Brand new oc gaming rig issues

[Fergal]

Tuesday i got my new overclocked gaming rig and almost straight away ive got issues with it freezing up in battlefield 3 after 2mins of gameplay, then im having to exit game.
also the same thing happens when i try and run windows experience index score, just hangs then program crashes.

Ive been in touch with PCS and straight away they tell me it sounds like a unstable OC and to try setting the bios to defaults, which i did and hey presto everything is good, played games no problems and even got my WEI score.

So then i ring PCS and tell them that it worked, and that im not too happy with getting my PC with these issues as ive payed for it to be overclocked and running stable, which its not.

Then they email me some OC settings to apply that i have done and i have all the same issues that i had in the first place.
As the system is supposed to be overclocked by pro's and tested to be stable (which it's clearly not) i have no idea what to do next, i have emailed them again and am awaiting a reply to hopefully resolve the issues.


Case
COOLERMASTER HAF XM - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE + USB 3.0
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-3570k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II C240 DUAL RAD LIQUID CPU COOLER (Special Offer) (£69)
Extra Case Fans
1 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£5)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,790.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

You could try using Asus Suite to set up the OC. You could also try the OC settings provided by PCS but decreasing it to less than 4.6 Ghz.

 

[Fergal]

Thanks for the reply.

Is it ok then to keep all settings sent by PCS and just change the core values to say 4.2 each, where one would hope it would be more stable?
I have no idea about overclocking that why I got PCS to do it.

 

[keynes]

If you go to your welcome pack and get the cd with all the motherboard drivers (P8Z77-V) and install Asus Suite you could get a stable OC. It is pretty straight forward rather than going to the BIOS to alter the settings. Keep an eye on the temps but I wouldn't expect you to get any issues.

 

[steaky360]

If I'm honest if it was me I would keep getting back in touch with PCS until you have some OC settings that are stable in the long run for your rig.

Its unlikely that they simply didn't test the OC though. Have you tried running other benchmarking programs (like prime95 or something?) There might be something else playing up that's causing the issues as opposed to the overclock

 

[vanthus]

If I'm honest if it was me I would keep getting back in touch with PCS until you have some OC settings that are stable in the long run for your rig.

Plus one to that.

 

[Fergal]

I intend to make sure PCS get it right its not something that I'm comfortable doing myself. I've literally had about 40mins max with the system so haven't tried any other stress tests, that'll be a weekend job.
Seems its gotta be the oc as on default settings everything runs fine, only problem I had was when I returned everything to default I got a CPU fan error and wouldn't let windows boot even though the fans are spinning at 400+rpm that I've turned to ignore for now but am going to adjust them to 400rpm just incase I do get a failure.

 

[steaky360]

Ah right, well definitely keep getting in touch. Might be worth ringing and getting them to walk you through it if possible. Just to be on safe side

 

[Fergal]

I'll spoke to them several times today via email and they've asked me to try it at 4.2, so I'll try that when I get home from work and see how that holds up. & get back to them.

 

[Fergal]

Been at the pc again and did what pcs asked and lowered the overlock to 4.2 which I did then ran prime 95 while monitoring temps.

Within 90 seconds the temps on the 4 cores were all over 100 degrees C, now I might not know too much about this but even I know that's not good.
Straight away I returned everything to stock values in the bios and ran the tests again, this time the highest it reached on 2 cores was 69c and the other 2 cores never got above 66c after running p95 for 40 mins

 

[steaky360]

Been at the pc again and did what pcs asked and lowered the overlock to 4.2 which I did then ran prime 95 while monitoring temps.

Within 90 seconds the temps on the 4 cores were all over 100 degrees C, now I might not know too much about this but even I know that's not good.
Straight away I returned everything to stock values in the bios and ran the tests again, this time the highest it reached on 2 cores was 69c and the other 2 cores never got above 66c after running p95 for 40 mins

Agreed 100 deg is too high (mine is 80 degrees max @ 4.2). Were the CPU fans spinning up (ie could you hear them getting louder - regardless of the monitoring programs)? As I said above, keep getting in touch with PCS until they get it sorted - unfortunately with Over clocks it sometimes is a bit of trial, error and repeat.

