|
BIG UPDATE! Check End!
TLDR: I made this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bnF13ngl.jpg<br>)
5ghz i7-3770K
UD5H
NH-D15
2400mhz CL8 RAM
SSD
$500
Going to document my progress here for an entire i5 3570k build, from parts, to overclock.
So I just sold my:
- Phenom X4 955 c2 (6 missing pins, hundreds of bent ones, replaced pins with strips of cat5 wire mashed into the socket) 3.8ghz@1.536v/2.6ghzNB@1.25v 24 hour prime95 custom blend max ram priority 10 stable (basically makes this chip one of the best c2's out there, kinda funny)
- Biostar A770E3 Red & Black
- CM Hyper 212+
- Kingston HyperX Blu 1333mhz CL9 1.5v 2x2gb
- HIS 4850 1GB iCooler IV
- Antec Earthwatts EA-430D
- Refurb WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM SataII 160gb HDD
for $360 (ugh, i feel dirty, definitely should have got $360 but I had so many people say 'yea next week ill have the money' that I didnt think the guy offering $400 was reliable, or the $380 guy, its okay though)
I didn't need to upgrade, but I enjoy building computers and this kind of stuff so I'm okay with sidegrading (although an i5 is more like a huge upgrade). I accumulated a few spare parts - an NH-D14 SE2011 with lga1155 and am3 mounts for $43 from ebay, a gtx 460 768mb 922mhz/1.087v (damn 768mb overclocks way better than any of the 1gb's that i had, and at 922mhz this is a really good 460, not quite a gem though, and the 4850 is more like the spare part), an an x25-m 80gb ssd. Considering those 3 components are the 3 most expensive parts (or was for my phenom build at least), that's a huge burden off for the new build.
So I can basically make an i5 3570k build with very high end stuff, for less than what I sold my Phenom ii build for (yea, I know, small opportunity cost because I could sell my nh-d14 and 460, not getting into semantics here). I could even go for an i7 build, but I dont think the i7 3770k is worth $50 more, even if I do mostly streaming and overclocking.
I mean my Phenom ii x4 build streamed 720p@60fps very, very comfortably. I did not dip below 25fps in the biggest of creep, broodlord infestor, mothership battles, and it generally averaged above 40fps in late game, if not 50+. It was a very strong CPU, and, while I dont own an i5 yet, I do think the Phenom ii x4 is the best budget CPU you can buy, for sure.
But i5, come on, no one regrets buying an i5, and the possibility to obtain 5ghz sounds sick. I am planning to delid my i5 3570k first thing as well (or 2nd, i need to warm it up as well as make sure it isn't DOA), which is sticking a razor blade into the IHS glue and cutting off the metal top to the cpu, and then rubbing off the glue used to keep it on the cpu's circuit board, as it causes a huge gap between the IHS metal plate, and cpu die, and thus more heat. It's just how you have to use an i5 3570k, otherwise 2500k is a better buy.
On SB vs IB:
The better IPC of IB generally puts IB about 200-300mhz above SB (commonly it's quoted that 4.5iB > 4.7sb, and 4.5iB >/= 4.8SB). On top of that, a delidded IB generally overclocks further than SB (not including the better per clock performance), so it's more like 5ghz IB vs 4.8ghz SB. The IB also runs much much cooler than SB, being a 22nm vs 32nm and lower wattage/tdp. You just have to fix the manufacturing defect of the IHS issue, and delid it - which I'm confident and plan on doing.
The way I see it, $10 per 100mhz is a good deal (going by AMD chips, so for intel it's more like $10 per 60mhz, or in the case of ib, 50mhz even, but that's getting a bit too complicated). So 200mhz for better IPC, 200mhz for equivalent silicon lottery draws, I think 400mhz is fair to pay $40 for, or even slightly more for.
But the i5 3570k is cheaper than the 2500k if you live by MC, so lucky me. And the z77 motherboard is cheaper than p67/z68 if you do the $40 MC bundle deal, so that's a headache to avoid. I dont think z77 is necessarily better than p67/z68 (all the features of z77 is useless, insignificant, unused, won't be used by the hardware I use or even any modern hardware unless you do triple 680's and no one buys 680s let alone triple SLIs them and if you are you aren't looking at the i5) But the reason you buy Z77 over p67/z68, is the same reason you buy a 2010 civic instead of 2008 - the 2010 wont really be much better, and it's not even worth more money really, but it will be slightly uptdated and might run a bit better).
So basically buy whatever is cheaper, and if you live by MC, then z77 is cheaper.
So I'm in range of MC, and these are the parts I'm looking at, from various places, prices, and reasons:
i5 3570k @ $159 after $10 coupon at MC
Explained above.
Gigabyte Z77 UD3H @ $109 MC
So there are 3 boards to consider for overclocking on z77:
Asrock Extreme4
Asus P8Z77-LK
Gigabyte Z77x-UD3H
To a lesser degree, Biostar has a board around that price range and MSI GD65. Biostar is awesome, dont get me wrong, and unlike all the big companies, they dont neuter your budget board by removing vcore, vcore above 1.28, vdimm, and other overclocking options to force you to buy their more expensive boards, and they use relatively decent quality components for their price - but they are still a budget company. Biostar is the way to go for, say, an AMD build, but not an Intel build. As for MSi - I don't know about their VRM quality, but given their track record on both AMD and Intel boards' VRMs, I wouldn't trust an MSI motherboard for overclocking.
So all 3 of these boards are priced similar, but the Gigabyte UD3H tends to be about $10-20 more, which is fair for it's quality.
Now all 3 of these boards are awesome - these are the cheapest boards you can buy, besides all Biostar boards, that have full overclocking options. They aren't gimped in any way. They also all have SLI, cheaper boards all have 2x GPU slots, ie pci-e x16, but they are run at x16/x4 or x8/x4, which means you can't run SLI on them, only crossfire (sli requires at least x8/x8). All 3 of them have a great reputation, and come highly recommended from people that own them.
But it's hard to figure out the best choice of the 3 - not many people try out more than 1 of these boards, exactly. And not all review sites have reviewed all 3 boards. There are a few, like, Tomshardware, for example, but their reviews are absolute trash - for example, they compare the 3 boards overclock quality based on the software they come packaged with! Everyone knows you overclock in Bios/Uefi, not software, and furthermore, you can just use any of the overclocking suites, with any other brand of motherboard. Absolutely retarded on TH's part. Other websites, like Anandtech, they test overclock with stock voltage, or something else that is equally as useless. They then go ahead and rate a board as the best buy, when objectively it may be the worst. It's very hard to find a good review, you see. But, I have talked to people who have used multiple of these boards:
Compared to the Extreme4, Superior build quality, thicker PCB, better form than the cut-short extreme4, better sound (insignificant, if you really want sound you get a discrete sound card but just saying) in the VIA chip vs the alc898.
Compared to the Asus LK, a better VRM, onboard LED and power buttons (odd that the asus doesnt have those), dual bios, finer voltage control (direct point instead of .05 or something like that),
UD3h has more control over VRM, and better phase quality.
Corsair Ballstix Tactical Tracer 2x2gb Blue/orange @ $17.08 Newegg during current 48 hour sale + discounts, free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148512
Cheapest 2 sticks of 2gb 1.5v CL9 RAM I can find (or better). This ram is cheaper even than valurams out there, a great deal. Goes in and out of stock, hopefully it'll be in stock, if not I'd have to pay like $1 more for the 2x2gb kit, instead of buying 2, separate, 2gb sticks like i am trying to now.
