SB-E owners thread

[JoJoman88]

Don't forget Turbo boosts the 3960 to at least 3.6ghz even with all threads maxed, and Crysis doesn't do more than two.

I assume that could be down to either the cache or the huge memory bandwidth difference. I place my bet on the cache, since the 990X is also outperforming the 2700k.

Everything i have read said that the cache only helped server work loads, it looks like it can help in some games.

 

[BrightCandle]

I've always had a question about die harvesting via disabling cores.

Does Intel actually fuse the same bottom cores for each die, or do they fuse bad cores only. I'd assume that any chips with a bad core or two could be harvested as a 6C, for the highest yields, but maybe that isn't how harvesting works?

They fuse the bad cores. They also have the ability to fuse bad parts of the cache. Both of these represent a large part of the chip and the redundancy allows the use of a lot of chips that would otherwise fail with a single problem, reducing the cost quite considerably.

Given the choice they wouldn't fuse off cores, its there to increase yields.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Got my board, RAM and PSU in so I did the build tonight. I am short one ASUS Matrix GTX580, so I did SLI with the ASUS 570's instead until I get the second Matrix, but I did put the Matrix in for a pic. Also haven't moved my drives from my current rig yet.

Specs...

Case: Corsair 650D
Processor: 3930K
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79
RAM: 32GB - 8 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance 1866
Video: 2 x ASUS GTX570 DirectCUII SLI (soon to be 2 x Matrix GTX580 - only have 1 so far)
PSU: Corsair AX1200
Cooler: Corsair H100
Drives:
Kingston HyperX 240GB 6Gb/s SSD
Samsung DVD-RW
2 x 300GB Velociraptor HD
1 x 2TB Western Digital Green HD

About the Rampage, there is one thing I wish they taken from the Maximus Extreme-Z board, the backlit ROG emblem in the middle of the board. Really sets it off on a side-window case. I also decided at last minute to use the Corsair case; I had intended to use the Cooler Master HAF-X case, but didn't realize until I opened it up that the side-fan hides the PSU, the video cards and a good part of the motherboard from view. You end up seeing the hard drives mostly. I am too proud of this rig to hide it. We'll see how the 650D performs, it obviously lacks airflow from the HAF-X, if it doesn't cool well enough, I'll swap it into the HAF-X or find another case that has a good side-view with equal cooling and 9 expansion slots.

 

[AdamK47]

Another Happy SB-E owner here.. 3930 on Asus P9X79 PRO

Darn UPS didn't show till after 5PM, so I'm just getting things rolling..

No overclocking yet, but at stock, Cinebench gets 11 and change, which beats my 2600K at 4.6g, and also a 980X I had at 4.1 ..

I'm using a 212+ for cooling, and I'm hitting high 60's running P95, so I can see that the 212+ might not cut it for serious overclocking, but I'll see what happens in a day or two ...

What speed/voltage are you seeing the 60 degree temps? 60s at load is actually good with these CPUs in Prime95. Try LinX with AVX Linpack and see what you get. It should warm up the CPU by around another 5 degrees over what Prime95 can do.

 

[Diogenes2]

The speed goes to 3.8g and vcore is 1.3 ..

 

[The-Noid]

My quick and abbreviated South Bridge review. Will post some pictures later.

First off in the past I would have been all over getting things running to perfection and running the CPU on phase etc. Now I simply don't have enough time to spend on the computer I just want something that works well and will handle everything I throw at it. My previous gaming build that I replaced had a Core i7 920 @ 4.0 turbo to 4.2ghz, Rampage II Extreme and 6 Gigs of DDR3-1600C6. Rather than tweak a million settings which is what I did with the rampage and every other ROG board I have owned I went with something simple and bought the G1.

My SB-E Build:

3960-X via Corsair H80 @ 4.5 ghz
Antec 1200
Antec 1200w PSU
Gigabyte Assassin G1
4x4 G.Skill Ripjaw 2400C11 (running at 2400 C10)
2x 120 Crucial M4 (Raid 0)
2x MSI Lightning 580 880/2300
Asus Xonar Esstence STX
Sennheiser HD800


First off, southbridge is ridiculously easy to overclock. Within two hours I had the OS installed, CPU overclocked and tested on LINX for over an hour.

