Intel Haswell-E (X-99 chipset) processors reviews.

[sedrosken]

A 4770-4790K would actually be overkill for what I do. I don't do the high-end graphics and video processing, and I don't have time for playing games anymore. Honestly I would be extremely happy if I could scrape together enough for an A8 or so, and I could probably get away with going with the integrated Radeon on that. The only place that I couldn't cut corners (and in a pinch I could cut these anyway) is in RAM and SSD. I absolutely will not settle for less than an SSD on a new machine that I build. Will not. The build will not commence without it. And I will definitely be going with 8GB RAM, 4GB is just barely enough for me now and I want to be able to use it for a few years on its base config. I don't know how I ever survived with 2GB, but it probably has something to do with my not having anything better to compare it to at the time. When I upgraded to 4GB, I could just feel my computer breathing easier. That upgrade is what made 64-bit feasible for me.

I will want to get a decent board with a decent amount of DIMM sockets slots and a couple PCI-E x16 slots. Onboard USB3 would be nice but isn't essential, as long as there's a free PCI-E 1x slot. I want at least 4 SATA connectors, and will probably want more as I start to experiment with RAID, which hopefully will be onboard, but if it's not I'll just get a PCI-E 1x SATA RAID card (for which there will need to be another slot present if the board doesn't have onboard USB3) and call it good.

I'm getting way too into planning this out, by the time I've got the cash to pull it off we'll probably be in the next generation altogether. Ah, well. Thinking does the brain good, I guess. What's your estimate on such a system, anyway? My surveying skills aren't that good, but I'd put it at about $500 for the whole thing as configured. Onboard video, small SSD (likely with larger HDD for storage, otherwise will probably be connected to NAS of some kind), 8GB RAM, A8-5600K(?), no display/mouse/keyboard included. Looking at it again, I could probably do it for $400. Still pretty steep, but less steep than I originally thought.

Oh, wow. I really derailed this. Um... carry on...

What does DDR4 have that DDR3 doesn't, exactly? Other than faster speeds? For that matter, other than the aforementioned faster speeds, what does DDR3 have that DDR2 doesn't?

 

[CougTek]

What does DDR4 have that DDR3 doesn't, exactly? Other than faster speeds?

Typically operates at 1.2V versus 1.5V for DDR3. There are low voltage DDR3 modules that operate at 1.35V and high-frequency, "enthousiast"-oriented modules that run at 1.65V, but the standard voltage for DDR3 is 1.5V. So DDR4 modules normally dissipate less wattage than DDR3 modules. They also have 288 pins versus 240 pins for DDR3 modules (talking about standard DIMM here, not SODIMM) and they are easier to find in higher density modules (higher amount of RAM per module).

 

[sedrosken]

Makes sense, a logical step. But couldn't they just call this an extension of the DDR3L standard? I mean, DDR3L is already a low-voltage part, so it seems pretty logical to me...

And what about DDR3 vs DDR2, other than speed increments?

 

[ddrueding]

Intel Core i7-5930k (6-Core, 3.5GHz, Turbo to 3.7GHz)
32GB DDR4 (8GBx4)
NVidia Quadro 6000 (6GB RAM)
Samsung 840 Pro SSD 512GB
Corsair Obsidian 550D Quiet Mid-Tower
ASUS X99-A Motherboard
Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 Quiet CPU Cooler
Corsair Professional 860W Modular Digital Platinum PSU
LG CD/DVD/BD reader/writer

I find myself trying to get his old install of XP (32bit) running on this hardware. All it took to boot into the OS was to change to IDE mode on the controller, but drivers are proving....difficult. Are there really no X99 chipset drivers for XP?

 

[Stereodude]

Didn't Intel throw in the towel on XP support several chipsets ago?

 

[CougTek]

I find myself trying to get his old install of XP (32bit) running on this hardware.

Why? Stop beating a dead horse!

Run it inside a VM at the very least if you must.

 

[ddrueding]

Home finally. That was the biggest train wreck I've been part of in a long time. Everything was going perfectly until the user experienced an issue plotting from AutoCAD 2015 to their (ancient) HP Designjet 500. Everything else was working, even printing PDFs (or anything else) to that beast. How old is a Designjet 500 you ask? The OS requirement was NT4.0.

I found a suitable replacement printer for just over $2k, thinking this would be a slam dunk considering they had just paid me solid five-figures to build the computer and do some other networking stuff. Nope. Abort.

What about Win7 I ask? It will run on your new hardware, run both your new AutoCAD package (2015) and your old one (2006), and you already have Win7 machines in the office printing successfully. Nope. No time, need to get a working machine ASAP.

So they are running their old Foxconn motherboard with C2Q and 4GB of RAM in the new badass case with the new Quadro card, PSU, and optical drive. The biggest performance increase I was able to give them was cloning their 7200.12 drive to the SSD. Basically the same as taking a Fiero and using bondo to make it look like a Ferrari.\

I've just credited them $1k for the Motherboard, RAM, CPU, and HSF. This is faster than most of the computers I have laying around, but I'd rather have the money. Anyone interested?

