Support NeoGAF

[Seanspeed]

Thanks a lot guys! Questions: is there an advantage to using 4 sticks of 4gb ram versus 2x 8gb sticks? Why a MicroATX motherboard versus a regular ATX? And, with the hard drive, is the "green" series decent? I'd like to go 7200rpm 64mb cache (I rally am future proofing to a small extent). Also, I do have a copy of Windows 8.1 that i'll be using, so that will free up 90 bucks.

4 sticks of RAM(quad channel) is good if the motherboard supports quad channel memory. Not sure if that one does. Looked it up and couldn't find anything. I don't think having 4 slots means it supports quad channel, necessarily.

MicroATX is just a smaller sized motherboard, usually meant for somewhat smaller cases like the one that was chosen there. If you don't mind having a bigger case, you will have more options available to you(and possibly better cooling, too). Whether size/form is important is something you should probably decide.

The Greens WD's aren't supposed to be that great, from what I heard. Correct me if I'm wrong guys. Blue's are great value, Blacks perform well but a pricey. Blue is a good option. And yea, definitely go with 7200rpm if you can. No use cheaping out here.

Do you definitely need a monitor? Cuz if you don't, I'd really scratch the CPU/mobo/RAM listed and go for an Intel 5820k 6 core processor. It means getting a different motherboard and somewhat expensive DDR4 RAM, but with your budget, its hard to recommend a standard 4 core when you could have the new hot shit.

EDIT: Ok yea, saw you do need new monitor. 4790k is still a great CPU.

You gonna be playing racing sims, I take it?

 

[Afro]

sellng my 770 4gb if anyone is interested. barely any hours on it.

 

[SarBear]

4 sticks of RAM(quad channel) is good if the motherboard supports quad channel memory. Not sure if that one does. Looked it up and couldn't find anything. I don't think having 4 slots means it supports quad channel, necessarily.

MicroATX is just a smaller sized motherboard, usually meant for somewhat smaller cases like the one that was chosen there. If you don't mind having a bigger case, you will have more options available to you(and possibly better cooling, too). Whether size/form is important is something you should probably decide.

The Greens WD's aren't supposed to be that great, from what I heard. Correct me if I'm wrong guys. Blue's are great value, Blacks perform well but a pricey. Blue is a good option. And yea, definitely go with 7200rpm if you can. No use cheaping out here.

Do you definitely need a monitor? Cuz if you don't, I'd really scratch the CPU/mobo/RAM listed and go for an Intel 5820k 6 core processor. It means getting a different motherboard and somewhat expensive DDR4 RAM, but with your budget, its hard to recommend a standard 4 core when you could have the new hot shit.

EDIT: Ok yea, saw you do need new monitor. 4790k is still a great CPU.

You gonna be playing racing sims, I take it?

6 core? I'm listening....with a new monitor, how much more are we talking?

 

[Muffin Awesome]

Trying to find and failing completely a mini itx mobo for the new amd sockets, I can find the new Intel, but none for amd, am I searching poorly or are there none?

 

[Goldenmoney]

6 core? I'm listening....with a new monitor, how much more are we talking?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler ($73.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($223.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair Raptor K30 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Mouse: Cooler Master CM Storm Spawn Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Mac Mall)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T10 10W 2ch Speakers ($39.99 @ Adorama)
Total: $1797.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 11:10 EST-0500

EDIT: Though if you're not near a microcenter, you'll have to pay another 80 bucks for the processor from amazon.

 

[Darklord]

I use MSI afterburner most of the time and hwinfo64 for in dept stuff (like mobo temps).

For your CPU, RealTemp. It also monitors your CPU clock, multiplier and load.

Thanks. I tried MSI Afterburner. Though it says my GPU temp is 8c. Surely it can't be running that cool even on idle can it? :s It's a 970GTX. It seems to randomly jump to 40c which makes me think it's not reading it right.

 

[SarBear]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($299.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler ($73.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($223.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($199.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair Raptor K30 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Mouse: Cooler Master CM Storm Spawn Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Mac Mall)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T10 10W 2ch Speakers ($39.99 @ Adorama)
Total: $1797.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 11:10 EST-0500

EDIT: Though if you're not near a microcenter, you'll have to pay another 80 bucks for the processor from amazon.