CPU runs at 4.5 GHZ with 1.33v max core temp around 68 after 1 hour on linpack. CPU 100x45 rather than screwing with straps. Ram runs at 24x with 1.65v and C10 (I ran memtest overnight last night to test stability) and hard drives pull over 1000 meg/sec in read.

It's really hard to come up with things to write because simply put, southbridge works well, it is stable (I played around 6 hours of BF on Saturday/Sunday) and there isn't much that needs to be tweaked unless you really want to go for a high cpu overlock.

Now for the motherboard. A lot of people would say the G1 looks ostentatious and really serves no function. Although I don't disagree with the comments isn't that what the ROG boards do as well? I bought the G1 because the tweaktown review made it sound like it would run easily without a lot of hacking about. That is exactly how it works, bios is easy to understand and seems fairly stable so far. As for the Killer Nic, the software that comes with it actually is fairly cool. I am confident the hardware makes no difference to overall pings (I have 100 mbps internet, so disabled the filtering software) but it is nice to have the ping to the server shown at all times on the logitech display in front, how much transit is coming through, etc. Haven't had a chance to try the onboard x-fi as my cans take a bit more amps to get going.

Video cards. Took both of them out of my other build. BF3 gives >100fps at all times which is great, I have a 120hz LCD and would at this point never go back to 60 fps gaming.

 

[Diogenes2]

So basically, you changed the multi to 45, and that was it ?

Sounds like a great build ! Must be like night and day, coming from the 920 ..

 

[The-Noid]

So basically, you changed the multi to 45, and that was it ?

Sounds like a great build ! Must be like night and day, coming from the 920 ..

I changed the voltage from Auto to 1.3425 (vdroop is about .01)!

Also increased Ram voltage and CPU PLL.

But yes basically change the multi and you're good to go.

 

[Diogenes2]

Does Gigabyte have the " + offset " method of Vcore adjustment ?

My CPU idles at .8 .. Doesn't seem like a good idea to leave it on 1.3x all the time..

The offset method, allows for a controlled amount of Vcore bumpage when overclocking, that doesn't go off the charts like auto does ..

 

[The-Noid]

Does Gigabyte have the " + offset " method of Vcore adjustment ?

My CPU idles at .8 .. Doesn't seem like a good idea to leave it on 1.3x all the time..

The offset method, allows for a controlled amount of Vcore bumpage when overclocking, that doesn't go off the charts like auto does ..

CPU idles at 1.02v and 12x100 multi...can also change ratio for every core if you only want core 0 and 1 to go to 4.5 ghz etc.

 

[mrjoltcola]

I booted up with the Vengeance RAM at 1866 default timings and had two failed attempts (crashes) installing Windows 7. I bumped them down to 1366 and the install finished, so looks like I may have to twiddle the voltage or timings at 1866. I sort of expected this by buying 4 kits, but plan was to run at 1600 anyway, oh well.

 

[mrjoltcola]

Guys, what are your PCH Temperatures? When I run Unigine Heaven benchmark (dual GTX 570 SLI) for 15 minutes I get 60C and my AI monitor pops up with a warning. After the benchmark, it drops back down to 45C after a few minutes. Maybe this 650D isn't going to cut it. I may need that HAF-X side-fan after all.

What should we expect for chipset temps with these boards? (I have the Rampage Extreme).

 

[mrjoltcola]

Some overclock and temp data on my rig (3930K). This is the first rig I've had on my desktop that feels like it is an unstoppable TANK, it is near unboggable. Running BOINC / Correlizer crunching, Heaven Bench and still getting snappy performance on other apps. I was thrilled to build it, but I'm becoming more thrilled the more I run it. That said, I'm really not concerned with getting overclock crazy. 45x is running so solid now, I'd be happy if I could go no higher. But I have to see where the reasonable limit is at least once. I need to hit TCase at least.

