Upgrade Time Again!!

[Brian Clancy]

Well, its been on the cards for a while, but its upgrade time again!

I recently moved the system in to a Antec Darkfleet DF-85 case and a new Corsair 750w PSU, so thats all good n dandy, the XFX6970 is superb and is fine, so its a simple MoBo and CPU upgrade. I was going to go i7 2600K but after quite a bit of talking I'm looking at the i5 2500K. I spent a lot of time looking at Mother Boards and from the start I wanted an Asus board again, I have pretty much decided on the Asus Republic of Gamers Maximus IV Rev.3 P67, it packed with goodness and lots of O/C trickery and looks the biz and opens up the possibility of getting close to the 5Ghz O/C I am going to add an EK Waterblocks 360 water cooling kit and a water block to the 6970 so I can push it a little harder too the last addition will be 8G of 1600Mhz Corsair Dominator Ram from the old system as its still damn good Ram for Dual channel

Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions for other components in a similar price range?

 

[Jim Cole]

Probably a good idea Rupe The software overclocking utilities that you are talking about might be good to find the maximum that the software can determine, but the procedure that they follow is not great and the results are likely to lead to premature failure. There are so many things that need to be tweaked when overclocking that a lot of folks overlook that it isn't even funny. Most folks only mess with timing of the CPU and voltage, but there are adjustments that need to be made to ram timing, ram voltage and quite a bit more to ensure that everything is running stable. One mistake on any one of those areas could mean the difference between a system that runs flawlessly and one that fails completely after only a couple of months.

By the way, another overlooked item when it comes to overclocking is the PSU. One that is capable of delivery constant steady voltages is best when you are ready to overclock.

 

[Dino Paolini]

Probably a good idea Rupe The software overclocking utilities that you are talking about might be good to find the maximum that the software can determine, but the procedure that they follow is not great and the results are likely to lead to premature failure. There are so many things that need to be tweaked when overclocking that a lot of folks overlook that it isn't even funny. Most folks only mess with timing of the CPU and voltage, but there are adjustments that need to be made to ram timing, ram voltage and quite a bit more to ensure that everything is running stable. One mistake on any one of those areas could mean the difference between a system that runs flawlessly and one that fails completely after only a couple of months.

By the way, another overlooked item when it comes to overclocking is the PSU. One that is capable of delivery constant steady voltages is best when you are ready to overclock.

I agree with you here. I just started to learn all about OC'ing on the last few months.
The problem with not just software overclocers, but also AUTO settings in BIOS is, that it usually overvolts different things way too much. Overvolting leads to way more generation of heat which leads to quicker death of parts.

Even the stock-settings on some CPU's go a bit overboard with certain voltages and put some more pressure and the chip that is actually needed to run it stable on stock clocks.

I'm really glad that I read about these things in the last months, as I have discovered that I could easily run my last and my current CPU (both older Core 2 Duo's) with 20-25% more speed without actually putting more stress on them; they are even running a bit cooler now than on stock settings^^
Once you reach a certain sweetspot you would need to raise most values much more to gain just slightly more speed.

But you have to really read up on all settings and possible issues beforehand and take your time to adjust pretty much all (or almost all) available settings manualy

 

[Brian Clancy]

Once you reach a certain sweetspot you would need to raise most values much more to gain just slightly more speed.

Thats spot on! In the end, the final specs are:

Cpu @ 4.8Ghz
Vcore @ 1.375v
Temps @ Idle : 22c
Temps @ 4 Hrs Prime 95 : 44c

The max stable I reached was 5.4Ghz, but the Vcore voltage / load-line calibration and other settings were on the limits! At 5Ghz Vcore needed to be at 1.425v and that was a smidge too high for me, @4.8 Ghz the Vcore was much lower at a very sensible 1.375, load - line calibration is at a low 50% not 100%. Many of the other settings are lower than stock now, and the memory is O/C nicely now too

Overall, 4.8 Ghz is the sweet spot for the CPU, and the Republic of Gamers Asus MoBo is a dream to use and is without doubt the main reason I can hit such big numbers. 5Ghz is reachable, but why shorten the CPU's life over 200Mhz, I could probably manage 4.9Ghz with a lot more tweeking and keep the Vcore below 1.4v, but again, im just pushing the limits for what are meaningless numbers in the real world!

Overall, Intels i5 2500k is a staggeringly underclocked CPU out of the box! It has been a really enjoyable experience pushing this CPU to its limits and then finding its sweet spot.....

 

[Jim Cole]

Glad to hear you were able to come up with such a nice sweet spot for that CPU

 

[Brian Clancy]

Glad to hear you were able to come up with such a nice sweet spot for that CPU

Cheers Jim

Its been a really good exercise in O/Clocking, and given me a better insight in to the new Sandy Bridge Chips. I almost wish it wasn't finished now, as I enjoyed it that much (sad eh) but I can still 'play' with a few other things yet The hardest part is learning to stop pushing just for numbers and keep things in the 'real world' it was very tempting to go for a bigger O/C. Fortunately, common sense kicked in, and @4.8Ghz I can now see epic FPS in iRacing, sometimes 200+ with setting maxed :O

 

[glight]

4.8Ghz wow man!

But how is it 22C idle and 44C load? Is your PC in a fridge?

 

[Brian Clancy]

4.8Ghz wow man!

But how is it 22C idle and 44C load? Is your PC in a fridge?

A very major Water cooling system! I will try and get some pics next time I have it on the bench for maintenance

 

[Brian Clancy]

Small update:

Still fine tuning a smidge, I have gotten the Vcore down to 1.350v now @ 4.8Ghz and loadline calibration to a really low 25%. 4.8 Ghz is the sweet spot for sure.... Even a small bump to a stable 5Ghz needs a big, big jump in Vcore to 1.425v and loadline to 75-100% to be stable. Dominator GT ram is at 2133 Mhz CAS 9-11-9-27.

 

[Jim Cole]

That rig is going to last quite some time with that setup on the OC Brian Grats man. hehe.

 

[Brian Clancy]

That rig is going to last quite some time with that setup on the OC Brian Grats man. hehe.

Im learning a lot here and enjoying the fine tuning hehehehe. I need to learn more about CAS latency and Ram Timings next... Then its time for the second water loop for the Gfx

 

[Brian Clancy]

Another small update:

I decided that now I have stable, proven O/C's to over 5.2 Ghz I would run a few tests and see what the the real life performances are with differing O/C's in game so to speak. I decided to use iRacing as its a known CPU heavy sim, in practice @spa, max settings throughout and found some interesting results for peak FPS:

214 fps @5.2Ghz

221 fps @5Ghz

227 fps @4.9Ghz

236 fps @4.8Ghz

233 fps @4.7Ghz

223 fps @4.6Ghz

209fps @4.5Ghz

(Remember I run 3 monitors in Eyefinity )

Surprisingly, things started to trail off above 4.8Ghz? A bottle neck in the system somewhere, probably at the limit of the 6970, or the Ram? It certainly shows the diminishing returns or even backward step of huge O/C's without the right hardware to make the most of it

Seems 4.8Ghz is spot on for my current rig, now its time to cook the 6970 once the new loop is here