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I think i am getting myself into trouble - newbie bencher.

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Pierre3400

Pierre3400

annnnnnd it's gone
​
Joined
May 15, 2010
Location
Euroland, Denmark
Hello guys,

Recently I decided to build a testing rig.

The purpose of this rig started off really simple. The aim of this rig was to have a system where i could adjust and test my mining cards. Because both my other rigs are water cooled, its not just a simple plug and play, so i thought, why not build an open system.

Pretty much every aspect of this idea has fully changed.

I had plans to use one of my unused mATX board and a simple CPU, since i was mainly looking to test GPU's and hard drives.

As of now, (not all parts are in) the setup is:

Dimastech Nano
Intel Pentium G3258
ASRock Z87m OC Formula
Kingston 1333Mhz ram 2x2Gb

Cooling:
Ek 2,2 Pump
EK LTX water block
XSPC 60mm thick 240mm rad
4x GT AP-15, Push/Pull

For extra air movement over the motherboard i have a Delta AFC1212D-PWM 3400rpm beast.

Now, keep in mind, the cooling system is made up from left over parts.

The plan is to only cool the CPU with water, cheating with ice/dry ice to get below ambient temps.

As you may have noticed, there are parts missing from the line up, and this is where this thread come into play.

This is my very basic understanding of benching. Overclock the balls off hardware, get it stable to pass benching software, get a screenshot, watch the system crash, and repeat.

I need to know if i should look into getting an SSD for this system?

I need to know what types of PSU i should be looking for?

This is a budget build, so part will be used, as much as possible.

I read lightly threw the "How to become a bencher thread"

I understand i need to make some sorts of points, and i have limited time to do it.

I dont have a GPU that i dont mind losing to heat/overvolt yet, and my main plan was to do CPU overclocking to start with.

Can someone help me out on what my options are, if i should start by benching and a bit, and then when i know i am ready to join the team and get 20points then join, or should i join, and learn by doing?

This rig wont be ready for a few weeks, but might aswell start learning now. :salute:
 
No one has any answers for me regarding SSD use and PSU.

Oh and how i should go about if i want to join the team?
 
buy a couple cheap ssd's, faster loading, less heat during the bench.
single gpu, just a top of the line 550-600 should be plenty.
 
120GB SSD is enough. Can be Samsung EVO or something similar ( any from let's say series with good warranty ) and you can install 3 systems on it. XP + Win7 + anything else.
If you don't want to buy any SSD for benching then any HDD will be also enough. SSD are helping in load time but are not really improving benchmark scores ( maybe except PCMark ).

PSU doesn't have to be any special. Good quality ~600W is enough if you are not benching 2-3 gfx cards.

Your mobo is great and it's actually better than most Z97 boards on the market ( it's also better for benching than Z97M OCF ).

How to join the team ? -> http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=643867
Overclock as high as you can and run all benchmarks on the list. I bet that some tests will give you many points on this pentium as it's one of the best CPUs for 2 core rankings. Benchmarks like SuperPi, Pifast or CPU/Memory clock are not based on number of cores so will be harder to make good points. Still can try everything.

here is list of CPU benchmarks and links to download them:
http://hwbot.org/benchmarks/processor
also check benchmark rules
 
Pierre3400 said:
Hello guys,

Recently I decided to build a testing rig.

The purpose of this rig started off really simple. The aim of this rig was to have a system where i could adjust and test my mining cards. Because both my other rigs are water cooled, its not just a simple plug and play, so i thought, why not build an open system.

Pretty much every aspect of this idea has fully changed.

I had plans to use one of my unused mATX board and a simple CPU, since i was mainly looking to test GPU's and hard drives.

As of now, (not all parts are in) the setup is:

Dimastech Nano
Intel Pentium G3258
ASRock Z87m OC Formula
Kingston 1333Mhz ram 2x2Gb

Cooling:
Ek 2,2 Pump
EK LTX water block
XSPC 60mm thick 240mm rad
4x GT AP-15, Push/Pull

For extra air movement over the motherboard i have a Delta AFC1212D-PWM 3400rpm beast.

