ltrain

Have to remember im realy green when it comes to this stuff....wasn't able to take screen shots per say ... took images with my digi. I hope the info in the images is what you requested. If not, please explain in detail and I would gladly get whatever you need.

I think it might be a little deeper then that .... Might be a PSU problem. Probably gonna need some help from you all diaging this...

Thanks Cokeman for the compliment .... Well I ran Prime95 this morning .... started around 9am ran it for three hours... highest temp I got was 57c. So I figured I could let it run a bit longer while I ran out and did some errands came back at 3pm to a computer that had restarted.... Any thoughts????

Thanks Ed .... Is there any specific way to set/run Prime 95 that you prefer, could you point me to a specific thread or article. .... I searched and came to numerous methods that have led me to more confusion then anything else. I just want to make sure my build is stable, its my first one and want to reassure myself that everything is capable, of what, I don't know. Just me trying to take my learning experience a bit further. First I am going to work on my CPU and RAM and then move onto my GPU. I know my build is full of features many I have no idea on how to utilize them.

I'm really new and cautious with this stuff ... I want to get a feel of things before I even attempt to overclock. I ran Prime 95 for minutes. I really have no clue about this program ... I just ran it in BLEND without adjusting any of the setting and waited for my CPU to heat up and the temperatures to stabilize. Like I said I have concerns with my Cooler ..it wasn't the one I wanted due to my case having size restrictions on the height of a air cooler. I have some instances of concern with my build ... One Fallout 3 the only PC Game I have locks up after playing it for a while...and when I used Skype the other day my pc randomly restarted during a conversation... I little homework and google searching I determined both instances to be software related. But I would like to test the stability of my new build at my current stock specs and at the same time get familiar with some of the software used in overclocking. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated ......

Let me know what you think ..... Wish I had went with a better CPU Cooler. My intent was to water cool with a fixed loop like the Corsair... but ... I chickened out. Maybe in the future! Under load .....

My Numbers at Idle ....

OK thanks .... that makes it worth looking into....

This questions is a real NOOB question. I have been all over the internet and just cant seem to find the answer. The question is in regards to overclocking. When one overclocks their PC is it normally dramatic tweak done for a short period of time, like to get the edge while gaming. Or is there a way to tweak it slightly to just get the CPU to perform at its peak and run the pc at the settings constantly. I guess this questions would apply for the GPU also. Question: I want to just bump up the settings a tad just to get a feel of how my pc would perform at these higher settings and once stable would like to run it constant, is this possible or even recommended?

While I was installing my GPU I noticed it required two 6 pin power connectors. Well my PSU has what the manufacturer describes as "Quad PCI-E Connectors (four 6P/8P PCI-E connectors) Sea Sonic X650 is ideal for building up a SLI or CrossFire gaming system". To describe it a bit further it is actually two separate cables with 2 6P/8P connectors per cable. In the picture below, you should be able to make out the way I installed it. I used both the cables and only utilized one connector per cable. At the bottom of the picture you can see one of the two extra connectors dangling in the back. Question: Could I have gotten away with using one cable with the two 6 pin connectors to install the GPU ... and would it be ok to remove the other.

Thanks Skidmarks .....

Thanks Ed ... unfortunately it is already built but your opinions are spot on. I'm not an over clocker yet ... mainly why I joined this forum was to gather the knowledge and opinions to experience it and take this hobby of mine a bit further... thus why I built a clockable pc. As far as the GPU ... probably the area where I should've, could've, but didn't do a little more homework. As far as NVidia vs EVGA I wasn't partial to either one so it came to a coin toss. But I'm confident that its a solid choice....but time will tell. The PSU, I wasn't a big fan of when I pulled it right out of the box .... the cableing (other then the MB cable) were all ribbon style which made my cable management a bit trickier and that's about as far as my experience goes. SSD .... I got that, oversight on your part, its in my specs ... Samsung 840 Pro series 128g dedicated for the OS. I have some questions ill post a bit later .... thanks again Ed. L

This is my second build ... I dont consider myself to be a gamer, therefore why I am going with the i5. Ill probably never overclock it but it does intrigue me so I may learn someday, and why I am considering paying extra for the option. I do game, and I will purchase one or maybe two to experience it, but not very serious about it and prefer PS3 at the moment. I would love to use my PC for a Home Theatre System but have not looked into how to accomplish this yes, so keep my options open. Back approximaly 6 years ago a friend, who I have lost touch with, convinced me into buying the hardware and letting him build me a PC. Well I enjoyed it and the Rig has been extremely stable and reliable right up to this day. The reasons why I want to build instead of buy pre built are for many reasons .... I like the fact that many things will be of seperate components so if something were to go I could replace the 1 item. I like that I will be getting what I'm paying for and not an overpriced turkey. I also am intruigued with the buying process of the individual pieces of hardware and that I will recive gratification that the Rig is mine and unique to me. Well my current rig recently came down with a virus and with some help from another online site I was able to clean it up and get it back up and running. I considered gettng a new hard drive seeing that the one im running is the original that i purchased. Unfortunatley I do not have the system disc with Windows XP boot disc so I couldnt have the drive reformatted, though I do have all the driver software. So I looked into purchasing a copy of XP and realized that many of the major vendors dont distribute it any more. So I considered Windows 7 and here is where my dilema begins. Well my current build specs appear to be just out of range of running windows 7 mainly the motherboard. So after searching the net and finding a better processor, more RAM, a possible better GPU, and lastly I came to the conclusion that the motherboard just might not be capable of accepting Windows 7 without some complications. So I figured I will keep her in tact and see if I can sell her. Well just the excuse I needed to look into building a new one .... Here are the specs on the new build that should be just inside my budget of 1000.00....Let me know what you all think. Build Specs: Corsair Carbide 200R Mid Tower ATX Computer Case Intel Core i5 2500K LGA 1155 ASRock Z68 Extreme4 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Pe OC GPU Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit Artic Freezer 13 CO LG 22x DVD