Pure Value Build: Ivy Bridge, Non-K OC, Multicore Enhancement?

[TheRealSintel]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet. The goal:

• i5-3350p @ 3.7ghz with 4 cores loaded on Asus Z77-A

Is this possible? Meaning: does above setup allow enabling "multicore enhancement" in combination with non-K 4 bin overclocking? The i3350p normal specs are 3.3/3.3/3.2/3.1 (1-4 threads turbo).

Reason for not going Haswell are two-fold: premium priced (both cpu+platform) and no non-K overclocking anymore. I'm assuming a 3.7ghz Ivy setup will beat out a 3.1-3.3ghz Haswell on performance and still come in quite a bit cheaper.

I'm not that interested in spending the extra money for a true K-setup, as I'm coming from a Ph2 X4 3.2ghz setup that has lasted me 4-5 years. I don't have the time anymore to learn the ins and outs of Haswell OCing (VDROOP, PLL, ...) and for occasional gaming, above is already more computing power than I really need for the following years.

Agree, disagree?

 

[coffeejunkee]

Interesting question, I don't know for sure but my feeling is either MCE or turbo overclocking but not both.

If you could squeeze in the extra $10 I think the 3470 is worth it. The 3350P has no 4 thread turbo at all, the 3470 gives you 2 bins + 400MHz = 3.8GHz. IGP might come in handy too.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Really, ask yourself what can you NOT do on a PhII that you need a IB for? My bet is pretty much nothing.

 

[SPBHM]

the max OC under 4 cores load is 35x, if you can run at 106 bclk it gives you 3.7GHz under 4c load (and 3.9GHz uder 1c/2c load)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc-gaming-overclock-build-a-pc,3443-7.html

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Reason for not going Haswell are two-fold: premium priced (both cpu+platform) and no non-K overclocking anymore. I'm assuming a 3.7ghz Ivy setup will beat out a 3.1-3.3ghz Haswell on performance and still come in quite a bit cheaper.

If you could squeeze in the extra $10 I think the 3470 is worth it. The 3350P has no 4 thread turbo at all, the 3470 gives you 2 bins + 400MHz = 3.8GHz. IGP might come in handy too.

Given a Z77 board you can run any Ivy that supports Turbo Boost at maximum turbo multiplier. I am running a 3770non-K at 4.3GHz myself.

That said I'd actually advise you to go Haswell. Not for absolute performance, I'd think an i5-4430 can tie a 3.8GHz Ivy without too much effort. Haswell does have one significant advantage over Ivy: lower idle power consumption. From the sound of it this system is going to spend most of its time close to idle. As a bonus you also get AVX2 instead of AVX...

Oh, and you also get a fairly decent IGP "free".

the max OC under 4 cores load is 35x, if you can run at 106 bclk it gives you 3.7GHz under 4c load (and 3.9GHz uder 1c/2c load)

I'd not touch BCLK for a general use system. But that's just my opinion...

 

[SPBHM]

That said I'd actually advise you to go Haswell. Not for absolute performance, I'd think an i5-4430 can tie a 3.8GHz Ivy without too much effort.


I'd not touch BCLK for a general use system. But that's just my opinion...

I don't know, I think it's worth checking, if it works it's fine, if not it's 3.5GHz (3.7 for 1/2c) for 4c load (still faster than a stock 3470 with turbo)

4430 have low default clock and turbo (and no turbo OC), it's slower than the 3350P at 3.5GHz for most things I think.

I would go with 4570 + H81 or B85 if the MB is clearly cheaper than the z77 one, and if you are paying $179 for the 3350p

 

[Charlie98]

I'd not touch BCLK for a general use system. But that's just my opinion...

When I first tried to OC my 2500K, the Gigabyte Smart6 OC utility pumped up the BCLK as part of it's OC process... every time it got above about 102 BCLK it crashed. I don't fool with the BCLK anymore... Researching it later (after I manually OC'ed stably to 4.1GHz by leaving the BCLK alone... ) it's my understanding that SB/IB does NOT like anything over the stock 100 BCLK.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I would go with 4570 + H81 or B85 if the MB is clearly cheaper than the z77 one, and if you are paying $179 for the 3350p

It all depends on price of course. One of the other points in favour of Haswell is the platform. The H81 delivers 98% features of the Z77 (minus OC and SRT), and is a lot cheaper.

every time it got above about 102 BCLK it crashed. I don't fool with the BCLK anymore...

For the very small frequency gain I don't see reason to jeopardize stability by running everything from PCIe to SATA out of spec...

 

[TheRealSintel]

Indeed some interesting insights, I've looked a bit further into going Haswell and it turns out that Asrock at least has got MCE running on H87 as well.

In the shop I'm looking at, these two setups cost about the same (< $5 difference)

• i5-3350p + Asus Z77-A
• i5-4570 + Asrock H87m Pro4

In the second case Haswell @3.6ghz would certainly win out over Ivy @3.7ghz - together with the newer platform, smaller form factor and lower power the better value. I'm not keen on BCLK overclocking either.

@StrangerGuy - Truth be told, there is indeed not much that I'm not able to run yet... The reason I'm looking at a new setup is because of platform upgrades (USB3, 4GB now vs 16GB planned) and because Intel has slowed down the pace of performance increases (this year only some clock bumps expected). This situation seems like it's a good time to buy a setup to last me for some years to come. And it's always more fun to upgrade before performance becomes a problem