Keep upgrading a 7 year old PC, or build new?

[SonicZap]

I'd just get the GTX 970 in your situation, you're going to see a huge improvement even if it will be bottlenecked by your CPU in some situations, at least without a large overclock. If you aren't satisfied then, you could also upgrade the rest of the parts, but I'm certain you'll be happy with the GTX 970 upgrade alone, it's a massive improvement compared to a GTX 560.

I'm running a system of fairly similar performance except that I have a somewhat more powerful GPU, and I'm rarely seeing a CPU bottleneck in games. With a decent overclock your CPU can be quite a bit faster too.

 

[peche]

it's a massive improvement compared to a GTX 560.

just want to tell that those fermi GPU's are brave ones!

 

[gravedgr]

Successful 1 hour OCCT test. Graphs look like temp was getting up around 85 so I probably can't go much higher than 3.6Ghz without a better cooler, unless a lower BCLK/higher multiplier runs cooler. Raising the BCLK shot the temps up yesterday, although I suppose I could try them again with a lower multiplier now that I've done some maintenance on the cooler.

 

[basco]

i would try 170x21=3,600mhz with 1,30volt- on most mainboards ya need to play with the voltages for higher bclk then 180\190.
if this works try to lower vcore as low as possible. my 920 had high temps too from 1,3+ volts-every chip has a sweet spot that only you can test.
keep an eye out for auto voltage with hwmonitor maybe it raises it higher then ya want and look for loadline calibration.
and remember that this stress test is not real world so in normal day to day use you will never see such temps.

 

[Tomgang]

Successful 1 hour OCCT test. Graphs look like temp was getting up around 85 so I probably can't go much higher than 3.6Ghz without a better cooler, unless a lower BCLK/higher multiplier runs cooler. Raising the BCLK shot the temps up yesterday, although I suppose I could try them again with a lower multiplier now that I've done some maintenance on the cooler.

85 is way to much for a I7 920 if you want it to live long and safe under OC. around 85-90 is where its gets critical for that cpu and the cpu begins to throttle down to prevent permanent damage on your cpu. I keep my own cpu at max 70 for 24/7 use and so far it has lastet 3 years whit oc. How much voltage do you give it? My own DO would go up to 3,8 GHz at stock volt (1,25 volt) and at 4 GHz i give it 1,28 volts.

Dont forget to not go over 1,65 volt on memory because if you do. According to Intels spec you are when in risk of frying the CPU's memory controller and by that make it use less.

How many RPM are your fans durring under load? In bios there some times diffenrent fan profiles as silent, normal and performance. Try tjeck what profile the fans are set to and if silent so try normal or performance.
Or get some fans whit more RPM. more noisy yes but you do want to keep your cpu cool and a to hot CPU also tend to be more unstable and by that being harder to get a good OC on the CPU. So keep it cool.

I use fans that can take op to 2400 RPM. Noisy but keep CPU cool and under gamming a cant hire the fans any way and in ilde the fans off cause rums at much lower rpm.

Else read this oc guide. I used it my self to oc my own I7 920 back when.

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_i7_920_overclocking

 

[GhostRyder]

Successful 1 hour OCCT test. Graphs look like temp was getting up around 85 so I probably can't go much higher than 3.6Ghz without a better cooler, unless a lower BCLK/higher multiplier runs cooler. Raising the BCLK shot the temps up yesterday, although I suppose I could try them again with a lower multiplier now that I've done some maintenance on the cooler.

That's great, stick with that and just grab a GTX 970 as you will probably already see an improvement with your current card!

 

[peche]

That's great, stick with that and just grab a GTX 970 as you will probably already see an improvement with your current card!

not probably ... its confirmed!

85 is way to much for a I7 920 if you want it to live long and safe under OC. around 85-90 is where its gets critical for that cpu and the cpu begins to throttle down to prevent permanent damage on your cpu. I keep my own cpu at max 70 for 24/7 use and so far it has lastet 3 years whit oc. How much voltage do you give it? My own DO would go up to 3,8 GHz at stock volt (1,25 volt) and at 4 GHz i give it 1,28 volts.

had an i7 2700K ...
4.8ghz @1.28 v and 5ghz @ 1.40

 

[gravedgr]

Okay, some more updates. First, system has been stable for normal stuff (browsing, etc.) for 24 hours running @ 4Ghz. As noted above, running Prime95 (using small FFT to really stress the CPU) pushes the temps into the upper 80s (89C was highest on core 0), although if I turn off HT it never gets above 75C.

So, I'm not sure whether to turn it back down to 3.6 or 3.8Ghz, or turn HT off. Or just leave it "as is" since I don't have anything to stress the CPU like that in normal use. Idle temps are 44-45C.

I also copied my BIOS settings (cobbled together from a number of sites/articles - everyone has a different opinion on what values to use, what settings to tweak/leave alone, etc., so I looked for settings that were consistently recommended or at least listed as "safe". I'm sure they are not optimized, and hoping you guys can help. Here goes ....