 

[Mercutio]

Probably. What's the full hardware list?

 

[ddrueding]

Intel Core i7-5930K
ASUS X99-A
Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB Kit (8GBx4) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) CL16 DR x8 Unbuffered DIMM 288-Pin Memory BLS4K8G4D240FSA
Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 Quiet CPU Cooler for Intel LGA 2011 Socket with 6 Heatpipes, 140/120mm SSO Bearing PWM Fans NH-D14 SE2011


Assembled and tested with ~6 hours of run time.

 

[Stereodude]

I found a suitable replacement printer for just over $2k, thinking this would be a slam dunk considering they had just paid me solid five-figures to build the computer and do some other networking stuff. Nope. Abort.

What about Win7 I ask? It will run on your new hardware, run both your new AutoCAD package (2015) and your old one (2006), and you already have Win7 machines in the office printing successfully. Nope. No time, need to get a working machine ASAP.

So they are running their old Foxconn motherboard with C2Q and 4GB of RAM in the new badass case with the new Quadro card, PSU, and optical drive. The biggest performance increase I was able to give them was cloning their 7200.12 drive to the SSD. Basically the same as taking a Fiero and using bondo to make it look like a Ferrari.

Sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

 

[Handruin]

Sounds like it was a cluster-fuck of a time sink. Sorry to hear you couldn't get it going and they didn't have time to to do it right under windows 7.

 

[ddrueding]

Sounds like it was a cluster-fuck of a time sink. Sorry to hear you couldn't get it going and they didn't have time to to do it right under windows 7.

Frankly, I think they had the time and I could have gotten it going. I think the tech looked at ACAD 2015 and decided he didn't feel like learning it.

 

[Santilli]

Hi
I'm VERY interested.
give me a number?
1k or less?

 

[ddrueding]

I'm afraid it has already sold Santilli, next time

 

[Howell]

Bummer about the time lost. What driver were you using and did you try other drivers?

 

[ddrueding]

Yup. Lots of drivers. Windows update had one, HP had another. Both of those allowed normal printing (PDFs and such), but plotting from ACAD errored out. The workaround for that was to specify a similar HPGL plotter inside ACAD and their "plotter manager" application. Tried most of the plotters there without luck (would error on the printer).

 

[Stereodude]

1k or less?

$580 processor
$259 mobo
$495 RAM
$74 HSF

Seems reasonable.

 

[Mercutio]

Since dd ended up finding a place for his parts, I turned around and bought my own 5930k, 32GB RAM and Noctua cooler, though I went with the Gigabyte board. I'm pairing it with an nVidia 970, mostly because as much as the nvidia-ness will suck, I've heard the fans on a 290X and I know they'd drive me insane. I also bought a 1TB M550.

Happy birthday to me.

 

[CougTek]

39?

 

[Handruin]

Since dd ended up finding a place for his parts, I turned around and bought my own 5930k, 32GB RAM and Noctua cooler, though I went with the Gigabyte board. I'm pairing it with an nVidia 970, mostly because as much as the nvidia-ness will suck, I've heard the fans on a 290X and I know they'd drive me insane. I also bought a 1TB M550.

Happy birthday to me.

Which Gigabyte motherboard did you end up going with? You made the right choice going nvidia over AMD. Nvidia is leaps and bounds better than AMD these days in both hardware and software.

 

[Mercutio]

Which Gigabyte motherboard did you end up going with? You made the right choice going nvidia over AMD. Nvidia is leaps and bounds better than AMD these days in both hardware and software.

The X99-UD4. I don't need the extra ethernet or 802.11 support on the more expensive model and I don't feel like trying Asus's quality control given my experience with its current mainstream offerings.
With regard to ATI/nvidia, I'm fairly certain that I've bought hardware that won't be as reliable as I want, but I also can't ignore the TDP numbers and, as I said, I already know what the 290X sounds like when it's actually being used.

 

[Handruin]

The X99-UD4. I don't need the extra ethernet or 802.11 support on the more expensive model and I don't feel like trying Asus's quality control given my experience with its current mainstream offerings.
With regard to ATI/nvidia, I'm fairly certain that I've bought hardware that won't be as reliable as I want, but I also can't ignore the TDP numbers and, as I said, I already know what the 290X sounds like when it's actually being used.

I was hoping we would see a rev 2 on some of these X99 boards. I didn't want a lot of the extra features included in many of the X99 offerings. I'm waiting now for the Fractal Design Define R5 that'll be coming out soon (I hope).

Which manufacturer did you pick for your gtx 970?

 

[Bozo]

Why? Stop beating a dead horse!

Run it inside a VM at the very least if you must.

I have an ancient Olympus digital camera and the software to access the pictures is Win 98 vintage. I run XP in a VMWare Player virtual machine and the software runs fine.
VMWare Player is embeded in VMWare Workstation if anyone needs it. There is no license required for Player. Just search the files for vmplayer.exe, create a shortcut for it, and rename vmware.exe.