NZXT Source 210 @ $17.99MC
So I have a NZXT gamma and it's a great case. I believe the source210 is a different chasis, i know it has more space behind the motherboard panel. I'll also use a drill to remove the HDD bays and 5.25 cd drive bays (cds are as useful as floppies these days, and a cd drive is fugly in a computer, whenever i see one im like ew).
I would be okay with spending a bit more on a case, maybe up to $60.... but $18 is just insanely cheap for a high quality case. There's not going to be any case below $60, maybe even more than that, that will be significantly better. The HAF 912 is ugly and not significantly better, and the Corsair Carbide 200R... not sure if it's much better, but it's expensive and i dont think its much much better.
Corsair CX 430 @ $19 Newegg (or up to $55 for a decent 550w+ psu)
A ridiculously good price on a decent PSU, it's got 32a on the single 12v rail. It's not the best PSU though, not even 80 bronze though, but it's considered high quality still. I'd actually like to get a PSU so I could potentially SLI 460's one day in my rig, but for $19 this cx430 is just insanely cheap. If I can find a good quality 12v@42a+ PSU for $50 or less, maybe on ebay or something, then I'll buy that instead. I'd actually prefer that, but such PSUs are expensive and I can just get it when I do SLI (and i might not do that, anyways).
I currently have the other components:
NH-D14 SE2011 @ $43 ebay. It was missing mounts, that's why it was so cheap, but noctua sends free mounts so I got an am3 and lga1155 mount for free. Absolutely great cooler for the price, imo a way better value than a hyper 212+ at $19. Just an awesome heatsink.
GTX 460 768mb. I play on 720 so i dont need more, but even 768mb is more than enough for ultra quality sc2. 768mb overclocks better than 1gb, something to do with the memory getting in the way, so i sold my 1gb and kept this one. twin frozr ii, keeps it very cool and quiet. just odd a heatsink that big has no heatsinks on the vrms though. I might consider SLI'ing this in the far, far future, but for now this will be more than enough power. or maybe in 5 years ill get a 480 as a replacement, and then 5 years later, sli that.
intel x25-m g2 80gb SSD @$52 ebay. basically, it was the cheapest ssd at 80gb. I could have went with a 64gb ssd, in which case the samsung 830 would have been a great choice, but the x25-m is high quality, cheap, and 80gb to keep things simple (sooooo many 64gb models to choose from, although really most are just bad oczs and patriots). the intel 330 was also a good choice but usually more expensive so x25-m it was, for a good price. In 2 years I haven't used more than 40gb on my hdd, so i figured why waste money on a hdd when i can get an ssd for the same cost (i mean, you arent going to really find hdd below 160gb, and 160gb is too much for me).
HOTS will only be an additional 8gb, by the way.
I wonder if spending $50 on the i7 would be worth it. probably not. anyways, i'll be updating this blog. not holding my breath for haswell, although maybe when it comes out i can do this whole sell the computer off and then sidegrade.
So. I'll be keeping this blog updated on progress.
 
|
Source 210 is nice, I just got one (check build thread for pic). You'll need more fans though. It only comes with 1.
You can't take out the 5.25" mount things without taking out the HDD mounts also, however there is no 2.5" mount so I guess you'll be fine.
I would have gone with the extreme4 over UD3H mainly because I like seeing what my CPU Vcore is at and not at just what I set it at.
|
Oh, yea, i got an nzxt sentry 2 controller, and 4 yate loons to work with. and the 2 pwm noctua fans (120 + 140). Plenty of fans.
The nzxt stock fans are shit, I would never rely on them. I've never seen a case under like $100 include fans that were worth anything anyways, usually i just relegate the stock case fans to like spot cooling or side intakes.
I'm only using an 80gb ssd for system storage, and I'm actually planning on taping it behind the motherboard panel, so I have no use for the hdd/5.25 bays, except maybe to cabletie fans onto (on the nzxt gamma, 1 lower intake fan where there was a spot for a fan, and then i cable tied another onto the 5.25 bays, using 2 cable ties to hold it firmly against the right wall of it). As I understand it, you have to use a drill to pop out the rivets on the 210 to get the bays out, but I've seen it done via pics before. Even if I had a HDD though, I'd prefer to take off the mounts and just use 3m tape to prevent vibration of any kind, hdd dont get hot at all unless you got like 5+ of them, and even then not sure if they really get hot where its an issue.
I would have gone with the extreme4 over UD3H mainly because I like seeing what my CPU Vcore is at and not at just what I set it at.
Can you be a little more specific? I'm pretty d...
or are you referring to the fact that vcore values are 'sweeter' with one board over another? Gigabyte is just as guilty as asrock is of it, where they 'cheat' - stock base clock is usually not 1sure you are wrong or misinformed on this one, surely software will pick up vcore values, that can't be something change00 but like 100.07 to make the board bench better at stock (so stupid reviewers like TH, say oh wow this board is higher quality, it tests better at stock! when its just not even the same base clock) or they'll say "wow it takes less voltage with this board to reach same oc!" when in reality it's just reporting a different value for vcore than the other board. Vcore varies a lot, do you report the average high value, do you report peaks (which most motherboards don't), how do you determine average, etc.
If you want to be technical about it, I don't think any motherboard actually tells you what your vcore is really at.
Also, the ud3h will tell you what vcore it's at, or what it approximates it at (or it's interpretation of it, or rather, maybe, it's reporting some vcore value to you).
The extreme4 is not a good motherboard. It's just decent because it used to be priced much lower, but not anymore. It uses d-pak mosfets, it's got a horrible design on them (it's just a cloned vrm design), the pcb is weak, the pcb is made of poor quality, its not a true 8 phase, its a poor quality 4 phase. It might be okay for a mild oc but it's not a good motherboard. It'll do and has all the features, i dont think anyone who gets one complains, but compared to the asus LK or ud3h, its terrible. I can't imagine it being worse than the GD65 or biostar for that matter, unless they are using nikos mosfets or something...
I'm not sure what you are really saying, but if there is an issue, I definitely would not get the extreme4 still. I'd probably go with a biostar or just a better board. The extreme6 has a high quality vrm, might be too pricy though. im just looking for a board that isn't locked in overclocking options, and has a decent VRM, nothing more.
