Need help Overclocking High End Gaming PC without Watercooling

[ourao]

Hello everyone. Im upgrading my computer to a High End Gaming one and i need a little advice about overclocking it. Im from Portugal and this is pretty much the top hardware around here. My question is how much can i overclock with this setup without using watercooling and having the least noise possible? 4.5 ghz? Please bear in mind that the computer is gonna be running almost 24/7. All constructive opinions are welcome. Thank you in advance.



INTERNAL COMPONENTS:

Processor: Intel Core Quad i7 980X 3.3Ghz Skt1366 12Mb Extreme

Motherboard: Gigabyte Skt1366 - GA-X58A-UD9 iX58

Graphic Card: 2x Asus GeForce PCI-E GTX480 1536Mb GDDR5 (SLI)

Power Supply: Corsair AX-1200W Gold

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 Fan 140mm

Hard Drive Cooler: Revoltec Freezer Black

Fans: 5x 120mm Zalman ZM-F3BL Silent LED Blue (replaced the originals and added 2 extra)

Fan Controller: NZXT 5,25'' Sentry LX

Memory: 6x 2048Mb DDR3 Corsair CL8 Dominator GT PC3-16000 (2000) with AirFlow

Hard Drive: 2x Western Digital VelociRaptor SATA 600Gb 10.000rpm 32Mb (1 for OS/Games/Apps and the 2 for Storage/Movies/Photos/Music)

Sound Card: Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 PCI-E

Blue Ray: DVDRW Blu-Ray Plextor PX-B940SA SATA 12x Black

Neon: 4x Sharkoon 300mm BlueC



EXTERNAL COMPONENTS:

Tower Box: NZXT Guardian 921 Black Led Blue

Monitor: Asus TFT 23'' VG236H Wide Black (2ms) 3D + nVidia 3D Vision Kit

USB Hub: Conceptronic 7 Ports - C7USB2

Keyboard: Logitech G19 Gaming US Edition

Mouse: Roccat Kone [+] Laser Gaming

Mousepad: Roccat Sense Glaciar

Headset: Roccat Kave Gaming

Printer: Canon Multifunctions PIXMA-MG8150

Sound System: Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1

External Hard Drive: LaCie Desktop 3.5'' 2TB USB - 301871EK

Webcam: Webcam Logitech C910 HD Pro



TOTAL PRICE: 5930,18 €

 

[jasper1605]

SSD's aren't an option for you? I'd recommend tossing one in there over the HDD for your OS and such.

 

[timta2]

So out of curiosity, why aren't you interested in water cooling?

 

[erocker]

It will overclock as high as temperatures and voltage allows. All chips are different so overclocks will vary. Overclock it little by little, stress test and check temperatures.

Btw, your games don't need at 4.5ghz 980X whatsoever.

 

[ourao]

SSD's aren't an option for you? I'd recommend tossing one in there over the HDD for your OS and such.

Not a big fan of SSD...

Any recomendation about the aircooling?

How much do you think i can overclock? 4.5 ghz?

I want a stable and quiet overclock, not one of those massive voltage overclocks and super louds fans.

 

[Bo$$]

well it will never be as good as water cooling thats for sure

as far as air cooling goes you are good

 

[cadaveca]

How much do you think i can overclock? 4.5 ghz?

That might be pushing it for air. I think you'll find you top out around 4.2 or so. The heat from those vgas is gonna pull those clocks down hard, for 24/7. Should have waited for 990X, for 4.5ghz on air.

 

[ourao]

So out of curiosity, why aren't you interested in water cooling?

Not a big fan of watercooling also...water near high priced hardware doesnt really inspire confidence in me...all it takes is a single drop of water and kaboom bye bye hardware...

 

[ourao]

That might be pushing it for air. I think you'll find you top out around 4.2 or so. The heat from those vgas is gonna pull those clocks down hard, for 24/7. Should have waited for 990X, for 4.5ghz on air.

I havent bough anything yet...i have the cash ready and the config i want but im still waiting till mid December to buy when the new stuff comes out and the prices are lowered for Christmas.

 

[Hayder_Master]

i have D14 cooler, and im try hit 4.5ghz with my friend cpu i7 980x, i see the temps with xigmatic dark night it's reach 100c on prime 95, i didn't think so D14 will be enough, only if u see 90c on prime is normal so u can do it

 

[cadaveca]

Then change to 990X. Should be readily available by the time you are ready to buy.

 

[Flibolito]

The cpu cooler should do a good job, and the motherboard should be just fine on its own.
The gtx 480's seems to stay fairly cool when the fan is set on 60-75%. The trick to these cards is not to let them even get over 80C. The reason people think these card run so hot because the auto fan doesn't even kick on till its over 90C from my experience and that's just too hot.

I run a massively overclocked 480 that is on water but never goes over 45C and that's @1840MHz shader clock. SLI does change things a bit, depending on the spacing you should be ok also. At idle these cards actually do just fine since they underclock alot on their own.

How are your ambient temperatures as that would be the only factor there. If the room stays hot 24/7 that could be a potential problem. If the room is decently cool 4GHz on the cpu is probable as long as the cooler can keep it under 75C. Air cooled GTX480 in SLI in a cool room should have no problem hovering around 1600MHz shader clocks, any more than that for gaming is overkill with sli config.

In the end it depends on the room it's in. Once the system is under load it will produce a fair amount of heat. If this heat builds up it could cause issues. If the heat is vented out of your room via Air Condition or a vent getting hot air out or cool air in you should be ok.