 

[LunarMist]

The X99-UD4. I don't need the extra ethernet or 802.11 support on the more expensive model and I don't feel like trying Asus's quality control given my experience with its current mainstream offerings.
With regard to ATI/nvidia, I'm fairly certain that I've bought hardware that won't be as reliable as I want, but I also can't ignore the TDP numbers and, as I said, I already know what the 290X sounds like when it's actually being used.

What are you using for cooling and the PS? I need to build a system soon as well, and it like people are finding the hexacore more overclockable than the octocore.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a Corsair HX750 that I'm planning to use. Honestly, it's overkill for the application; this machine will probably have nothing but an SSD and two or three HDDs in it, and even the CPU and GPU going full-bore won't approach that sort of power draw. I did buy the same Noctua unit dd suggested. I have no complaint regarding previous Noctua heat sinks.

 

[sedrosken]

So it's your birthday? Now, passed, or soon? In any case, have a good one.

 

[Mercutio]

Not yet. Next week. It's depressing.

New PC is definitely insane in most respects but one of the DIMMs I was shipped seems to be bad. Amazon wants the whole kit back and Crucial says turnaround on the RMA is three weeks. Goddammitsomuch.

 

[Handruin]

Order a new one Prime overnight and just return the old one as defective once you get the replacement.

 

[LunarMist]

Is the bad RAM a fluke or is there a better brand/type of RAM to use?

 

[Mercutio]

Crucial is usually pretty good stuff but the machine BSODs with astonishing regularity if I have one particular DIMM installed.
It's a little like getting the paint scratched on your brand new car.

It's also extremely quiet, though I haven't found any reason to make the video card do anything interesting yet.

 

[Handruin]

This is what I was planning for my own birthday present. After a bunch of reading, the MSI X99S MPOWER seemed like a decent stable motherboard compared to many of the others out there. I need to figure out what CPU cooler to go with. I'm curious about one of those self-contained water blocks like in the corsair H110.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI X99S MPOWER ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

 

[ddrueding]

Very nice. I've run a bunch of the Corsair H110s, I've had the water pump fail on one out of maybe 8? Mainly I just don't bother anymore, a massive normal heatsink is going to get you 99% of the way there anyway. Then again, if the case you are running gets a little tight, it might be a good way to relocate the heat right at an exhaust. The cooler I got for my Titan does the same thing if you are interested.

 

[Handruin]

I was thinking of trying the Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling but I have to research if it will fit ok. I could just buy it and try and worst case I pay restocking fees.

 

[Mercutio]

I was impressed with the Noctua D14. Mounting is straightforward and the fans come on and off easily.

 

[Mercutio]

OF all the stupid reasons to have to completely un-do a build, today I learned that none of the rear USB3 ports on my X99-UD4 actually work. It's not that they're negotiating to lower speeds and they are definitely detected and installed by the OS. They just don't do anything when I plug in a device. They don't even charge my phone.

 

[Handruin]

That is irritating. I've read of so many issues with Gigabyte X99 boards and their BIOS that I didn't even consider them. The same was true for many of the Asus boards. I feel like these boards were all rushed to market with minimal quality control. After a lot of reading and forum browsing/discussions, I boiled it down that the best option for a solid X99 board would be from ASRock...which seemed strange. Their X99 Extreme 4 board was tops on my list but then at the last minute I decided to stay with socket 1150 and purchased the 4790K and a Z97 MB From Asus. It feels like a huge difference over my i7 860.

 

[Stereodude]

FWIW, I'm very happy with my ASRock Z87 based Extreme 6. I've never had good luck with Asus. I bought a lot of Gigabyte boards in the Core2 days though. Those were generally okay.

 

[Handruin]

I've heard good things but never owned an ASRock. They were spun off Asus many years back but I don't know how much control Asus puts on them if any. This is my first Asus board (Asus Maximus VII hero) and so far I'm fairly impressed with how well put together the board and BIOS are. The BIOS is way better than any other board I've used in the past. Time will tell on reliability but so far it has been rock solid. I've used Gigabyte exclusively in all my previous workstations and even systems I've recommended or built for other people. They've all been rock solid over the years.

 

[ddrueding]

I've hated ASUS boards for over a decade; every time I was burned by something stupid and have sworn them off for at least a year. However, the two X99 systems I've built have both run ASUS boards and I've been really impressed. Useful features, great stability, no comparability issues (even full of RAM). It is too soon to say they have mended their ways, but I've only one minor complaint so far* and would buy another without hesitation.

*some jackass in marketing decided to cover the functional heatsinks on the board with decorative tin plates that themselves were covered with the protective plastic to keep them shiny. The plastic would have prevented heat from dissipating, but the tin plates themselves were held on with an adhesive that provided great insulation. Pulled all the plates off and the board is staying much cooler.

 

[LunarMist]

I was impressed with the Noctua D14. Mounting is straightforward and the fans come on and off easily.

Does it clear the RAM modules? I'm think of getting 4x8GB to start and if that works, I'd add four more.
How well does your 5930K OC with that HSF?