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New i7-4790K build, need suggestions for voltage settings, RAM tweaking, PSU

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rbstern

Registered
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
Location
Georgia
I recently completed a build of my everyday workstation; I haven't tried to do any performance tweaking on a PC in a long time, so please pardon any ignorance on my part. Specs are:

i7 4790K
ASUS Z97-AR
EVGA 16GB DDR3 1600
EVGA GTX 650
OCZ Vector 180 480GB
Fractal R5 case with (2) stock Fractal 140mm case fans.
Thermaltake TR2 430W
Cooler Master Nepton 140XL

I have it overclocked at 4.7ghz (102.2 clock * 46 multiplier), with vcore at 1.295 manual. Idle temps are about 30C, and stress/stability testing with AIDA64 and Prime 95 generates average CPU temps of about 55C. Individual cores average between 55C and 60C, with highest individual core peak at 75C during testing. The cooler is tuned for quietness, and I still have another 500rpm of fan speed available on the Nepton 140XL, if I need more cooling. I've attempted to go to 4.8ghz, but I haven't found settings that are stable (yet), and I've been cautious about pushing the vcore voltage much further.

Questions:

1) Given the current stability at 1.295 volts, what would be appropriate adaptive voltage settings to try? Or do I use offset? This is a 24x7 machine, so reduced voltage during idle would be a nice benefit.

2) I have a spare set of 16GB of EVGA DDR3 2400 sitting here. I've tested it in the machine, and Passmark reports worse performance than with the 1600, without any attempted tweaking. I presume that's because the timing of the 2400 (CL11) is worse than the 1600 (CL9). Is it worth the performance gain to install the 2400 memory and play with the DRAM settings? I know nothing about tweaking DRAM.

3) The PSU is a new-ish TR2 from another build, still has about 4 years of warranty left. Based on a couple of different power consumption calculators, the 430 watts is well matched to this build (has about 100 watts of headroom left). Aside from efficiency gains, any reason to go to a higher quality, bronze or gold rated PSU? Any performance gain potential? It's unlikely this will ever been anything but a single GPU box, as I generally don't game.

Thanks in advance for any comments.
 
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1. Adaptive/Override, doesn't matter. If you are stable at 1,295v. You need to make the adaptive match that value. So if your CPU's VID (stock vCore) is 1.2v, you would add ..095v via adaptive. Or, just leave the power settings in windows to performance, it should clock down.
2. 2400 CL11 should be as fast as or faster than 1600 CL9. The performance gains via ram for most applications is really not much. I wouldn't waste my time unless I was benchmarking for a purpose or whatever I did with my PC responded well to rma tweaks (again, not many things).
3. That PSU is fine. There isn't a reason to move to another one at this time.
 
As a "workstation, I think your well positioned just the way you are. The gains from another 100MHz or 2400 ram will really make no difference in your every day work. Your PSU should be just fine unles you intend on additional GFX upgrades
 
Thank you both. Very helpful. Also, the 3 Step Guide to Overclocking Haswell was a terrific primer on this subject. Absolutely excellent resource, and what led me to this site and becoming a member here.
 
Thanks for stopping in and post rbstern and welcome aboard. Pretty good community we have here, always willing to help when we can
 
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