Upgrade bug driving me nuts

[mjw21a]

Well, I've been trying to hold out for Piledriver to be released although seeing as there's uncertainty as to whether it will work with my mainboard maybe I shouldn't bother..... What does everyone else think?

Anyway, I was wondering whether the FX-8120 would be a good choice if I can't wait. If kept at the same volts as an 8150 can it be clocked the same?

Roughly how far away is Piledriver. I keep hearing late Q2/early Q3 so does that mean June-Sept release?

I know what I'm asking is a stupid question..... It's just I'm desperate to upgrade stuff that I don't need to.....

 

[RGone]

No matter what is given as a "release" date there is ABSOLUTELY not assurance that the date is real. Never was for BD and no reason to think different for PD.

8120/8150 clock about the same depending purely on how good your partcular cpu really is.

About it.

 

[mjw21a]

Hmmmm, maybe I'll pick up an FX-8120 to bide me over this weekend, then upgrade again when PD comes out

 

[mjw21a]

Ok, I've ordered the FX-8120. Fun times ahead

 

[RGone]

Luck to you man. Have some fun.

 

[ssjwizard]

The FX has been a real learning experience for me. There behavior is very dynamic which is something I wasnt used to. I see people going after overclocks and cranking the vCore as if it were a PH-II alot(I did this on my first attempt), but progressive tuning of my system over the past few months has really instilled how little vCore it takes at idle to maintain high clocks on these chips. I am running my 8120 @ 4.2Ghz on a meek 1.25v and unless I am really hammering on the CPU LLC never boosts that over 1.29v and its perfectly stable.

 

[mjw21a]

Hmmmm, whats your power draw? Thats something everyone pays out on is how much juice they go through overclocked. I was just going to clock this to the same speed as the FX-8150 on stock volts....

 

[ssjwizard]

HW monitor claims 192w which is the same thing it said when I had it clocked at 4.8ghz running benchmarks on 1.4v(probably didnt need that much vCore) so I call BS on that number. I dont really have any way to measure the current my rig uses since I dont have an ammeter at the moment.

 

[mjw21a]

Hmmmm, my 550W PSU should be fine for a bit over OC'ing I think. Most likely the limiting factor will be the mainboard, I've heard it's not as good a Gigabyte's -UD3's for clocking.

 

[ssjwizard]

I was able to push my 8120 to 5.3ghz on my 990Xa and I havent tried to see my max clock speed on the 990FXa. I imagine a reasonable 4-4.4ghz clock on any motherboard with decent power delivery. A cheaper 4phase board would probably have issues with an overclocked 8120 on lower vCores and require more voltage. Your 970 has asus 8 phase digi+ VRM which should be pretty beefy if its anything like the 990 sabertooth I had.

 

[mjw21a]

Cool, that puts my mind at rest there. My PSU is one of the new Earthwatts Platinum series so I think 550w should do the trick since I've only 1x video card. I'll be happy with an overclock of around 4GHz or so, it's a nice round number.

 

[mjw21a]

Well, dropped in my new FX-8120 and set auto clock on in BIOS, TurboV switch + EPU switch on the mainboard. Seems just that little bit snappier than my Thuban was in general use once I'd applied the Microsoft FX specific hot fixes.

Got to say I'm happy with things. It's cruzing at a basic 4GHz auto overclock so does everything I need it to do. If I ever need more I'll adjust settings manually.

 

[Cigarsmoker]

It's cruzing at a basic 4GHz auto overclock so does everything I need it to do. If I ever need more I'll adjust settings manually.

Need? What's need got to do with it? I give you 2 days Mr. Patience before you start tinkering again.

 

[mjw21a]

Yeah, well it's disabled my cheapie Kingmax DDR1333 RAM but left my G.Skill DDR1600 running so I've decided I need to replace my RAM. I've posted over in the memory section asking people about the stuff I'm looking at. I'm thinking 16GB G.Skill DDR2133 would be nice

It's cheap enough at $135 Australian. Yes, I know I've never yet used 4GB though it would be nice to have

BTW: Turned off the EPU, was slowing down BF3 every now and again.

 

[mjw21a]

Well, the upgrade has ended up being a FX-8120 + 16GB G.Skill DDR2133.... Now finding I sometimes get noise through my audio at low volumes so getting an external optical DAC/amp for headphones rather than using an internal sound card.

 

[Frakk]

Oh nice... hows it going with that new toy? BTW.. you pretty much have the same MOBO as me now good isn't it?

 

[mjw21a]

Lol, I still get far less use of the main rig than from the old Core2Dua running Linux I have downstairs in the living room. It covers all my internet needs and Linux boots about as fast without an SSD too.....

Still, once the external DAC has arrived, I may consider getting a 27" screen to replace the 32" TV. Computer monitors just have far better picture quality...... I wish I'd done this in the first place. It would have been cheaper.

I've not really done much regarding overclocking. I simply let it auto overclock in the UEFI interface, it set it to 4GHz and the RAM to DDR2000, seems to run fine. Interestingly some things ran faster on my old Thuban, while the odd thing runs faster on the FX-8120. Not terribly worried though as either fit my needs just fine and this will be a good fill in until the release of Piledriver.

 

[Frakk]

Yeah monitor have a smaller pixel dots then TV's, you tend notice the difference getting close to TV's, just how close are you to your 32" tv while on the computer?

 

[mjw21a]

It's about a foot away. A bigger screen does seem great for seeing enemies in BF3 though.... Strangely easier if you're sitting further back though.

 

[Frakk]

Bloody Hell, so you have to twist your head around to see whats where?

I'm running a 22" LG IPS Monitor (don't bother) Unlike LCD it really can be viewed from any angle but i'm not impressed by it. the picture quality is good, its sharp and the contrast is very good, Black is pitch black and white is white, the problem with it is its not perfectly clear. there seems to be a (very) slight frosting over the screen... and the touch sensitive controls are crap because there is no feel or feedback... you have to look where you putting your fingers and sort of thumble around there to make it do stuff... its junk.

My next Monitor will be a 24" Iiyama.

[edit] Mate you don't see your enimies in BF3 at the best of times