Look at it as a bit of a learning curve, you might pick up a few hints about troubleshooting issues with over clocking along the way

 

[stebro297]

Its unlikely that they simply didn't test the OC though. Have you tried running other benchmarking programs (like prime95 or something?)

Without hijacking the thread they didn't even bother to set my overclock up at all despite it being an overclock order, so anything's possible.

Like the OP the whole point of buying a "Pre-overclocked" system is that the pros have done the work and it's stable. Using AI or PCS' settings is helpful, but it's still not the same as receiving what you paid for.

 

[steaky360]

Without hijacking the thread they didn't even bother to set my overclock up at all despite it being an overclock order, so anything's possible.

Like the OP the whole point of buying a "Pre-overclocked" system is that the pros have done the work and it's stable. Using AI or PCS' settings is helpful, but it's still not the same as receiving what you paid for.

That's a bit of a bummer but I did say unlikely

Also, it would be PCS who would overclock the PC in the first place so you'd always be using their settings - the pre-overclocked systems are also covered under PCS warranty assuming you're still using their settings whereas the non-pre-overclocked systems wouldn't be.

 

[Fergal]

Alright guys, I've been back in touch with pcs and let them know my findings.
Spoke to the guy that does the overclocking and he said they is defo a setting out somewhere and that he has a few i5s to do so he's going to have a play about and see what he can come up with then get back to me Monday and has promised that I will get the 4.6 expected.

Just hope it grafts this time around

 

[WildStyle*]

meh seems to me like PCS doesn't know how to O.C. ^^

 

[NMEBowen]

From the temps your getting i would check the seating of you cpu cooler those temps are incredibly high i can run prime for 8 hours and not see my cpu go over 40 degrees at stock clocks on a similar cooler and my thermal paste isnt properly cured yet im not fully sure on the type of fixtures the coolit uses but im guessing there is 4 thumb screws around the cpu try tightening them as many cpu coolers can come loose in transit.

 

[Fergal]

PC Specialist have still not been in touch, I'm going to get back on to them first thing.

I changed my order and went for the Spire fan cooler instead of the coolit, I'm still on stock clocks at the moment and monitoring temps all the time.

 

[Fergal]

So got my pc back today and guess what?

Yes you guessed it, nothing has changed at all, well it has and it's more unstable.
I unboxed it, made sure everything was connected and pluged her in.
Started it up and ran Prime 95 and once again within 30 seconds 3 out of the 4 cores were above 100c again, I didn't want to wait and see how long it would take for the fourth to join the above 100c.

What's annoying me most is they included notes saying that they have ran several tests, copying data to the pc and back to the server, a hd video test and a short 2 hour gaming session and passed with out any issue. Then claim they ran a 16hr 49m stress test over night, idel temps 35-42 load temps 83-89.
They claim its all down to a loose cpu cooler even though it still makes a clicking noise that I asked them to address.

All the is clearly a load of pants, how can all that of been done yet I can't even run prime for 1 min without hitting 100c+, and once again I can't run windows indexing score without crashing and also now I can't even get a game to run at all.

 

[Sim_Nugget]

So got my pc back today and guess what?

Yes you guessed it, nothing has changed at all, well it has and it's more unstable.
I unboxed it, made sure everything was connected and pluged her in.
Started it up and ran Prime 95 and once again within 30 seconds 3 out of the 4 cores were above 100c again, I didn't want to wait and see how long it would take for the fourth to join the above 100c.

What's annoying me most is they included notes saying that they have ran several tests, copying data to the pc and back to the server, a hd video test and a short 2 hour gaming session and passed with out any issue. Then claim they ran a 16hr 49m stress test over night, idel temps 35-42 load temps 83-89.
They claim its all down to a loose cpu cooler even though it still makes a clicking noise that I asked them to address.

All the is clearly a load of pants, how can all that of been done yet I can't even run prime for 1 min without hitting 100c+, and once again I can't run windows indexing score without crashing and also now I can't even get a game to run at all.

Now that is interesting, mine was ultra quiet on the first day but since then has the noise of a rattles fan, and as you know I have the same issue as you.

S

 

[Fergal]

I'm straight on the phone in the morning mate to get some answers.

Clearly none of these tests have been carried out by PCS, I've got news for them I'll be taking it into them after my phone call as I'm passing their way on route to the Ricky Hatton fight.