Need some advice on new build parts to reach 5GHz

[bioprez]

Hey Guys,

I am in the process of buying parts for my new rig that i want to OC as high as possible, as my current Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz aint cutting it anymore lol for the work i do.

I'm trying to reach 5 GHz stable or as close as i can get - and yes i need this power, i do everything from software engineering to graphics design to video editing, plus gaming...and am just looking to have top notch performance across the board now that i have some money to spend within reason.

Here is what i have so far on hand:

Case: Antec 900 (also have a Thermaltake Armor VA8000B if more room is needed)

PS: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W

CPU: Core i7 2600k

Heatsink: Corsair H80 CWCH80 Liquid CPU Cooler

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe (en route)


And here is what i need advice picking:

Video: Thinking GTX560 Ti? (don't think the 570 is worth the extra $120ish)

RAM: ???? Not sure what the best RAM is out these days, any advice? Looking for top notch here.

SSD - Really stuck on this one...the Kingston HyperX SH100S3/240G looks great but pricey at $450...would it be better to get (2) 120GB SSD's and run in Raid 0? Any other recommended brands?

HD - Looking for 2TB - Not sure which is best...Samsung Spinpoint F4, Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000, or something else?

Let me know if you guys have any advice on what i should get, especially with the RAM and SSD - really not sure on these two. Some solid help here from you experts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Mark

 

[Idontcare]

You can skim through this thread to see what I had to do to be 5GHz stable with my 2600K.

I don't think you'll get there with the H80. I had to use a lapped 2600K with a lapped H100 w/4 fans in push-pull running at max just to be 5GHz stable with LinX and not hit the thermal limit of 98C.

If you don't go with the max cooling, and consider lapping, then you may have to lower your expectations to something like 4.7-4.8GHz tops. It depends on your CPU too, of course.

 

[Arachnotronic]

EDIT: Nvm!

G.Skill makes good RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231312

 

[bioprez]

You can skim through this thread to see what I had to do to be 5GHz stable with my 2600K.

I don't think you'll get there with the H80. I had to use a lapped 2600K with a lapped H100 w/4 fans in push-pull running at max just to be 5GHz stable with LinX and not hit the thermal limit of 98C.

If you don't go with the max cooling, and consider lapping, then you may have to lower your expectations to something like 4.7-4.8GHz tops. It depends on your CPU too, of course.

Thanks man, looks like you did some serious testing! Honestly if i could get 4.7+ ill be happy...just want this new rig to be as fast as possible and stable. Every second i save doing work makes me so much more efficient.

I got the H80 b/c it was only $70, cheaper than the NH-D14. Got 13 fans in my case, not looking forward to reversing them all but will have to do it.

Also will definitely lap both surfaces, i did it for my current build, noticed about 2-4 degrees cooler depending on the core after doing so. Didn't pay much attention to it being level though will have have a good look at that and follow the way you did it with the sharpie.

Quick question - what grit do you think i stop at? yours looks like a mirror lol i think i stopped at 400 last time...do i really need to go all the way up to 3000?

Thanks for your input.

EDIT: Nvm!

G.Skill makes good RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231312

Yea i was looking at GSkill...seemed to hear that name come up alot. I guess my main question with the RAM is given that i have a Z68 board, what is the fastest RAM i should buy without being a waste? DDR3 1333? Specs for the board say it supports up to DDR 2200...not sure on this one will have to look into it more.

 

[Rifter]

Ditch the H80 and go for a top tier air cooler(NH-D14, Silver arrow, etc) or go with a real water setup. And lap both heatsink/waterblock and CPU. Then you might have a shot at 5Ghz.

As for lapping 400 is not near enough, you want 2000 grit or even higher.

 

[Idontcare]

BTW, a belated welcome to the forums bioprez! :thumbsup:

Thanks man, looks like you did some serious testing! Honestly if i could get 4.7+ ill be happy...just want this new rig to be as fast as possible and stable. Every second i save doing work makes me so much more efficient.

I got the H80 b/c it was only $70, cheaper than the NH-D14. Got 13 fans in my case, not looking forward to reversing them all but will have to do it.

Also will definitely lap both surfaces, i did it for my current build, noticed about 2-4 degrees cooler depending on the core after doing so. Didn't pay much attention to it being level though will have have a good look at that and follow the way you did it with the sharpie.

Quick question - what grit do you think i stop at? yours looks like a mirror lol i think i stopped at 400 last time...do i really need to go all the way up to 3000?