|
On January 11 2013 15:55 Belial88 wrote:Oh, yea, i got an nzxt sentry 2 controller, and 4 yate loons to work with. and the 2 pwm noctua fans (120 + 140). Plenty of fans. The nzxt stock fans are shit, I would never rely on them. I've never seen a case under like $100 include fans that were worth anything anyways, usually i just relegate the stock case fans to like spot cooling or side intakes. I'm only using an 80gb ssd for system storage, and I'm actually planning on taping it behind the motherboard panel, so I have no use for the hdd/5.25 bays, except maybe to cabletie fans onto (on the nzxt gamma, 1 lower intake fan where there was a spot for a fan, and then i cable tied another onto the 5.25 bays, using 2 cable ties to hold it firmly against the right wall of it). As I understand it, you have to use a drill to pop out the rivets on the 210 to get the bays out, but I've seen it done via pics before. Even if I had a HDD though, I'd prefer to take off the mounts and just use 3m tape to prevent vibration of any kind, hdd dont get hot at all unless you got like 5+ of them, and even then not sure if they really get hot where its an issue. Show nested quote +I would have gone with the extreme4 over UD3H mainly because I like seeing what my CPU Vcore is at and not at just what I set it at. Can you be a little more specific? I'm pretty d... or are you referring to the fact that vcore values are 'sweeter' with one board over another? Gigabyte is just as guilty as asrock is of it, where they 'cheat' - stock base clock is usually not 1sure you are wrong or misinformed on this one, surely software will pick up vcore values, that can't be something change00 but like 100.07 to make the board bench better at stock (so stupid reviewers like TH, say oh wow this board is higher quality, it tests better at stock! when its just not even the same base clock) or they'll say "wow it takes less voltage with this board to reach same oc!" when in reality it's just reporting a different value for vcore than the other board. Vcore varies a lot, do you report the average high value, do you report peaks (which most motherboards don't), how do you determine average, etc. If you want to be technical about it, I don't think any motherboard actually tells you what your vcore is really at. Also, the ud3h will tell you what vcore it's at, or what it approximates it at (or it's interpretation of it, or rather, maybe, it's reporting some vcore value to you). The extreme4 is not a good motherboard. It's just decent because it used to be priced much lower, but not anymore. It uses d-pak mosfets, it's got a horrible design on them (it's just a cloned vrm design), the pcb is weak, the pcb is made of poor quality, its not a true 8 phase, its a poor quality 4 phase. It might be okay for a mild oc but it's not a good motherboard. It'll do and has all the features, i dont think anyone who gets one complains, but compared to the asus LK or ud3h, its terrible. I can't imagine it being worse than the GD65 or biostar for that matter, unless they are using nikos mosfets or something... I'm not sure what you are really saying, but if there is an issue, I definitely would not get the extreme4 still. I'd probably go with a biostar or just a better board. The extreme6 has a high quality vrm, might be too pricy though. im just looking for a board that isn't locked in overclocking options, and has a decent VRM, nothing more.
In a review on anand I believe it was the... I'll find the review.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6296/gigabyte-z77xup4-th-review-thunderbolt-times-two/4
CPU voltage readings on Gigabyte Z77 motherboards have been odd as of late. Initially we thought that Gigabyte was manipulating the voltage readings from the board to the operating system to give a semblance of improved usage. Then on the Z77MX-D3H, even in overclocked scenarios the voltage reading was the same value as the stock reading. This made us caution a little more – what sort of games or tricks were being played? Then on the UD5H we noticed that on boards where the voltage does change under OC, while at at stock the voltage reaching can actually change, although Gigabyte has set the reading to change with a granularity of 0.01 volts. On all other motherboards we test, OCCT shows variations when the voltage fluctuates by ~0.004 volts – even though OCCT is itself a time smoothed average, we expect to see some variation. The results of this are two fold – the Gigabyte boards do vary in the voltage but they do not want the user to know about it, but if the improved power delivery of the Ultra Durable 5 system results in less ripple, why set the minimum reporting variation so high? This means that as reviewers we cannot comment on how stable the load line calibration is if no variation is seen at all. As a result, I am unwilling to add voltage values in our comparison table for boards like this, as it could hide the true representation of default LLC and load voltages. Especially as the load voltage reported under overclocking was the same as reported under stock – 1.068 volts. This means the value is being manipulated between the CPU and the OS at the BIOS level, which should never be the case.
|
That's not the ud3h:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5793/intel-z77-motherboard-review-with-ivy-bridge-asrock-asus-gigabyte-and-msi/9
But I am looking into your claim.
Also, anandtech... not the best. They do do a lot of good things, and seem to be quiet cognizant, but in their motherboard round-up, for example, they compare overclocks based on software overclocking and stock voltages. Their heatsink and tim round-ups are even worse.
Not to say they dont put out tons of useful information. But some of their reviews and all of their benches, eh....
I do think their voltage testing is pretty awesome though, as far as I understand it, and that's what we're talking about here though.
edit: check this out: http://www.overclock.net/t/1330405/which-mobo-should-i-buy/0_100
The problem you are claiming, exists with the extreme6.
You know I'm okay with buying a Biostar motherboard instead of the UD3H. I just ordered the ud3h at microcenter@beltway/md, for instore pick-up/payment (the last one!). If I go there and see the biostar boards are better or cheaper i might decide to go for one instead. I've been running a 3+1 phase on some ridiculous overclocks on multiple denebs and they never exploded into a ball of flame, which is saying a great deal about a $30 motherboard with nikos mosfets. They've also been great to me, technical support, sending me stickers that I asked for, even getting some of their tech guys to help me with a fairly complicated issue I had.
Too bad not enough reviews or anything comparing the biostar boards with competition. All the reviews are basically extreme4/ud3h/asus LK/biostar/gd65 are such great boards! instead of really getting into which boards are better, and pushing the boards to their limits. It's only by user reports that I've, like from Sino at OCN, that show the ud3h is such a high end board, but nothing like that on the biostar boards, and no one saying anything like "well ive had both ud3h and extreme4! and extreme4 was crap" but with biostar as one of the boards owned.
|
|
|
well the vrm is significantly better than the extreme4s. The extreme4 has a terrible VRM, so im not really surprised. lets see it compared to the extreme6 and maybe pull a ridiculous board up too, like the sabertooth or ROG and see what they are getting. I believe the ud5h has a better VRM.
There could be a software/firmware or control issue going on as well, where voltage ripple isn't being sent out the same way, or is being contained in some manner.
i do believe it requires more investigation though, but i thought your point was that you can't read the voltage of the ud3h, and now you bring up ripple? Im a bit confused. What exactly was the point? You can't read the real vcore voltage anyways on any board, all you get is estimates that the motherboard manufacturer has decided to approximate for you and present to you in a certain way.
i was looking at like 8gb vs 4gb. man so much bad advice on the internet. 'ram is so cheap just get 8gb whatever'. if I've got an extra $20, im not gonna put it in ram, I'm gonna get fucking barbeque with it.
Or, I'd put an extra $30 into it and get an i7 instead.
Or, maybe get another 460 or maybe a 450 for $50-80 or something (can i sli 460+450? i know sometimes you can sli different cards of same generation or something... i dont really care, dont answer the question, just making a point).
anyhways considering the free shipping, I should buy that ram right now, because the 2gb module went out of stock immediately so the 2x2gb kit will probably be out of stock by morning.
|
United Kingdom20277 Posts
The last thing you want to do if you are concerned about performance with streaming is SLI a couple of weak cards.
|
|
|
On January 11 2013 18:09 Cyro wrote:
The last thing you want to do if you are concerned about performance with streaming is SLI a couple of weak cards.
