It's common for CPU coolers (or the fan at least) to overhang the first RAM slot, usually you can still fit lower-profile DIMMs in there but you'll have to either remove the fan or in some cases the whole cooler. If you're using RAM with daft heatsinks on then you're more likely to have issues.
You can always turn the fan on the cooler around to blow in the opposite direction, however it's usually best left in it's default configuration.
I believe the fan on the 212 can be mounted on the other side and reversed. You'd just need to adjust the bracket. Also, provided your RAM doesn't have those heat fins sticking off the top, you can move the fan so it sits slightly above the top of the 1st DIMM. I'm like 73% sure that's what I did.
Edit: Ninja'd!
2013 Great Game Challenge Completion: 131/171 - 76.61%
I've got giant blue fins on the RAM. It's Corsair Vengeance 1600. Are those fins useless? I guess they might be cool-looking, except that I have a brown and silver mobo.
Whatever, it's not a problem now. Though, the instructions to the mobo did say to put identical RAM in all four slots, if you use all four, so the future might involve rejiggering.
Time for the test boot! (Which means no monitor for the old pc, so my Kindle Fire will have to serve for internet needs)
Can't you turn the 212 so it's blowing from the bottom up (towards the top exhaust fan) if you need the 1st ram slot? (edit: never mind, too late!)
Is your ram 4gb x2? Either way, if you have 2 sticks, they have to be in the 1st and 3rd (which you can't do) or in the 2nd and 4th slot, which you can do.
e: yeah you should have gone for the g.skills 1333 someone posted, but too late now!
4x2. I'd thought 1600 was faster than 1333. Why would I have been better with slower?
It's not better but they're cheaper and the speed difference is negligible, and in games there is no difference - but mainly I meant that they don't have such large heatsinks! Anyway don't worry about it as it's too late and not that importnat, but make sure they're in the 2nd and 4th slot (a2 and b2).
good luck!
Hello, from my new PC!
It took me like twelve friggin' hours, but I did it! I didn't even have any issues (yet, knock on wood).
I did have to use the mobo company's driver disk, as I couldn't get online otherwise, and it stuck a bunch of stuff on my comp. IDK what's junk and what's legit yet.
So tell me, what do I do now to get the most out of this new toy of mine?
First off - Big congrats, you've joined the select few who are not afraid to build with expensive electronic Lego.
My first thought is always to play something demanding and watch it run smoothly with all the features turned up to 11. After that, well, only install things when you need them, you may be surprised how many things you thought were essential, but you never actually use. Oh, and now you probably have a mountain of polystyrene and other superfluous packaging, you should think about getting rid of that.
Thanks!
Now, what do I need to get started with overclocking? The GPU I know I can do in the Nvidia control panel (though how to decide what to set it on escapes me), but I'm a bit hazier on the CPU stuff.
The ASrock mobo's UEFI BIOS has something in the OCing section called 'Turbo 50', which is apparently a sort of auto-overclocker. ASrock's driver disk also installed software called 'ASrock Extreme Tuning Utility'. That shows me temps, fan speeds etc., and also lets me change settings from in windows. I'll not use it for that, just for checking the stats.
Anyway, just to see, I turned on the Turbo 50, and my CPU is bouncing around from 1600 to 4800MHz. IDK if it's supposed to change like that, but the temperature is only 35C. Is that a safe thing to have set?
Oh, I also installed this software called "Virtu", which is supposed to make it so the onboard graphics run while doing nonintensive stuff, and the GPU only kicks in for gaming and the like. Is that something you guys/girls have heard of?
Last edited by thebigJ_A; 05-02-2012 at 05:09 AM.
There's this thread, where someone has the same hardware as you and is also a first time builder and overclocker. Then there's this thread, which has specific settings for the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k. Then there's this post, with links to threads that will fill in any blanks.
The built-in OC setups are usually okay to test CPUs with, but the 2500k was more or less built for overclocking, so I don't think you'll want to stick with that. And you definitely don't want to use the software overclocking for more than testing too, so it's good that you're avoiding that. The changing CPU speed is due to SpeedStep technology, which basically clocks your CPU down significantly when it it's under light loads to save power, and that temp is very good.
I don't have any experience with Virtu myself, but if it works, you'll save a lot of power and your GPU will last longer by using it, so I'd say it's worth a shot to try it out.
Simply a brilliant signature, so I'm stealing it like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Yoink!Originally Posted by vecordae
Won't you need to keep switching the monitor output from GPU to onboard every time? Otherwise the GPU will still be in use, just (I guess) passively. Never heard of Virtu so I'm not sure how it works.
I think it must use the DVI connector on the GPU but 2D and maybe low-end 3D graphics would actually be processed by the on-board GPU. I believe AMD/ATI has their on-board graphics built into the CPU's board and there's no video-out port on the motherboard, so it's gotta do something similar.
Simply a brilliant signature, so I'm stealing it like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Yoink!
After doing a bit more research, i got rid of Virtu. It's very good for things I'll not ever do, while causing a hit in fps in games. Usually that hit is too small to notice, but in a few (Metro 2033, for one) it's significant.
