My new system
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
ddrueding
Fixture
I was very close to going with the 920 as well. My move for the 940 was purely insurance towards a good overclock. From what I read, 4Ghz (my target) is more difficult with the 920. Some have dome more with a 920, but few stable and certainly not guaranteed.
The RAM is fairly low-latency (8-8-8-24). The sane-low that I've seen was 7-7-7-23, so I'm not far off. Mainly it was the cheapest I could find.
ASUS leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I've never had a problem-free install with an ASUS board; drivers, goofy BIOS defaults, etc. always plague their boards. Intel is the opposite, with Gigabyte having the best of both (stability and reliability with overclocking capabilities).
I just moved the SSDs over from my last system (Q9550), OS and all, so the OS/Apps is still on the X25-M with the X25-E as work/swap space for PS CS4 and PTGui.
The RAM is fairly low-latency (8-8-8-24). The sane-low that I've seen was 7-7-7-23, so I'm not far off. Mainly it was the cheapest I could find.
ASUS leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I've never had a problem-free install with an ASUS board; drivers, goofy BIOS defaults, etc. always plague their boards. Intel is the opposite, with Gigabyte having the best of both (stability and reliability with overclocking capabilities).
I just moved the SSDs over from my last system (Q9550), OS and all, so the OS/Apps is still on the X25-M with the X25-E as work/swap space for PS CS4 and PTGui.
I read a 3.8GHz is fairly obtainable from the 920 without too much work. I'm not that worried about a 4GHz goal, but certainly would be nice to read if you make it there. I can live vicariously through you. ;-)
I've had a mixed bag of results from gigabyte over the years (though mostly good) so I'm torn on venturing out to try something else for a change. eVGA offers an x58 board. None of them really over a great salivation, never mind a taste in my mouth.
Have you been enjoying CS4? I'm still doing my work through CS2 and been wondering if it's even worth filling out the lengthy form to get the demo of CS4. Admittedly, the only real reason I'd want it is for native RAW support for the mark III.
I've had a mixed bag of results from gigabyte over the years (though mostly good) so I'm torn on venturing out to try something else for a change. eVGA offers an x58 board. None of them really over a great salivation, never mind a taste in my mouth.
Have you been enjoying CS4? I'm still doing my work through CS2 and been wondering if it's even worth filling out the lengthy form to get the demo of CS4. Admittedly, the only real reason I'd want it is for native RAW support for the mark III.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I'm not in Canada. This week, temperatures will be between -15C and -25C during the night. It might not be -70C, but water freezes nonetheless...and your ass too.
ddrueding
Fixture
ddrueding
Fixture
ddrueding
Fixture
Reading up on how to OC now, though I have had some instability already, I'm blaming it on some software bits (BSOD when performing large print jobs, whatever).
ddrueding
Fixture
Found it. The board didn't default to the correct memory settings. I've upped all the voltages just a bit, and am poking at things. 3.3Ghz right now. From what I've read I will hit the ceiling for the QPI first, as there are a limited number of multipliers and I'm already at the bottom one. Actually the QPI does support a multiplier of "slow" which puts it at 70Mhz instead of 5+GHz. I suppose I could use that to find the CPU max independently.
ddrueding
Fixture
Wow. I seem to hit a brick wall at 3.91Ghz. More playing later.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Why the hell are i7 motherboards so damned expensive?
Why aren't there any uATX models?
Looks like the cheapest board I can get carries an $80 price premium over the same model with LGA775. That is a mighty amount of sucking.
Why aren't there any uATX models?
Looks like the cheapest board I can get carries an $80 price premium over the same model with LGA775. That is a mighty amount of sucking.
ddrueding
Fixture
I agree that the prices are still absolutely nuts, I'm waiting for a Shuttle SFF to come out, and I can only imagine the premium on that.
ddrueding
Fixture
Still tweaking the CPU OC a bit, and haven't started on the GPU yet, but I'm happily surprised at the results so far:
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2076408
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2076408
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've been running BD rips all night. I have four i7s: a 2600k, a 975 and two 920s. My 975 is currently reporting a temperature of 80C and 4110MHz clock speed at 100% CPU utilization. My 2600k is reporting 4670MHz and 87C.
Both numbers are on stock cooling.
I'm sure Handbrake is what has been actually been improved, because all those machines have finished at least two BD transcodes. But the two faster systems are both done with a third one as well. Those encodes used to take at least half a day each!
Anyway, your last post reminded me to take a look at what my machines are actually doing when I've got them running flat out. Also that I really need to get some better HSFs.
Both numbers are on stock cooling.
I'm sure Handbrake is what has been actually been improved, because all those machines have finished at least two BD transcodes. But the two faster systems are both done with a third one as well. Those encodes used to take at least half a day each!
Anyway, your last post reminded me to take a look at what my machines are actually doing when I've got them running flat out. Also that I really need to get some better HSFs.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Do you have height limitations for the heatsinks? The retail heatsink that comes with the i7 2600K is particularly inadequate if you value quiet operation. I never thought it would allow an OC to 4.6GHz. Even 30$ heatsink towers would do miracles here. Your CPU temperatures would drop by at least 20C and they would be way quieter. If you want really quiet cooling though, you'll have to spend closer to 50$-60$ for the heatsinks.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Yeah. I've been thinking about getting Prolimatech HSFs for them. I just haven't gotten around to it. My game machine, the 2600k, has another 16GB RAM I've been meaning to throw in it for the last month and I haven't even managed to shut it off long enough to do that.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I'm pretty sure I can shutdown, install 4 RAM stick and restart a computer in 3 minutes or less. That's not a significant downtime.
