New AMD PC build

[IronHands]

ocn I know about artic silver 5 and I know the damage it can cause if any spreads outside that main contact area of the CPU. That being said this is not my 1st time using artic silver 5 I'm tired looking around for something that I should have nearby or close to me so I ordered some more.

And I should make a note to you all that while I'm new to this forum I'm not new to overclocking or building PC's or working on electronics for the matter.

This will be the 1st PC I have built for myself.

So take it easy on me,

That being said do any of you know if I can have 2 modules of Ballistix Sport XT and also have 2 modules of Ballistix Elite installed? Both pairs would be 1866.

 

[trents]

Tis exactly what I was doin. I don't think mentioning "Can you return that? You made a boo boo" is bad.

Sometimes it's the way we say things that makes all the difference in the world. I'm certainly guilty of not practicing that 100% of the time but I'm working at being more consistent at choosing my words so that they make the point but still honor people. Does your post #30 do that?

 

[Mandrake4565]

ocn I know about artic silver 5 and I know the damage it can cause if any spreads outside that main contact area of the CPU. That being said this is not my 1st time using artic silver 5 I'm tired looking around for something that I should have nearby or close to me so I ordered some more.

And I should make a note to you all that while I'm new to this forum I'm not new to overclocking or building PC's or working on electronics for the matter.

This will be the 1st PC I have built for myself.

So take it easy on me,

That being said do any of you know if I can have 2 modules of Ballistix Sport XT and also have 2 modules of Ballistix Elite installed? Both pairs would be 1866.

Nothing wrong with AS 5 as long as you're careful with it, I've used it for a few years now and I swap cpu's regularly and never had an issue with it.

As far as the 2 different sets of Ram if you're going to Oc, I suggest not running 2 different sets while you're trying to find stability on the Cpu. After you find your happy spot then put the second set in. If you then have any issues, you know it's most likely the ram causing it and address it appropriately. Even though they are the same brand they may have 2 different set's of Ic's in them and could cause instability.

 

[IronHands]

right thank you mandrake. if I would not have ordered things so quickly I would have gone with a 4 module kit of the ballistix sport xt but I may either just add two more modules of the ballistix sport xt making it 32 GB or just go with a pair of ballistix elite 16GB and get another pair of ballistix elite 16gb then go 32GB. Either way I'll just work the two modules of sport xt for the while if or when I get this PC built.

I like the taller heat sinks of the ballistix elite a lot so I figured if I go with that or would have gone with it, I would be more satisfied with memory O/C.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I have a Pair of Ballistic Elite they're pretty good stick's mine are stock 1866 9-9-9 and I've run them at 2133 9-10-9.

 

[IronHands]

will I be able to O/C the ballistix sport xt that I'm getting to 2133?

I also wanted to ask a question about the AMD 990FX chipset.

AMD has it listed as supporting 2,3, or 4 video cards.

Does that mean you need at lease 2 video cards to actually use and game on that chipset? Because I assumed so sense I went with the 970 chipset because I was not wanting to find any need to have the need for two video cards when I was just actually wanting to start out building a PC with just one video card.

Not that I have found any proof, but now I'm assuming I could have got a 990FX motherboard and still used just one video card but I still could be wrong.

In a way I was going to get a 990X motherboard for incase I did want to add a 2nd video card I could at lease have them both in 2x8.

I also want to say as I'm asking such a question like so I'm doing my best and trying to look and find out any answers and such that I could come by on the internet. So given that such a answer like I'm looking for seems somewhat hard to find I'm going by what AMD shows saying that the 990FX supports 2,3, or 4 they say nothing about the 990FX supporting 1 so if by chance the 990FX can and does support one anyway do any of you know?

Now I'm feeling not so well, I see someone asking a question about what chipset supports overclocking 990FX, 990X, or 970. I can't take it, I'm totally assuming the motherboard I got supports overclocking and to add to my un easy feeling I'm thinking with the 990FX chipset I still could have used just one video card.

can I even overclock on the GA-970A-UD3P motherboard? Well assuming I can and all please excuse me with the things I'm asking, my mind is running wild.

 

[Mandrake4565]

LOL Iron yes you can use only 1 gpu on the 970 UD3, it's a good motherboard don't worry so much and yes the 990Fx chipset also supports 1 Gpu. The difference between the 970 and 990 Fx chipset is the 970 only supports dual gpu's in Crossfire and some boards support Sli, from what I understand. The 990 and 990Fx chipsets both support Crossfire and Sli, Crossfire is 2 AMD cards and Sli being 2 Nvidia. The 990FX supports up to 4 Gpu's in Xfire/Sli and the 990x only 2.

will I be able to O/C the ballistix sport xt that I'm getting to 2133?