There's actually a Microcenter a few miles from me. (Madison Heights MI) That's great. I'm curious, and please forgive my ignorance, but a six core clocked at 3.3 GHz can match/best a quad core clocked at 4.0 GHz?

 

[The Llama]

There's actually a Microcenter a few miles from me. (Madison Heights MI) That's great. I'm curious, and please forgive my ignorance, but a six core clocked at 3.3 GHz can match/best a quad core clocked at 4.0 GHz?

Depends on how well the game uses multi-core CPU's. In a single threaded application, it'll perform worse. In a game/app that effectively uses 5+ cores it'll likely perform better.

The answer, as always, is to overclock it

 

[yatesl]

Does anyone in the UK have any experience with Sky+ HD, and TV capture cards? I'm revisiting the "I should build a media center PC!" idea that I have every month, and this time I want to use TV capture card so I can watch Sky HD through XBMC's live TV stuff (like the Xbox One OneGuide... Does that work yet?)

Do Sky+ HD boxes play nice with TV capture cards through HDMI? And if so, would it be a direct passthrough, or could I use XBMC programming menus etc?

 

[killertofu]

Is there a program out there that checks the health of hard drives?

Some videos/music I've been playing lately have been stuttering or pausing and I'm not sure if it's the harddrive or it's my Hackintosh

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Yup, Helsinki here too. I think I could get the price down by juggling the stuff from other retailers than Verkkokauppa around 100 euros or so, but that's bit of extra inconvience (plus potential postages instead of taking the metro) which might not be worth the extra effort.

Yeah I did that. Spend some time on jimms and systemastore. Postage was about 4.90 euros and took about a week for me so not a bad deal overall.

 

[yatesl]

Is there a program out there that checks the health of hard drives?

Some videos/music I've been playing lately have been stuttering or pausing and I'm not sure if it's the harddrive or it's my Hackintosh

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

 

[LordAlu]

Is there a program out there that checks the health of hard drives?

Some videos/music I've been playing lately have been stuttering or pausing and I'm not sure if it's the harddrive or it's my Hackintosh

I use SeaTools.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

I have the urge to spend some money on my PC but I don't really know what I should upgrade. I'm actually more or less content with my system right now but am thinking of getting an ultrawide monitor early next year maybe so I was thinking I might upgrade to a 970?

My rig:
i5-4670K
GTX 760 2 GB
8 GB RAM
250GB Samsung 840 EVO + WD Black 750 GB (for storage)

Plus I've replaced most fans in my case with Noctua ones, put a Xonar sound card in, Corsair water cooling.

Since I just put in the 4670K last fall, about the only thing that seems maybe worthy of upgrading is my GTX 760. Right now I play most games at 1080p, and most new games seem to run fine more or less but messing around with DSR and the prospect of The Witcher 3 has me leaning towards swapping out my GTX 760 with a GTX 970.


Basically is the jump from a 760 to a 970 worth it? Or would SLI 760's be the way to go? Cost really isn't a huge issue but I don't want to toss several hundred dollars out the window for marginal gains.

 

[Addnan]

I have the urge to spend some money on my PC but I don't really know what I should upgrade. I'm actually more or less content with my system right now but am thinking of getting an ultrawide monitor early next year maybe so I was thinking I might upgrade to a 970?

My rig:
i5-4670K
GTX 760 2 GB
8 GB RAM
250GB Samsung 840 EVO + WD Black 750 GB (for storage)

Plus I've replaced most fans in my case with Noctua ones, put a Xonar sound card in, Corsair water cooling.

Since I just put in the 4670K last fall, about the only thing that seems maybe worthy of upgrading is my GTX 760. Right now I play most games at 1080p, and most new games seem to run fine more or less but messing around with DSR and the prospect of The Witcher 3 has me leaning towards swapping out my GTX 760 with a GTX 970.


Basically is the jump from a 760 to a 970 worth it? Or would SLI 760's be the way to go? Cost really isn't a huge issue but I don't want to toss several hundred dollars out the window for marginal gains.

