Project│Red Nineteen :: Custom PC, Readers' Drives - 23/10/06

A good question - I chose to work with Acrylic on the front as I was purchasing some for the side-window and decided to add in another sheet for the front. Also, the original fascia was plastic, so I thought using a similar material would make it bond better and make it easier to work with together.

Also, I've never worked with Acrylic, so thought it would be a nice way to start and it proved to work very well.

I could have gone for a metal front, but it would probably have been harder to achieve the same result - then again maybe not.

 

Well it couldn´t have been to bad working with because the result was perfect.
And yes.. maybe fascia and acrylic bond better I dont know.
About the fancontroller holes..
Try to have some wood pressed on both sides of the acrylic and then drill, for me that result was very good

 

i love the project as much as i love the ferrari team, but i dont like the dvd sticks out it breaks the like..... maybe you can paint it or stealth it it would look a lot better that wat

 

I'll see what I can do - as I should be getting some more black paint in the near future for my next project.

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I tried overclocking it last night, as I've not had a chance to for the past two weeks...

It is stable at 2.4GHz (240x10), with the memory @ 960MHz (5-5-5-18). It booted into Windows happily @ 2.6GHz, but wasn't stable in Prime95. 2.8GHz and it would hang on the Windows loading bar. Tonight I hope to play around with it more and see if I can get it higher, but it's the first time I've seriously tried overclocking.

 

advise, first try to see how high can you mem go with the tightes timmings and the loosen and see overall speed then, try pure cpu speed to see how far the cpu go, after you know your 2 limits start playing with both mem and cpu to find the nice spot

 

Good advice - thanks!

I've got it stable at 2.6GHz (5000X2) now, just had to increase the memory and CPU voltages. When I get a little longer to play around with the settings, I'll try for 2.8GHz (FX-62), which should be obtainable I reckon.

It's still nice at cool, 28'c overclocked (from 27'c) and 33'c on load.

 

idle temp, is useless remember the cpu will fail under load so check your load temps

also try several stress test and dont settle just with one like prime 95 because if you play games try that too maybe it will be stable to play games and most applications but will fail under PRIME... so you need to check several apps...

also if you want come over www.xtremesystems.org if you need more help with this and we can help you in every detail

 

It's around 33'c on load, which is nothing really, considering my older AthlonXP 2000 would be happy at 50-60'c.

I was finding that if the system was unstable, SuperPI would throw up errors along with Prime95, but I'll try another two or three to see if it's OK. I've run 3DMark 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 several times too and they all seem fine.

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 36 - 16th August 2006

I know, I know! It's nearly a month since I last posted an update, but I did promise that I would post details of overclocking and benchmarking - so here they are...

I have been away for two weeks of the past month and I have finally got around to putting together the benchmarking and overclocking that I have done. Firstly, I installed XP and the usual gubbins, then once that was all running smoothly, I started to get-to-grips with overclocking. I have only had two attempts in the past - the first with my AMD AthlonXP 2000, which hit 2100, but wasn't stable - the second on Pink PC's Celeron - from 2.6 to 3.2GHz, but it ran too hot to make the overclock worth it.

Foxconn's 590SLi motherboard supports SLi Memory - and the Corsair modules I purchased (DDR2-800 C4) allow for it. For the first few overclocks it proved to be useful but not great. I found it easier to adjust the settings myself, or let the BIOS automatically handle them.

In all, I had 33 attempts at overclocking, trying to find the maximum the rig could handle and then a safe spot for daily use. Instead of writing up all 33 attempts I'll summarise it quickly - it hits 2.8GHz but wouldn't POST. 2.7GHz it would post but wouldn't boot into Windows. 2.6GHz initially was unstable, but with a few adjustments to voltages it proved to be the best overclock:



Prior to this, it looked like 2.5GHz was the max I could reach:


^ Testing stability using Prime95.

At 2.6GHz, the BIOS was setup with a 260 HTT x 10 multiplier; 5-5-5-18 memory timings and 1040 clock (520 x 2). The voltages were 1.45v for the CPU and 2.1v for the memory. As for temperatures, before overclocking it was idling at about 27'c. After overclocking it idles at around 28'c and loads at about 33'c - hardly pushing the cooling to the max! I guess it shows that the two 120mm intake fans are doing their job, along with the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64. Fan speeds are at about 50%, barely audible too.