Thanks for your input.

Yeah you'll be fine then. I went to 3000grit just for fun, certainly anything higher than 800 grit is totally needless for cooling purposes alone IMO.

Ditch the H80 and go for a top tier air cooler(NH-D14, Silver arrow, etc) or go with a real water setup. And lap both heatsink/waterblock and CPU. Then you might have a shot at 5Ghz.

As for lapping 400 is not near enough, you want 2000 grit or even higher.

He's bought the H80 already, so that goose is cooked.

You really think 2000grit is needed? I never checked to see how the cooling improved, was going for mirror looks, but lapping itself is really just done to get rid of the massive surface warping that can happen. The little scratches that are left from 400grit aren't likely to be causing that much thermal resistance, are they? (I don't know, just guessing)

 

[mrjoltcola]

It varies greatly by chip.

1) Some chips wont go 5.0Ghz at any reasonable voltage. They have a stability wall. So you could put a $200 cooler on it and still max at 4.8Ghz.
2) A lot of chips require 1.50-1.52v to get to 5.0Ghz and a top-notch cooler to run it (as Idontcare's thread shows).
3) A small number of top bin chips go stable with less than 1.45v and run cool enough at 5.0Ghz to use a $35 Hyper 212+ EVO cooler.

Find out what sort of chip you have first, before deciding whether your cooler is appropriate. Most likely it will be adequate but in some cases it wont matter.

 

[bioprez]

BTW, a belated welcome to the forums bioprez!

Yeah you'll be fine then. I went to 3000grit just for fun, certainly anything higher than 800 grit is totally needless for cooling purposes alone IMO.

He's bought the H80 already, so that goose is cooked.

You really think 2000grit is needed? I never checked to see how the cooling improved, was going for mirror looks, but lapping itself is really just done to get rid of the massive surface warping that can happen. The little scratches that are left from 400grit aren't likely to be causing that much thermal resistance, are they? (I don't know, just guessing)

Thanks for the welcome! I swear i was a member on this forum back in college like around 2005 used to always buy / sell stuff on here not sure why my posts resetted to 0. But haven't been around in a while since my last rig i built in 2007 maybe that's why.

When i did my Q6600 and Heatsink with the 400 grit it definitely helped even though i was clueless about surface warping back then...

IDC maybe if you have some more spare time you can do a grit test for temps and finding the optimal grit lol jk. Your research was great though i learned alot reading that thread, def. going to ditch my AC3 paste and get something better no clue why i thought that was the best. Then again i'm kinda out of the OC game haven't done a build since 2007 so i have some studying up to do...should be fun though i enjoy doing it...getting antsy just thinking about all the parts being here lol.

It varies greatly by chip.

1) Some chips wont go 5.0Ghz at any reasonable voltage. They have a stability wall. So you could put a $200 cooler on it and still max at 4.8Ghz.
2) A lot of chips require 1.50-1.52v to get to 5.0Ghz and a top-notch cooler to run it (as Idontcare's thread shows).
3) A small number of top bin chips go stable with less than 1.45v and run cool enough at 5.0Ghz to use a $35 Hyper 212+ EVO cooler.

Find out what sort of chip you have first, before deciding whether your cooler is appropriate. Most likely it will be adequate but in some cases it wont matter.

Thanks for the input. For the H80 i guess i will just give it a shot and see how well i can do with it as i already have it and am getting anxious staring at half the parts lol. If no good i can sell it those units have pretty high resale value.

My question for you is, how to find out what sort of chip you have? Do you just have to test it and monitor temps as you increase settings, or is there certain serial numbers / steppings that OC better than others as in the case with the Q6600? Let me know, thanks!

 

[Rifter]

BTW, a belated welcome to the forums bioprez! :thumbsup:



Yeah you'll be fine then. I went to 3000grit just for fun, certainly anything higher than 800 grit is totally needless for cooling purposes alone IMO.



He's bought the H80 already, so that goose is cooked.

You really think 2000grit is needed? I never checked to see how the cooling improved, was going for mirror looks, but lapping itself is really just done to get rid of the massive surface warping that can happen. The little scratches that are left from 400grit aren't likely to be causing that much thermal resistance, are they? (I don't know, just guessing)

I always went to mirror polish which i found to be between 1000-2000 grit for most metals. You might be right though the return in lower temps from your time investement to polish it probably gets alot lower after 400 grit.