Until its assembled and we can get a temp. rating at stock speeds we can estimate how far it will go. But I think ambient temps are going to be the deciding factor. Also if the GPU fan go over 75% they will get quiet noisy.

 

[Delta6326]

would a Corsair H70 with 2 nice fans work? it is watercooling but not dangerous. and very simple to use

I must say that is a sweet computer you have

 

[arnoo1]

Processor: Intel Core Quad i7 980X 3.3Ghz Skt1366 12Mb Extreme

Motherboard: Gigabyte Skt1366 - GA-X58A-UD9 iX58

why those?

that's just to overkill, get that i7 970 6 core or i7 950 quad and that mobo is top the line but still overkill, i understand you want best parts and oc to the sky high, but there are also les expensive board and still oc really good,

and 2 gtx 480's? wait for 580's or amd hd 69** series

 

[3volvedcombat]

So out of curiosity, why aren't you interested in water cooling?

Running a computer 24/7, he is probably one of the user's that litterally dosnt want to super maintain there rig 24/7.

He could not shut his computer off for weeks at a time, and pumps and water cooling, needs to be maintained like another automobile in your garage.

He just wants the computer to run nicely without a costly, maybe semi dangerous solution to great cooling.

There's the positive's, and theres the negative's.

It depends on his situation.

I think its very possible to get a 4.5Ghz overclock on air.

 

[ourao]

Running a computer 24/7, he is probably one of the user's that litterally dosnt want to super maintain there rig 24/7.

He could not shut his computer off for weeks at a time, and pumps and water cooling, needs to be maintained like another automobile in your garage.

He just wants the computer to run nicely without a costly, maybe semi dangerous solution to great cooling.

There's the positive's, and theres the negative's.

It depends on his situation.

I think its very possible to get a 4.5Ghz overclock on air.

Thats exactly what i want...i really want to achieve a steady 4.5 Ghz overclock on air without it being to dangerous or to hot or to noisy.

And yes my computer is on like 95% days per year.

 

[Flibolito]

His ambient temps might get too high from the heat generated if he is in a small not well ventilated room. That can make 4.5GHz stable for 30 minutes but it can overheat if its doing hard work for 10 hours and the room gets saturated with hot air. 2 gtx480s SLI'ed in my opinion don't need to be overclocked at the moment other than for fun or a serious Triple 3D HDTV setup. The only thing that could hold him back on this setup is the ambient temp.

 

[streetfighter 2]

I havent bough anything yet...i have the cash ready and the config i want but im still waiting till mid December to buy when the new stuff comes out and the prices are lowered for Christmas.

You're definitely in the realm of insanity with regard to a gaming rig.

I'm going to get lambasted for writing this but:
The 980X is overkill for gaming, buy an i7 960 and use the money saved to buy your g/f something nice (or buy a g/f if you don't have one).
The GA-X58A-UD9 is overkill unless you're doing quad-SLI. Go for the EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED, ASUS Rampage III or Extreme MSI Big Bang-XPower and use the money you saved to buy the bar a round.

Everything else looks nice.

 

[Hayder_Master]

would a Corsair H70 with 2 nice fans work? it is watercooling but not dangerous. and very simple to use

I must say that is a sweet computer you have

in fact D14 is better if he change the originals fans with 2x 140mm high speed fans cuz noctua care much with noise so the fans which is come with the cooler are really slow, and i prefer to 3d fan

 

[Deleted member 74752]

Much better bang for the buck would be this mb... EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED "Overclocker's Pick" 3-Wa...

4.5GHz on air 24/7 is stretching it tho. I can do that with ease with my Boreas but there really is no need for it with online gaming...you will notice no gains at all. I rarely use air cooling anymore so I have no recommedations to offer. Here is how mine runs as far as temps go with the X58 Micro SLI and the Boreas TEC. (TBH, my i5 670 games just the same online and with lower temps)

You will really love that sound system!

 

[Deleted member 74752]

Another member just brought this one up... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...mc_o=-KeCjCZzypR2VCjCdRqJ4CjCZBf Kwzkl mfbgLY

 

[streetfighter 2]

Another member just brought this one up... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...mc_o=-KeCjCZzypR2VCjCdRqJ4CjCZBf Kwzkl mfbgLY

Unfortunately that deal probably won't help ourao; he gave the system price in euros. Tiger Direct does ship internationally but not through the website. Also the $100 rebate is only for US residents.

It is a really nice board though and definitely worth considering. Good looking out.

I just noticed that the reason the board is so cheap is because it's been discontinued by EVGA.

 

[ourao]

Is it worth to add 2 more Zalman Fans to replace the 2 Fans on the Noctua Cooler or are the Noctua Fans better? (Noise and Cooling)

Is it worth it to replace the 2 60mm Fans on the Corsair Memory cooler by 2 Noiseblocker XR2 60mm NB-BlackSilentFan - XR2? (Just for the blue effect)

And is it worth to add a Chipset Cooler Zalman ZM-NBF47 to the motherboard?

 

[Deleted member 74752]

I would run some type of water cooling on the cpu and not worry about the rest.

 

[Bo$$]

Is it worth to add 2 more Zalman Fans to replace the 2 Fans on the Noctua Cooler or are the Noctua Fans better? (Noise and Cooling)

Is it worth it to replace the 2 60mm Fans on the Corsair Memory cooler by 2 Noiseblocker XR2 60mm NB-BlackSilentFan - XR2? (Just for the blue effect)

And is it worth to add a Chipset Cooler Zalman ZM-NBF47 to the motherboard?

noctua are the most expensive and best fans around

the stock one should be good enough