• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Intel "Coffee Lake" Builders Thread

Page 50 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Hero @ $370 or prime A @ $190? Picked up prime yesterday but having fourth thoughts. Haven't built yet. No obvious features I want, but maybe there are some non obvious ones? To go along with 8700k, trident z 3200, and kraken x62. $370 seems outrageous. What's that, a dollar to chipset number conversion? The strix gaming mobos are around $250.

Anyway, prime fine? Return and get hero?

The hero is way over priced IMO. Personally, I would go with the strix z370-E gaming motherboard. It has great looks, the RGB is actually pretty cool and will look great with your trident ram. It's got great overclocking abilities for both ram and cpu obviously. At 209 for the board, I highly recommend it. I'm using it currently and it's a gorgeous board. The wifi thing seemed pointless to me, however I found a use for it. My internet went down and boom, I used my phone as a hotspot and I was good to go. Also, having the bluetooth is kind of nice to be able to send files back and forth between your phone without cables. I think you should look into it man.
 
What's the best (cheap) CFL 6-core CPU and board that I can get away with, possibly for a friend.

Thinking i5-8400 (that's a 6C/6T locked CPU, right?), and a cheap Gigabyte / Asus / ASRock Z370 ATX board.

Yeah, still selling my i3-8100 and ASRock ITX board, this build would be for a friend.
I just watched a video on this about the best cheapest z370 boards. I believe de8uer or however you spell the german overclocking guys name is. He voted for the MSI board and the Asus board if memory serves me right. Either way, it was a super interesting video. Showed how well memory o/c and how well the CPU's overclocked on the cheapest board from each vendor.
 
Hero @ $370 or prime A @ $190? Picked up prime yesterday but having fourth thoughts. Haven't built yet. No obvious features I want, but maybe there are some non obvious ones? To go along with 8700k, trident z 3200, and kraken x62. $370 seems outrageous. What's that, a dollar to chipset number conversion? The strix gaming mobos are around $250.

Anyway, prime fine? Return and get hero?
I used the equivalent of the Prime in my Sandy bridge system and it has been a good board. I did go with the Hero this time as I think it has better quality capacitors, better cooling/heatsinks, and I like the audio system. It's cheaper here though ~280
 
I guess I'm done building it.

lEWapYH.jpg
Um just noticed but are you not using any radiator in your loop?Or is it in a secret compartment in the back of your case or something?if your not using a radiator that chip is gonna fry..
 
Um just noticed but are you not using any radiator in your loop?Or is it in a secret compartment in the back of your case or something?if your not using a radiator that chip is gonna fry..

That's a TT Tower 900. It has room for 2x480mm rads in the back compartment.

It's also the size of a mini-fridge and 50lbs+ empty.
 
It actually has room for two 560mm radiators. A single 560mm is currently in there. The tube you see coming off the gpu goes through the lower left most grommet in to the back compartment. There is another running from the radiator to the reservoir that is obviously obscured.

Technically, if you wanted, you could put another 120 or 140mm in there without modding but 1360mm x140mm is a little nuts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IEC
I broke out the thermal camera to check out temps (and get an idea of the coolant temp). The caps and chokes over the CPU get toasty.

Ambient in here is ~23-24C right now.

y9EuDW5g.jpg

lC1ERH5.jpg


This one highlights anything under 35C in purple.

3YgTFfD.jpg
 
Last edited:
Also, I don't understand voltage on this CPU. Right now I'm running at "normal" with a -0.11V offset. HWinfo64 VIDs are still the same as always. I assume VID is meaningless and it's actually reporting VID (and so will always be the same at a given voltage). Vcore is showing ~1.2V now though, doing prime95 small FFT non-AVX. Is this voltage accurate? I know voltage reporting on these is a pain. Temps are typically 60C on the hottest core now (though I did get a 62C datapoint). Again, this is non AVX. My plan is to see how low I can go non-AVX, and then set a stable AVX offset once I reach that point. I figure that is the best option since AVX will never actually be used in my day to day. Only in stress tests/benchmarks. I've dropped about 4C and 15 core watts from the AVX workload though now by turning off auto mode and just going to offset, and still dropping voltage. I'm not sure how low it will go.

non-avx:

xsMbFzJ.png
 
Last edited:
Also, I don't understand voltage on this CPU. Right now I'm running at "normal" with a -0.09V offset. HWinfo64 VIDs are still the same as always. I assume VID is meaningless and it's actually reporting VID (and so will always be the same at a given voltage). Vcore is showing ~1.2V now though, doing prime95 small FFT non-AVX. Is this voltage accurate? I know voltage reporting on these is a pain. Temps are typically 60C on the hottest core now (though I did get a 62C datapoint). Again, this is non AVX. My plan is to see how low I can go non-AVX, and then set a stable AVX offset once I reach that point. I figure that is the best option since AVX will never actually be used in my day to day. Only in stress tests/benchmarks. I've dropped about 4C and 15 core watts from the AVX workload though now by turning off auto mode and just going to offset, and still dropping voltage. I'm not sure how low it will go.

