch your voltage with it that high. I believe the thermal limits of most i7 chips is around mid 60s. I know mine is 64 and I panic if it gets to 60.
EDIT: I'm curious about your bios ez screen. That little icon that shows performance quiet and energy saving. Is that something you can adjust or is it just a statistic readout? If you can adjust that make sure you're set to performance all the way.
PC issues
Re: PC issues
Maybe reseat the CPU heat sink to help with the temps, you'll need to get some thermal paste first - I use Article silver (or go get a corsair h50 water cooler, I really like these for non-over clocked setups)
Definitely looks like the gpu is the bottleneck though. Check the drivers as suggested, also check which pci-e slot you've got it in, at least one of the slots on that board should be a 16x slot, it needs to be in that slot.
Alright, I just checked where the 520 is in the hierarchy of cards, it's equivalent to an ati x800l, I.e. it's a piece of crap, time for a better card, you can get a nice, last gen card for under $100 that will work great.
Definitely looks like the gpu is the bottleneck though. Check the drivers as suggested, also check which pci-e slot you've got it in, at least one of the slots on that board should be a 16x slot, it needs to be in that slot.
Alright, I just checked where the 520 is in the hierarchy of cards, it's equivalent to an ati x800l, I.e. it's a piece of crap, time for a better card, you can get a nice, last gen card for under $100 that will work great.
Re: PC issues
While I don't like water cooling (paranoid loon checking in) I will say this is good advice. If you are using the stock heat sink that came with your processor moving up to an after market alternative of any kind will be an improvement no matter what. Corsair, Arctic Cooling, Noctua, all good brands that make nice coolers.Grainger wrote:Maybe reseat the CPU heat sink to help with the temps, you'll need to get some thermal paste first - I use Arctic Silver (or go get a corsair h50 water cooler, I really like these for non-over clocked setups)
Also I fixed Grainger's spelling mistake! :)
Re: PC issues
Water cooling is absolutely amazing and actually easy to do. Get past the paranoia and you will be quite happy.
Running computers on air just seems so barbaric to me now.
Running computers on air just seems so barbaric to me now.
Re: PC issues
Thanks for all the advice. Any video card recommendations? Money is a little tight now around Christmas, but I think I could swing a $100 card. As for the thermal paste and water cooling, I am terrified of breaking stuff. I'll try getting my tech friend to help with it.
Re: PC issues
For a $100 budget on video, you won't find better performance per dollar as you would with ATI.
That being said, if you want Nvidia, for another $60 or so you can get the GTX560.
PS I know, a month late but that's just how I roll yo.
That being said, if you want Nvidia, for another $60 or so you can get the GTX560.
PS I know, a month late but that's just how I roll yo.
Re: PC issues
The latest Ars systems guide is out: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/ ... mber-2012/
Re: PC issues
After reading the guide Canai posted, I am looking at:
GeForce GTX 660
Gets good reviews and while it's a price jump, I have gift cards!
GeForce GTX 660
Gets good reviews and while it's a price jump, I have gift cards!
Re: PC issues
Yup. Nice card according to this comparison chart too.Khorvis wrote:After reading the guide Canai posted, I am looking at:
GeForce GTX 660
Gets good reviews and while it's a price jump, I have gift cards!
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132
Re: PC issues
I have built the last several machines I've owned, and even with that experience, I dislike needing to repaste anything. If you are considering water cooling, here is a DIY option that is reputable. This guy is good. Jake von Slatt has built things I probably would never consider, and I think his guitar amp is among his most pro. It was a commission for one of my favorite musicians. If money is tight and the temperature is troublesome to manage, this may help you. [He's also a cornerstone in the steampunk scene; of which I am a more casual member.]
http://www.vonslatt.com/proj-cc2.shtml
So, apologies in advance if I reiterate anything others have said; I did a quick reading of previous remarks and it sounds like a hardware concern. Despite my years of building, I am not so savvy on hardware. I could list some things that may assist you in resolving software concerns, let me know if you'd want to hear.
http://www.vonslatt.com/proj-cc2.shtml
So, apologies in advance if I reiterate anything others have said; I did a quick reading of previous remarks and it sounds like a hardware concern. Despite my years of building, I am not so savvy on hardware. I could list some things that may assist you in resolving software concerns, let me know if you'd want to hear.
