Finally left AMD.

[SunnyD]

Not quite the same thing, but my Celeron E3200 vaporizes my Core i5/750's boot speed; the machines have the same software and startup stuff.

The boot sequence on my AM2+ was pretty damn long. Bootup to Win7 wasn't bad, shutting down on the other hand took forever.

 

[evolucion8]

I wonder why that happens? My laptop also boots faster than my main desktop. And both doesn't exceed the 39 process threshold in the task manager.

 

[Axon]

What are you guys setting your RAM at with the ASROCK extreme? My OCZ RAM is very finicky and I just can't get the timings right for a stable overclock beyond 3.3, even though I can post with the chip set at 4.0 (and indeed, generally use the system until I run blend in Prime 95). Here's an example:

Multi: 21
Blck: 160
Vcore: 1.25 (can get this OC with less easily, but when I push for higher blocks I usually bump this to 1.25)
RAM: 8-8-8-24 1.65v set
DDR3 800 (not sure on this, have to check at home)

Usual settings for everything else, HT disabled, Vdrop disabled, speedstep disabled.

Sometimes it crashes on me or just won't boot even at 3.3. Any suggestions? Should I just chuck this crap RAM? I've had borrowed Gskills in there and it passed blend for 24 hours at 180 blck....

 

[SunnyD]

What are you guys setting your RAM at with the ASROCK extreme? My OCZ RAM is very finicky and I just can't get the timings right for a stable overclock beyond 3.3, even though I can post with the chip set at 4.0 (and indeed, generally use the system until I run blend in Prime 95). Here's an example:

Multi: 21
Blck: 160
Vcore: 1.25 (can get this OC with less easily, but when I push for higher blocks I usually bump this to 1.25)
RAM: 8-8-8-24 1.65v set
DDR3 800 (not sure on this, have to check at home)

Usual settings for everything else, HT disabled, Vdrop disabled, speedstep disabled.

Sometimes it crashes on me or just won't boot even at 3.3. Any suggestions? Should I just chuck this crap RAM? I've had borrowed Gskills in there and it passed blend for 24 hours at 180 blck....

I've always been skeptical of OCZ stuff. For some reason they always rate higher voltages and worse timings than other brands, and I hear people (like you) having issues especially trying to get stuff set up initially.

I'm using some Mushkin ram rated 1.5v @ 1333MHz. I'm just letting auto settings do their thing. Haven't had a problem. Hell, I don't know what 3/4 of the settings do on this platform for that matter. All I know is shit works.

 

[klocwerk]

What are you guys setting your RAM at with the ASROCK extreme? My OCZ RAM is very finicky and I just can't get the timings right for a stable overclock beyond 3.3, even though I can post with the chip set at 4.0 (and indeed, generally use the system until I run blend in Prime 95). Here's an example:

Multi: 21
Blck: 160
Vcore: 1.25 (can get this OC with less easily, but when I push for higher blocks I usually bump this to 1.25)
RAM: 8-8-8-24 1.65v set
DDR3 800 (not sure on this, have to check at home)

Usual settings for everything else, HT disabled, Vdrop disabled, speedstep disabled.

Sometimes it crashes on me or just won't boot even at 3.3. Any suggestions? Should I just chuck this crap RAM? I've had borrowed Gskills in there and it passed blend for 24 hours at 180 blck....

LOTS of people are having trouble with OCZ ram in the AsRock board. Google for it and you'll find lots of similar reports.
Dropping back the firmware rev on the motherboard to 1.4 (iirc, off the top of my head) has fixed the stability issue for many people. I went with GSkill stuff with 9-9-9-24 instead for just this reason (and price).


In other news, I'm another AMD ship jumper. I'm not even convinced that they really have the bang-for-buck edge right now except in the budget range. Quite sad really. My last Intel chip was a p2-333.
Ah well, what goes around comes around.

 

[Axon]

LOTS of people are having trouble with OCZ ram in the AsRock board. Google for it and you'll find lots of similar reports.
Dropping back the firmware rev on the motherboard to 1.4 (iirc, off the top of my head) has fixed the stability issue for many people. I went with GSkill stuff with 9-9-9-24 instead for just this reason (and price).

Damn, thanks for the info fellas. I may just have to get some Gskill, as I'm currently running BIOS 1.4 and I just want my otherwise baller system to OC properly.

 

[Gillbot]

I've always been skeptical of OCZ stuff. For some reason they always rate higher voltages and worse timings than other brands, and I hear people (like you) having issues especially trying to get stuff set up initially.

I had a lot of issues with OCZ back in the early DDR2 era, I'm not a big fan of OCZ at all and I always pick them dead last unless I get a good deal.

LOTS of people are having trouble with OCZ ram in the AsRock board. Google for it and you'll find lots of similar reports.
Dropping back the firmware rev on the motherboard to 1.4 (iirc, off the top of my head) has fixed the stability issue for many people. I went with GSkill stuff with 9-9-9-24 instead for just this reason (and price).

My OCZ doesn't give me fits on my Asrock, but ironically it doesn't run as well as the generic OEM stuff I have either. I guess leaving it set to Auto has it's advantages.

 

[SunnyD]

Well, after messing around the last few days playing some games, I'm quite pleased. Ambient temps were significantly higher due to a warm spell, and the CPU under typical gaming never broke 60C. I'm a happy camper.

 

[Darkrage]

Well, after messing around the last few days playing some games, I'm quite pleased. Ambient temps were significantly higher due to a warm spell, and the CPU under typical gaming never broke 60C. I'm a happy camper.

So overall did you notice a real difference in game play (performance) going from AMD to i7?

 

[JimmiG]

Actually, the one thing that really inspired me to go with Intel is the CPU prowess and the platform. Seems like Intel's "enthusiast" platforms generally hang around a lot longer and can be upgraded across more generations of CPUs (like the upcoming Westmeres).

I disagree. You just happened to buy into DDR2 at the very end of its life cycle. Same would have happened with a DDR2 Intel board. Besides all Phenom II's still work with DDR2 boards, there's just a very slight performance disadvantage. My Asus M3A32-MVP from 2007 can be upgraded with even the latest 125W Ph-II 965 with just a BIOS update...

Same can't be said about Core i7's and S775 boards... Also Intel has two separate sockets for different segments while the AM3 socket is used for everything from single-core Semprons to the Ph-II X4 (and probably X6 later).

 

[SunnyD]

So overall did you notice a real difference in game play (performance) going from AMD to i7?

Not too certain. Dirt 2, the only graphically intensive game I've installed since upgrading runs a fluid 60fps (vsync). Never ran it on my AMD.

I disagree. You just happened to buy into DDR2 at the very end of its life cycle. Same would have happened with a DDR2 Intel board. Besides all Phenom II's still work with DDR2 boards, there's just a very slight performance disadvantage. My Asus M3A32-MVP from 2007 can be upgraded with even the latest 125W Ph-II 965 with just a BIOS update...

Same can't be said about Core i7's and S775 boards... Also Intel has two separate sockets for different segments while the AM3 socket is used for everything from single-core Semprons to the Ph-II X4 (and probably X6 later).

As far as I know, upcoming chip generations from AMD from here out will not work on AM2/AM2+, though this may have changed. I know AMD is even moving away from AM3 in the relatively near future as well. That said, there was little if any reason to go from a 940BE to a 965, so I figured I'd go to the current top end platform. Just looking at the roadmaps, LGA1366 will be around a good deal longer than AM3 will at this point.