Project Quad core - assembly has commenced

[Warhead]

wow, that video card and cpu heatsink make the board look like a baby atx.

83c for system sounds good, mine read 88c, so whatever it really is, yours is running cooler.... unless lower is hotter..... which is possible depending on how the sensor polls, but its close regardless.

what is the VID for your Q6700?

have you been able to play COD4 without vc? it looks they fixed the vc issue with the latest BIOS release

[WalkinTarget]

Thanks for the input, Warhead !
I still don't know where that ridiculous system temp number comes from, but all the other numbers are around 40-44c, so thats the one that sticks out like a sore thumb to me as wrong.
Regardless, we KNOW the 6.4v on the +12 rail is wrong, as does eVGA, who were made aware of this issue but haven't fixed it in the BIOS yet. Same old eVGA as far as I am concerned ... weird BIOS issues cropped up when I bought my eVGA NF41 board a few years back that were eventually solved.

I haven't checked the VID, but I emailed myself before lunch to check on that once I get home. It must be high, as my voltages are higher than other 6700's that I've checked into. Haven't played CoD4 in about 3-4 months, so yet another thing to test out.

I cannot stress enough how hot these quads run compared to dual chips. My idle temps went up 10c over my e6600, from 32c to 42c, and that's using the exact same case setup, so it really does require superior cooling if you are going to be pushing the board and the chip hard.

Update: Ughh ... I had in fact checked the VID and its the dreaded 1.3250 .. the worst it could be. Seems like the new Intel quads are all coming out at these higher VIDs, but it doesn't seem to be hindering my initial stab at an overclock so far. I'd guess that 3.6 is out of the question unless I want to bump the voltages, and with it already running warm, I'm hesitant to do that just yet.

[ryanbatc]

Wow that is a "PHAT" cpu cooler lol!

What a beast!

Nice build!

[Warhead]

i know this is going to sound backward, but bear with me. the higher VIDs seem to be inflated, try cutting it down to the minimum voltage you can run at the stock FSB and multiplier stable. then add about 0.05 volts and treat that as your base VID, bumping it up as you oc. i had trouble getting my Q6600 to oc much, and the temps were irking me, but when i did the above, it really helped with both temps and overclocking. im not promising anything, but it cant hurt to try.

i think core temp is by far the best way to track processor temps on these chips, and it also shows the Tj. max of your particular processor, so you know how far you can push it. but thats just my opinion

did the HDD LED work without having to ground it on the power LEDs header?

hurry up and break out the COD4, im dying to know if itll play for you on the board

[WalkinTarget]

did the HDD LED work without having to ground it on the power LEDs header?

No go there ... in my efforts to relocate the pin from the third to the second position I tore the wire loose from the pin, so now I am going to use the HDD2 lead to plug into the header at a right angle so it will work. Its something seemingly insignificant, but its bugging me already. I like my blue LEDs !!

Ohh, and I did run OCCT last night. It overheated after 28 minutes (it runs for 60 minutes) and temps finally crept up to 70c. It was crazy seeing all four cores maxed out at 100%.
Its one of those stress tests that I will guarantee you PC will never see under real world conditions, but its become a standard on testing your overclock, so I guess I either drop my VID as Warhead suggested, or ditch that crappy air HSF and go water cooling.

CoD4 .... I'll fire it up tonight if I can find the DVD to play it. After getting gold on weapons, I gave up on it immediately.

[paceman]

Wow - the North Koreans didn't blowup their nuclear cooling tower, they released the explosive bolts and sent it to WT!

[WalkinTarget]

LoL .. pace .. I thought this Nirvana cooler was equivalent in size to my Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 seen in the pics in the thread, but now that I look at it closely, it dwarfs the AC 7 unit.
I knew I was in a bit of trouble when I popped it into the case and it was within a 1/4" of my top exhaust fan. I guess I've gotten accustomed to the ever enlarging HSF setups, as I now have three retail C2D heatsinks if anyone needs one.
Its clear to me that I would need to go H2O on this build to achieve what I want, so I guess I will start investigating a relatively cheap water cooling kit.

