New to this kinda stuff!

Hey all, Darren here;

So i have a question, more of a task i guess i'm wondering if one of you lovely benchmarking masters could teach a young teenager looking to learn! I'd like to learn everything there is to know about Overclocking, benching, and all that jazz. I don't have much prior knowledge, and was recommended to start a new thread by sir Janus. So i come here hoping you lovely people can help me learn the tricks of the trade.. I haven't started my build yet (in the process of ordering parts)
here's the projected system:

Intel Core I7 3770K (already bought)
Asrock Extreme6
16GB of some ram haven't decided yet...
860W Corsair AX ATX Platnium Fully modular PSU
2 Samsung 840 Pro series 256GB in Raid 0
1 4TB WD Red 7200RPM (i have a lot of media)
H220 Cooling system (never done a custom water loop, maybe next build)
Rosewill Thor V-2 White (Already bought)
does that sound like a good gaming rig/benching rig?

I hope so, :$ i really want to learn how to bench, and from there make it to the benching team without building another rig...

Please help! <- me thinking about overclocking/benching

Hey Darren, thanks for making the thread here, I figure it could be better for answering any benchmarking questions!

Before any benchmarking stuff starts:
Since you haven't yet purchased all of your parts, it may be worth considering splitting up the media drive(s) into multiple small ones or looking into a small NAS device, although it depends on how much you value the data. If it is important/impossible to replace it would be wise to have it have backups and/or be redundant in a RAID configuration. I believe we (as in the forum with myself included) argued over the merits of a RAID0 SSD configuration and you decided to go for it (I personally don't see the need for it as it won't be noticeable for the extra risk of drive failure... but I digress).

Onto the topic of benchmarking!

In the world of competitive benchmarking there are two different ways to get points (we call them boints -- for hwbot)
Hardware Points and Global Points
hardware points are earned with whatever hardware is used and is only competing against the same hardware (for example a 3770k is compared against other results of just 3770k). Global points are compared against everything else of that category (all dual-core processors, all quad-core processors, etc). Global points are generally much harder to earn compared to hardware points.

The system you have above there will be a great step into benching. Like I said in your other thread, if a system can run Windows (at least XP, but maybe before that?) it can be benchmarked in some fashion.

Check out these couple of threads (stickies in this section):
How to Become a Benching Team Member
and
the Benchmarking Buffet
-- note the buffet link is a little out of date, but the basics hold true to today.

Getting the necessary amount of points to join the team may or may not be easy with one rig, it is definitely do-able but generally would at least require swapping out some parts here or there to get more hardware.

For current-gen processors I think it is pretty easy to rack up some decent points when being paired with older graphics cards (AMD 4850/4870/4890, nVidia 8800(gt/gts/gtx), are just a few of hundreds of examples).

I have to head to bed but I hope that is a good start.

Thanks for you reply Janus, I really appreciate your helping me learn!

Instead of NAS would i be better to just go with one SSD? because it's cheaper for me to go with one 512GB drive than two 256GB drives... So should i just do that, i've never played around with NAS and don't really want to venture into it.. Also i backup all my data, i have a Time Capsule by apple at home (three TB model) so that's no issue...

So benching is basically hardware and how it can preform together as a whole? and you get points for how well your hardware is against other users with similar points? (the website really confuses me...)

I'll read the forums some more and try to learn some more, thanks for your help.

Oh and one last thing would you help me more if i were to need it? (i think it would be fun to OC/Bench

With the respect to the NAS question that you already have covered with your time capsule. That was specifically for you to store your media/data files (not your OS). I would personally just get the one nice 512GB SSD instead of two 256 ones if you can afford it, generally the larger the drive the faster it will be and this way you won't have the hassle of setting the two up in RAID, dealing with TRIM issues, and so forth.


And to answer your question, yep, benchmarking can be done with any hardware new or old and depending on how you score (say in SuperPi 1M you have a time of 6.5 seconds you get points for placing against other people that scored below (as in took longer), and the more submissions there are with a single piece of hardware the more points submissions are worth, and of course the better the score/time the more points you earn.

That is a very generic idea of how it works, but that is essentially it.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=697296&highlight=mario

will give you a decent idea as well, written by our vary own Mario1

So could i say bench with my Macbook Pro? xD

that right there was also exactly what i was looking for! thanks guy, but what's the team name now? i can't seem to find OC Forums :/

overclockers.com I believe

and you should be able to benchmark it as long as you have windows running on it.

