i7-4930K upgrade or hold out till Haswell-E

[Ajay57]

ED: I am just grinning from ear to ear about your last post!! Don't bother me none at all, just having some fun with ya all, as they say lol!! As for the Mobo 100% that 2 ram slots went down and in the box for RMA Friday.

As for the Ram i just posted in this thread, i hate to admit i had another or second problem, which has now been identified. And dealt with hence the post from my good friend Johan, it comes about from sitting down and reading your Manual.

Which i would like you advise everyone to do ED.

Thanks.

AJ.

 

[Woomack]

Nice to hear and Congrats on the successful up grade, just did nearly the same here as well!! I am looking at Ram for my new Platform here, and decided to go with G.SKILL instead.

This is the set below.

1, G.SKILL RIPJAWS Z SERIES 1866 9.0 16GB KIT QUAD CHANNEL, DESIGNED FOR X79 PLATFORMS (F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL).

If you need an tips on Overclocking the Asus P9X79 just let me know!!

EDIT: Whats that about 4960X ED??? Hmmm!

Respectfully,

AJ.

Your Avexir is better than these G.Skills ... that 1 stick is dead or what ?
Do you really want to change 2400 10-12-12 Avexir to 1866 9-10-9 G.Skill ?
I mean G.Skill is great RAM but it won't be faster and if you want G.Skill for benching then at least look at 2133 or higher kits that aren't much more expensive.

Here is my thread about 2133 9-11-10-28 4x4GB RipjawsZ kit ( also weird there are no comments in this thread as this kit is great ):
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=739934

 

[TerranBrackiatt]

nice rig there microfire. i chose the "now" option myself, instead of the "waiting" option. and sadly just "now" got around to replacing the 3930k i burnt out 2 months ago...

i also just ordered up some RipjawsZ 2400 for the 4930k. 4x8G kit. thinking about tryin out that ASUS RAMdisk software, though to be honest... i don't know if any of the games i have (that would actually benefit from it) would fit on 16GB RAMdisk...

thanks for your threads Woomack. they've helped me choose RAM a few times now.

 

[Woomack]

Remember that RAM Disk will keep data only when PC is turned on. When you restart PC then you lose all data. I don't know if this new software is somehow moving files from hdd to ram disk and back or make some copy.
The only games that really use fast drives like SSD or RAM disk are online games and mainly mmorpg where is a lot of other players on the screen and maps are big. I haven't seen any difference in most other games.

I think since some posts were are slightly out of topic

 

[microfire]

Just a an update for those who might be looking at this thread and thinking about doing the same.

Prime95 stable at 4.375GHz with 1.365v, although this is right on the edge of stability, and does generate a lot of heat with heavy power consumption. I have a sneaking feeling that some shutdowns that did not complete correctly are due to the high overclock, and a couple of times playing games might of caused a rare lockup

Backed down the overclock to 4.25GHz with 1.275v, which allows temps to drop around 15-20c lower. Appears to be stable at this point, with more reasonable heat and power consumption. Considering that this is only 125MHz less than the above, is a good trade off to lose almost 0.1v less on the vcore.

Could only get into windows with ~1.45v for 4.5GHz, and this in no shape or form was stable, actually super unstable.

And to be realistic, keeping clock speed on my sample somewhere between 4.0 - 4.2GHz might be the ideal point for stability.
And there is a possibility to shave off a little more voltage closer to 4.0GHz, temps will go down more, should keep it in the super safe zone with certain stability for 24/7 usage.

btw. I would recommend the usage of the 125MHz strap, as I have found this promotes overclocking and could have a follow on affect of better stability. I am thinking it might have something to do with the memory ratio divider being of what would have been at the 100MHz strap, which would be 1333MHz, which in turn works out to be at the 125MHz strap 1666MHz when scaled up.

 

[Ajay57]

You could try dropping your Ram down to 16gb, but still run it as a Quad channel set up as this has been mentioned this can help a bit!

Also i found with my own set up that after i had OC my ram and set up the timings it helped to give more stability to the CPU. Which in turn helped more to reduce my Vcore from 1.400v to 1.200v, it might be possible to do the same by dialing in your ram settings as well!

For half a day's work its at least worth a try, to see what the results would be overall. Here is my thread below and how i went about it, i hope it could give you a few pointers in the right direction!!

1, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743318

Good luck and i hope it helps you, please come back and kindly let me know!!

Respectfully,

AJ.

 

[microfire]

You could try dropping your Ram down to 16gb, but still run it as a Quad channel set up as this has been mentioned this can help a bit!

