WHAT WOULD YOU DO

[JRMitchell1983]

CASE: NZXT TEMPEST
PSU: CORSAIR HX-1000 (1000watts)
CPU: INTEL Q6600 2.4ghz (not yet overclocked - still not sure how)
GPU: EVGA GTX 285 x2 SLI (Overclocked to the GTX 285 SSC Edition)
HS: MASSCOOL 8WA741
MB: EVGA 750i SLI FTW
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 800mhz 8GB
HDD: 500GB SEAGATE


What would you do to this rig? Keep all the hardware within reason. ( upgrade HS? - down grade RAM?)
Thank you for your time.

(Im trying to make this rig the best that I can)

I dont know how to overclock the cpu either. ( IF YOU HAVE THE SAME SETUP PLEASE POST SETTING )

 

[starams5]

You're looking pretty good there. I would suggest liquid cooling and another identical 500Gb Seagate (if SATA) for a RAID0 configuration.

 

[JRMitchell1983]

liquid cooling is in the near future

had another 500gb hdd but it fried? dont know why but that particular seatgate model had a major recall. thats probaly why

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY

 

[starams5]

Liquid cooling is not for everybody just something to consider. I went through the same problems with the 1st generation WD SATA drives. But looking back in hindsight I'm pretty sure it was my PSU, not enough power. But we know that's not you're problem the CORSAIR HX-1000w is a nice unit, smart move. I have Antec 1000w TPQ's in both of my rigs, I don't know why some of these guys buy these smaller PSU's, after performing upgrades their sweating power all over again.

 

[JRMitchell1983]

THANK YOU My plan was not to have to upgrade for awhile

 

[Malcolmk]

Hi, If you don't want to spend much then just get a Thermalright Ultra-120 cpu cooler and overclock your q6600 to 3gig. Also stay away from seagate hard drives and if your going to buy new drives go for the Samsung F1 drives.

If you want to go further then upgrade your cpu and motherboard. The q6600 is not the best cpu for gaming on a high res screen and the nvidia 750sli motherboard has a big bottleneck in the pci-e. I recently changed my AM2 750sli board to a Gigabyte 790X-UD4 and gained %25 in framerate just with an 8800gt. That was in COD4 and on a 24" screen but it's still a good indicator of how restrictive the 750sli chipset is.

 

[JRMitchell1983]

what do you mean cpu bootleneck?

 

[JRMitchell1983]

remember this is my first build and yes i am a newbie

 

[starams5]

See link below in regard to bottlenecking. But I would like to add this, I have a 750i with an E8500 which has no bottlenecking issue's or any other issues for that matter so I'm sure he is referring to the Quads. The 790i he is running was supposed to have addressed many of the problems of the other 7xx nVidia chipsets/Quads. I haven't seen much feedback on the 790i so his info is good and if he has more he can share I hope he does so.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/247598-28-bottleneck-games

 

[Malcolmk]

Ok it was late when I sent the comment so I didn't get into details. What I was refering to as being a bottleneck is the number of pci-e lanes when both pci-e slots are occupied on the 750sli motherboards. They are 16x slots but are restricted to an 8x connection when using both slots. In my case I use the second slot for a raid card.

To give you an example my 8800gt when installed on the AM2 750sli board is good for 125fps at the begining of COD4's Charlie don't surf. The same card and cpu is good for 155fps when installed on the Gigabyte board with a full 16x pci-e connection. Your gtx285 cards are twice as powerful as my 8800gt so it is safe to say your loosing lots of performance because of the limited pci-e lanes on the 750sli board.

I would suggest doing a few test of your own to see the difference between 8x and 16x pci-e when using a single card. Use FRAPS to see the difference in framerate and also run the windows task manager in the background to see what your cpu usage is on each core during gaming. This will tell you if your q6600 is good enough to run two GTX285 cards. Overclock your q6600 to 3gig and see how it runs and if you have any cpu usage left. It also depends what size screen your using. The bigger the screen the less important the cpu is. Anyway give it a go and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

I agree with MalcolmUK, very sound advice, Changing to the 790i Nvidia chipset will increase your performance tremendously, the GTX 285 require a lot of bandwidth and having two of them requires both Pci-e lanes to be running x16 or the Pci-e lane slows down the speed at which the Gpu and Cpu pass information to each other!

You also need to look at seriously overclocking your q6600 which is a really great quad core processor. The 6600 can easily go to 3.4ghz with a little voltage tweak and the correct cooling, google "q6600 best heatsink for overclocking" and research the best heatsink for the case, air is ok for now unless you want to go water but air will do!

You see, at stock speeds the q6600 will also be holding back the performance of the GTX285 in SLI in your gaming, so increasing the clock of the q6600 will benefit you tremendously, have seen similar q6600 and 4890 X-Fire setup and it flies mad!

Lastly, What Resolution are you gaming at, Hopefully 1920x1080 or above as anything below that and you are just wasting the hardware you have, you could really easily run on a 30" monitor with that setup to be fair, thats what its made for!