Now, keep in mind, the cooling system is made up from left over parts.

The plan is to only cool the CPU with water, cheating with ice/dry ice to get below ambient temps.

As you may have noticed, there are parts missing from the line up, and this is where this thread come into play.

This is my very basic understanding of benching. Overclock the balls off hardware, get it stable to pass benching software, get a screenshot, watch the system crash, and repeat.

I need to know if i should look into getting an SSD for this system?

I need to know what types of PSU i should be looking for?

This is a budget build, so part will be used, as much as possible.

I read lightly threw the "How to become a bencher thread"

I understand i need to make some sorts of points, and i have limited time to do it.

I dont have a GPU that i dont mind losing to heat/overvolt yet, and my main plan was to do CPU overclocking to start with.

Can someone help me out on what my options are, if i should start by benching and a bit, and then when i know i am ready to join the team and get 20points then join, or should i join, and learn by doing?

This rig wont be ready for a few weeks, but might aswell start learning now. :salute:
Click to expand...

Your general understanding is pretty much correct, over clock near the edge of stability, run benchmark, if you get a valid result take the screen shot with the needed application (s) running - normally cpu-z cpu tab and memory tab, and if 3d benching gpu-z. It's best to check the rules on hwbot.org for the specific rules for each benchmark.

I highly recommend a cheap 60-120gb ssd for your benching OS. I do not recommend benching with your normal operating system as it is not optimized and will almost guaranteed die at some point.

For a PSU, it depends on how many cards you plan to use. If you plan to never go above 1 card then in your situation I wouldn't recommend anything over a 750w good power supply, it'd be a waste of money.

I recommend starting with 2d benching as it gets rid of the variables from the video card, which forces you to optimize additional things.

Keep track of your times/scores in a spreadsheet with the settings used to get them.

Lastly, join and learn by doing. We will have a sticky up soon to help people with their submissions and some basic benchmarking help.
 
You will have a lot of fun with that board, it is a monster

Nothing much to add here that has not already been addressed.

I know you said this is on a tight budget , but as soon as you can you may want't to look into a better set of stix to really go after 2d results.

I am surew you are going to have a blast, do not get frustrated, results will come, build up from lower clocks and get results, then start to dial it up as you get more comfortable with the settings, As Janus said, keep track of what helps and what does not to help avoid redundancy.

Don't be afraid to try new things, you will be surprised at what helps and what does not at times.

If you plan to lower water temps with dry ice be sure to use a glycol solution so it does not freeze up on you and crack a block or something.

As far as power goes I dsiagree with the coinsensus here. Get good high power unit if you intend in staying with this hobby as sooner or later you will have use for it and would hate to see you have to re-buy a more powerful unit later on.

Best of luck, I am sure you are going to have a blast , post up some results once you get going :)
 
Alright, gonna find an SSD to run OS.

I found an OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular to start with. From reviews, it seems like a solid PSU, since i wont be running anything with big requirements as far as GPU's, i think this PSU is a decent choice at 18bucks.
 
I used to have several old raptors (36GB & 74GB), each with a difference stripped OS installed. Makes sense that small SSDs would take over that role now. Certain benches run better in different operating systems. Having several drives with an OS already installed makes switching benches fast & easy.

I bought my Seasonic S12-650W years ago for benching CrossfireX & C2D. It's been a really solid unit which I would recommend. Modular PSUs are pretty, but IMHO fully wired are best for benching. Fewer points of failure.
 
You can use mechanical drives, but o/ses get ruined so often, that it is worthwhile as an investment. i am slowly trying to switch over to ssds, since I am running out of functioning hard drives. The ssd's seem to hold up a bit better to being banged around on my desk while swapping or changing hardware.
 
I have separate drives for every single platform I bench. The only time I use SSD's benching is when I need fast storage/access for certain benchmarks.

My daily machines all use SSD's full time.
 
Well yeah, i have SSD's everywhere!

2 in my daily, 2 in my lan, 1 in laptop. Even found i had a spare 80gb intel SSD, so to start with, thats what im going with.
 
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