Experienced user please for advice on new built PC

Not specifically, every board is slightly different, and results are never guaranteed, overclocking by its very nature is a little luck-based, some CPUs are better than others. Just look up some results for similar boards to yours and follow their advice. Beware of any that clock way beyond 4Ghz as the voltages they use will be excessive, and unnecessary.

 

I would say this is a job for google as well. While we could link you to a guide, some may be easier for us to use, while you may find others more to your level of understanding.

 

Anyway I still have a question or problem that really baffles me. As you know I use the GA-X58A-UD3R mobo, according to the mobo guide, it says there are three levels of led light. If there is no led light on, it means that it is normal, if it is green, the led light is on level 1(slight, green), I think slight is a little bit higher than normal. If it is yellow, the led light is on level 2(moderate, yellow), if the led light is red, this indicates that the components is getting hot(high, red).

So this is what happened, as I boot my PC without installing window OS or anything, the lights which indicate the level of northbridge and ram, turned on, which stay there in green and yellow. I am just wondering if that's normal. Sometimes, it turns green.

This is what the guide says: the higher the northbridge is loading, the more the number of light leds and same goes for memory, the higher the memory is loading, the more number of light leds.

The total numbers of light leds are six, and all of which are on varying from yellow, green, yellow...

Besides, I have no fan for the northbridge. I use the ram as sam recommended. If this is not normal, what will be wrong with my builds or components?

 

Yellow is fine, well within tolerance. You only need be concerned if the LEDs turn red.

 

Well...Same do you think it is OK? Because there is nothing, no window operation system is installed, and this is just the first time start-up. My SSD is blank empty, as well as my western 1TB harddrive.

Because there is nothing working or operating, not even behind the scene...I am just kind of a little concerned about the heat.

Another three questions I would like to ask:
1) Do you guys usually use heatsink or fan for the northbridge and southbridge? As you know Sam, my stupid mobo is covered with that giant metal thing in blue with a logo Gigabyte durable...So not sure if that's the heatsink.

2) Because I am planning on overclocking my CPU to 4.0ghz, so I have to raise the base clock, as i7 is overclocked a bit differently. Once the base clock is modified, the multiplier of the GPU and the ram would be automatically adjusted by the mobo accordingly. So it is highly probable that it will be heated up.

3) I will be using it for long hours because of video editing and photoshop and even programming...It is also possible that the led light will turn RED...

I'd really like you could give me a little bit of help.


BTW: Is it good to set up RAID 0 if I have one harddisk or two harddisk with two different sizes and capacities or two harddisks of totally different type? You know what two harddrives I bought, don't you SAM?

 

1. That is the heatsink, and no. It's almost always fine to use the stock cooling. If you have a P55 board, there isn't even anything under there, it's just helping cool the voltage regulators up the top (the long thin heatsink)
2. Change base clock, check memory speed, win. It was that easy for an i5, i7s may differ.
3. I highly doubt it. I'm not familiar with the LED-based temperature sensing, but it shouldn't overheat in any normal circumstances.
4. Never use RAID0. Ever.

 

Well...I think that's not overheat or heating regarding the led lights. Now I re-read the guide that comes with the mobo, it is the overvoltage led lights. That means, my northbridge or ram are running overvltage.

 

That's what I suspected, I couldn't be certain because I don't use such a board, but I remember some coming with this system, and a board I had in the past had this. Yellow is standard whenever you overclock your CPU or use high-performance memory. It's nothing to worry about.

 

Well...I don't think this is normal SAM. As you know, This is the first time boot, that means after I assemble the PC, I boot it up, and I have not even installed the window operation system, but the board is already giving me this...While I was in the bios setup, what I got were six lighted leds on, all of which indicated the overvoltage of the CPU. Then another set of six ligthed leds on, which indicated the overvoltage of the northbridge and ram. The color varies from yellow to green from the sets of lighted leds...

Also, I have read one of the reviews about the memory I use, one of the reviewers said that once bought, the memory voltage had to be changed in RAM and I am not sure how to do that and what value needed to be set.

Again, everything is untouched, not even overclocking.

 

Boards automatically set voltages to how the memory works. Since some DDR3 works at 1.5V, 1.65V is overvolting, and therefore comes up as yellow, it's perfectly fine. Also, all lights come on in the BIOS as that's a 'check mode'.

 

My memory, which you recommended, works at 1.65v, so what if I wanna have the green and yellow light to be switched off, should I go change the current 1.5v to 1.65v? because as indicated by the BIOS, the voltage of the ram is 1.5v.

Also, the set of the lighted led are on(yellow and screen)occasionally when I was in the BIO setup, I tried this a couple times, powered off and powered on, restarted...But one time the lighted green and yellow leds were on, and the other time, they weren't. Is it normal also SAM?

 

Why do you want the LEDs off, do they annoy you?

 

Not really that annoys me, but it gives me a terrifying feeling whenever I look at my case or mobo. Besides, I just want or make sure everything works accurately. So the BIOS says 1.5v, but in fact I think my memory stick uses 1.65v, which is stated in the specification. So I would like to change it to get the green or yellow led off.

 

Remember what the LEDs are there for, they aren't 'OK, problem, danger', they are 'Standard performance, super performance, mega performance'.

 

Yes I know...But since there is not thing loading in ram, so why is there superper formance leds? I am totally a noob to this. Should I go to the RAM(DRAM Voltage) to change the 1.5v to 1.65v?

 

They don't show usage, they show voltage, which is relied on for high clock speeds. Since the RAM you're using is already high speed, it has to run at the high voltage.

 

But the speed is only 1333mhz. So you mean with somebody using the same board and same RAM, they will still get the green led even if they have not loaded or installed the Operation System(WINDOW) and overclocked?

 

I don't know what voltages correspond to what LED colour as I have not owned that board. Just please ignore it and stop posting about it.

 

Yes...Everything is working fine except

after I installed window 7 ultimate, only the sidebar and the easytune wouldn't work. I still got the green led, but only one so I just ignore it.

 

There is no sidebar in Win 7, only gadgets, but the Vista sidebar can be added if you google it.

As for easytune, is this an OC utility? If so your better off just OCing manually as youll get better results.