Just Bought Kick A$$ Gaming Pc, What Games To Get?

[Mayuri Krab]

Overclocking the PCI-E bus doesn't actually mean that you have OCed your graphics card, it just means that the PCI-E bus is communicating faster to the graphics card, but the graphics card itself is not running faster.

From reading various threads on this topic in whirlpool.net.au, most people there recommend sticking the PCI-E to default values. But as I said b4, it MAY cause problems but not always, just better to play it safe atm & leave it alone. & theres not much gained from upping the PCI-E bus for basic OCing (get much more noticeable results from OCing the CPU & GPU). Also like everything else to do with OC, there is no set OK limit for it, all depends on the quality of the components used.

If you want to OC the graphics card, you don't do it from the BIOS, you go into windows (or what ever OS you are running) & run the nvidia settings, there should be a tab/page thats on core clock & v-ram frequencies. Or you can download some kind of video card tunning software to OC your video card, like ATI-Tools (also works with Nvidia cards despite the name) or Nvidia's own OC tool, nTune.

[25GTT]

Thanks again Mayuri,

I think i owe you and Kralster a carton for all of ya techhie advice!!!

Yeah i used to use RIva tuner on my old P4 with 128mB gfx card to OC it. Although I am sure i saw on the install disk an overclock utility like you mentioned. Will give it a crack!!

[pkblade]

Also what is interesting, is that idle on these e8400's is mid 40' degree's. more around the 45 - 48 degree mark. THat seems quite high compared to my old Pent 4 i had before this one, but what is more interested is when these things are clocked there really isnt a huge temp increase like the old P4, so even though it idles hotter, when clocked it only goes up 2 - 3 degrees at idle.

Yeah your temps do seem rather high with an aftermarket heatsink. How much thermal paste did you use? What's your Vcore in the BIOS setup &/or CPU-Z? and are you reading core temps off OCCT? cos, I find on default settings it doesn’t really show accurate temps and usually overstated (5+ degrees).

I prefer to use ‘CoreTemp’ or ‘RealTemp’ to monitor temps and for comparisons, also, you can configure OCCT to read off one of these programs. However, you will prob find discrepancies between these two programs cos RealTemp has a default tjmax of 95c, while CoreTemp uses 100c. But, as long as the temps under load are below tjmax (25-30c difference) and everything is tested to be stable you should be fine. If temps still show to be high on stock settintgs or on a soft o/c you might want to reseat the heatsink.

[25GTT]

Cheers PK.

So at the moment to hopefully answer some of the questions.

Did 5 dollops of thermal paste and it was good stuff.... MX2 which is meant to be the shiznit. 1 dollop in the middle then 1 dollop on each of the corners.

Right now at and idle state clocked from 3 gig to 3.3 ghz

Core temp ver 0.99.2 shows core 1 sitting at 46 degrees

Core #2 sitting at 44 degrees

My room temp is pretty cool here as well as it has been raining all day, probably 17 degrees.

Tj.Max reading is 105 degrees..... i have no idea what tj max means though?

OK now to CPU-Z

it still is stepping up and down for the cpu levels but when it steps up it does step to 3.3 ghz so that is all ok.

So when you use the word VCore do you mean Core voltage?

If so CPuz shows core voltage when stepping down and resting at 1.120 (at 2.2ghz) but when it steps up i saw it briefly hit 1.184 and also a 1.136. yeah 1.184 is the highest i just saw it hit briefly.

my temps havent gone above 60 degrees which is fine with me as i like them to max about about 60 which is what it is doing, but i wonder how it will go in summer when my room hits 30 - 35 degrees?

[Mayuri Krab]

With thermo paste, you want to apply "just enough", too little will result in insufficient past to fill in the gaps between the surfaces of the heatsink & CPU (fill in the tiny gaps on the surfaces, since nothing in real life is 100% smooth), with too much will result in excess paste creating a "paste" layer between the HS & CPU & this will reduce heat transfer.

Having said that, thermal will only do so much to CPU temp, the 1st computer I bought (P4 based that was pre-bulid by a doggy place) had no paste between the HS & CPU & temps on that com wasn't really high neither.

Pretty sure Vcore = core voltage.

& the small fluctuation of the voltage is normal, my Q6600 also does that even in stock speed.

