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Best $400-500 benching upgrade?

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funsoul

Senior Member
Joined
May 3, 2004
Location
NJ, USA
Greets all!

Got a decent bonus from work and looking for your thoughts on the best possible $400-500 benching-related upgrade for me.

The objective is reap the most hwbot boints possible.

Some background....am a bit of a hw pig so have quite a bit already. Without covering stuff older than socket 775:
- 775: REX (plus a couple spares) and ~250 cpus
- 1155: MVE and ~4 cpus. Nothing super fast so far...2700k hits a hard wall @ 5.5GHz
- 2011: RIVE and a 3930k (this cpu is in my primary rig)
- boatloads of graphic cards
- plenty o' ram (great sticks for everything 1600 and up except no 1866)

For cooling...have single-stage phase change, a cascade and plenty of water cooling stuff.

Would like to put the 3930k under phase but need something decent in the primary if I want to free the cpu up for ss benching. It did ok under water (~5GHz), not sure how much higher it could go but it doesn't seem like a remarkable chip or anything.

I know Sandy is fine under phase but Ivy needs colder.

Think that the highest possible boint subs for me would be with a fast cpu under ss phase and a vga card under cascade but...?

So...whatcha think?

EDIT: Am not looking to go DICE or LN2 atm.

EDIT2: Maybe look for a 5.9-6GHz 2500k/2600k/2700k or a 55x+ 3930k or maybe a good 4930k? What about something from AMD's camp? Anything there worth the price of admission given that this upgrade's only objective is boints?
 
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I know that you say you are not interested in Ln2 or Dice right now, but Janus's listing on cooling stuff is up now. There is some good stuff listed on there that doesn't come up for sale too often.

I think that Ln2 will give you more happy than hardware would. Besides, I think you have more hardware than anyone else here already....
 
Thanks xsuperbgx ...I LOVE more happy but can't see going dice or ln2 atm.

SS and cascade are just so much easier for me...load up a setup and it's off to the races (can also run for hours on end so have time to try to work the most out of the stuff). No muss, no fuss so to speak (type).

Not nearly as many points as ln2 but, for now anyway, want to stick with the current cooling setup (plus am kinda not so sure about the wife's reaction hehe).

Hmmm....anyone seen a 59x 1155 or 2011 cpu around? hehe
 
I see really good chips posted to the kpc, hwbot, and xs forums decently often.

Was going to suggest ln2 as it will let you max out, especially if the CPU will only be under single stage. But saw your edit ;)

May want to consider selling your 1155 stuff and get has well with that money.

I guess it ultimately depends on your goals, as variety of hardware would likely get you further in boints than all new high end things unless you go crazy for globals.
 
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Hiya Janus67!

Will keep my eyes open...I don't see anything at all in the hwbot f/s forum and don't have access to the one at XS

I know, I know....ln2's the way to go but am just not ready for that step. The cascade should be chilly enough to be at least somewhat competitive, though (at least on the older stuff).

Think I'm overall better off if I just bench what I've got for now and keep my eyes open for monster 1155 or 2011 cpus. Want to find a beast to use for 3d benching.

Once I get through my 1155's, sell 'em all except for the best one. Clean up the basement and identify all the other hardware that I should sell. Get the frickin' cascade up and running already and start benching out the 775's (selling all but the best). Once I sell off everything I don't need anymore, THEN think about an upgrade.
 
True dat EarthDog!

Want to find a killer cpu for 3d benches but have plenty to work with between now and whenever my cpu(s) show up for sale somewhere.

PS- Dunno why but whenever I see your nick I want to call you EarthDoggieDog and crack myself up. Glad your nick's in blue instead of green or my work colleagues would think I'm weirder than they already do as I'd be howling. hehehe
 
I would possible sell that 3930K and up grade to a 4930K and with SS etc you should score some points out of it. And has Janus said, sell all the 1155 and go HASWELL which again with your SS you should get some sort of points. But maybe my way of think is a little different to others.

AJ.
 
Hiya Ajay!

Haswell seems to need really cold to do well. Since I'm not going dice or ln2 just don't think I'd be at all competitive with those cpus. Might stand a chance with the cascade I guess but, from what I've read, best would be to use the cascade for the vga cards.

Really looking for a fast cpu to use for 3d benching. Some 2d boints would be great but given my current unwillingness to venture into ln2 world, not looking at getting any WR's or anything. With the 1155's and 1st gen 2011's, ss is plenty cold from what I've seen.
 
I think it was Ivy that really needed cold as they tended to not have a coldbug, Haswell I think has the coldbug.
 
Hmmm...knew Ivy but definitely thought haswell was similar.

Taking a quick look at hwbot...check out how all the 4770k cpu-z benches are LN2 until 63rd place when there's a cascade sub. The first ss sub (outlier) is 83rd place.

For the 3930k....first ss sub is 2nd place (our friend TurnnBurn)...another 10th place, 15, 16, 18, 19 h20 beating ln2 a lot, etc

For the 2600k...ss sub is 1st, big mix of ln2, ss in the top 20

That's the stuff that made me think that haswell also needs really cold to be competitive.
 
Haswell has cb, as said above... -90 to -130 or so. Ivy, cold as she goes.
Thanks EarthDog. Got it now (I think).

So...taking it another step...cascade would have issues with haswell (since it's in the cbzone) while ln2 and ss should be fine? As an odd aside...for the few ss and cascade subs using that cpu, cascade looks to get an extra 100-200MHz over the ss subs but the sample size makes that observation statistically worthless.

Since ss is too warm to hope for decent points and I'm not (currently anyway) going the ln2 route, haswell shouldn't be a consideration, right? Haswell might be ok for 3d benching but only if I was lucky enough to get a real monster cpu.
 
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