I had other questions. When I go into the hardware monitor in the BIOS, it shows a CPU temp (forget the exact term it uses atm) that is always like 20 degrees hotter than the cpu temps I get from any monitoring software in Windows. Is that normal? Is it perhaps measuring something else?
Also, there's a setting in there that seems to affect how many watts the CPU can get. It's at 150 right now. Is that something I should up for OCing? I tried using the auto overclock 4.4 setting and running prime95 for a little while and the temp got to 80, which sounds high to me.
I'm a little disappointed in the OCing of my graphics card atm. I read in a couple of placed that a core clock of 950, and a memory clock of 2150 should be reachable without much trouble on a 560 ti, but it was unstable (artifacts) when I put it at that.
What about using MSI afterburner to change the shader clock and voltage (I know the voltage is risky)? How much to those add?
Lastly, for now ;). What is the practical, real world difference between having this CPU at, say, 4.5Ghz over 4.4? Is it significant?
Feel free to pick and choose a question to answer, oh guides of mine!
Good to know. If I ever get the cash together to make a new build for myself, I'll be sure to avoid that option.
There are a variety of sensors inside of CPUs and motherboards, so the temperature reading for the CPU varies widely depending on the sensor being read. Your mobo is probably using the sensor on the mobo that's closest to the CPU to read the temp and might be guesstimating on the actual value, but I'm not an expert on such things so I could be proven wrong by another post.
The CPU OC process usually involves repeatedly upping the FSB or multiplier setting by a small amount and testing it to find the highest stable overclock speed, then doing the same for the other setting, then increasing the voltage by a small amount and repeating the whole process. By doing this multiple times over a bunch of incremental changes, you can find the absolute maximum stable clock speed of a given CPU. As you can imagine, this can take what feels like an eternity, so I'd recommend one of the many online OC guides for your CPU. I linked a couple of them in post #50 and it'll take a fair bit of reading, but is worth the time to really understand what you're doing and why. Plus it will certainly be quicker than trying the whole incremental process from scratch.
There's a full step-by-step guide to OCing a GTX 560 Ti here. I'm still rolling along with my GTS 250, so I can't say how effective the guide is, but some of the comments indicate that it's a good one.
To my thinking, there probably isn't a huge difference in day-to-day use, but if you want to do something like SETI@Home or one of the many other similar programs or if you do any audio or video encoding/decoding more often than once a month, it could make a noticeable difference. I strongly doubt that there would be much difference in games since your CPU is very unlikely to be a bottleneck in anything you play, but there could be some exceptions down the road.
Simply a brilliant signature, so I'm stealing it like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Yoink!
I'm not sure about UEFI, but in BIOS my idle temps were always higher than in Windows - something to do with the BIOS not throttling down as optimally as windows (the B stands for basic, after all). I wouldn't worry about it unless they're higher than 60-70.
As for overclocking, google around or maybe someone else can chime in, but I think you should be able to do it just by changing the multiplier with the 2500k (which is partly why it's so popular). I wouldn't touch anything changing the CPU's wattage. Auto-/Software overclockers tend to not be very conservative with voltages as they prefer to go over than under, so you could reduce temperatures by quite a bit by doing it yourself and using a smaller voltage - the lowest that you can get it stable at, basically.
4.4GHz to 4.5GHz is not going to be a big difference at all, especially in games.
Hey, I'm back, and now I'm looking for a monitor.
Yes, I know there was a post today on it, but frankly, that lower end one recommended doesn't even exist in any store I can find (maybe it's a European model?). not even Newegg. There's one with a similar, but not identical, model number that's out of stock, but it doesn't look like the picture in his article.
If that one's close enough, it's at the top end of my budget at $200. Any other suggestions?
Overclocking: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overc...beginners.html
I mentioned it in the comments to the monitor article - what about the Dell Ultrasharp U2311H (I think there's a newer model, U2312-something), it should be around $200 in the US. It's an excellent IPS panel, you will love it - the colours, viewing angle, contrast etc.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...comment-920663
That's my comment, read the others underneath it so you get an idea of how great it is :)
You have a different board than I do, so I don't know in the ins and outs of the BOIS. In any case, your #1 concern should be the core voltage/VCORE, not the CPU temps. Generally speaking, you want to make sure that the core voltage isn't set so that it automatically increases as you increase the CPU multiplier. I accidentally (and stupidly) didn't confirm a manual voltage offset, but still increased the CPU multiplier to 4.4, booted up, and was shocked when I checked CPU-Z the Vcore was at 1.49v. That's firmly in the "about to kill your CPU" range as far as I am concerned, though I guess some run higher. I would check here to get started.
My gtx 560 ti is factory overclocked at core: 900 mHz, memory: 1002mHz, shader: 2100mHz. Runs great. People are going much higher in this thread though, and you will need to get the right voltage for yours anyways.
The best way to put your new rig through its paces is Witcher 2, I think. Ignore the tutorial's unimpressive looks though. It's easily the ugliest part of the game.
Funny, that's the first game I bought once I was done building it. Plays like a dream on max (though I do have that lower res monitor, that helps).
Actually, that makes me think of something. Right now, with my 1440x900, I've been able to max everything I've thrown at it, and games look great. I'm a bit nervous that, in getting a better monitor, I'll end up losing visual fidelity due to having to lower settings.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