GPU is the only upgrade really, so yeah. If you really want an upgrade then go for the 970. You decide if the gains are enough for you http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1038?vs=1355

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have the urge to spend some money on my PC but I don't really know what I should upgrade. I'm actually more or less content with my system right now but am thinking of getting an ultrawide monitor early next year maybe so I was thinking I might upgrade to a 970?

My rig:
i5-4670K
GTX 760 2 GB
8 GB RAM
250GB Samsung 840 EVO + WD Black 750 GB (for storage)

Plus I've replaced most fans in my case with Noctua ones, put a Xonar sound card in, Corsair water cooling.

Since I just put in the 4670K last fall, about the only thing that seems maybe worthy of upgrading is my GTX 760. Right now I play most games at 1080p, and most new games seem to run fine more or less but messing around with DSR and the prospect of The Witcher 3 has me leaning towards swapping out my GTX 760 with a GTX 970.


Basically is the jump from a 760 to a 970 worth it? Or would SLI 760's be the way to go? Cost really isn't a huge issue but I don't want to toss several hundred dollars out the window for marginal gains.

After a quick look at benchmarks, it looks like a 60-80% improvement at 1080p before overclocking.

 

[Crisium]

Wow, 290 prices are amazing right now. There's nothing else that compares to that price-to-performance ratio. 290x is, as usual, overprices compared to 290. 980 is only for those with unlimited budgets. 970 is the only other reasonable buy, but it still commands a price premium for marginal performance gains. Long live competition.

 

[Aiustis]

It's probably a 2.5" drive, you'll need a 2.5" to 3.5" bracket so it fits in the hard drive cage of your case properly, something like this. Could depend on how your case is set up, though.

Thanks! That's exactly what I need.

 

[Rafy]

Hey guys, so I am having a pretty important problem. Every time I fire up Bioshock Infinite the game crashes after the splash screen videos. I searched on google for a solution but nothing worked. I have a brand new gtx970 and temps look normal.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Hey guys, so I am having a pretty important problem. Every time I fire up Bioshock Infinite the game crashes after the splash screen videos. I searched on google for a solution but nothing worked. I have a brand new gtx970 and temps look normal.

Have you tried verified the cache? Also tested with other games?

 

[Rafy]

Have you tried verified the cache? Also tested with other games?

Verified cache and running evolve right now without a hitch

 

[The Llama]

Hey guys, so I am having a pretty important problem. Every time I fire up Bioshock Infinite the game crashes after the splash screen videos. I searched on google for a solution but nothing worked. I have a brand new gtx970 and temps look normal.

I've had a lot of problems like this before and most of the time deleting and redownloading/installing the game fixes it.

 

[Rafy]

I've had a lot of problems like this before and most of the time deleting and redownloading/installing the game fixes it.

Can't really do that, I am borrowing my neighbors internet till they connect mine.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Anyone with a i5-4670K on stock hsf can tell me how loud is it? Mine is very audible even on idle, loading anything like a web page can kick the noise up a notch. It's driving me crazy.

 

[Ashhong]

Hey guys what happened to the cheap windows sellers on reddit? I don't see any on softwareswap, am I just blind?

 

[Addnan]

Hey guys what happened to the cheap windows sellers on reddit? I don't see any on softwareswap, am I just blind?

New subreddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/ I bought 8 from the s5ean guy. No issues.

 

[knitoe]

Hey guys, so I am having a pretty important problem. Every time I fire up Bioshock Infinite the game crashes after the splash screen videos. I searched on google for a solution but nothing worked. I have a brand new gtx970 and temps look normal.

Have you tried do a fresh reinstall of the drivers? Is the card OC, manually or factory? If yes, try downclocking and running it at the normal stck speed.

Anyone with a i5-4670K on stock hsf can tell me how loud is it? Mine is very audible even on idle, loading anything like a web page can kick the noise up a notch. It's driving me crazy.

Stock cooler are very loud. You have a K cpu. At least pay $25 for a CM 212, much more quiet and OC for free 1GHz speed upgrade. That's huge for gaming.

 

[danwarb]

Yep. The stock cooler fan is loud, and if the RPM get to low, you'll also hear ticking.