Tj is a type of junction used in creating electrical devices, learnt about it in year 2 of uni, its scary how little I remember

[25GTT]

HAAHHA! so is the tj ok at 105? when looking at other threads a lot of people have theres at 95 or 100? is it adjustable? is 105 ok?

Looking further at the temp side of things and man the E8400's are terrible with incorrect temperature level reading. Everyone is saying how good they are (clocking to 4ghz with some aftermarket air cooling) but a lot of the time idle is at 45 degrees stock, the up to 55degrees at idle on clocked units.

Looks like this may be 'normal'??? I am going to take the case off however just to make sure all of the clips are down on the cooler etc

[Mayuri Krab]

Well yeah, regarding to the tj thing, it should theoretically be able to behave like normal up to that temperature. But the CPU will auto throttle down before that to prevent damage. I think the auto throttle temperature for the Core 2s are around 85 to 95C

Electrical devices have a set operating of temperature range, within this temperature range they behave as what they were designed for (following the math models & stuff) but outside this range they start to act different (ie you will get a part in the circuit that is suppose to be 'open' & not let current through but on a higher temp it acts as a 'close' & lets current through) & hence is "broken".

In comparison some of Nvidia's GPUs are said have a operating temperature of over 100C, enough to cook my eggs on XD

Different types of the Core 2 cpus (like E6xxxs & E8xxxs) have different values of TJ max, depending on their manufacturing process. The Tj max for my Q6600 is 100C

EDIT with regards to E8400's temperature, did you force all the voltage setting for all the CPU parameters in the BIOS to stock levels? Still seems too that high, my Q6600 is currently on ~33-34C on all 4 cores (stock speed), & even with minor OC E8400 should have a lower temp than a Quad (at least lower than a old gen Quad) since the E8000s were designed with a lower thermal profile & a lower manufacturing process.

If so CPuz shows core voltage when stepping down and resting at 1.120 (at 2.2ghz) but when it steps up i saw it briefly hit 1.184 and also a 1.136. yeah 1.184 is the highest i just saw it hit briefly.

Now I just did a cross reference check, I'm not sure if the E8000s have a different stock Vcore compared to my Q6000, but if it does then it appears that your mobo has increased your voltages by one level (the p35 gigabyte mobos increases voltages in 0.05 steps), since in stock speed my Vcore is ~1.05-1.07V, yours is running around 0.05v more.

Edited September 17, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[pkblade]

So when you use the word VCore do you mean Core voltage?

If so CPuz shows core voltage when stepping down and resting at 1.120 (at 2.2ghz) but when it steps up i saw it briefly hit 1.184 and also a 1.136. yeah 1.184 is the highest i just saw it hit briefly.

Yes.

You'll find on load there’s a bit more a of Vdroop than on idle but, don’t fret your voltage seems perfectly fine and given that on most instances you can o/c the E8400 on stock Vcpu 1.2 in Bios setup (~1.14 CPUz) to 3.6ghz+ and supposably can handle upwards of 1.5 with v.good aircooling.

my temps havent gone above 60 degrees which is fine with me as i like them to max about about 60 which is what it is doing, but i wonder how it will go in summer when my room hits 30 - 35 degrees?

Yeah I’ve asked myself the same thing as reported max stable temps for the Wolfdale is low 70c’ish and atm I have a heatsink (BlueOrb FX) which isn’t much better than stock and with the E8400 safely o/c @ 3.92ghz (1.38? in BIOS setup) my typical temps are: room 24c… 40c idle…65c load (tjmax 100c). Although on more stock settings I see idle temps in low 30c’s & 51c on load so it isn't that bad.

...so is the tj ok at 105? when looking at other threads a lot of people have theres at 95 or 100? is it adjustable? is 105 ok?

Looking further at the temp side of things and man the E8400's are terrible with incorrect temperature level reading. Everyone is saying how good they are (clocking to 4ghz with some aftermarket air cooling) but a lot of the time idle is at 45 degrees stock, the up to 55degrees at idle on clocked units.

