Maximum PC

This should be fun. The 9PM update after the CC ended has you just 1428 pts behind me. I've converted my machines back to my folding name, as I hope you have as well. Since we're so close, and our PPD is going to be close, should be fun to watch.

I'm just glad you're not a monkey. If you were, and you actually passed me, I might have to go buy another 216. But since you're human, if it happens, I might be able to live w/ it.

The only trick I have left up my sleeve is I'm going to replace my C2D with a Phenom I 9950. I don't know how much it will help, but it should be interesting...

Yeah, well you're not allowed to have any more 30k days. They make me nervous!

Well, I lied a little bit. I bumped up the clocks on my 260s and FAHMON is showing ballpark 31K. I still need to figure out how to OC my i7 920, though I don't know how much good that will do.

What clock speed you running your 260 at? I'm at 1482 shaders. My GTX280s won't exceed 1450 though.

One of them I got at 700/1200/1500, and the other is at 685/1220/1420. I set them back a little bit, but I had them up to 726/1230/1535 and 693/1274/1469. But to make sure they stayed stable I dialed them back just a bit.

BTW - When I cranked up my Core i7 by ~300 Mhz, my folding numbers went up by 400-600 PPD (100-150/VMWare client). So it's up to you if it's worth it or not.

Well, I really want to, just not completely sure how to OC the i7 yet.

The magazine of the team you Fold for has an article on it!

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... its_limits

Thanks for the link, saved me from having to find that issue. I remember reading it, but at the time it was kind of academic, since I didn't yet have the i7. I may fall behind the next few days, I'm trying to get my memory stable at 1866, then I'm going to delve into the CPU. But in the next few days I will replace my C2D 6550 with my Phenom 9950, so that will be one more VM running...

But RAM speed doesn't affect folding much, if at all! Oh, wait. I forget, there is more to a PC than folding...

What are your CPU temps at that speed? I am thinking about trying for 3.2GHz, but my stock temps are about 73-75 under load. I'm running a Zalman 9700 cooler, but I'm afraid of running it too hot.

I'm running at 3.33Ghz. But I'm using a 940. It actually does make a difference, contrary to what many say, because I can use the 23 multiplier vs the 21 the 920 uses.

My temps are 61-66 atm. That's folding at max speed. The highest they've gone since I last rebooted (1.5 weeks ago) is 71. I do have the advantage of living in a garden level apt. So my ambient is pretty cool as well. I'll run the AC when it gets too warm as well.

I use a Coolermaster V8 w/ the OCZFreeze thermal compound if you're wondering about cooling. Some day I plan to water-cool, but I haven't had time to plan it out yet.

Well after a hard-fought battle you finally passed me. Congratulations!

If you weren't getting 2 more GTX260s I would have been very tempted to have ordered one to try to repass you (though I really can't afford it atm).

But since there's no way, I'll just sit on what I have for now.

"Experienced overclockers can grab a hall pass and skip to the next section"

Dude, we'll treat you like a king in the forum section dedicated to overclocking!

To start, that's a bit backwards. Don't worry about memory speed 1st. Worry about the CPU speed, and then work with the head room the memory allows you to run within. The Memory speed is just pasture for the race horses. It's big, but you don't have to push the boundaries until they start running. So if you stretch the memory first, a single up in the CPU later puts your fences out of bounds and starting to cause issues...they grow proportionally.

You're in my area too dude. I'm quite a bit down on PPD as I go through hardware and improvements, but I'm a 31K guy before that as well. You're 40K pretty much right now, and I have 2.8 weeks to fire up the new builds or I'm stuck with playing catch up

I've dropped from 51 to 57, and that's just about enough!