Temps are definitely more of an issue with this system than my 2600K. Not so much the processor but the PCH. I had to switch my H100 cooler into an exhaust setup. I guess the intake setup was pooling air or not getting air across the PCH because I was getting 60C temp warnings after 20 minutes of Unigine Heaven loop. Probably as much to do with the 650D as anything. After switching the PCH temps are staying 50C or under, and CPU temps are about 1C cooler.

I note that stock voltage was running around 1.296v - 1.304v. Was able to go to 44x at stock voltage, but I bumped it slightly anyway. From what I see & read, the K chip runs a higher stock voltage profile than the X chip. That confirms, for me, that there is a binning difference with the X chip, what do you guys think? Otherwise, they would run the same stock voltages.

At 44x, BIOS vcore = 1.33v, measured load vcore = 1.304v, it is Prime95/Heaven/BOINC single pass stable. Load temp 58C. At 45x, Prime95 crashed at that voltage.
At 45x, BIOS vcore = 1.34v, measured load vcore = 1.312v, it is Prime95/Heaven/BOINC single pass stable. Load temp 59C.

I'll update / edit this post here as I bump higher. Do you want to start a specific SB-E Overclocking thread?

 

[Diogenes2]

I wouldn't mind if you started a SB-E OC thread, it might remove some of the clutter in this one..
I'm still getting familiar with the P9X79 BIOS .. Very similar to Z68, but not quite the same .

I'm still enjoying the stock performance at 3.8 vs my 2600K @ 4.6 ..

 

[Makaveli]

I agree their should be a sticky'd offical SB-E overclocking thread!

 

[Jacky60]

Hey Adam do you play Arma 2 or have a copy? I'm curious how 3960 plays it-I want to upgrade as my CPU can't cut it any more and that game is the reason I want to go 6 core but not sure it will make a difference?

 

[Nemesis 1]

Yeah, it's just not really validated because there are no gen3 boards. I would presume testing will happen when the boards are released (end of 2011/beginning of 2012) and BIOS patches would fix issues identified.

Yes there are. MSI has had them from the start its also in the Z class 1155 a top performer comparred to other brands . AT doesn't do many MSI M/B reviews . So just google MSI Z68 /M/B reviews . There really great M/B . I am still using the orginal bios . As its that good .

http://us.msi.com/product/mb/X79A-GD65.html

 

[Nemesis 1]

Got my board, RAM and PSU in so I did the build tonight. I am short one ASUS Matrix GTX580, so I did SLI with the ASUS 570's instead until I get the second Matrix, but I did put the Matrix in for a pic. Also haven't moved my drives from my current rig yet.

Specs...

Case: Corsair 650D
Processor: 3930K
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79
RAM: 32GB - 8 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance 1866
Video: 2 x ASUS GTX570 DirectCUII SLI (soon to be 2 x Matrix GTX580 - only have 1 so far)
PSU: Corsair AX1200
Cooler: Corsair H100
Drives:
Kingston HyperX 240GB 6Gb/s SSD
Samsung DVD-RW
2 x 300GB Velociraptor HD
1 x 2TB Western Digital Green HD

About the Rampage, there is one thing I wish they taken from the Maximus Extreme-Z board, the backlit ROG emblem in the middle of the board. Really sets it off on a side-window case. I also decided at last minute to use the Corsair case; I had intended to use the Cooler Master HAF-X case, but didn't realize until I opened it up that the side-fan hides the PSU, the video cards and a good part of the motherboard from view. You end up seeing the hard drives mostly. I am too proud of this rig to hide it. We'll see how the 650D performs, it obviously lacks airflow from the HAF-X, if it doesn't cool well enough, I'll swap it into the HAF-X or find another case that has a good side-view with equal cooling and 9 expansion slots.

I like the looks of that . My wifes machine is completed now .

She chose the Lian Li x2000F had custom paint done with airbrush .

