Recent content by Tristor

Another point of view, which is why I delidded for my relatively "mediocre" 24/7 OC of 4.4GHz, is that delidding allowed me to drop temps far enough to also drop voltages. For me, it was more about longevity and stability. The cooler the chip runs at load, the better, period. It did have the...

Honestly, the least extreme thing about doing direct-to-die cooling is modifying the socket retaining bracket. Also, the risk is very low of damaging your CPU if you use the vise/hammer method, rather than the razor blade method of delidding. The razor blade method is unnecessarily risky and...

If you're comparing X99 to X58 or X79, then yes, it's definitely worth it. If you're comparing it to Z97, then that's really just a matter of opinion. I would have said X79 wasn't worth it compared to the Z77/Z87 stuff, but I think X99 as a platform is definitely worth it compared to Z97, just...

I'm going to wait to see what Xeon support looks like on the X99 boards, since I'd like one of the E5-v3 Xeons for my next workstation build. It's looking like Asus is likely a winner though, although EVGA may still yet be in the running for me.

That's why announcements like this are really interesting: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184828-intel-unveils-new-xeon-chip-with-integrated-fpga-touts-20x-performance-boost It provides an opportunity for existing x86-centric workloads to be accelerated through custom logic in the FPGA...

Performance improvements are still happening, just not in traditional ways (increasing clock speed, IPCs). Instead we're seeing focuses on scheduler improvements and threading. If you look at things like the OpenPower/Power8 architecture where you've got 8 threads per core versus Intel's...

I upgraded from 2x 128GB Samsung 830s to 2x240GB Sandisk Extreme IIs recently in my main rig. Even comparing the E2s to the 830s after I had done a secure wipe on the 830s, the E2s are obviously and noticeably faster. I'm not sure if it'd be noticeable for most people though, but where I most...

XTU is not sufficient to test stability. It's more of a benchmark than a stability test. Prime95 is also not sufficient. You need to run Intel Optimized Linpack, which will hit every single part of the math pipeline which allows you to truly stress the system under AVX2 loads and ensure full...

Make sure the backplate is not shorting out anything on the back of the mobo. As a general precaution I usually use electrical tape and cover the back of the mobo around the CPU socket completely within the cut-out of the mobo tray before installing the backplate to a cooler. I've had numerous...

There is no way I would ever purchase a Kingston SSD given their track record. They had a short run where they were acceptable, but the ruined that with their bad behavior. Your system's long-term reliability is worth the extra $20 spot.

Congratulations, that's definitely a good price, at least $200 under MSRP.

I was one of the 2nd group of people invited to get Google Glass and I turned it down. While I find the technology very exciting and at some point I want something similar, I have three things I find significantly limiting with Glass: 1) I wear glasses for my vision and Glass isn't usable with...

While hardware is slow to advance in the consumer space, there is still a ton of exciting work being done in R&D and we are seeing more of this being released in enterprise/scientific computing before consumer spaces. Since I get to work on both sides of the equation, I still find hardware...

I'm overjoyed at the improvements they were able to make in GM107, but I'd like to see those same improvements extrapolated out to a true big die GPU and encompassed in a die shrink. The additional perf/watt a die shrink will net us should make such a GPU a worthwhile upgrade over the current...

Every system I own has a minimum of a single stand-alone SSD drive, any non-mobile devices have 2 SSDs in RAID0 minimum, I don't store any media on any systems except for a file server in the house. SSDs are cheap enough and large enough that there's no reason to ever have HDDs in anything...