Could you be more specific. Is this an sli issue or a gtx 460 issue? The 460, 922mhz@1.087 768mb should be more than powerful enough for sc2, i mean i strteamed ultra just fine with them, they were not the bottleneck at all.
you know you are pulling figures from anandtech reading from a tool (not a multimeter, forgot what its called)? I mean that shouldnt be an issue, thats like saying pulling wattage from a multimeter on a psu is reading weird with a particular model. anandtech didnt seem to find an issue, they think the tool is working correctly and just the ud3h has a superior vrm, which it definitely does. i dont think i see anything funny about those results, and if it wasnt reporting correctly from a tool thats definitely not a problem with the motherboard.
so i dont see what your problem with the ud3h is, and it's been established the quality on its much better than an extreme4. maybe the ud3h is not the best board, but its definitely a league above the extreme4 in quality. if anything id go biostar tz77e4 or asus lk, not the extreme4.
like.. the problem is that some instrument reads funny off of the ud3h, as opposed to the poor readings of the extreme4? those results seem pretty clear, anandtech doesnt see a problem.
also, they arent pushing high overclocks, and using stock voltage.i would expect the voltage readings to be perfectly consistent on that. im sure itd be much different if you start stressing a board that is made for ln2 overclocking, after all. and your pulling results of x79, sandy bridge, the 3960x, etc...
The response of the Gigabyte board under load is fantastic. No ripple at all and a lower average voltage than the ASUS P8P77-V Pro.
|
So I'll be heading to MC right now.
Going to buy the following:
$169 3570k. I might consider the 3770k,
$17 nzxt source 210, which i hear is better than the gamma (normally source 210 is similarly priced). i wish i could get a clear panel though, ill be checking out other cases at mc to see if anything is good there. but god $17, so cheap.
$109 UD3H. Might check out the biostar boards though, while i'm there
if they have a half decent 12v@42a+ psu, i might check that out. I think they have thermaltake PSUs but they are of questionable quality in general so i dont know if I'll buy those, but if I can find one for under $50...
Also, the CX 430 modular is only $24 at newegg right now (they also got that $19 cx 430), which is just insane. Hell, I could literally buy 2 CX 430's and just use an entirely separate PSU for a second GPU for SLI if I wanted to, I think it'd take a small mod to convince the psu to turn on and that's it's hooked up to a computer but that'd be cheaper, and more power, than buying a 550+ w psu.
i mean with 4gb of ram being only $18 after shipping and cheap and such, the $20 rebates on both the cx 430 and nzxt source 210, I can actually afford an i7 3770k in my budget. But I'm not convinced it'd be worth the $50 price premium.
I'm gonna buy that RAM off newegg too, corsair ballstix tracers orange/blue (hey, if i get the orange biostar or blue ud3h, it'll match!). I'll buy it after I buy from microcenter though, just in case they have some refurb stuff or something, and to maybe look at stuff in person.
|
wtf you fuckers the newegg ram, both the crucial ballistix tactical tracers out of stock.
fuck fuck fuckers. i dont want to pay $6 more for the next cheapest ram that has lower specs.
|
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
CX 600 Modular for $59.
that is an incredibly good deal. Its like $10-20 over budget for modular and SLI support... i think that's a pretty fair price, might be a bit out of budget though.
I'll consider this psu. this, the $19 cx 430, $24 cx 430 modular.... trying to get more like $39-49 for a 550w/12v@42a+.... but the cx430s are just so cheap at $19-24 that i think it'd be smarter to buy those instead and just get a better PSU when I need it, and then modular 600w for $59... good deal. dont need modular but dat price...
Then again, I could use that money instead for an i7.... better psu, i7 instead of i5, stuff i dont really need but i basically got a little extra money. maybe i could just eat lots of barbeque the next few weeks though, i could get 2 family packs of barbque (which is like 2 huge buckets of the 2nd best barbeque ive had and best within 200 miles at least of dc). choices, choices... then with the barbeque coupons they got out now, i could really get like $100 worth of barbeque via the $10 for $20 of bbq coupon, for the $50 cost of an i7 instead of i5....
choices, choices.
|
I don't see the problem here. LLC on these boards is strong. Did they even use voltage points or just trusted to software measurements?
Why do you even waste time to argue with gamers?
In regards to UD3h having questionable LLC/vcore read-outs...
Dexel had that to say. Yea iTzSnypah I definitely value your opinion, but I don't see the problem. I think you are definitely wrong to recommend the extreme4. I thought you might have had a valid concern about the ud3h, but I don't really see the problem. That the ud3h is performing too well? That anandtech can't use a multimeter to figure out the ud3h's voltages? Anandtech didnt report any issues reporting the vcore, even they said the ud3h is clearly a superior motherboard when it comes to voltages.
I mean... if you are recommending the Extreme4 over the UD3H, I can't honestly believe you understand what determines motherboard quality. Not that most of us really do, to be honest, but I do know the quality of the Extreme4 is terrible, having experienced d-paks before...
|
United Kingdom20277 Posts
Could you be more specific. Is this an sli issue or a gtx 460 issue? The 460, 922mhz@1.087 768mb should be more than powerful enough for sc2, i mean i strteamed ultra just fine with them
Multi-gpu is known to be awful with screen capture and streaming, actually suggested to disable SLI for better performance.
Also big trend seems to be losing more FPS and performance with capture at high resolutions/framerates with weaker GPU's
|
gtx460 isnt a weak gpu, especially with an OC. it's going to be comparable at 900mhz to like... not sure, 550ti or 650ti, one of those. its definitely stronger than plain 550/650 and 560.
i understand what you mean about sli being bad for streaming though, straight up ill just stop thinking about sli then. what a shame, i wouldve loved to have sli since i have a board capable of it and the 460 is so awesome and on ebay they go soooooooo cheap (whereas other high end gpus, ie more newer generation, dont get reduced in price at all for being used).
also, you are talking about specifically game performance, and thefore capture and thefore stream performance, right? and, that sli has an inherent issue when streaming...
|
Some updates. Oh, and by the way iTzsynpah, CPU-Z had a bug in it, where it would read vtt instead of vcore. OCCT uses CPU-Z for it's vcore read-outs. That's why the gigabyte vcore read-outs all look funny. But that Anandtech is using software of monitor vcore is ridiculous. He also stated he was measuring ripple... which you can't measure from software.
The UD3H even has multimeter points on the board though, he could have just tested it. Suffice to say, AT is a pretty horrible review site, and you are wrong. It's funny you say you will never buy a gigabyte board based off misinformation. And it's been proven the extreme4 has the worst VRMs you can get at that price range... or for even less.
Got some 2x2gb Mushkin Enhanced Ridgeback Blackline 2000mhz CL7 1.65v. They are BBSEs ICs, so these should basically be the best ram possible to overclock with. People say RAM doesn't matter, but there will be a noticeable difference in 1866mhz vs 2400mhz. I mean, for the $60+ price these RAM usually cost, of course it isn't worth it, but the price 'premium' was only $27 for these sticks.
It was pretty difficult to figure out what RAM to buy, there aren't IC lists of 2gb modules generally, only 4gb. I just wanted to get some PSC or BBSE ICs, or at least avoid micron D9s.
Bought the corsair cx500 PSU from newegg for $29. I wish I got that cx430modular, oh well.
I'm still waiting on the RAM, it's from canada (ebay), and the noctua nh-d14 mount is on the way from austria. Noctua forgot it with the package so they gotta resend.
I'm also planning to get some cast acrylic, cut a whole in the side, and use some molding i find in home depot around the edges (cut hole with jigsaw, sand edges to make smooth with a file, put some sort of bathroom molding around the edge to look nice, tape acrylic behind panel larger than hole). Then maybe get some blue LEDs. I didnt mean for it too, but the build is color coordinated, for the most part Black/Blue/Silver.
