i7-940 Architecture Workstation

[bgsucramsey]

Hey everyone, new to this forum... I am an architecture student trying to get the best computer set up for intense extended use, and advanced rendering. I just purchased a custom built desktop I pretty much designed.

Currently, it is as follows:
IN-WIN BLK F430 mid ATX Tower
Intel i7-940 @ 2.93 stock
MSI X58 platinum sli atx motherboard
(6) 2gb crucial ddr3 1333 mhz ram
ANTEC 650 Power supply
MSI N250GTS GEFORCE GTS 2gb
Seagate 1tb 7200 rpm 32 mb hard drive
obv. 64 bit vista

I am currently overclocking by switching the bus setting on the motherboard hardware from 133 mhz to 166 mhz. According to CPU-Z it is running about 3.8 ghz. Seems stable. After extended Heavy use (rendorings, and constent high paced use for 4-5 hours) I am having trouble with the system overheating.

So a few questions. Is there better ways to get more speed out of this build? My 3d renderings of my projects take about 1 1/2 hours to run on the high settings I like. Much better then my old computer which took abuot 7 hours for the same stuff.

What would be your recomendation for a raid hard drive set up? I need speed, and reliability. Not trying to break the bank, but improve both.

What should I do about cooling? I know I can install a 8cm fan in the front intake part of the case, but I am worried about bringing in to much air, and not being able to get it out of the case, creating a dust backup inside. Should I put in a water cooling system? How much would that cost me to do it right? I can not afford to have it leak and mess up my hardware.

Any other suggestions? recomendations? General help. I am really new to the custom desktop world, and overclocking side of things. I have been running an HP laptop for the last 2 years and getting by on that. Open to any input. Thanks in advance.

[xoggyux]

you could have gotten way better setup for the money, but there is nothing you can do now so lets not make your life miserable. For once I dont think you mentioned what cooling solution you've got on that chip, if you are on STOCK cooling, lets just say 3.8Ghz + Stock = very bad idea, if you can go water, your i7 Will be very happy, if not, then get a Thermalright Ultra 120/ Xigmatek / Sunbeam Core Contact (now with those heatsinks 3.8 is kind of like the limit, as your temps @ full load would be close to the 85-88C, and some reviews have found 90's to be where the chip finally shows BSOD due to heat)

For raid, obviously choice 1 for best performance regardless of price is SSD (more specifically either VERTEX or INTEL SDDs, anything else is cr@p) but if you are not OK with paying $2-$4 per GB, then stick to WD 640GB Caviar Black on raid 0 or 5 (5 for redundancy) 2x 640GB Caviar black ~ 200MB/s read speeds, 3x should give you close to the 300MB/s after that speed will not scale by 100MB as you will be probably hitting your MB's max throughput.

If you are still on STOCK COOLING and you do not want to see a dead chip, back up that OC until you get yourself something capable of handling that much heat.

After extended Heavy use (rendorings, and constent high paced use for 4-5 hours) I am having trouble with the system overheating.

IDK what you mean, CPU heats up very fast, pretty much the temperature you get within the first 2mins of LOAD will be the same through the test and will be the same after 10/20/40/100/10000000 hours (prime has been running 48H non stop, and my temps are 46C on cores, same temperature I had after 1 min)

[Almost Tactf]

If there is any way to return that rig and build your own it would be best because that rig kinda sucks for rendering to be honest. I do large 3D renders as well for games and animation and right off the bat your hard drives are slow, your RAM is slow, and that case won't have near enough room for a nice cooling setup to overclock that processor to 4gHz to really knock down your rendering time

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by xoggyux

you could have gotten way better setup for the money, but there is nothing you can do now so lets not make your life miserable. For once I dont think you mentioned what cooling solution you've got on that chip, if you are on STOCK cooling, lets just say 3.8Ghz + Stock = very bad idea, if you can go water, your i7 Will be very happy, if not, then get a Thermalright Ultra 120/ Xigmatek / Sunbeam Core Contact (now with those heatsinks 3.8 is kind of like the limit, as your temps @ full load would be close to the 85-88C, and some reviews have found 90's to be where the chip finally shows BSOD due to heat)

For raid, obviously choice 1 for best performance regardless of price is SSD (more specifically either VERTEX or INTEL SDDs, anything else is cr@p) but if you are not OK with paying $2-$4 per GB, then stick to WD 640GB Caviar Black on raid 0 or 5 (5 for redundancy) 2x 640GB Caviar black ~ 200MB/s read speeds, 3x should give you close to the 300MB/s after that speed will not scale by 100MB as you will be probably hitting your MB's max throughput.

If you are still on STOCK COOLING and you do not want to see a dead chip, back up that OC until you get yourself something capable of handling that much heat.



IDK what you mean, CPU heats up very fast, pretty much the temperature you get within the first 2mins of LOAD will be the same through the test and will be the same after 10/20/40/100/10000000 hours (prime has been running 48H non stop, and my temps are 46C on cores, same temperature I had after 1 min)

I think the problem is his case is crap and not moving enough fresh air in and out so he is getting a lot of hot stagnent air building up in that case.

[xoggyux]

I think the problem is his case is crap and not moving enough fresh air in and out so he is getting a lot of hot stagnent air building up in that case.

could be, but if that it would overheat over few minutes (10-15) no 4-5hours like he said. Also he did not mention what cooler he was using, if he is still on STOCK (I'd be impressed to begin with) is kind of like a suicide.

[Almost Tactf]

Originally Posted by xoggyux

could be, but if that it would overheat over few minutes (10-15) no 4-5hours like he said. Also he did not mention what cooler he was using, if he is still on STOCK (I'd be impressed to begin with) is kind of like a suicide.

This is true, I hope he isn't on stock cooling or else that CPU will be dead in no time......this sounds like a really poor build but maybe with some pics and such it could be salvageable