Is this the right board and is it worth doing? !

[rrmccabe]

I currently have a i7 -2700 CPU in a PH867-M-Pro board. It was originally an i5 machine and I recently swapped out the i7 and added a SSD drive.

The person I got the i7 from told me it easily runs at 5GHz.

Its a decent machine, already has upgraded video and power supply.

I realize the PH867 that I have now is the wrong board to take advantage of the overclock.

So I have the opportunity to buy a Asus P8P67 PRO (Rev 3.0) board for $60.00 shipped. Is this the right board to do this?

Here are my current specs.

Intel Core i72700K 3.50GHz @ 3.5 GHz
MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3
12GB System RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

 

[mimart7]

That board is more than 3 years old. I'm guessing that it is used, it may work out, then again it may not. You can oveclock using that board. If you buy it, you need to look for bulging caps, and burns on that board. I had to replace my P67 board during the spring. I'd be looking at Z77 based boards, instead of a P67..

 

[rrmccabe]

Thanks for reply. Its actually new. Will check out Z77 though.

Still wondering if its worth even doing

 

[mimart7]

Look for an Asrock Z77, the Extreme 4 is rock solid. Keep an eye out sale pricing, with the approaching holidays. If you have a no name psu, that should be replaced as well.

 

[Mandrake4565]

The Asrock Z77 Extreme is a really good board, I own one and am very happy with it. That said, the claim of the 2700k running 5.0 may or may not be true. It all depends on what the original owner considers "runs easily at 5.0". I can run my 4770k at 5.2 but it's nowhere near stable and the amount of voltage that I need to run it there is silly, I would never run as an everyday OC if I wanted it to last. Even if it can run 5.0 you're going to need to have some really good cooling to get it to run there stable.

You may want to try the 2700k on the board you have and see how it does, depending on what you're cooling it with you should be able to get it to 4.5 on AIR and that is a very respectable overclock. If it's being used for gaming, you likely will not notice a difference running 4.5 from 5.0.

 

[Theocnoob]

Do something about that 12GB of RAM. You don't want to be running mis-matched RAM like that. You should run 4/8/16/32 and that's it. JM2C. All sticks of RAM should be identical.

 

[rrmccabe]

You may want to try the 2700k on the board you have and see how it does, depending on what you're cooling it with you should be able to get it to 4.5 on AIR and that is a very respectable overclock. If it's being used for gaming, you likely will not notice a difference running 4.5 from 5.0.

Actually, I don't think the O/C is possible with this board. It it was I would do it and call it good.

Do something about that 12GB of RAM. You don't want to be running mis-matched RAM like that. You should run 4/8/16/32 and that's it. JM2C. All sticks of RAM should be identical.

3 sticks of 4gb memory. As factory shipped from Asus. So all sticks of RAM are actually identical.

 

[rrmccabe]

I realize this is not a great benchmark by any means but the machine is not a dog as-is. Just thought I could cheaply pick up a little with an easy over clock.

 

[manu2b]

The p8p67 pro for $60 is a good deal.

I used to have one and it took my 2600K's as far as they could go on air/water (both 5GHz below1.5v).

The SandyBridge won't take advantage of pcie3 anyway, and who cares about the iGPU?

I'd go for it. [email protected]/4.8GHz, the i7 SandyBridge is still a very powerful cpu.

 

[Theocnoob]

Actually, I don't think the O/C is possible with this board. It it was I would do it and call it good.



3 sticks of 4gb memory. As factory shipped from Asus. So all sticks of RAM are actually identical.

Ya but you don't want that. OEM's are knobs, basically. They do things that actually hurt performance. Take 1 stick out. Or buy 2 identical 8GB sticks for 16GB. Or buy 1 more stick identical to the ones you already have for 16GB.

 

[rrmccabe]

Ya but you don't want that. OEM's are knobs, basically. They do things that actually hurt performance. Take 1 stick out. Or buy 2 identical 8GB sticks for 16GB. Or buy 1 more stick identical to the ones you already have for 16GB.

Well at this point I would say it would be hard to buy a 4th identical stick to match the other three. So only other option is (4) four gig sticks and not sure spending $200 for that on what is old technology is really worth doing. Just thought that $60 MOBO might allow me to OC the i7 I have and call it good for a couple years when the i8s are cheaper than a 16 gig ram purchase. LOL

 

[Theocnoob]

Well at this point I would say it would be hard to buy a 4th identical stick to match the other three. So only other option is (4) four gig sticks and not sure spending $200 for that on what is old technology is really worth doing. Just thought that $60 MOBO might allow me to OC the i7 I have and call it good for a couple years when the i8s are cheaper than a 16 gig ram purchase. LOL

There will never be an i8. If anything there would be an i9 (3/5/7/9).

Anyways, you don't buy 4X4 you buy 2X8 and it'll run you about $150-170 not $200.

For gaming you only need 8GB which is why I would advise you to remove the non-paired stick from your system.

 

[rrmccabe]

Well I don't game so that not a consideration. And you are probably right on the i9. Was joking about that anyway.

I might try pulling one stick and see what it does. Have to think running a SSD drive now would make it easier to get by with less RAM.

 

[Theocnoob]

Well I don't game so that not a consideration. And you are probably right on the i9. Was joking about that anyway.

I might try pulling one stick and see what it does. Have to think running a SSD drive now would make it easier to get by with less RAM.

You have to pull the stick that isn't paired. Usually A1 B1 and A2 B2 will be different colored slots (on older boards). If they arent check your motherboard manual.

 

[rrmccabe]

You have to pull the stick that isn't paired. Usually A1 B1 and A2 B2 will be different colored slots (on older boards). If they arent check your motherboard manual.

Really did not make much difference if any. Good or bad for all the quick testing I did. I really think memory controllers have came a long way over the years as far as how to handle different channels.

By the way I am not new to hardware and custom builds. Just really behind the times. As a matter of fact I did a review and benchmark test many years ago and combined it from a review with my friend Anand. This was Pentium 60 days. This first review who was cleaned up and published by Anand was the beginning of AnandTech !

 

[EarthDog]

Oye.........

The three sticks of memory will not be a problem/slow down until you get to the single channel stick. And even then, its not a huge deal. Its a curious setup, but nothing that requires buying other ram. You dont "have to" do anything.

As far as overclocking on your board... I wouldn't take that CPU to 5Ghz on that board, but low 4's will be fine.