Budget gaming build Help! Dell 990(Mini Tower) i7-2600+GTX1060 6Gb

Jan 23, 2018
2
0
510
I'm a university student,building out a budget 1080p gaming setup, starting from a Dell Optiplex 990 i7-2600 (Tower case) 12Gb DualChannel DDR 1333Mhz (could be 16Gb for cheap), Lite-on Ssd as primary drive along the stock Hdd. I'm waiting for the delivery of a Gainward GS GTX 1060 6Gb, and in the meantime I installed a CX650M from Corsair that I got for the same price as the 550W on Amazon.
I'm just a bit concerned about the cpu, BIOS is locked up in any way, multiplier and fsb. Is there a way in which I can overclock even a bit my cpu? Should setfsb tools and similar work even with locked BIOS? My i7-2600 on q67 espress chipset is rated 95wmax TDP. Could I throw in a i7-2600k and be able to change multiplier? (Probably a could not change voltage for sure, but I think that even on stock, could be OC enough from 2600 non k speed.

Another strange thing is multiplier..(c-states,speedstep all enabled) I do stay on x37/x38 boncing around down and up again on idle, very light load. When getting full load on all core multi stays on x35 pissing me off. Really! Why should do it?
I know, bad prebuild motherboard, but was cheap power with all the upgrades almost done.

Please Tom'sHarware Help Me! ;)
 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
I doubt you'd be able to do any OC'ing on that board and its crippled BIOS. None of my Dell MTs could. And the board itself is not designed for OC'ing, anyway. Chances are you'd fry the VRMs or one of the electrolytic caps. Then you'd be out of a PC completely.
But rest assured; the venerable I7-2600 can still handle a GTX 1060 6GB nicely at 1080p.
 
Jan 23, 2018
2
0
510
I have just mounted the very nice gainward phoenix 1060 gs and after changing all the sata cables I’ve downloaded the latest drivers.
Now I’m going to test Valley Benchmark :)
I know the mighty i7-2600 will be fine, but I tought that I could at least bump some Mhz. Even A very small OC, or disable power saving features or a full turbo clock. Can I put it in turbo forever? I don’t understand why it clocks x35 full load over 4 cores. Disabling speedstep and (c states seemed to do nothing using the pc )got me x35.
For sure I’m going to clock out the 1060 GS, cause I think is going to impact better on games.
Maybe I’m going to buy a zalman cooler copper or bronze like with led... 18€ used even only for milan hot summer could be nice! I got the 4 pin fans, the cooler looks 3pin... Can I mount it? I’m going to investigate online too on this. Intel coolers always looked cold to me, like if they were junk performers, even with new thermal paste.
Any (I have to say cheap XD) suggestion?