Most cheap CPU coolers are much better.

 

[kennah]

Trying to find and failing completely a mini itx mobo for the new amd sockets, I can find the new Intel, but none for amd, am I searching poorly or are there none?

Which socket? There should be some. You might be looking incorrectly

 

[2San]

Thanks. I tried MSI Afterburner. Though it says my GPU temp is 8c. Surely it can't be running that cool even on idle can it? :s It's a 970GTX. It seems to randomly jump to 40c which makes me think it's not reading it right.

8c does seem very unlikely.

 

[Muffin Awesome]

Which socket? There should be some. You might be looking incorrectly

You are probably right, their newest batch 8300, am3 I believe, can't find anything.

Keep jumping around trying to find one to out in a super tight budget build.

 

[mhayze]

Thanks a lot guys! Questions: is there an advantage to using 4 sticks of 4gb ram versus 2x 8gb sticks? Why a MicroATX motherboard versus a regular ATX? And, with the hard drive, is the "green" series decent? I'd like to go 7200rpm 64mb cache (I rally am future proofing to a small extent). Also, I do have a copy of Windows 8.1 that i'll be using, so that will free up 90 bucks.

1. Not on z97 motherboard. All things being equal, 4 DIMMs is worse than 2 on a dual channel like the z97. If you choose a X99 motherboard (quad channel), then go with 4 DIMMs.
Using 4 sticks uses more power (not that much, about 3-6W / DIMM) and requires the memory controller to do a little more work. Once upon a time, 8GB DDR3 DIMMs were more expensive and slower than 4GB DIMMs for equivalent quality, but not anymore. I would go with 2 on z97, and leave some room for expansion.

2. MicroATX only if you plan on using a MicroATX case. If you have a full size case, then an ATX board has more PCIe slots and usually a better layout.

3. Not a fan of green drives, unless you leave your PC on all the time. 7200RPM drives are better, but not at the expense of an SSD. SSD + 7200RPM is my recommendation.

I see that the discussion has moved on to X99 and Hex-core CPUs - that would actually be my recommendation. Note that a decent X99 motherboard is $250-300 - more expensive than a decent z97, requires 4 DIMMs of more expensive DDR4, unlike z97 and it's 2 DIMM DDR3 - and don't cheap out on a X99 mobo if you go that route.

 

[jordn613]

Try a different version and other monitoring apps for piece of mind. I think it's just bad data interpretation: http://forum.piriform.com/?showtopic=39866


I think the card is fine but try prolonged gaming to see if any issues come up. If you have GPU intensive games in your library, use fraps to monitor your frame rates then compare the results with comparable benchmarks.

Those are very good numbers.
You can mix and match different hardware here for comparisons:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/39

Other than that, check out benchmark graphs for the freshest titles on hardware and gaming sites.

It seems tough to get a good sense of what this thing should be pushing in Unigine Heaven. Googling shows some people way higher and others at numbers closer to mine.

Right now I have the following on my MSI 970 at 1080-

OC Mode (core clock 1481mhz, mem 3505mhz) score of 1366, FPS 54.2, temp 70C

Manual OC (core clock 1555mhz, mem 3605mhz) score of 1424, FPS 56.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1586mhz, mem 3629 mhz) score of 1448, FPS 57.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1610mhz, mem 3660 mhz) score of 1467, FPS 58.2, temp 74C

Does it seem like I should be getting those higher scores without OCing to start with? Am I doing something wrong by pushing up the core clock and memory in tandem? In Afterburner I have Power Limit at it's max of 110, then Core clock pushed up +155 and Mem clock pushed up +155.

 

[Felix Lighter]

It seems tough to get a good sense of what this thing should be pushing in Unigine Heaven. Googling shows some people way higher and others at numbers closer to mine.

Right now I have the following-

OC Mode (core clock 1481mhz, mem 3505mhz) score of 1366, FPS 54.2, temp 70C

Manual OC (core clock 1555mhz, mem 3605mhz) score of 1424, FPS 56.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1586mhz, mem 3629 mhz) score of 1448, FPS 57.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1610mhz, mem 3660 mhz) score of 1467, FPS 58.2, temp 74C

Does it seem like I should be getting those higher scores without OCing to start with? Am I doing something wrong by pushing up the core clock and memory in tandem? In Afterburner I have Power Limit at it's max of 110, then Core clock pushed up +155 and Mem clock pushed up +155.