 

[starams5]

MalcolmUK laid it out pretty good there, it all made sense the way he explained it, thanks for coming back.

 

[Malcolmk]

That's ok, I was surprised at the difference the extra 8x pci-e lanes make. Also I noticed there is a big difference in how certain graphics cards use the extra bandwidth. With the 8800gt you mostly notice the difference in maximum framerate but with a HD4850 there is no difference in max framerate but the minimum framerate almost doubles making it very nice in gameplay. You might find the GTX285 has a similar improvement with the extra 8 lanes. It's just a matter of trying it. BTW with overclocking your q6600 all you need to do is change the FSB to 333 and that will give you 3gig. Your cpu should be able to run 3gig without voltage adjustment. If it's unstable then look at uping your voltages a little but not too much.

 

[flyin15sec]

A 750i FTW edition is 16x 16x PCIe in SLI. It has an NF200 chip next to the NB, which gives it the extra PCIe bandwidth.

The standard 750i, does not.

 

[starams5]

A 750i FTW edition is 16x 16x PCIe in SLI. It has an NF200 chip next to the NB, which gives it the extra PCIe bandwidth.

The standard 750i, does not.

You are absolutely right, Its been so long since I bought my P5N-D, the specs and details have long faded. I seen what you said "It has an NF200 chip next to the NB, which gives it the extra PCIe bandwidth." My P5N-D 750i is set up the same way. So I checked my user manual and it states,

2 x PCIe 2.0 x16
- Single VGA mode: x16
- SLI mode: Hardware ready for x16, x16
2 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI 2.2
Scalable Link Interface (SLI™)
Supports two identical

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unitycorp.co.jp/asus/motherboard/intel/lga775/p5n-d/big_photo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.unitycorp.co.jp/asus/motherboard/intel/lga775/p5n-d/photo.html&usg=__99kmyhoLEjgYF0s1FiszUkoAazA=&h=810&w=1000&sz=664&hl=en&start=2&sig2=5k35EIuuyyH_p_Mo3o2PvA&um=1&tbnid=frvPrapfIaQ77M:&tbnh=121&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dp5n-d%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=lZIgSt-ZC536tQOe8u2LBA

 

[starams5]

I currently have a premium, and had a premium board in the past (Sli). I bought the P5N-D for a budget build, only paid 150 for it and I remember thinking the damn thing probably won't even post. To make a long story short, it didn't stay in my second rig for long, this baby cranks, out performs any premium board I've ran in Sli (650i & 780i). Unless I plan to 3 or 4 way Sli (specific task) I think I'll stick with the mid range boards from here on out. Their kind of like the old muscle car, you might not have the air, power windows, etc; but you have the power.

 

[jdigital1983]

Hey guys thanks for all the info for what ever reason MY JRMITCHELL1983 ACCOUNT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE SO NOW JDIGITAL IS BORN.

 

[jdigital1983]

That's ok, I was surprised at the difference the extra 8x pci-e lanes make. Also I noticed there is a big difference in how certain graphics cards use the extra bandwidth. With the 8800gt you mostly notice the difference in maximum framerate but with a HD4850 there is no difference in max framerate but the minimum framerate almost doubles making it very nice in gameplay. You might find the GTX285 has a similar improvement with the extra 8 lanes. It's just a matter of trying it. BTW with overclocking your q6600 all you need to do is change the FSB to 333 and that will give you 3gig. Your cpu should be able to run 3gig without voltage adjustment. If it's unstable then look at uping your voltages a little but not too much.

SO 333 FSB NO VOLTAGE CHANGE AND i WILL GET 3GHZ? NO OTHER SETTINGS TO CHANGE? I KNOW MY PCIE MHZ SHOULD STAY 100MHZ NO MATTER WHAT. RIGHT?

 

[Malcolmk]

Yes, just keep your pcie at 100mz. The q6600 has a 266 fsb standard and a 9x multiplier which gives you 2.4gig. Changing the fsb to to 333 will give you 3gig. It should run ok with stock voltage. Just try it and see.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

I'd say your CPU is bottle necking your video card , either get a 2.8GHz processor to help out your Video card or overclock the one you have.

Edit: ^+1

 

[jdigital1983]

well I just lapped my cpu and heatsink but not much difference in temps.Thats my problem now. I can get 3.2 on all stock voltage but the temps are pushing 70 and thats to high.the masscool heatsink sucks any recommendations?

 

[Gin Fushicho]

You can either cool your room to 65F or you can try and dfind this rare heatsink. http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=213 it dropped my temps 20C.

 

[jdigital1983]

looks a lil small for me I need something with some balls

 

[Mousemonkey]

looks a lil small for me I need something with some balls

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Thermalright-Ultra-120-eXtreme-120mm-Heat-Sink-Fan-for-Intel-775-and-1366-!!-CPU-(Without-Fan)

 

[jdigital1983]

NOW WERE TALKING I WANT TO GET SOMETHING ALL COPPER THOUGH