Looks like this may be 'normal'??? I am going to take the case off however just to make sure all of the clips are down on the cooler etc

Tjmax = junction temperature max

It’s a sensor on a CPU which has a max temp threshold (eg. 105c) and if reached it will shutdown but the processor will normally throttle down to try prevent it from happening. From what I’ve read Intel haven’t disclosed the exact tjmax for the Wolfdale so most programs are written with an educated guesstimate but you always can calibrate the programs tjmax yourself (general consensus for the E8400 is a tjmax of 95c). So atm your tjmax is 105c on CoreTemp and if you were to change it in settings [eg. -10c = 95c] your temps will drop by a corresponding 10degrees and give more realistic temps.

[25GTT]

Cheers PK, so the setings to change the TJmax, is that in coretemp prog or in BIOS? i am at work PC not home PC so cant tell. but what you are saying is that when my tjmax is reduced by 10 degrees i will also notice that my idle temp will also reduce (approx 10 degrees?)

If so .... schweeet!

But then how do i know which one is a realistic temp, that means if i wanted to i could set my TJmax to say 70 degrees, then my idle temp should in turn go down approx 35 degrees giving me an idle of about 15 degrees, which of coure would be wrong.

Or is it more of an educated guess at 95 degrees until the actually release out the proper tjmax of the E8400.

[BigDirtyJase]

I just brought a new gaming rig and installed games i couldn't play...It all comes down to what you are in to

In My Opinion

Must Have:

Crysis

COD4

The Orange Box (5 games in 1 box great value)

If you love driving games

Race Driver Grid

rFactor

Race 07 or GTR Evolution

RTS:

Supreme Commander

World In Conflict

C&C 3

Company of Heroes

[25GTT]

Nice! you may also want to add bioshock to that list aswell, plus i hear good things about gears of war :-)

[25GTT]

AHAHA just found my tjmax :-)

I have now adjusted it to 95 degrees and core temps on idle are now 37 - 38, much better :-)

Cheers lads!

Now with games i went down to my local EB games and Farcry 2 is out!

Anybody played Farcry 2 yet? is it as good as crysis?

[Mayuri Krab]

Where did you change the TJ? BIOS?

Didn't know far cry 2 was out, gonna start the torrenting again soon I guess

[kralster]

lol mate far cry 2 isn't out till next month, must of been a pre-sell box!

[pkblade]

AHAHA just found my tjmax :-)

I have now adjusted it to 95 degrees and core temps on idle are now 37 - 38, much better :-)

No probs, I'd also recommend comparing the load temps to the latest version of Real Temp (2.2) just to check that the calibration is accurate. But, don't worry if idle temps are different on Real Temp as it uses different corrective programming on idle than CoreTemp. Yeah, the tjmax 95c is an educated value from tests that the pogrammer of RealTemp did but it was mainly written for our 45nm cores in mind. Also, as long as temps are well below the tjmax value (eg. at least 20-25c distance) and stress tests like OCCT/ Orthos etc show things are stable you should be fine

Where did you change the TJ? BIOS?

You can change it in some program's through settings.

[25GTT]

Where did you change the TJ? BIOS?

Didn't know far cry 2 was out, gonna start the torrenting again soon I guess

yeah farcry2 is for sale pretty soon, its in their coming soon section along with there over inflated prices. Its quite easy with them though. JB hifi sells the same game 20 bucks cheaper eg spore was 79 at jb compared to 99 at eb games, just told the guy i will buy spore at 79 as that is what jb are selling them for and he said yes but they are out of stock.

to change my TJmax setting i went into Core Temp (ver 0.99.2) then options then settings and used the value -10 in the degrees section for tjmax.

Question for you all, in adjusting my tjmax through core temp, if i were to close the prog, does that mean that the tjmax goes back up to 105?

[Mayuri Krab]

All games are overpriced here in AU if you ask me, have a look at steam, good example was when COD4 1st came out on it, the price for that was ~$50 (same as US price) but they soon found that out & jacked it up $80 or something. A*seholes

Pretty sure Core Temp would remember the setting.

Edited September 21, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[25GTT]

Whats the address of steam? is it a shop?

have been looking at the play asia shop, not bad prices there, also suprisingly enough JBhifi seems to keep there prices ..... well i could say low, but thats not the right phrase..... lower than other australian shops. The prices for games are ridiculous!

[25GTT]

Ahhh found the steam website, when i go broadband this would be ideal! For now though with dial up, buying a game then waiting for 4 weeks to play it would kill me :-)