From Chaos:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CyTyql.jpg)
Comes Order:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/c6ZTEl.jpg)
|
Its been a week since last update, where is 5Ghz on air?
|
On January 27 2013 08:27 iTzSnypah wrote:
Its been a week since last update, where is 5Ghz on air?
He's perm-banned.
|
Okay some updates! And don't worry, 5ghz on air will be coming quite soon, I'm confident this chip can do it. Wow, a lot has changed lol. Wow.
First, some RMAs!
- I returned my UD3H. Exchanged it for a Z77X-UD5H. Microcenter gave me $30 back to do so (I exchanged my ud3h for a ud5h under the 30 day return/price protection policy).
- The NZXT LED was bad. It has 3 power settings, and it couldn't do the lowest one. I didn't care until my LED burned out, so that had to be RMAd. Directron, a rather unknown company, whom I got the lights from (it was $9 shipped from them, much cheaper than anywhere else!), had the replacement in a week to me.
- The CX500 PSU has been nothing but trouble. It made a high pitched pulsing sound, and I reduced this sound (but didn't 'fix' it) by unscrewing the fan grill (which holds the fan in place tightly) and moved the fan more center. Then, I had some terrible PSU issues - it took a while for me to realize that my overclocks on my GTX 460 that worked fine on my old system, were not because of the GPU, but because of the PSU. Soon I realized to run a PSU test (cpu+gpu test at same time) and figured to RMA my PSU, especially when I took an old 5 year old PSU, shorted the green line on it so it would think it's plugged into a motherboard, and then used molex to PCI-E adapters, and hooked it up to my GPU and everything ran perfectly.
Odd thing, the PSU issues manifested as nvidia driver crashes, but I do think it also caused some of my higher CPU overclocks to fail (above about 1.42v). I know this because prime95 was failing in some of my overclocks with driver crashes, which is an odd way for CPU instability to manifest.
So that was basically a month where I could not overclock my CPU. So I went on to overclocking my RAM!
- I had to RMA my RAM lol. Now, my RAM was one of the few things I bought used, and the ebay seller, I talked to them, and they said they had no problem running the RAM he paid $120+ for at their XMP profile of 2000mhz CL7-10-8-27 1.65v. Now, the RAM I had only failed prime95 after about 12 hours of testing, so the guy wasn't malicious, he just didn't know better to test them to make sure they were okay. (Always do a 24 hour run on stock settings with new hardware to make sure it isn't faulty!).
So, I emailed Mushkin, who, after seeing my Ebay Invoice for used RAM, were happy to do an RMA for me.... and give me 2000mhz CL9-9-9-24 1.65v BBSE RAM as the RAM I had was End-Of-Life. Now that was NOT okay with me, and I told mushkin that. I also found out that only one of the sticks of RAM was bad, and it just needed .5v extra to do it's XMP profile (similarly, it could also overclock the exact same as the other stick, but again, just needing .5v extra).
But I sent the sticks in, I didn't want trouble, and hoped Mushkin would meet me halfway. PSC no longer exists (neither does BBSE for that matter), I think it was bought up in mergers or something as well as BBSE. However, PSC is THE best overclocking RAM (besides extravagant 2900mhz Cl11 ram).
So imagine my surprise when Mushkin sent me my same 996902's!
I removed the Ridgeback heatspreaders on them (so it'd fit on my nh-d14 - it's not so much my nh-d14 can't fit the ridgebacks, it's that I can't lift the front fan to fit the ridgebacks under them as my case is so tight, especially with the window).
And the heatspreaders just fall off! The RAM ICs are clearly PSCs, they are XDZs (not the best, not the worst, PSC chips, which is awesome, especially considering I paid $15 for them). Also, there is no programmed XMP profile on them....
Clearly, Mushkin went above and beyond with my RMA, by custom making these RAM for me. They must have forgot to put the XMP profile in, and the heatspreaders obviously hadn't been sitting on this RAM long.
So, I'm currently fine-tuning my RAM overclock. I messed with the main timings, and I've found they can do 2400mhz CL8-12-8-28 1T 24 hours prime95 stable. I'm currently working on the secondary/tertiary timings, but I'm pretty sure I can them very tight. My final timings are going to be slightly less than the following (the dram reference interval and refix9 are going to be ~9360/90, but I'm going to tighten a few of the tertiaries, twcl, and trfc from the following picture) but it should give you an idea of what kind of RAM I've got:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/v4lTjaVl.png)
29/29/24. These kinds of speeds are way better than scores seen on the Samsung Wonder RAM, and way above even many kits above $100. Some blazingly fast speeds, they are definitely noticeable.
Let me tell you - when people say RAM overclocking doesn't matter, well, it doesn't matter if you are going from 1600 to 1866. If you are going from 1600 to 2400 CL8, yea, it makes a huge difference. And secondary/tertiary timings can be just as important as your main timings. Put enough time in, and you can get a great result.
All this from buying some $20 wonder RAM off ebay. You can only buy RAM this good in 2GB density. This is why 2gb sticks > 4gb sticks. PSC and BBSE RAM only exists in 2GB density sticks.
Okay, some more things happened.
First, I delidded my i5-3570K. It resulted in ~15*C temp drop using PK3 on-die/on-IHS. However it was a terrible overclocker, only able to do 4.6ghz@1.42v at 24 hours p95 stable. So what I did was put it in another computer I was building for a friend (it was better than the chip I had put in his originally, which could only do 4.5ghz@1.4v, yea.), and took that i5, and exchanged it at microcenter for an i7 (perfectly legit under their policy to exchange for any reason) for $40 more. I was able to keep my motherboard discount.
Delidded i5-3570K:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sgQWyY7l.jpg)
Delidded i7-3770K:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OVaBbnP.jpg)
I think those are pictures of the i5, you get the idea though.
I got a 15*C temp drop using pk3/pk3 with the i7 as well. I would later put Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, that I purchased for ~$16 from Amazon, and got an additional ~8*C temp drop, which is utterly insane to go from another 8*C against the best ceramique thermal paste. So a total of 23*C temp drop with delidding. That's actually about the average temp drop people get with delidding.
I threw in a 3rd Noctua 140mm fan on my heatsink, somewhere in the process. And I put 2 x 140mm NZXT Havik 140mm fans (oh god they are terrible and loud fans, that feel like cheap crap, but they are still better than 120mm fans even when you run them at 7v using an undervolter and a fan controller) as my top exhaust and bottom intake fans.
Oh, and I put $.50 pantyhose over my front intake fans, under my 140mm bottom intake fan, and under the 120mm fan on my PSU. I got 2 dogs, there's literally dog hair floating in my house. My case got covered in hair and dust in the first 3 weeks. I cleaned it out, and after those pantyhose have been in, my case has been completely free of dust and hair. It's absolutely amazing.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NTYXMHPl.jpg)
So I'm going to spend about the next few days fine tuning my RAM overclock, and then finish up my CPU overclock. I'm 24 hour prime95 stable at 4.9ghz@1.45vcore, and I'm pretty sure that's a rather high vcore than needed for my chip, but I was just checking to see if I could do 4.9ghz. I'll likely settle on a final overclock of around 5ghz@1.46-1.52v, using offset voltage, and then I'll run another 24 hour prime95 test just to ensure full system stability, with my ram overclock thrown in, and a reduced CPU_PLL voltage (i wont bother reducing VTT/IMC voltages due to their influence on RAM stability).