Also i found with my own set up that after i had OC my ram and set up the timings it helped to give more stability to the CPU. Which in turn helped more to reduce my Vcore from 1.400v to 1.200v, it might be possible to do the same by dialing in your ram settings as well!

For half a day's work its at least worth a try, to see what the results would be overall. Here is my thread below and how i went about it, i hope it could give you a few pointers in the right direction!!

1, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743318

Good luck and i hope it helps you, please come back and kindly let me know!!

Respectfully,

AJ.

I have only just invested in an extra 16GB set when I purchased the CPU only 2 weeks ago, and with RAM prices back up on the high side I am not willing to drop it out for the sake of maybe an extra 100-200MHz. Although thanks, I will keep it in mind though if I want to try for higher. Pretty hard to get at the RAM now that I have the NH-D14 cooler covering it.

Lower voltage at the same speed is something I would still like. For me anyway, I don't really want to settle for anything less than 4.2GHz, and that I have already.

Biggest issue I have now, is the system is not waking up from sleep or hibernation, which is not good, and BSOD when trying to wake. Maybe it is the strap at 125MHz doing this, I am not sure, can't remember have any issues with sleep before with the 3820

I have scanned through and tried to understand what you actually did, but just seems like you lowered your speed/timings, which I have already done many times before, doesn't have any affect for me on the CPU.
Not sure how you got there, kind of think that you were just dialling in at a normal voltage for your processor, as 1.4v seemed overall excessive for 4.2GHz.
Can you explain in a nut shell what I need to set in this thread that may result in lower voltage for my CPU?

btw. I running my RAM at pretty much stock speed, although a very tiny overclock of 4%, and I also use XMP to dial in the optimal profile for the memory timings.

 

[Ajay57]

First of all i am new @ this as well, so what i have understood is that the first step, you need to find a stable OC. Which could be lower than the one your using right now!!

Then OC and tweak your ram for max efficiency and the only changes you make is to your ram timings and Sub settings. This whole process can take a whole day to get it right and once you do i found it helped me.

If not just post a thread like i did in the Ram Section and maybe Woomack would also help you!! You will need these tools to help you!

1, Maxxmem

2, Memtweak it. This could work or not with your P9X79!!

3, And you Memory section in CPU-Z.

Last but just as important is manually put all your values into the Bios, that is the main and Sub settings as well.

Good Luck AJ.

 

[EarthDog]

I have scanned through and tried to understand what you actually did, but just seems like you lowered your speed/timings, which I have already done many times before, doesn't have any affect for me on the CPU.
Not sure how you got there, kind of think that you were just dialing in at a normal voltage for your processor, as 1.4v seemed overall excessive for 4.2GHz..

This is exactly right. Memory has nothing to do with core voltage. The only way you can lower core voltage because of memory is if in trying to find stability for the core, you raised it up when it wasn't needed in the first place (which is what happened there). It was called adjusting the wrong thing initially and bringing it back to earth. Basically, it is now dialed in right, which could have been done at any time. Correlation is not causation...

If you jumped up to 32gb, you may need to adjust IMC related voltages (which is not vcore).

Straps also have nothing to do with core voltage. 4.2Ghz is 4.2Ghz to the CPU when talking in the context of core voltages.

As far as your sleep/hibernation issue. I recall that being a know issue(????). Disable it. If you leave your PC on 24/7, shut it off. You can try the dropping the strap and going multiplier only...just not convinced it will work personally.

 

[Ajay57]

May i ask a question to help me understand this whole thing ED???

If you dial in your RAM and make your CPU and everything else more stable, would that not then allow you to reduce your Vcore, that was being used in someway to compensate for the instability??

The way i looked at this was the more stable things become, this then allows you to reduce the voltage across the CPU!! In electrical terms Voltage is pressure applied to something to make it behave in a certain way.

Regards,

AJ.

 

[EarthDog]

Dialing in your ram has nothing to do with cpu core stability. Your cpu cores can be stable with your ram being the cause of instability. Your ram can be stable but cpu cores unstable. They both can be unstable. In your case, the cores were stable, but ram was not.

If you have ram instability, adjusting vcore has no affect on its stability. Adjusting vdimm and other associated imc voltages will. Basically, what happens is people compensate with using the wrong voltage which in turn makes them believe that it was a direct effect when they figure that part out. It's why all guides tell you to figure out one while the other is at stock (one at a time). Notice how your top end voltage is the same?

