BIOS And Overclocking
We immediately noticed that the stock Intel CPU cooler wasn’t going to be adequate in such a confined space when our build began thermal-throttling during stress tests at default settings. Reducing the processor to 1.025 V eliminated the heat issue while increasing efficiency.
CPU power-saving features and Intel Turbo mode were also enabled, and RAM was set to its rated DDR3-1600 CAS 7-8-7-20 at 1.65 V.
The system was now stable at its rated speeds, but how could we possibly overclock? Fortunately, our Core i7 920 had some overclocking headroom even at lower-than-default voltage levels.
Power-savings features and Turbo mode were retained to allow automatic adjustment of speed and voltage in response to changes in load and temperature.
A heat-related limit of 1.0375 V to the CPU core was responsible for our maximum stable speed of 3.25 GHz, while a slight memory underclock allowed us to set tighter 7-7-6-14 memory timings.
Similar heat issues prevented super-high graphics overclocks, but the resulting settings are still fast, and more importantly, they are super-stable at an ambient temperature of 24.5 degrees Celsius.
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Are Europeans also able to join the contest?
Nice build but a shame that the I7 was not further overclocked.
Wouldn't a scythe orochi have matched into the system?
@Erdinger - No.
I'm on the .co.uk site and it's all US dollar and parts you can't get in the UK! Sad thing is . If you swap the $ for £ the price is about the same.
Perfect timing! I was just about to buy a gaming PC but all your articles on gaming budget PC's were outdated. Do you have any plans on what day the "Day 3: The $600 Gaming PC" will be published?
ehm everyday one article .... today came number two so tomorow number 3 ^^
it's BS to put 24/7 HDs in a normal system. They aren't designed for a normal computer that get's turned on and off once a day and will die faster