Your numbers and OC look fine. There are factors that can result in your results being a little lower but nothing there looks too far out of line. What are the rest of your specs? You don't have Shadowplay enabled or anything like that?

 

[jordn613]

Your numbers and OC look fine. There are factors that can result in your results being a little lower but nothing there looks too far out of line. What are the rest of your specs? You don't have Shadowplay enabled or anything like that?

I have an i5 at 3.1ghz, 8GB of RAM, and no I don't believe I have Shadowplay enabled.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have an i5 at 3.1ghz, 8GB of RAM, and no I don't believe I have Shadowplay enabled.

Differences in CPU will make an impact but overall your numbers look fine. As for your OC, I personally find what appears to be stable in Heaven for 30 minutes or so and step it back just a tad to better ensure stability 24/7.

 

[jordn613]

Differences in CPU will make an impact but overall your numbers look fine. As for your OC, I personally find what appears to be stable in Heaven for 30 minutes or so and step it back just a tad to better ensure stability 24/7.

Awesome, thanks! I just ran 3DMark Fire Strike for the first time and here are my results:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4585546

9514 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970(1x) and Intel Core i5-3450 Processor
Graphics Score 12643
Physics Score 6207
Combined Score 4626

Core clock1,316 MHz
Memory bus clock1,830 MHz

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Stock cooler are very loud. You have a K cpu. At least pay $25 for a CM 212, much more quiet and OC for free 1GHz speed upgrade. That's huge for gaming.

Yep. The stock cooler fan is loud, and if the RPM get to low, you'll also hear ticking.

Most cheap CPU coolers are much better.

Thank you. Money is not a problem, I was just wondering if it is normal, glad to hear that it is.

Fun fact: a CM 212 is about $47 here in Finland

 

[Rafy]

Have you tried do a fresh reinstall of the drivers? Is the card OC, manually or factory? If yes, try downclocking and running it at the normal stck speed.

It's factory overclocked. EVGA 970 SC ACX2.0

Edit:
A clean install of the drivers seems to have solved the issue. Now I am having a problem with the font of Firefox. It looks all messed up.

 

[zero shift]

I took some screenshots of my OCCT test.

These are the results:

I am wondering if the temperature and the voltage is okay.

For reference I overclocked my 2500k to 4.7GHZ.

 

[Seanspeed]

There's actually a Microcenter a few miles from me. (Madison Heights MI) That's great. I'm curious, and please forgive my ignorance, but a six core clocked at 3.3 GHz can match/best a quad core clocked at 4.0 GHz?

Once overclocked, yea. And with more and more games(especially multiplatforms) getting good 4+ core usage, its going to be more and more beneficial.

I would definitely do it if you can squeeze it in your budget. Not that a 4790k is a bad choice if you are hesitant to do it.

I took some screenshots of my OCCT test.

These are the results:



I am wondering if the temperature and the voltage is okay.

For reference I overclocked my 2500k to 4.7GHZ.

Temps are getting borderline. Voltage is extremely high.

Is that as low as you can get the voltage while holding stable?

 

[The Llama]

I took some screenshots of my OCCT test.

These are the results:



I am wondering if the temperature and the voltage is okay.

For reference I overclocked my 2500k to 4.7GHZ.

Voltage seems way, way too high.

 

[kennah]

You are probably right, their newest batch 8300, am3 I believe, can't find anything.

Keep jumping around trying to find one to out in a super tight budget build.

You mean the the five year old socket? Why are you getting it?

If you are doing super budget get the Anniversary Pentium

 

[LilJoka]

It seems tough to get a good sense of what this thing should be pushing in Unigine Heaven. Googling shows some people way higher and others at numbers closer to mine.

