When I set it on Auto, in fact, it gives me a Vcore of 1.28V, which seems to be way too high for 3.2 Ghz.

Thanks again. Finally, for an OC to 3.2 Ghz, what manual voltage value do you suggest if I should better not leave it on Auto?

OK, thanks, so as I get it, if I increase the core voltage it gives me a greater upper limit in doing stable overclocking but also produces a lot of heat.

But does the system increase the voltage to keep it stable by itself if the voltage is left on Auto in the BIOS settings?

And finally, talking for a specific instance, would I really need to increase the default voltage to bump my E8400 to 3,2 Ghz or 3,6 Ghz from the default 3 Ghz?

Hey there,

So despite being new to overclocking, I know that you can tweak the FSB and the CPU voltage to overclock the CPU. But what's the point of tweaking the voltage?

For example, with a E8400 running at a default 3 Ghz, can't you just increase the FSB to get it to 3.2 or 3.6 Ghz and leave the voltage as it is to get a decent overclock? Or does increasing the voltage too give a better performance boost?

And, finally, if you leave the voltage on Auto in the BIOS settings, will it increase the voltage by itself as the FSB goes up, or will it leave it as it is?

Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions. The temperature of the HDs is around 30C. Maybe I'll check again after unplugging the fan or just buy a new fan.

By the way, what are safe peak temperatures for the CPU? (mine is an E8400)

Thanks for the replies. The fan by itself is not noisy, but starts making quite annoying buzzing noises when it gets dusty. When it goes uncleaned for a long time it produces almost industrial-level noise.

When I should make plain is that it is not the only intake fan on the case. The case is a Thermaltake Shark and it has a big intake fan in the back that is responsible for most of the air flow and cooling for most of the components. The other fan in the front that is producing the noise is small and seems to be only serving the hard drive area.

Depends on how much air flow you have in your case. If you have any intake fans at the front, then HDD fans are probably not necessary as they'll more than likely get sufficient air cooling them from the intake. Of course that depends on whether your drives are behind the intake fan!

GarGx1

Thanks, but I think that what I refer to as the HD fan is actually the intake fan you are talking about. The fan is not directly above or below the drives; the fan is located vertically by the front panel behind some air-flow grills. So, then, is this intake fan necessary?

Hey there,

I have a built-in hard-disk fan in the front part of my PC case, cooling two separate hard drives, one 0.5 TB and the other 2 TB. But it tends to make a lot of noise when I don't clean it for a month or so, so I was wondering if I could just unplug it without encountering any problems with hard-drive temperatures. What do you say?

Thanks.

Hey there.

I'm intending to replace my 500gb hard drive with a new 1TB one due to the noises it's recently making, but I don't have any experience with installing a hard drive. So when I install the new drive, I assume I'll have to reinstall Windows from scratch. I know how to do that, but I don't know how to format the drive and divide it into partitions and such. Is it something done easily during the Windows installation?

Thanks.

Thanks. Another thing confusing me is that here UPS devices are sold with VA specifications instead of wattage, which I assume means Volt-Ampere. For example I bought this UPS as 1000 VA, thinking it means watts and found out that the label on the thing says "maximum output= 1000 VA / 500W"

The buzzing noise may be common with UPS devices but the weird thing is that when the device kicked in, the noise came from the computer's own PSU, not the UPS.

Considering that the UPS will supply power to both my 750-watt PSU and the monitor and the modem, I'd do well to get something like a 800-watt UPS, I guess. Would more be required?