So in summary, the only way you can lower core voltage because of unstable memory is if you made a mistake and raised vcore. A .2v difference was correcting a mistake. So if one didn't raise the vcore by mistake, they wouldn't need to lower it once the memory was stable...

 

[microfire]

I kind of figure the same about the situation, as EarthDog has said.

I am not new to this and doing this stuff, and have been tweaking away at a personal level for years, the only thing new is the hardware each time I return to it, from being caught up on my other side projects.

Basically what a certain CPU does at a certain voltage for that particular sample will remain constant, as long as the CPU does not start to degrade in anyway.
Personally I have never had a CPU degrade on me.

I believe I have found the limitations of my sample around the vcore, there isn't much remaining to get out of it.

Did not know there is a sleep and hibernation issues with the P9X79 board, be it hardware or UEFI problem. Kind of sucks, as programs that have been open cache in RAM the longer I run the system, which makes for a better experience. Not only that, I like to place in sleep mode and then actually go to sleep myself and return where I was the day before in a instant.

btw. I have ordered a refurb Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 to throw in my existing i7-3820 that no one want to buy (here where I am anyway) for the money I am asking. Rather than giving it away, I found the refurb board to run it in for cheap. Appears that these motherboards are poor overclocks but are underrated for the excellent feature they have for the price, also has mosfets called IR3550, which appear to be freaking awesome, so sweet power delivery system.

This guy sum it up pretty dam well, and I actually learn some good stuff from this. Also I was looking at this board as a cheap alternative, after seeing this summary basically jump in an grabbed the refurb. Fingers crossed that for what ever reason it was return the issue(s) it had were fixed, its my first refurb ever.

This is more specific about the IR3550, also some other ones also:

 

[Ajay57]

Thanks for taking the time out for answering my question, even though it could be a little Naive etc. As i said before your always willing to learn new things on this forum.

AJ.

 

[microfire]

The refurb Gigabyte X79-UP4 turn up today, all the package was unopened including the I/O plate, kind of says it hasn't been used and more likely just opened. Found there was no dust on the motherboard, so it's sweet as, and it's a revision 1.1, all up was about $160usd.

Excellent review that outlines the power delivery system of this motherboard.

Man this thing is awesome, only had it a few hours, and it overclocks my ultra cheap value RAM to 2133 with CL11 in quad channel.
CPU does 4.3GHz easy, but I did have question marks around how stable it actually was in the Asus board. Sometimes it could be priming for hour, then at a later date when just idling along, the thing would suffer Kernel Power Failure. Will be good to see how these IR3550 mosfet's add to the stability of the 3820.

For now I am just using my old i7-3820 but later I think if all keeps going well I be moving the i7-4930K into this thing.

What else is cool about the UP4 is the two PCI Express 3.0 x16/x16 electrically wired slots, that are spaced right away from each other, and finally the top card can breath!

 

[Ajay57]

Congrats on that sometimes you do get lucky with these OPEN BOX items, sounds like you got yourself a really gem!!

AJ.

 

[microfire]

Congrats on that sometimes you do get lucky with these OPEN BOX items, sounds like you got yourself a really gem!!

AJ.

Found out later on during the night, slot 3 dim was not working, likely why it overclocked so high, as it was on triple channel.

Lesson learnt, even though I am sure the X79-UP4 is a nice board, do not buy anything refurbished.
Appears that the supplier gave me a faulty motherboard with unopened packaging accessories. My guess is they did bother to test it properly and then jammed it in a box and labelled refurbished.

 

[Ajay57]

Any chance you could send this back and sort out the problem with the Ram slot???

GL.

AJ.

 

[EarthDog]

Damn... sorry about your luck there. You should be able to return it though at least. I on the other hand have had good luck with open box items. I think I am 5/5 on them actually. But there is always that increased risk when buying open box.

 

[microfire]

Any chance you could send this back and sort out the problem with the Ram slot???

GL.

AJ.

I called them the next day after wrestling with it till about 1am in the morning trying to find a work around, like BIOS updates, settings, different RAM sets, but nothing worked, one of the primary quad slots is faulty.

They said they could only refund my money and had no refurbished units to replace with (not that I would want another one after that episode, especially when they are repackaging faulty goods). And they were not going to replace with a new unit. Pretty slack service really, and a waste of my time.

Is a shame, as its a very nice board, although I did think about it, do I really need it, as I will still go for Haswell-E and move my current flagship system into that spot.

I don't actually need Haswell-E, it just a matter of wanting it, but being a enthusiast, a lot of us around here will like to grab it when it's out.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Shoot, get your money back and sell it on eBay just noting that one slot doesn't work.