Freq:

Ratio 21
BCLK 191
PCIE 100
DRAM DDR3-1149 Mhz
UCLK Auto
QPI LINK Auto

Voltage:

CPU 1.24375
PLL 1.88
QPI/DRAM 1.3
IOH 1.2
IOH PCIE Auto
ICH 1.2
ICH PCIE Auto
DRAM 1.64

And I just want to say how much I appreciate everyone's help so far. I'm on a number of forums and have been for -literally- decades, and its nice to get feedback and advice with out all the usual BS and social commentary.

Oh, and I have an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G on the way.

 

[gravedgr]

I forgot to mention - although I have fiddled with other settings, it seems to run cooler on x21 than x20, even with higher BCLK. I read in several places that it liked 21 or 19 better than 20, but I'm not sure I read they affected temps - just performance. Could be a complete coincidence or just some other setting that helped.

Edit - Cinebench R15 CPU test results @ 4.0 Ghz is 41% faster than at stock 2.67 Ghz

 

[AsRock]

if your pc is still good enough for you now then only buy new video card.
you can overclock your i7-920.
you can still upgrade after the graphicscard if you are not satisfied

Just what i was thinking, just add a new v card + a new PSU and see if it runs well enough and go from there.

 

[basco]

congrats for that nice overclock+ the msi 970
just look out as auto volt does not mean normal\standard -some mainboards give too much on auto.

i only do very short period of stresstools like 10 min and after i try a game or 2. if i got no probs for a few days then its stable for me.

 

[gravedgr]

congrats for that nice overclock+ the msi 970
just look out as auto volt does not mean normal\standard -some mainboards give too much on auto.

i only do very short period of stresstools like 10 min and after i try a game or 2. if i got no probs for a few days then its stable for me.

Yeah, lots of guides either suggested leaving IOH/IOH PCIE/ICH/ICH PCIE on Auto or didn't mention fooling with them at all. One guide said it was important to NOT leave them on Auto as the MB can provide too much voltage, but instead of providing a recommended setting it said "standard setting". WTF is that? All the IOH/ICH settings are where I'm the least comfortable.

IOH and ICH are 1.2v per one guide I read, although another said 1.13 for IOH and nothing for ICH so I erred on the side the guide with the most details. PLL and DRAM settings seem to be mostly the same on every guide. VTT (QPI/DRAM) is nearly the same everywhere (most say 1.3 to 1.35). CPU voltage seems to vary a lot - most places say to go as low as you can, which make sense except that I'm not a big fan of crashing the system until I find a setting high enough.

CPUv @ 1.24 seemed to be "safe" on pretty much every guide, with higher values recommended for higher OC. Since mine seems to run stable if a bit hot at full test load (with HT on) at 1.24375, I don't see any reason to go higher and I don't think I've seen any 4.0 Ghz configs below this so I'll probably stay where I'm at or move down just a notch to 1.24000 unless I turn the BCLK down.

I know most folks tweak the DDR stick settings, but since I have two different kinds I'm planning to leave that alone and just use the 2:6 ratio to keep it near stock frequency. If I were to swap in a full 6 sticks of PC-12800, I might try to nail some some settings, but whereas I thought the board supported 16GB it appears to only support 12GB.

 

[gravedgr]

This thread seems to have died off. I'll give one last appeal for help reviewing my voltage settings (see above and here) before I stop updating the thread with cries for help.

Well, at least until I get my 970 today and give it a spin. Then there may be all kinds of new questions.

 

[GhostRyder]

This thread seems to have died off. I'll give one last appeal for help reviewing my voltage settings (see above and here) before I stop updating the thread with cries for help.

Well, at least until I get my 970 today and give it a spin. Then there may be all kinds of new questions.

Your fine, the voltage is not crazy for that chip though I would try to keep peak temps in the low 80's or below (Lower the better).

 

[gravedgr]

Your fine, the voltage is not crazy for that chip though I would try to keep peak temps in the low 80's or below (Lower the better).

Too high or too low? Highest temps I've seen today (installed the GTX 970) have been 74C.

 

[GhostRyder]

Too high or too low? Highest temps I've seen today (installed the GTX 970) have been 74C.

That's fine, 74c is plenty low enough to keep the chip running well!

 

[gravedgr]

I did have something weird happen last night. I was running SWTOR and I starting getting this non-stop tone from the computer. Like a beep that never stops.

Muting the sound in the OS did nothing, so I thought maybe it was chip or MB related, but when I killed off SWTOR it stopped. Restarting the program and playing for hours did not make it reoccur.

 

[stinger608]

Sounds like a sound card issue @gravedgr

 

[gravedgr]

Sounds like a sound card issue @gravedgr

I'm using the onboard sound, and if it was a sound card issue wouldn't it have muted when I turned the sound off in the OS?

Pretty sure this was the kind of sound you get from the MB when you power it on and something is not right. Often you hear a series of beeps or tones to let you know what is wrong when you can't get to BIOS.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

non-stop tone? that's coil whine