Here's the thing with Overclocking in general. Every piece of silicon is different, whether it be a Cpu, Gpu or Memory Ic. I cannot tell you the Ballistic sport will or will not do 2133 if overclocked. Only you trying to do so will determine that. I have seen Ballistic sports do 2133 at 10-11-11 timings but that doesn't mean yours will. Again, only trying will tell. Another thing is, the more sticks and Gb of ram you have the harder it is on the memory IMC on the Cpu. So for example if you had 2x2 Gb sticks it will be easier in most cases to overclock them then it will be to OC 2x8gb sticks. Additionally, lets say you are able to get the 2x8 gb sticks to OC to 2133 then you add another 2x8 Gb sticks to give you a total 32 Gb of ram you may not be able to run all 4 sticks at 2133. Why to you feel the need for 32 Gb of ram anyway, 99% of the time it is total overkill. Most users don't utilize more then 8g of ram having more if you do not utilize them doesn't make the rig any faster. Furthermore, having the Ram overclocked or running ram in general above 1866 Mhz really doesn't translate into visible gains in daily usage. If gaming you may see a few FPS more with ram above 1866 but in most cases it's 2-4 Fps more.

 

[IronHands]

I'll try to not let it bother me because I feel like I got a good deal with the 970 motherboard and videocard but me being honest I would have got an 990FX motherboard if I knew I could have just used one video card if I choose too. So why does AMD say it supports 2, 3, or 4? and not also have it listed as support for 1 video card?

and yea I would at lease like to take my memory to 2000Mhz. the matter of 2-4 frames to me is a lot if I'm only getting 54FPS in a game the matter if it being able to be 58 just by O/C my memory is a lot to me.

Do not get me wrong all I plan to do is just get this build together, and then once everything shows no signs of failure or anything being wrong with it I'll start to O/C.

It's looks like the FX-4350 is on it's way to me along with the FX-6350 but I may get the 6350 before the 4350. As it is I'll just keep both and make sure they both work with no issues. To keep from having unused parts laying around I'll swiftly look into building another PC I'll opt to get a gigabyte 990FX board but I'll 1st not rush into it fast and maybe see if a deal shows up because I believe they are rather expensive. I need to keep an extra video card on hand like one to not game on but one just to have 'that's cheap' to help me get windows installed and so I actually could still use the PC but not really game on it until I get the right graphics card and whatnot.

I may just look for a deal on a 990FX if one doesn't show soon I'll just buy it any way like a top tier model from gigabyte swap it in to replace the 970 and have a spare 970 board and a CPU on hand to do another PC build at a later date and time.

I may be speaking a lot about a 990FX board but I hope the 970 suits my needs and allows for some good overclocks.

 

[bob4933]

You wont get 2-4 fps from overclocking that ram with that rig. Focus on your cpu and gpu overclocks before you stress about ram and timings (which can net you appreciable and noticeable gains)

 

[Mandrake4565]

So why does AMD say it supports 2, 3, or 4? and not also have it listed as support for 1 video card?

They assume you know that it will support 1.

and yea I would at lease like to take my memory to 2000Mhz. the matter of 2-4 frames to me is a lot if I'm only getting 54FPS in a game the matter if it being able to be 58 just by O/C my memory is a lot to me.

Sorry if I wasn't clear about overclocking the Ram. When I said you may see a 2-4 Fps gain I mean, that at best you may see a few Fps more, it is also game dependent. Here are two articles you can read, 1 and 2.

As far as the board goes, the Gigabyte 970 UD3 is a quality board and in most cases will OC a Fx chip as far as you will be able to take it on ambient cooling. No it may not have what is considered to be the newest and best chipset but it is still a Quality board.

 

[IronHands]

I'll go through with this build but it really bums me out knowing I could have used 1 video card on a 990fx chipset. I'm going to do what I can with this build and see about going ahead and buying a 990FX board or lookout for any price drops not to really rush into a 990FX chipset. I may just swap out the 970 and replace it with an 990fx

 

[trents]

So why does AMD say it supports 2, 3, or 4? and not also have it listed as support for 1 video card?

Because virtually all motherboards support at least a single PCI-e card and they were taking it for granted that people know that. But not all motherboards support more than one PCI-e video card. They stated the specs to make sure potential buyers knew the board possessed expandability GPU wise.

and yea I would at lease like to take my memory to 2000Mhz. the matter of 2-4 frames to me is a lot if I'm only getting 54FPS in a game the matter if it being able to be 58 just by O/C my memory is a lot to me.

The integrated memory controller of the FX CPU may not be strong enough to handle memory running at that high a frequency. It will do 1866, however. Ultra high speed memory seldom provides much if any performance benefit. A single CPU just cannot use that extra bandwidth. The data pipeline from memory to CPU is already flooded. But, the companies make a lot of money off those consumers who don't know better.

