Newbie to overclocking; need help with i7 920.

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whats your overclock and voltage? also make sure your ram timings are fatory spec and not at auto, same for ram voltage, make sure its set to the right voltage. and for liquid cooled those are outrageous temps, my max load temp is 35°C after 5 hours of running LinX. what are the components to your loop?

Right now it's not overclocked at all. I don't know the answer to the other stuff you asked, I'll have to take a look at the BIOS in the morning (getting ready for bed).

As far as the liquid cooling goes... I have no clue, it's whatever Alienware puts on the Aurora that I got at Frye's lol. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's much at all... my old Voodoo was liquid cooled, and you could see HUGE piping for it. So far, I haven't noticed any of that in the Alienware, but I just figured they had come up with a way to make it more compact.

... you didnt answer any of my questions :/

Note the 10 second difference in the post times ;)
 
Didn't have enough time to go into the BIOS to see about those settings, but I did find the liquid cooling system. It looks pathetic... the pipes (or tubes, if you prefer) couldn't have had much more than 3/8" diameter, and they were about 4" long, so I can't see how there would be more than 1/4 cup of water in there. I'd bought a custom built Alienware in the past, and was very happy with it, so I assumed their off-the-shelf computers would still have high-quality components, but it looks like more of a marketing gimmick... "Sure, it's water cooled, that's the ticket!"

I'm thinking about just letting my daughter have it and building my own.
 
Didn't have enough time to go into the BIOS to see about those settings, but I did find the liquid cooling system. It looks pathetic... the pipes (or tubes, if you prefer) couldn't have had much more than 3/8" diameter, and they were about 4" long, so I can't see how there would be more than 1/4 cup of water in there. I'd bought a custom built Alienware in the past, and was very happy with it, so I assumed their off-the-shelf computers would still have high-quality components, but it looks like more of a marketing gimmick... "Sure, it's water cooled, that's the ticket!"

I'm thinking about just letting my daughter have it and building my own.


do eitt! Alien Ware is just a marketing ploy, we can build thje same computers for a lot less
 
Well, I'm still thinking about doing my own, but in the meantime, I just realized that there is something that might be causing this... there is thermal control software on the computer that the Alienware tech told me to use when I complained that the fans on there were so loud (they were seriously obnoxious, to the point where I couldn't have a conversation on the phone unless I went to the next room). I have it set to automatic, so maybe it's not seeing 69 degrees as being an issue and hasn't fully kicked in yet. As a matter of fact, I know it hasn't, because I'd recognize those jet engine noises anywhere. I'll try running LinX again with every cooling option on max.

PS--If I'm going to build it myself, I want the bomb, so to speak lol. It seems like custom maxed out systems from a manufacturer can easily creep up to $10k (I spent, if my memory serves me well, around $7k on my Voodoo setup about 4 years ago and around $4.5 for the prior Alienware, which was not off the shelf). What kind of budget would I need to get similar performance out of one I built myself? I don't need much in the bling factor... I'm more into the functionality than the flashing lights and stuff.
 
hmmm... a $2500 build would be absolutely beastly.

im about to go to work, but when i get back i can put together a top of the line " functionality " build for you...
 
Wow, that's actually lower than I expected... don't hold out, I can go a little higher if necessary ;)

EDIT--Oops, I missed the "top-of-the-line" part. So that would be with SSD, high RAM, etc.? Nice!
 
My system cost me about $3000 not counting the case that I had custom made for an extra $1000. And I built it around the i7 920 when it came out so I don't even have the new Intel 6 core i7 980X, but I'm almost as fast for $700 less. Everything in my system is air-cooled so the "possibility" is there for anyone to have just as much performance as I've managed to tweak out of it.

i7 920 @ 4.2GHz
EVGA Classified E760
(2) EVGA GTX 480's
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3 2000 7-8-7-20
Cooler Master 1250 watt Power Supply
OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD - Win 7 64-bit OS Drive
OCZ Agility 120GB SSD - General Purpose Drive
Seagate SATA 250GB HDD - Page File and Deep Storage
Blu-ray Drive
DVD Burner
TRUE Copper Heat Sink
 
Day-um, that must be a nice case... any pictures?

I'm pretty sure I'd want to avoid air-cooling if possible, just because I'm an audio geek who uses open-enclosure headphones, which have zero ability to block out ambient sound, so the idea of avoiding fans appeals to me. Then again, my last rig, the Voodoo PC, was water-cooled and it sounded like a Coke machine. What is a good high-efficiency, low-noise solution? Again, I'm not too worried by it costing a little extra.

Decisions, decisions...
 
Oh my, I've just audio geeked out on this possibility... making the most silent overclocked computer. I could obsess on that!
 
Here's a couple of pictures of both of my "custom" cases :D

class8c.jpg


class9n.jpg


A "good" custom watercooling setup can cost $300-$1000 or more depending upon what you want to achieve. I know people that have spend a lot of cash to equal what I've done on air so it's not a guaranteed option to Hi-Performance success. Nor is it a guarantee to quiet computing as you'll still need fans, but you can use quiet fans and sacrifice a little performance.
 
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