Corsair Nautilus looks like a nice setup for around $150.

Edit: Good point, Troop. I just worry about building it. I prefer the easy setup of a pre-built WC setup, but reading the reviews on the Nautilus, I will have to pass for now. As Warhead mentioned, a drop in the VCC/VID voltage can knock up to 7c (!!!) off of the temps, so my goal this weekend is to drop my VCC from 1.325 to 1.265 and see if the box is still stable. It appears that Intel is wise on what buyers are doing with these chips and are putting in high VCC numbers so that the overclockers are able to get a stable OC from the chips, but at the expense of a lot of heat put off by them as well.

[Trooper110]

From what I've read you don't really want to go with a full setup kit if that's what you're looking at WT. My understanding is that it's better to buy all the components separately and then build it from there. Shouldn't be too hard, I haven't had experience with water cooling in personal computers, but I've ripped apart and rebuilt the water cooling systems in a dozen or so 5 ton printers at my old job.

[TheSilentAssassin]

Just Curious...how many computers do you have, and what are the specs of your best computer? Just wondering...

[juneau]

From what I've read you don't really want to go with a full setup kit if that's what you're looking at WT. My understanding is that it's better to buy all the components separately and then build it from there. Shouldn't be too hard, I haven't had experience with water cooling in personal computers, but I've ripped apart and rebuilt the water cooling systems in a dozen or so 5 ton printers at my old job.

+1

Radiators : Thermochill PA120.2 or 120.3
Blocks : EK Supreme
Pumps : Laing
Reserviors : XSPC

XSPC also do a reservior/pump combo which is very neat. Fits in one or two 5 1/4 bays.

[WalkinTarget]

Kyle, I'm one of those 'quantity' over 'quality' guys .. I'll never have a bleeding edge PC, but I like to keep all of them capable of playing any games that I like.

Here's the website listing them all. Its relatively up to date on hardware. Two of the nine are currently for sale, so pending the soon to be sold status of one, I will be adding the ATI 4870 card to the Main Rig and moving its current 8800GTS card to rig #2.

http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.aspx?member=33409

[TheSilentAssassin]

Wow, nice. Wish I could build a computer.

[Warhead]

any updates?

[WalkinTarget]

Warhead - I played the ENTIRE SP game of CoD4 with no hangups/errors at all. I've also played a few videos over the course of a few weeks and have yet to experience the video corruption bug. So far, everything that I was worried about with this build has failed to materialize.
I won't say I'm safe and out of the woods yet, but I haven't had the same issues you've had. Its a whole new ballgame when I pull out the G80 8800GTS and add the 4870 though .. that will be in about a month or so, but that has me worried more than anything that is currently running on that rig.

[WalkinTarget]

Update:

Decided to screw around with this quad chip, and I was somewhat disappointed in my temps, but realizing that a higher OC means more heat, I wasn't planning on doing more than trying it out.

I started off with a bump from 1333FSB to 1500, which bumped me from 3.33 to 3.5. I left it at stock voltages, again because my chip runs hot. I was seeing 44c+ at idle on the warmest core, so I did not want to get over 50c.

I had even lowered my voltage below its stock setting, in effect undervolting the chip in hopes I could drop some temp but hold my OC. Well, I dusted out the case as well, and I then noticed my 3 120mm case fans were all set to LOW.

OOPS ... well, that wouldn't make that much of a difference, I reasoned. So I booted into Windows and 3.5ghz was a cinch !! And lookit them temps !! Whaa .. ??

I am now idling at 38c, and even after a run of 3dMark06 to heat it up, I remained under my original 44c idle temp. The main problem with this build remains the inaccurate temp readings, but I at least know which ones are correct and which are borked.

Still waiting on that 4870 to finish this build. I'm passing on the 512mb card and going for a 1gb card with a non-reference cooling setup. August 12 is when the cards are available, so it won't be long now.