Now I have my max overclock, I went for benchmarking to see how much of a difference it makes... starting with stock speeds of 2.0GHz, I benchmarked using 3D Marks 2001-2006, along with SuperPI.


^ 2.0GHz, 3DMark 2001se - 25665


^ 2.0GHz, 3DMark 2003 - 14773


^ 2.0GHz, 3DMark 2005 - 6946


^ 2.0GHz, 3DMark 2006 - 3744


^ 2.0GHz, SuperPI 1m - 41.235

Then the overclocked benchmarks:


^ 2.6GHz, 3DMark 2001se - 30667


^ 2.6GHz, 3DMark 2003 - 15704


^ 2.6GHz, 3DMark 2005 - 7024


^ 2.6GHz, 3DMark 2006 - 3892

Of course, these don't really make much sense unless I compare them:



As you can see, in SuperPI @ 2.6GHz it was almost 10 seconds quicker than stock speeds - a 23% increase in speed.

Many say that 3DMark isn't a great way to benchmark, but it shows a good comparison between the two speeds. 2001se showed almost a 20% increase in speed. Though as I went through the more recent versions, the increase became less and less. I suppose 3DMark 2006 is limited more by the GPU than CPU.

One final screenshot to throw in the mix here - to back-up how cool X2 Dual Core chips are. Last night I had AVG doing a full Virus scan and was able to surf the 'net and download a few things at the same time. On my laptop and the PinkPC, the virus scan freezes up everything else, making it run at a snail's pace.

To summarise, although AMD dropped the prices of the AM2 chips soon after I purchased my 4000 X2, the overclock has brought it inline with an AM2 5000 X2 - 2.6GHz, though it has a 2 x 512kb L2 Cache. I was hoping for 2.8GHz to match an FX-62, but I'm stuck as to how I get any more MHz out of it all - if someone knows how to setup a memory divider in the Foxconn BIOS, then say! As I reckon it's the memory holding back a higher overclock - though I may be wrong.

Compared to Core2, my system lags behind, but I'm yet to find anything that pushes this to its limits. All games run fine on highest settings at 1280x1024 (Acer-F19 native res), which is good to know.

Any comments? Any ideas how I can squeeze out a further 200MHz?

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 37 - 23rd October 2006

For those of you reading this in the UK - December's issue of Custom PC features Red Nineteen in the Readers' Drives section! It should be out in the newsagents this coming Thursday (26th October), though subscribers will have already received their copy through the post.

I've scanned in and uploaded 4 pages from the magazine, showing the rig:

contents page
1st article page
2nd article page
3rd article page

All my prizes have arrived too and I'll no doubt be posting another project log on here soon - with details of R26.

 

WOO HOO! Congrats man
Can't wait to see you next project start up

 

I saw it today...!!

well done getting in!!!!!

 

just read this log and congrats its a great looking mod cant wait to see what the next project might be
keep up the good work

 

Thanks for the replies - the next mod (if you've not seen the article) will be themed around Renault's F1 livery - blue/yellow with sponsors most likely. I'm planning on using the Enermax case and PSU that I received as prizes as a base for it. The case itself is huge with plenty of space for watercooling too.

 

what sort of bondo / filler did you use, and can you give me a link to it ????

 

It's known as P38 and P40 body filler and is available from Halfords. There's one in Slough right next to you. I think I've mentioned the supplier somewhere, but even I find it hard to search for things in this thread...

 

Just a suggestiom, i think your desk will look compelte if u mod that mouse and key board, and even the acer remote kill ht emicrosoft logo off of them repalce it with ferrari.

Nice work... all this inspiration is making me start funding my own... just gotta keep learning first before i take to the expensive stuff.

 

These forums are great for inspiration! The keyboard has since been replaced with a Saitec Eclipse - with Blue backlighting! So there's an option there to replace them with Red LEDs and add a Ferrari logo. The remote and mouse may also receive some modding treatment, but not for a good few months. Right now I'm working on a tiny PC which will be like a mini-me to this project. Expect a log sometime soon, once I've finished testing all the hardware works OK.

 

Wouldn't PCmark be more suitable for testing effects of CPU-overclocking than 3dmark?

 

Most likely, yes. I did try PC Mark on the rig, but didn't get around to recording the results. SuperPI showed a big increase of over 10 seconds if I recall.