Bah, don't have windows partion-ed yet... maybe i could do that tonight! what OS should i get? home? (i'd rather home)

Edit: i think after all i'm going to build a beast benching rig, i have so money i can scrap together over the next few months, what would i good budget be? than i'll put a computer together on another thread and i'll see what everyone thinks? ya? nay?

for a 2d operating system I recommend looking around for tinyxp/microxp, that's as much information as I can give for that.

If you want to get into benching I still recommend shooting for a nice socket 775 motherboard.

P965 chipset
- Commando
- P5B-Deluxe
- P5B-Deluxe Wifi/AP

P45 Chipset
- P5Q-Deluxe
- P5Q-Pro
- P5Q-E
- GA-EP45 Extreme
- GA-EP45-UD3P
- TPower I45

X38
- Maximus Formula
- Maximus Extreme

X48 Chipset
- Rampage Formula
- Rampage Extreme (REX)
- P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP @n
- GA-X48-DS4


The REX (Rampage Extreme) is considered to be the best of the Dual-Core motherboards and I believe a lot of people really like the UD3P for quad cores. The REX would be quite hard to find (I got lucky with finding mine a year ago) but you can surely find some of the boards listed above. And with the money you would have spent on the really expensive rig you can get a ton of CPUs for relatively cheap to blow through. Granted 775 would just be for 2D but I think that is the best place to start as you have less variables (overclocking/benchmarking 3D is an entirely different ball game)

If you want to be wild and crazy I would find a used Dry Ice pot (would probably run $100) and would give you a huge leg-up and that is when the real fun starts.

The thing is i can't get my hands on any of that stuff, because there isn't a real computer store or anyone selling that kind of stuff within 100KM and i don't see myself walking that far anytime soon, it would just be easier for me to build one in all honesty

No access to ebay/etc? that is where myself and a lot of our teammates get a lot of our older parts (that and various classifieds sections of different forums (here, [H], OCN, XS, TPU, Anandtech are my go-tos))

Sadly no access to Ebay :/
I'd rather have a new computer than some old piece of crap...
So let's say a 2500$ system would that be good enough? for great benching?

Edit: On my Gaming Rig would you recommend the Gigabyte G1. Sniper? the Asrock one is to much for the little features it provides

Let me ask you this - would you be OK with killing a 3930k or the $300+ motherboard that you just bought? Or the $300-$400 graphics card?


Or would you rather go balls-out on a $50 CPU and $75 motherboard to get the feel for how to push the limits?

Well Damn, i guess your right... i just can't find a 775 motherboard, and all the other components i'd need :/

also what're your thoughts on the Gigabyte G.1 Sniper 3? before i buy it i want your personal opinion on it and it's features..?

why a big list of intel stuff. what about a big list of amd stuff???

I've personally never used AMD processors... maybe a cheapish Fx8350 1500 dollar build?

RE: The intel list vs AMD list...

1. I personally dont know AMD stuff like I do Intel. In that generation of hardware, you can get more boints with older intel than you can with AMD for the most part simply because more people submited with intel at the time due to it being faster (globals at the time).

2. AMD is good for AMD CPU stuff, but not good for 3D (just doesnt push the GPUs as hard). So if you plan on benching 3D, MODERN intel is the way to go. If you are just planning on getting your feet wet, the stuff that Janus mentioned is a great, and INEXPENSIVE way to get in to it (Intel or AMD).

So, to Darren.. my suggestion is this. Start off with something older.. be it Intel or AMD, doesnt matter, that way you can beat the hell out of cheap hardware and get used to it. Better than killing a $300 CPU out of the gate. Its going to cost you an arm and leg to get a pot, insulation, temp gauge (couple hundred).

Thanks for your input Earthdog always appreciated!
Would i be able to play around with this? http://panam.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireT320/AspireT320sp2.shtml
Mines the Celeron model

you can absolutely play around with it and run benchmarks against it. It won't be overclockable but you can run the full sweet of 2D benchmarks on it.

I wonder if i could overclock my old Comaq Deskpro 4000 Hmmm xD
but i might bench it, idk it's in pieces on my workbench

I'll go to the local store and see if i can pick some old hardware up and see what i can do

doubtful, most OEM bios do not have options for overclocking, but you can still benchmark it.

Where are you located if you don't mind asking, are you in the US?