She choose the Air plex 360 copper for the CPU and the Airplex modularity 280 Alum. for the GPUs as we don't O/C Gpus its plenty good. The 280 had to be rear mounted and I had to design a special airbox for it as the fan spacing is weird on that case . ALL and all its a beutiful case . The front rad was mounted in an airbox with special filters that I use in daughters custom cases . Complete system cost of THe custom case range between $11,000 -$14000 . So we don't sell many of those . But she is selling the systems like my wifes PC x2000F really well . Not many want the custom paint as it pushes price over 5 grand . But the plain system is reasonable enough considering the parts used. My daughter has video posted of my set up as well as wifes. Its invite only and I don't have authority to invite.

 

[AdamK47]

Hey Adam do you play Arma 2 or have a copy? I'm curious how 3960 plays it-I want to upgrade as my CPU can't cut it any more and that game is the reason I want to go 6 core but not sure it will make a difference?

I have ARMA 2, but don't play it much. Is there a benchmark mode for it?

 

[AdamK47]

Folding at Home (non bigadv). Almost 100K PPD.

 

[Seb.F]

Hey guys, my system will be arriving soon, just signed up here as I've been a lurker in the past

3930K
X79-UD5
16GB Vengeance 1866MHz
Corsair H100 push/pull

Thanks

 

[mrjoltcola]

Well my overclock is more stable than my motherboard itself. The sound chip on my Rampage IV went out today. Out of the blue it just died. Have to RMA the thing to Newegg. This whole build has been a bust. The HAF-X case they sent me had a warped motherboard tray and the Samsung DVD-RW was bad too, so 3 parts are going back to Newegg. Good thing I have my other rigs or I'd be mighty ill right now. I was just about to move my drive from the 2700K rig too.

 

[Diogenes2]

Folding at Home (non bigadv). Almost 100K PPD...

Crazy !

I'm guessing the power usage on that would light a small village..

I haven't gone full tilt yet, still fitting out the new case, but my CPU alone is almost 50K PPD when I have it running..

 

[AdamK47]

Did a few more tweaks. I can maintain over 100K PPD for the entire system now.

With a 980X and these three GTX 580s, it use to trip the protection circuitry on my AX1200. It doesn't do that with this system. It could be the newer AX1200 that I got, but I'm willing to bet it's due to the X79/3960X platform itself. I wish I had a Kill-a-watt to measure total power usage. It's gotta be lower than than my previous system.

The layout in the HAF-X is also better. I couldn't use my Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card on the P9X79 Deluxe (using an external Sound Blaster X-Fi now). Since the card isn't in there, the back of the top most GTX 580 gets cooled better. It also sits less than 1cm from the Prolimatech Megahalems I have on the 3960X which seems to help extract heat from the card. The top most GTX 580s actually runs a few degrees cooler than the middle card. It use to be the opposite with the X58/980X system. Since the cards sit higher on the motherboard the AX1200 gets more breathing room.

 

[Makaveli]

Did a few more tweaks. I can maintain over 100K PPD for the entire system now.

With a 980X and these three GTX 580s, it use to trip the protection circuitry on my AX1200. It doesn't do that with this system. It could be the newer AX1200 that I got, but I'm willing to bet it's due to the X79/3960X platform itself. I wish I had a Kill-a-watt to measure total power usage. It's gotta be lower than than my previous system.

The layout in the HAF-X is also better. I couldn't use my Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card on the P9X79 Deluxe (using an external Sound Blaster X-Fi now). Since the card isn't in there, the back of the top most GTX 580 gets cooled better. It also sits less than 1cm from the Prolimatech Megahalems I have on the 3960X which seems to help extract heat from the card. The top most GTX 580s actually runs a few degrees cooler than the middle card. It use to be the opposite with the X58/980X system. Since the cards sit higher on the motherboard the AX1200 gets more breathing room.

That's a crazy amount of PPD from one machine nicely done.

Did you have to buy an a new clip to fit the megahalems on socket 2011 or did they release a new version?