Right now I have the following on my MSI 970 at 1080-

OC Mode (core clock 1481mhz, mem 3505mhz) score of 1366, FPS 54.2, temp 70C

Manual OC (core clock 1555mhz, mem 3605mhz) score of 1424, FPS 56.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1586mhz, mem 3629 mhz) score of 1448, FPS 57.5, temp 73C

Manual OC (core clock 1610mhz, mem 3660 mhz) score of 1467, FPS 58.2, temp 74C

Does it seem like I should be getting those higher scores without OCing to start with? Am I doing something wrong by pushing up the core clock and memory in tandem? In Afterburner I have Power Limit at it's max of 110, then Core clock pushed up +155 and Mem clock pushed up +155.

Push memory more, most are hitting 4000Mhz.

 

[LilJoka]

I took some screenshots of my OCCT test.

These are the results:



I am wondering if the temperature and the voltage is okay.

For reference I overclocked my 2500k to 4.7GHZ.

If that Vcore and CPUTIN temp is real, you need to STOP.

 

[zero shift]

Temps are getting borderline. Voltage is extremely high.

Is that as low as you can get the voltage while holding stable?

Voltage seems way, way too high.

I'll tweak around with my computer when I get back home. Is high voltage really bad? Or is it just wasteful?

I just copied this post http://www.overclock.net/t/1276670/overclocking-i52500k-on-p8p67-le#post_17608969

And set CPU Offset Voltage to -.0005 (because the poster later recommended it for clock speeds over 4.5) and changed CPU ratio to 47 instead of 40.

If that Vcore and CPUTIN temp is real, you need to STOP.

I thought it was real but it says it is in the 80s even when the CPU cores are cool.

Maybe it is due to me turning something off in the bios that is in that post?

 

[ekgrey]

yes, it is bad

 

[The Llama]

High voltage kills CPU's.

 

[LilJoka]

I'll tweak around with my computer when I get back home. Is high voltage really bad? Or is it just wasteful?

I just copied this post http://www.overclock.net/t/1276670/overclocking-i52500k-on-p8p67-le#post_17608969

And set CPU Offset Voltage to -.0005 (because the poster later recommended it for clock speeds over 4.5) and changed CPU ratio to 47 instead of 40.




I thought it was real but it says it is in the 80s even when the CPU cores are cool.

Maybe it is due to me turning something off in the bios that is in that post?

I would jsut stop using OCCT since its sensor tech just is innacurate a lot of time.

Use CPUz to read Vcore and CPU speed.
Use Realtemp for CPU Core temps - It also logs any thermal throttling triggers.
Use Prime95 v27.9 for the stress testing. Start with small FFT, then move to Blend - Custom with lots of RAM.

Reduce the Vcore to a point where it is just above the minimum required for stability. 1.60v would be for custom water loop and im sure Intel max is 1.50v for sandy bridge. Ideally you'd run below 1.40v.

Voltage KILLS! More volts, higher temps, faster degradation. Degradation rate is exponentially related to Voltage.

Edit
Just read the post.
Ill explain how Offset works, its not like olden days when CPUs have a single VID (Votlage Identifier - Stock Voltage).
Its now a DVID (Dynamic Voltage Identifier), the VID changes based on the multiplier.
Hence- Offset 0.05v

x40 Multi -> 1.30v
x45 Multi -> 1.40v

And this is basically a table inside the CPU dictating what the VID is for each multiplier, and the offset is then added/subtracted from that.

This is why adding a small offset at a high Multiplier can result in dangerous vcore.

 

[ekgrey]

I would jsut stop using OCCT since its sensor tech just is innacurate a lot of time.

Use CPUz to read Vcore and CPU speed.
Use Realtemp for CPU Core temps - It also logs any thermal throttling triggers.
Use Prime95 v27.9 for the stress testing. Start with small FFT, then move to Blend - Custom with lots of RAM.

Reduce the Vcore to a point where it is just above the minimum required for stability. 1.60v would be for custom water loop and im sure Intel max is 1.50v for sandy bridge. Ideally you'd run below 1.40v.

Voltage KILLS! More volts, higher temps, faster degradation. Degradation rate is exponentially related to Voltage.

thanks for this post. i'm gonna tackle OCing my chip this week and this is a nice little summary.