 

[IronHands]

I see that the 970 chipset has HT 2400 and a TDP of 13.6W
the 990FX has HT 2600 and a TDP of 19.6W

what are the advantages of having HT 2600 and a TDP of 19.6W?

 

[Theocnoob]

It makes no difference you can OC the 970 chipset to do the same thing.
You're looking at and worrying about nonsense.

Get the 970AUD3P and a decent single card.

 

[trents]

TDP of 13.6W? TDP of 19.6W? What are you referring to? Certainly not CPU wattage.

As far as the difference in HT frequency between 2400 and 2600 it will make no difference in performance.

 

[IronHands]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_chipsets

scroll towards the bottom and look for the 970, 990X, and 99FX chipset data or stats or whatever. It shows TDP for each chipset

970 13.6w
990X 14w
990FX 19.6w

 

[trents]

Must be the watts drawn by the chipset itself. No something we normally worry about but it does seem to reflect upon the greater abilities of the higher end chipsets as the wattage increases as you move from 970 to 990FX. Just another indicator that the 990FX motherboard is better than the 990X motherboard and the 990x is better than the 970 motherboard. But we already know that. You get what you pay for.

 

[IronHands]

Given that a 990FX chipset is better suited to handle a 225w processor along with 4 video cards along with a faster HT I assume the higher DTP is for things like that.

Seeing at how I'm Looking at things now and knowing what I know now I would have got a 990FX board used only 8GB of memory to save money to justify the higher price of the 990FX.

Looking around it seems that the top tier 990FX from gigabyte is out-of-stock. I wouldn't buy it right now even if it was in-stock. I'm just looking. I'll really try not to let it worry me.

As it looks it seems like I'll have a future of some un-used parts, I would return them but I figured I could see what clocks I'll get with it all. I'll maybe try different CPU coolers or something.

I also want to ask how would I plug a water cooler into a setup like this? Would I just run the CPU water pump power to the CPU power fan plug on the motherboard?

Sense I'm still waiting on a CPU to arrive I really have nothing together other than the pc case out of the box and the PSU sitting inside.

This case has a button on top that is a 3 speed fan controller. Can someone maybe if you know, please tell me what fans I would control with this button? Or is this button wired to the 2 front fans and the 1 rear? If or how it or what it is wired too what would be the power source for this 3 speed fan controller would it be the motherboard or PSU?

I feel like maybe I would find out either way if I just started placing everything in the case and not to wire anything but look and see what plugs into what and or how.

I would do so and I still may do so at any time speaking of just start screwing down everything inside the case only after I place them in, everything is still in-box besides the PSU.

I'm wondering about the 3 speed fan controller assuming I wire that to the power supply. I'm also wonder about a water cooler if I choose to get one how would that be wired?

This motherboard I believe has 2 fan power connectors one is cpu fan power so I assume it's for the cpu fan. What can I use the other one for?

Or do you run the power to any water pumps or liquid/water cooling to the PSU?

I'm asking because if I notice any improvement in FPS when I raise the cpu multiplier or volts or anything for the matter I would like to do what I can and cool everything down as much as possible and push it and I'm assuming water cooling would be the best. Given if I do so or with water cooling I would get another fan controller and just power/run the radiator fans with it. Unless I have a viable option to just run any extra fans and such along with the 3 speed fan controller already in place. Is it too unsafe to power any radiator fans with a fan controller? What if I forget to turn that fan speed and such up while or before I start gaming? Is there a safer option like controlling any radiator fans from the motherboard? So when temps raises the radiator fans speed up? Will the water pump speed up? Is it possible to have both radiator fans and cpu pumps under control from just using the motherboard? How would I get any of this done or how will it work? what powers what? outside of the 3 speed fan controller that's built into the case should I add another? if or for any extra fans like for a radiator? If I was to add a radiator would I even need to add any more fans? The case has two 140mm fans in the front I can replace the 2 140mm fans with 3 120mm fans. I can mount a radiator at the front of the case and/or top and maybe even one on the bottom. If I mount one at the front I might can use the 2 fans already in place or do the 120mm fan deal or how ever else.

These may be questions that I'll find answers to as I put this build together. I really would appreciate if anyone is taking the time to read this somewhat help me out like how so with my mind wondering about so much like how it can.

 

[Theocnoob]

Dont go nuts. No need for water cooling now. The Gigabyte 990FXAUd3P will suit you just fine. No need to spend more money. If you want a truly great board look at ASUS Sabretooth or CHV but honestly it is totally not needed. You should start with the Hyper 212 cooler and not worry about water cooling tonight.

 

[IronHands]

yea I know.

It's the GA-970A-UD3P that I have :-( /cry