I'll also put Coollaboratory liquid ultra on my GPU heatsink. That stuff is amazing. Anyone who buys an aftermarket heatsink would be crazy not to get some CLU as well.
Did I mention I cut a window in my case and removed the HDD bays as well? i drilled out the rivets holding the HDD bay in. As for the window, I use a drill to make a pilot hole for a jigsaw, and used painters tape to cut an outline out. I got a free piece of 13 x 13 cell cast acrylic from a local plasticier, and spent $3 on some amazing trim from BestByte.com for like 4 feet. I taped the whole piece of acrylic behind the side panel, using shipping tape (no sticky mess, like painters tape, but a bit stronger than painters tape).
And let me say, you can't tell by the pics, but cell cast acrylic window, looks a million times better than the crappy plastic or extruded acrylic windows that $100-200 cases use. It's quite sad, really. Like people show off pictures of their HAF-X or NZXT Guardian or Phantom, and the window looks like total crap. You'd be better off cutting out your own window and putting in cell cast acrylic (or just remove the plastic, and replave with a big piece of cell cast acrylic behind it).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tQS4SWvl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wgC8Om9l.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S0UigZml.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ByFVqMZl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/y2IG3r0l.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/non2DVAl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5qiA6khl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xLyWfQel.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/e2sM8Ful.jpg)
that's my ram temperature under prime95, ignore that lol.
|
Oh, the final cost of this i7-3770K 5ghz, 2400mhz CL8 RAM, SSD, NH-D14 build?
$500
- Intel i7-3770K: $209 @ Microcenter
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H: $79 @ Microcenter (CPU+Mobo Bundle deal)
- NH-D14 SE2011: $43 @ Ebay (Refurb)*
- GTX 460 768mb Twin Frozr II: $60 @ Geeks.com/Ebay/Amazon*
- Mushkin 2000MHZ CL7-10-8-27 1.65v 2x2GB 996902 PSC IC: Ebay @ $20*
- Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD: $48 @ Ebay (New)*
- NZXT Source 210: $17 @ Microcenter
- Corsair CX500: $24 @ Newegg*
* Noctua supplied LGA1155 mount for free after showing ebay invoice. Those guys have an above and beyond support. They also sent me my AM3 mount, 3rd fan kit, sticker pack, and badge for free too. From Austria.
* I've had my GTX 460 for a long time now, market price (I paid $100 3 years ago for it)
* I really ended up paying $15 because I got refunded a bit for the RMA trouble.
* I wish I bought a Samsung 830 64GB as my total storage instead. I went with 80GB for more space but that was dumb, as I'll never use that much space and the 830 is noticeably faster, you can find them similarly priced.
* I would have bought the cx430 if it was $19 at the time, i wish I got the Antec NeoEco 620w $19 instead.
Bam.
My GPU is a little underwhelming, but a GTX 460 is more than powerful enough to max out SC2 with AA and ridiculousness. I intentionally kept my 768mb over my 1GB model because lower VRAM means higher overclock (which held true in my case as well).
There's a little extra I spent on accessories though, to be fair:
3rd Noctua NF-P14 Fan: $29 @ Microcenter (oucccch)
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra: $16 @ SidewinderPCs via Amazon (I actually paid more like $7 due to some Amazon points I had)
3 x Yate Loon Mediums: $15 @ Petras Tech Shop (I bought 5 for $20 + 5 shipping, 3 years ago)
2 x NZXT Havik 140mm Fans: Free. I paid $30 @ OCN Marketplace for an NZXT Havik 140 heatsink used, kept the fans for this computer, used a 120mm YL on the Havik 140 heatsink.
NZXT Sleeved Blue 1m LED: $9 @ Directron
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller: $24 @ Newegg (this thing is awesome, the 5 fan probes on it are invaluable)
4 Feet of Rubber Case Trim: $3 @ BestByte for the window
13 x 13 Cell Cast Acrylic: Free @ Local Plasticier
$72 in Accessories.
Sanyo DP19640 19' 1360x768 Monitor: ~$80 (Gift Parents)
Ducky DK-1087 Tenkeyless Mechanical Keyboard: ~$80 (Gift GF)
Steelseries Kinzu: ~$20 (Gift Best Friend, thanks bobby)
Steelseries Diablo 3 Mousepad: Free, Blizzcon 2011
Phillips FW-C250 3 CD Soundsystem (Receiver+2 big speakers): No idea, got it when I was like 10.
~$180 value in HID (same stuff I've used for a few years now)
I also made this i5-3570K build for a little more than $400 (no gpu, 8gb of ram, it's for video editing, yea the nzxt guardian 921rb is a piece of crap case, it made the price go over the 300s. the extreme4? it's a terrible motherboard). Customer is always right ;/
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/znVRsFsl.jpg)
|
United Kingdom20277 Posts
|
When you aren't in a rush to build a computer, you can make sure you buy everything at the right prices.
Also helps to live in the US. Although from what I've looked at UK prices, you don't get bad prices on things. I've seen high end heatsinks for 40-60 pounds on some UK sites. Something to do with your currency?
A smart buyer doesn't buy everything new, and doesn't buy everything used either, but knows which parts are best bought where. Although really I'd only recommend to buy RAM used, everything else is better bought new. And ram only used because it's cheap, and because precious BBSE/PSC is no longer manufacturered, so the only way to buy it, is to buy RAM used.
No reason to buy more than 2x2GB of RAM except for video editing and professional applications.
|
Hmmm okay so what I've been up to the last few days:
So I got my 2400mhz ram overclock stable:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/F5Y3k0U.png)
This is after 29 hours of prime95 (custom blend, 80%+ available ram tested, above normal priority, 27.9). Sorry I dont have an aida/maxxmem bench in there, i swore I did one but I think i deleted the picture (its okay, im at 5ghz now ill just do it later).
Now I don't know much about ram timings, but this is what I found out:
- It's not about like a mix of ram timings affecting stability, it seems that each timing has it's own max at a given frequency. So it's not like Very Tight A and Very Loose B = Medium A Medium B in stability, there's just a max tightness for A, and a max tighteness for B. However, some timings are related....
- I didn't know exactly what to set my ram timings, like what would be good, so I basically just used the default timings at 1333mhz, which is much tighter than what they default to at 2400mhz. I worked from there, I basically changed a handful of timings at a time to their 1333 default and it either would or wouldn't boot, I'd figure out who the culprit is. Later, I repeated this process but with like 1 hour of prime95.
At first I was having issues with 8-11-10-30 1.8v, which is about where I started, eventually I realized loosening to 12 really helped out, and, I could even tighten everything else up, so I got to 8-12-8-27 1.8v. I realized that i wasn't failing any sooner if I set to 1.75v, but I was at 1.7v, so I set it to 1.75v. I kept failing what I set my secondary and tertiary timings, so I relaxed just the last major timing to 28, and suddenly I could get MUCH tighter timings on secondary and tertiary timings. I also read a few rules at places - twl should be cas - 1, the 4th timing should be like the first 3 added up...thats it really.
I was having a bit of difficulty figuring out how to completely tighten my secondary and tertiary timings (many people might say it isn't worth tuning them, but it is.... you can get faster ram with looser main timings and tighter secondary/tertiary than by just tightening the main ones), so after a couple of fails I made sure that my 2400 cl8-12-8-28 1.75v was 24 hour stable (it was, but this was important to test for first).