What clockspeed is that 1.2V at?
 
I posted an image and edited the post you quoted a bit after another voltage drop. Actually have dropped the offset to -0.11 now.

here is AVX:

QsdaoKV.png
 
For reference my 8700k @ 4.7ghz using +20 offset and level 2 LLC is running around 1.28v under load with prime 26.6 small fts. Temps are in the mid 60s to low 70s. RAM is using xmp 3600mhz 16-16-16-36 but I've turned down VCCIO and SA a bit from where they were set and it's still stable. I don't think I'll go much higher than 4.7ghz so now it's just getting the RAM timings down a bit.

It's also stable under AVX workloads with those settings but with much more heat. I'll probably run a 3-4 avx offset.
 
Yeah. I am testing at -0.12V offset now. 58C max non-avx. Vcore per hwinfo is sitting at 1.166V, (says 1.21V max, I may need to adjust LLC and then drop it some more to compensate). CPU-Z says 1.164V. Temp max for hottest core has been 58C. AVX values are 1.232V, 1.236V, and 69C max. IBT seems to be 216.6 GFlops, though I get my temps with P95 since it uses more power.

-0.13V crashed.
 
Last edited:
Something to note is that if your running an ASUS motherboard, they have something called SVID Behavior. If this is set to auto, it will cause voltages to sky rocket. Set SVID Behavior to - Best Case Scenario. This will allow your voltage to be MUCH closer to what you set it to. Hope this helps out fellow asus owners, PLEASE do not run SVID Behavior on auto!
 
Something to note is that if your running an ASUS motherboard, they have something called SVID Behavior. If this is set to auto, it will cause voltages to sky rocket. Set SVID Behavior to - Best Case Scenario. This will allow your voltage to be MUCH closer to what you set it to. Hope this helps out fellow asus owners, PLEASE do not run SVID Behavior on auto!
Best choice is not to buy an AS.S motherboard. Haven't made that mitake since my i7 875K.
 
I've had nothing but good luck with Asus boards personally. Been using them for years, along with asrock and never had issues with either.
Gigabyte denied a RMA that I sent in years ago. They had no idea I would never buy another motherboard due to that, and I buy a LOT. Asus has been OK< but had a few bad ones, and ASRock I had one bad one. But ATM ASRock is my favorite, the Taichi series rocks.
 
It looks like it will do 5.3 Ghz with a 0 offset, but that's no fun. Until people know the safe voltages, I'll stick with 5.0 Ghz -0.11V (raised it 0.01V to allow uncore to run at 4.5 Ghz instead of 3.7 Ghz). Now on to memory I guess.
 
Everyone would probably want to murder me if they saw the way I decided to handle the (not having enough airflow) problem in the 900D lol. In other news, just got my hands on my second 8700K tonight. I will take some pictures during install this time and post up more results on the OC for it as well 🙂 I really hope this one clocks even better than the other one!!

I feel like I'm going to have some of the same airflow issues in the Core X9. I was using the PC last night, and I heard the fans ramp up a bit. I took a look at HwInfo, and it looks like the motherboard temperature, which the fans use, was hitting 40-45C. The PCH itself is in the 70s. The temperatures aren't bad, but they aren't great either. They're likely due to the loss of pressure as the air travels the 12"+ to get to the board itself.
 
It looks like it will do 5.3 Ghz with a 0 offset, but that's no fun. Until people know the safe voltages, I'll stick with 5.0 Ghz -0.11V (raised it 0.01V to allow uncore to run at 4.5 Ghz instead of 3.7 Ghz). Now on to memory I guess.
1.35volts for 24x7 use should be completely fine as long as temps are in line and obviously yours are. That is an insane chip you have, I'm so jealous lol.
 
Hmm.... My CPU fan profile was all jacked because one of my 4 fans wasn't hooked up to my splitter and was running 100% all the time. Now it's super quiet, but I have to re-do the profile to make sure coolant temps stay the same.
 
Gigabyte denied a RMA that I sent in years ago. They had no idea I would never buy another motherboard due to that, and I buy a LOT. Asus has been OK< but had a few bad ones, and ASRock I had one bad one. But ATM ASRock is my favorite, the Taichi series rocks.

I’ve had good luck with Gigabyte in the past BUT their Aorus X370 Gaming K5 probably cost them some future sales from me. I’m leaning toward the Z370 Taichi (love my X370 Taichi), the Asrock Z370 Extreme Gaming, or the Asus Maximus Hero.
 
I’ve had good luck with Gigabyte in the past BUT their Aorus X370 Gaming K5 probably cost them some future sales from me. I’m leaning toward the Z370 Taichi (love my X370 Taichi), the Asrock Z370 Extreme Gaming, or the Asus Maximus Hero.
I have the AM4 Taichi(X370?) and the TR4 Taichi (X399?) and love them both. Same features and lack of crap that I DON'T want, but good power delivery. I heard that Taichi translation was "only functional, no bells and whistles" or so to speak, and thats what they are.
 
Back
Top