After getting some real help on a couple of fronts (oc & temp guides by graysky & CompuTronix, and some excellent advice from nukemaster), I finally reset everything and did the temp calibrations, with some unanticipated difficulty, described below.
EVGA A1 680i, Sonata III, EarthWatts 500w PSU, 2 x BFG 7900GS, 2 SATA HDs, 1 SATA DVDRW, 2GB Corsair DDR2 800 (5-5-5-18), Zalman 9700.
2 Case fans set to low & 2 dvd slot covers removed from front of case (as per nukemaster). No appreciable increase in noise, which is important to me.
Stable 3.735 GHz, all voltages set manually, RAM now linked/synced @ 830 MHz:
CPU: 1.4063
FSB: 1.3
RAM: 1.925
PCI-E: 1.3
NForce/AUX: 1.5
SPP-MCP: 1.2
As for the calibratons, I simply couldn't get the CPU to run @ 1.6 GHz, no matter what I did. The lowest I could go was 2.0 GHz, despite rereading CompuTronix's guide a number of times and playing around with the BIOS for an embarrassingly long time. There was just something about the MB/BIOS/Version/CPU combo that wouldn't let 1.6 happen. But in the end, following everything else to the letter @ 2.0, I was convinced that the Ambient +1 rule (Tcase) & Ambient + 10 +/- 3 (Tjunction) values were telling me I needed an offset of -9 or so for CPU temp. Without going into all the detail, -10 or -11 actually seemed a little closer to me, but -9 seems good and cautious.
Again, I really appreciate all the help. Also feel fine with the temps and the OC and don't feel there's much point to upping the voltage in order to go higher, but that may change in a week or two.
EVGA A1 680i, Sonata III, EarthWatts 500w PSU, 2 x BFG 7900GS, 2 SATA HDs, 1 SATA DVDRW, 2GB Corsair DDR2 800 (5-5-5-18), Zalman 9700.
2 Case fans set to low & 2 dvd slot covers removed from front of case (as per nukemaster). No appreciable increase in noise, which is important to me.
Stable 3.735 GHz, all voltages set manually, RAM now linked/synced @ 830 MHz:
CPU: 1.4063
FSB: 1.3
RAM: 1.925
PCI-E: 1.3
NForce/AUX: 1.5
SPP-MCP: 1.2
As for the calibratons, I simply couldn't get the CPU to run @ 1.6 GHz, no matter what I did. The lowest I could go was 2.0 GHz, despite rereading CompuTronix's guide a number of times and playing around with the BIOS for an embarrassingly long time. There was just something about the MB/BIOS/Version/CPU combo that wouldn't let 1.6 happen. But in the end, following everything else to the letter @ 2.0, I was convinced that the Ambient +1 rule (Tcase) & Ambient + 10 +/- 3 (Tjunction) values were telling me I needed an offset of -9 or so for CPU temp. Without going into all the detail, -10 or -11 actually seemed a little closer to me, but -9 seems good and cautious.
Again, I really appreciate all the help. Also feel fine with the temps and the OC and don't feel there's much point to upping the voltage in order to go higher, but that may change in a week or two.
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