It could have been very difficult to optimize my ram timings, as in run 24 hours of prime95 for every single timing I changed, but I posted for help at OCN and a lot of people said my DRAM Refresh Intervals were way too tight, so I set those on auto, and I passed 29 hours of prime95! I mean I've tweaked around with most of the timings enough to know that all the tertiaries are as tight as they can possibly be, and most of the secondaries are as tight as can be.
For example, trfc had to be 80, it wasn't stable at 74. RRSR wasnt stable at 4, had to be 5, RWDRDD had to be 4 not 3.. that and the dram refresh intervals (9360/82 instead of 5200/45) and that was all I needed to be stable really, and the trfc, rrsr, and rwdr staight up couldn't boot so it wasn't like it took long to figure out that affected stability.
I'll post a maxxmem bench later but basically I get something like the following, which is actually
So now I'm working on my CPU overclock! So I need to not only try to make 5ghz 24/7 stable, but do it on offset voltage (I already 'know' i can do 5ghz, even if it takes 1.6v, so really I'll fine tune for the lowest voltage by using offset first. I also tend to work my CPU overclocks from the bottom up, so use a very low voltage, crash immediately, and slowly raise a step at a time until it passes more and more hours, until eventually Im
literallly a single step within the right voltage). I also wanted to make sure my PLL, VTT, and IMC voltages were as low as possible. This will result in lower temps, and well, it may not be super important, but it's important to me - i enjoy overclocking, i want to find the best of my system! It's not all about being practical, although there is a practical goal (maybe it isn't worth the time investment, but hey, i'll be sticking with these settings for years, so i think it's worth it, and its fun to me).
So I wasnt really sure where to begin with PLL voltage, so I set cpu voltage to something that seemed a bit extra, like 1.52v, and reduced PLL voltage to the lowest I've heard someone set it, 1.5v (turns out above 4.5ghz usually needs more than 1.5v PLL though). Bear in mind this is from the stock voltage of 1.8 PLL (i think PLL has to do with BCLK overclocking, which you don't do on ivy bridge except on LN2 runs, so no biggie in reducing it for an air overclock). I was failing overclocks, then I set it 1.6v and it seemed like the overclocks werent failing instantly anymore. 1.6PLL might not be able, but it seemed stable enough and if I have problems, I'll come back to it.
Then VTT/IMC voltage. I was a bit weary of messing with these, my ram overclock of 2400mhz is right on the limit of where people generally need to icnrease vtt/imc voltages. But, whatever. I reduced them both 3 .05 'steps' in my bios, to 1v/.875v, and it seemed stable, I did 2 hours of prime95. I lowered it another 3 steps to .975v/.86, and that was an instant crash. So, I keep 1v/.875v, and i'll come back if I fail p95 later.
As for CPU voltage, I needed to play with LLC settings to see what is really my best voltage. Now, your software voltage is actually an amalgamation, and average, of your vcore, as your voltage is always spiking up and down rapidly. It's just physics, electronics, it is impossible for your voltage to be constant. So what motherboard manufacturers do, is calculate a voltage based on those ups and downs. So the software voltage reading you get, is not at ALL accurate, and is very good at hiding the peaks and dips too you. So while you might see a max vcore of 1.4, in reality your peak offset was 1.42 and your voltage half the time is dipping to 1.35.
Now we all know what LLC is, and that it reduces vdroop, so your voltage is more consistent, but higher LLC settings means a higher peak voltage, and it means much higher temps as your voltage consistently sits at a higher level.
Now the idea with LLC, is that you can use less true voltage, than if you dont use LLC at all. But to really be able to tell what LLC setting is best for you (besides going off what is consistently worked for people who have actually used the tools to test this stuff), is using a digital multimeter to test for true vcore.
So, very quickly, I tested voltages on each LLC setting. I set +.25v offset on High LLC, and it would cause WHEA errors in p95 right away. It took about .34v offset with LLC to be stable. Extreme took about 2.8, and Turbo about .285v. But, what is the real voltage difference? Well, Extreme LLC not only got things very hot on my system, but put my real voltage very high, about 1.52. On High LLC, oddly enough, it didn't raise my voltage that much at all over what I set, but it required an insanely high offset of .32v to be stable.
Now by 'stable' I simply mean not crash and burn with p95 fails or whea errors within 30 minutes of testing, but like +.28v High was VERY MUCH more unstable than Extreme on .27v.
Oddly enough though, Turbo LLC at .285 was the most stable on the lowest real vcore, even though in software, it reports to be one of the highest vcores. It just goes to show, software voltage readings can't be trusted for nuances, only a general picture (set lowest vcore you can, but you dont really know what your real voltage is, and you dont really knwo what llc setting is really best for you). It's funny that Turbo ended up the best for me, as Turbo, the 2nd highest setting, is generally what people recommend when overclocking above 4.5ghz.
I mean I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I was a little surprised how much better Turbo LLC was than the other settings - it's much cooler than Extreme, and it requires much less voltage than High does. But, the average person would think that Extreme LLC uses the least voltage, because it reports the lowest in software, and because the voltage offset I had to use with it was much lower.
I tried Turbo LLC with .28v, and that was pretty crash and burn right away. But .285v, and I'm already past 16 hours of prime95.
Now granted, if my overclock fails on the 23rd hour, I'll be ripping my hair out trying to figure out the culprit, but this is a very give and take game, and I think I was generous enough with my pll, vtt, and imc voltages. Yea, I'm living a bit dangerously by not testing each change on it's own!
Hopefully, tommorow, I'll be able to post some benches and results, showing you my overclock.
5ghz@1.488v CPU-Z / 1.499v Digital Multimeter
I think I'm actually going to try to do 5.1ghz@1.5-1.55v after 5ghz passes. It might be too hot to handle though, so I'll let this 5ghz finish and see if I can do 5.1 tommorow. I wouldn't consider my chip golden, but I'd definitely say it's an amazing chip.
|
5 ghz was stable! I passed 34+ hours of prime95, with no event viewer whealogger or kernel-whea errors (gotta make sure no errors in event viewer!), no issues at all. Here's some validation pics:
![[image loading]](http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/2727595.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nkrsiP0.png)
|
Here's some synthetic benchmarks of my system. I'll try to get some real-world benchmarks in a week or two (too busy, don't even have hots).
Benchmarks of my system:
i7-3770K Delidded
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H F15r (beta)
Mushkin Enhanced Ridgeback 996902 PSC XDZ Ram IC 2x2GB custom made
Intel X25-M G2 80GB
GTX 460 768mb MSi Twin Frozr II 922mhz Core/2000mhz Mem 1.087v
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PqFoyPul.png)
Here's IMGUR link as opening image in new tab makes it harder to read: http://i.imgur.com/PqFoyPu.png
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=6110645547
Passmark Rating 3,951
CPU Mark 13,475
2D Graphics Mark 1,100
3D Graphics Mark 3,365
Memory Mark 2,567
Disk Mark 1,323
I got a 42.86% overclock on my CPU (which is almost an identical difference between my CPU Passmark score and stock i7-3770K passmark score). My RAM outperforms ALL ram at stock, even crazy 2000mhz+ ram. For this kind of score on 2x4GB ram you'd have to pay an insane amount of money...