 

[mrjoltcola]

My question for you is, how to find out what sort of chip you have? Do you just have to test it and monitor temps as you increase settings, or is there certain serial numbers / steppings that OC better than others as in the case with the Q6600? Let me know, thanks!

Yes. That is the hobby of overclocking - each chip has a voltage and clockspeed at which it runs best, given your constraints or requirements.

Everyone has their own method, here is mine.

First, run a load test at stock speed to make sure your cooler is working well.

Then bump up to something conservative, like 46x multiplier, and 1.325v. Tweak the voltage up if needed to get Prime95 stable at 46x. That will give you an idea of where your chip stands and how the temperatures are looking. This is mainly just to make sure temperatures aren't getting crazy too fast, and also will let you know if you have a particularly low-clocking chip. If you find yourself getting into voltages like 1.4v just to get 46x stable, either check your other BIOS settings, or change your expectations about 50x. Most chips will go 48x on a good board.

Then I make the jump right to 50x, and start working voltages up / down as needed. With a 2600K, usually you can expect 1.48v or higher for a 50x stable, but there are enough chips that go stable at much lower voltages that I start with 1.400v for my first 50x run, jump to 1.425v, then 1.450v, then 1.475v. (If I hit 1.500v, I'm done anyway) When I finally get a couple of successful Prime95 runs, then I change to fine adjustments of 0.005v which takes longer and could take a couple of days to finally settle on the precise stable voltage.

Read Idontcare's sticky post in this same forum, about stability testing, it has a good bit of info.

Without listing my own chips, I'll just say I've found that the good Sandy Bridge overclockers don't need crazy cooling, and the ones that do need crazy cooling are probably running too much voltage for long-term comfort, and I'd rather run them at 1.35v at whatever speed they like.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Lol, I remember the day I got extremely pumped up about getting my P3 to 1GHz stable; now all we are talking about is getting 5-8.5 GHZ on 4c/8t chips

 

[bioprez]

Yes. That is the hobby of overclocking - each chip has a voltage and clockspeed at which it runs best, given your constraints or requirements.

Everyone has their own method, here is mine.

First, run a load test at stock speed to make sure your cooler is working well.

Then bump up to something conservative, like 46x multiplier, and 1.325v. Tweak the voltage up if needed to get Prime95 stable at 46x. That will give you an idea of where your chip stands and how the temperatures are looking. This is mainly just to make sure temperatures aren't getting crazy too fast, and also will let you know if you have a particularly low-clocking chip. If you find yourself getting into voltages like 1.4v just to get 46x stable, either check your other BIOS settings, or change your expectations about 50x. Most chips will go 48x on a good board.

Then I make the jump right to 50x, and start working voltages up / down as needed. With a 2600K, usually you can expect 1.48v or higher for a 50x stable, but there are enough chips that go stable at much lower voltages that I start with 1.400v for my first 50x run, jump to 1.425v, then 1.450v, then 1.475v. (If I hit 1.500v, I'm done anyway) When I finally get a couple of successful Prime95 runs, then I change to fine adjustments of 0.005v which takes longer and could take a couple of days to finally settle on the precise stable voltage.

Read Idontcare's sticky post in this same forum, about stability testing, it has a good bit of info.

Without listing my own chips, I'll just say I've found that the good Sandy Bridge overclockers don't need crazy cooling, and the ones that do need crazy cooling are probably running too much voltage for long-term comfort, and I'd rather run them at 1.35v at whatever speed they like.

@mrjoltcola - thanks for the advice man, really appreciated. This will save me a lot of time getting up and running.

I got all my parts ordered they should all be in tomorrow, here is what i settled on:

Case: Antec 900 - might have to use my Thermaltake Armor VA8000B though not sure if the H80 radiator will fit in the 900.

PS: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W

CPU: Core i7 2600k

Heatsink: Corsair H80 CWCH80 Liquid CPU Cooler

Mobo: ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe

Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR 1600 - Was going to get the Gskill but specs were the same on these and the blue color matches the Mobo over the red GSkill...i'm a little concerned about the RAM clearance with my H80 though...hopefully it fits!

SSD - Kingston HyperX SH100S3/240G - bit on it, cost me $458 but looks like the fastest SSD out there.

HD - Didn't buy one yet, won't need it to get up and running but plan on ordering one monday...still looking for suggestions on the fastest 2TB HD if anyone has any ideas...let me know.

Thanks guys for all the help ill report back on how fast i can OC this rig. Super excited!!