Which Prolimatech are you eyeing? The old but very decent Megahalems is still sold at a few places, but it's becoming rarer and rarer. The new SuperMega beats it by a small margin, but is 10-15$ more. The Armageddon isn't worth it. There's better for the same price. Like a Scythe Mugen-3 or Thermalright HR-02 Macho. There's also the Thermalright True Spirit with a TY-140 fan that makes a cheap, but very effective combo.
I cool my i7 2600K with a Xigmatek GAIA S1283 with a Scythe 120mm PWM-controled fan. Never goes above 60C and while I can hear it (my room is otherwise completely silent, could almost serve as an anecdotic chamber), it is not disturbing at all.
Which Prolimatech are you eyeing? The old but very decent Megahalems is still sold at a few places, but it's becoming rarer and rarer. The new SuperMega beats it by a small margin, but is 10-15$ more. The Armageddon isn't worth it. There's better for the same price. Like a Scythe Mugen-3 or Thermalright HR-02 Macho. There's also the Thermalright True Spirit with a TY-140 fan that makes a cheap, but very effective combo.
I cool my i7 2600K with a Xigmatek GAIA S1283 with a Scythe 120mm PWM-controled fan. Never goes above 60C and while I can hear it (my room is otherwise completely silent, could almost serve as an anecdotic chamber), it is not disturbing at all.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Three minutes is too much down time. 
I was planning to buy Megahalems for my two big guys. They're not cheap (one of the reasons I've been dragging my feet) but supposedly nothing else out there is really better. My 920s have Scythe and some $20 Coolermaster thing on them, respectively. Neither of them gets particularly hot.
I was planning to buy Megahalems for my two big guys. They're not cheap (one of the reasons I've been dragging my feet) but supposedly nothing else out there is really better. My 920s have Scythe and some $20 Coolermaster thing on them, respectively. Neither of them gets particularly hot.
Stereodude
Not really a
I wish I could run my i7-2600k at 4.6gHz. I'm basically stuck at 4.3gHz.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I don't think 4.3GHz is anything to complain about.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I guess I can only get 4.460GHz with 16GB RAM. My game machine really doesn't need more than 4GB. I might put it back the way it was.
ddrueding
Fixture
That could explain my difficulties as well; all my boards are full of 4GB DIMMs.
Stereodude
Not really a
I have 16GB (4x4GB) in mine also. I didn't occur to me that the 16GB of RAM might have been limiting the OC.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's official. I can do 4.7GHz stable if I go with one stick of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600. 4.67 with two sticks of 2GB the same RAM, and only 4.3 if I use either two 4GB or 8GB sticks. I guess there might be a power supply issue, but that machine already has a 750W Seasonic and I don't see myself replacing that.
I might have even more headroom once I get the Prolimatech HSF fitted.
I might have even more headroom once I get the Prolimatech HSF fitted.
ddrueding
Fixture
I remember from long ago the overclockers using just one stick of ram, and here I am using 6. Not going to pull any of it, but I suppose 4.46 isn't bad with 24GB of RAM.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
You have 8GB RAM sticks?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
This machine doesn't actually need any more than 4GB, so I don't really mind. If I see a game use more than 2.5GB I might get a little worried, but I like the fact that I have a completely ridiculous fast system (it's also home to a Vertex 3) for the one place where I'm really, really going to use it.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Yup. Two of them. Patriot something-or-other.
Adcadet
Storage Freak
I noticed more difficulty hitting 4.7+ GHz when I went from 2x4 GB to 4X4 GB sticks. Makes no sense to me since P67 boards (and I presume Z68) can keep the memory at nominal speeds even with varied (multiplier) overclocks.
Stereodude
Not really a
Well, your loading down the on chip memory controller with more with capacitance and more current draw.
Still, I don't think I'll be running out to buy 2x8GB DDR3 sticks to replace the 4x4GB setup. Heck, I'm not even sure if my P67 board supports them.
Still, I don't think I'll be running out to buy 2x8GB DDR3 sticks to replace the 4x4GB setup. Heck, I'm not even sure if my P67 board supports them.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Yeah. I have a completely different setup for the porn machines.
Actually the reason that machine doesn't go down very often is that it's where the overflow disk space for my file servers lives. I really need to get the 32TB system up and running.
Actually the reason that machine doesn't go down very often is that it's where the overflow disk space for my file servers lives. I really need to get the 32TB system up and running.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Using a Prolimatech HSF didn't give me any more overclocking headroom on my game machine, but I've got all 8 cores redlined and the motherboard sensors are reporting temperatures that are around 33C lower.
So that's probably a good thing.
So that's probably a good thing.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
It's sad for the lack of overclocking improvement, but the systems must be significantly quieter. That's worth something.
ddrueding
Fixture
My office is quite warm at the moment (couple kW of computers running, no dedicated AC), so the ambient is 25C+. Idling, my "work" machine is 30C, under full F@H load it hits 56C.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
So far I'd actually call it louder, but that's because I really haven't had the machine at anything like idle since I powered it back on.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
If your system is louder at 55C than it was at 87C with the stock fan, then there's something horribly wrong with the fan you use.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's definitely a louder when the fans are running full bore. It's low pitched white noise though. Not really disagreeable and easily covered by music.
ddrueding
Fixture
I've found that pitch has a much larger affect on my perception than absolute volume. Taking <80mm fans and making them >92mm is very nice, air blowing is downright pleasant.