My CPU overclocked out performs the 3970X and has a similar performance score as the $1500 Xeon E5s.
|
United Kingdom20277 Posts
I just cringe when i think of the performance difference in single threaded applications between a 3770k@5ghz and a 3930k at stock (3.2 sandy bridge)
|
Scary numbers.
Could you, when your're done with 5.1 GHz ;P, post a video showing your FPS in SC 2 with something demanding like 50 Broodlords vs. 100 Stalkers?
|
United Kingdom20277 Posts
post a video
Pretty much any kind of recording (fraps, obs, xsplit) hurts performance quite a lot, some benchmarks would be good though.
Min/average
|
Okay, I'll work on some real benches today. Still got some stuff going on!
So my PSU blew out when my NZXT LED failed (it was a faulty LED). It 'derated', as in, the power it could put out was lowered by a lot. I did an advanced RMA with Corsair. Got a new cx500, and then that derated when another LED failed. I don't know if this means the CX500 is a really high quality PSU because my whole system didn't go down with it, or a really poor PSU because it blew when 'just' an LED went out, but I'm going to go with a higher quality PSU now.
Corsair's support has been amazing though, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them or recommend them, as what they may lack in quality (on a specifically low end PSU, for super cheap, mind you) they make up for in support. Blew out your PSU? Not a big deal, corsair will cover you. But, I was just a little tired of having to re-run cables every time, it takes 2-3 hours for me to do all of my cables...
So I bought an XFX PRO450w V1(rebadged seasonic s12iiB with jap chemicons) off ebay. I paid $45 for it, it's like new condition with original receipts. I slightly overpaid for it (should've stopped at $35) and then the xfx pro 550w went on newegg for $39 (again) the next day lol. Just got involved with a dumb bid war and already lost too many auctions at the time and needed a PSU.
Then the next day a Rosewill capstone modular 550w for $60 came - but get this - ebay gave me a $20 coupon for being a big seller lol. So I got a rosewill capstone modular 550w, brand new with original receipts, for $40.
As for warranties, the XFX I'm not too sure about. They have a weird policy, you have to register an item within 30 days of purchase or else you don't get their warranty but just a 1 year warranty. This xfx hasn't been registered at all, i'm not exactly sure how much xfx sticks with that registration policy. However, they also support used - original purchaser registers the product, then sells it, the next owner can actually register it and be covered. Which is pretty cool. Maybe they just expect no one to register, I don't know. Not many reports online of XFX RMAs (which could be a good thing, but there's always faulty stuff).
In regards to Rosewill, as long as you have the original proof of purchase (which you do need), you are covered. Which I have.
I've also started to heatshrinkless paracord (colonial blue) sleeve my cables as well. Despite having a semi-modular PSU, I wanted the cables to still be their black, full sleeve from where they come out and then snake behind the motherboard. So, I got some extensions, paracord, a pin remover tool, a lighter, knife & cardboard as a cutting board, and got to sleeving! It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, just getting the hang took a long time lol. I've currently done all my case, thermal diodes, and front USB connectors. My tool broke though, so will need to wait on the new tool to arrive to finish the rest of the extensions.
On a side note, I also re-did my CLU thermal paste (i think this time around I used a bit more, like a tiny rice grain amount, and did both IHS and heatsink instead of just the IHS) and my temps dropped an additional few degrees, so now my max temp is 81*C (5ghz, 1.5v). I also put CLU on my gtx 460 and at 80% fan speed, dropped from 70*C to 63*C. So that's all pretty insane, actually, considering how high end PK3 is.
I'll throw up pics when sleeving is done, and of some benches.
|
Okay, huge update!
- I got some colonial blue paracord (i messaged lutr0 and an ebay seller about paracord sleeving and got a lot of help from them), 50 feet, and then rosewill pre-sleeved 24 pin, 2x6pin pci, and cpu extension (they were actually cheaper than non-sleeved, used extensions) and heatshrinkless paracord sleeved them all myself, as well as sleeving all my motherboard case cables. It was extremely frustrating first until I found some good russian video on how to do it, basically you dont need to melt down the paracord too much, just a brief melt and as soon as you see it melt, you do a light twist or pinching on it. It took a while because I let a tool drop on the ground and break, very fragile pin remover tools! For the motherboard case cables, I just used glue to hold them on.
In my opinion, paracord looks a million times better than sleeving, even mpdc.
- Well, as you know, I had PSU issues. I sold the XFX pro 450w on craigslist for $40, so I 'lost' $40 but oh well, I got to play with it a bit and it was fun to do that, and not a big deal to lose $5 when I only had to pay $40 for a rosewill capstone 550w modular, which is worth over $70. Now I got my rosewill capstone in. Very quiet, I can't hear it, very nice psu. I've done a bit of multimeter testing on it but I''ll be doing more.
- Got a 2nd monitor. Just some junk monitor to watch chats, skype, and hwinfo.
- I bought 2x2gb more of RAM, for a total of 8gb. This was necessary since I was dual screening. It's not so much that dual screen needs 8gb of ram, but if you are both gaming, streaming, and then pulling up a ton of tabs on chrome and have lots of extra programs, you tend to use more than 4gb of ram. I am also a bit low on VRAM, so my video was paging to ram and then my ram was maxing out, and then paging to my ssd, and i was like, losing 1fps man.
My ram overclock isn't as high anymore, I have to settle for about 8/11/8/28 1.75v. I'm currently on like hour 30 and going to just let this prime95 keep running until I get back from work tommorow, might as well, but hopefully it passes, and then yea that'll be awesome. I mean I can say for sure, there is no sign of degradation on my CPU, as I'm still stable on the same CPU overclock/voltages.
I did have to raise VTT/IMC voltages from how low I had it set before, to stock, in order to be stable though. And I think I was having a lot of difficulty in ram overclocks with the new ram because I was trying to run the good pair tighter than the 'bad' pair, and I guess that wasn't a stable thing to do even if the ram could handle it (like i failed looser on both sticks than what I got them both set to now).
Paid $25 for this PSC RAM that I'm going 2200mhz on though. Unfortunately no amount of work can make them do 2400mhz (well, I'm still going to try... just a little more). Like I tried CL10-15-10-35. Probably has to do with some sub timing, i dunno, but that sucks. I tried every trick in the book ;/
My RAM benches are significantly lower than before - i havent run them on this ram clock yet but I ran it on similar timings, and it's way lower than my 2400mhz CL8-12-8-28 benches. Oh well, I'm still sooo far ahead of even the best samsung timings so it's all good!
Pics:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cLhFqJ8.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rRLsNbd.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/n1QjMM0.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/F76WJQ4.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qpYhLl5.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6c3E5Dt.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ng2goCV.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rOgjpVJ.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YKrknfI.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/utPu9gm.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OTDfhJi.jpg?1)
|
how do u find these deals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/5793/Gigabyte%20Z77X-UD3H%20VCore%20Ripple_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/5793/ASUS%20P8Z77-V%20Pro%20Voltage%20Ripple_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/5793/ASRock%20Z77%20Extreme4%20-%20VCore%20Ripple_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/5793/MSI%20Z77A-GD65%20Voltage%20Ripple_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6228/2012-08-16-20h42-CPU%20VCORE_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6144/2012-07-23-17h11-CPU%20VCORE_575px.png)
![[image loading]](http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6097/2012-07-13-21h25-CPU%20VCORE_575px.png)
