Same old same old

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
I can't keep up with technology these days... :( My 5870 is getting older and more outdated by the second.
 

wolfeking

banned
7850 beats a 480 at stock. But roles reverse when you add 100MHz core and 500MHz memory. :) I really miss my 480 now. :( :( :(
 

wolfeking

banned
Okay, so 2 week checkin, and heres hoping. Currently hoping to salvage the Z77 extreme4 (again) with a replacement BIOS chip (because Duke can't seem to do it's job when I am doing something sensitive to power failure). Got 3 on order (well shipped) from Ebay, and one from ASrock (because apparently expressing dislike of their extreme lack of care on anything gets your ticket thrown up to a supervisor who then sends you your part for just shipping ($1)). So should be good at least 1:4 there, hopefully more.
Anyway, so holding that board for Haswell, and focusing on other cross upgradable components (basically things that will work no matter what the board is, like sound, graphics, RAM, and the like).

Currently focusing more on Sound than anything (because I am getting tired of audible interference on my good headphones on the integrated Audio). And of coarse pairing it with an okay set of speakers, unless it would be better to wait a bit and pair it with 100% phenomenal speakers.

Looking at these (in order of preferred to not preferred) and with reasons
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271007
- Looks really professional and subdued. Comes from a higher end brand (from the very little bit of research I have done), and is PCI, meaning I could toss it in any computer made in the last 15+ years just fine and get great audio from it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007&name=Sound-Cards
-Asus. Cheaper. PCI. no other reason really.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102041&name=Sound-Cards
-Creative is a brand I have heard a lot about, but don't really find attractive visually. And it is PCIe, which limits the ability to move it around to an older system (unless they make a PCI to PCIe bridge (i know they have one the other way round, but not sure on this one)).

Speakers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121044
-Like the price. Assuming quality is there, maybe it is not. But either way, should work in the mean time.

Other parts:
looking at graphics, seems like the 7870GHz/7950 is where it is, but to get either will take some fiddleing with the budget. Budget is $521.31 with a $75 wiggle room overhead.

So, what do y'all think? Heading in the right direction?


okay, some more figuring makes it possible to fit a 7970 into the system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150596&name=Desktop-Graphics-Cards

which leaves 112.39 in the budget. But would that be worth it to ditch the sound upgrades and get that?
 
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spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Not sure about the sound stuff because I'm not an expert on that, but the 7970 looks pretty good.
 

wolfeking

banned
I don't know much about it either. But one thing I did notice after looking closer at it, is that there is very little room for a sound card when keeping CF/SLI as an option. There will only be one PCI and 1 PCIe x1 slot open for use, and the PCI slot will make it very tight with the video cards (as it only has one slot space between the 2 cards in CF/SLI.

I guess there is going to be yet another point again where I will just have to jump on a path and stick to it. Thinking the GPU, but maybe sound. it will be one or the other.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
I'd go with what matters most to you. I've never been fussed about sound and with on-board sound and a pair of £30 speakers, it sounds fine to me. I think you only need to worry about sound really if you're going to be editing it.
 

wolfeking

banned
I am not at all happy with the integrated sound on the motherboard. I am getting interferrence with my headphones, and I have already ruled out them as a source by installing a Ferrite Choke on it. It is coming from the source (integrated chip). I am reasonably certain that it would go down, or maybe disappear if I could insulate the case better against RFI, but that would be more expensive that just buying a good card that is already shielded against it.

Graphics will do what I want at any price point at a 7850 or above. Just want something that will play newer games just fine. Really should not have sold my 480 and it would not be a problem, but oh well.

Either will do. Probably will get neither based on the past few times.
 

wolfeking

banned
new idea. Going to get a motherboard that will actually be worth overclocking on. I have done an ungodly amount of research into this, and I want it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128569

and plan is to sell the extreme 4 on ebay to cover a cooling upgrade too. 32 phase power should be fine, but will I need a new supply to put power to 2 EPS plugs? Or will the p4 adapter and EPS adapter work fine till I get a better supply?

and getting a HD6870 to play for a bit until I can get a HD7*** or GTX6** to overwhelm the graphics department.

Should fit fine in my case from research too. only .775 inches difference in width, and the case has a good 2" clearance, and all standoff holes are the same between it and ATX. :)
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
new idea. Going to get a motherboard that will actually be worth overclocking on. I have done an ungodly amount of research into this, and I want it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128569

and plan is to sell the extreme 4 on ebay to cover a cooling upgrade too. 32 phase power should be fine, but will I need a new supply to put power to 2 EPS plugs? Or will the p4 adapter and EPS adapter work fine till I get a better supply?

and getting a HD6870 to play for a bit until I can get a HD7*** or GTX6** to overwhelm the graphics department.

Should fit fine in my case from research too. only .775 inches difference in width, and the case has a good 2" clearance, and all standoff holes are the same between it and ATX. :)

400 dollars for a Halloween motherboard? Are you going to use everything that has? Seems like a HUGE price for a motherboard.

However it does look awesome.
 

wolfeking

banned
General consensus is that it is bar none the best overclocking motherboard invented. Has the best power setup on the market (this thing can handle 2000 watts and 166 amps just on the processor), and has manual overclocking and voltage monitoring points by default. Only thing it does not have that I want is a kick arse audio setup, but I am going to wait for christmas to get something better there.

Edit: By manual OC, I mean literally it has OC switches that can be adjusted while in OS.

And frankly, $150 of the price is in the power layout alone. It is worth it.

I do not like the looks of it at all. I would prefer an all black with chrome heatsinks, but that is not a look anyone is building. :( But I am fairly certain I will make good use of this board. Seeing as I can do 4.8GHz with the rather loose (compairitively) voltage control on the Extreme 4, I am hoping to get 5GHz+ on this board (seeing as the board is the holdup from what I have been experiencing).

And as for the price, You have to pay for the best. After all, you would not put a $15,000 975HP 454 in front of a stock TH400, now would you? Plus it is one of the few that can do 4 way SLI/CF on LGA1155.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
General consensus is that it is bar none the best overclocking motherboard invented. Has the best power setup on the market (this thing can handle 2000 watts and 166 amps just on the processor), and has manual overclocking and voltage monitoring points by default. Only thing it does not have that I want is a kick arse audio setup, but I am going to wait for christmas to get something better there.

Edit: By manual OC, I mean literally it has OC switches that can be adjusted while in OS.

And frankly, $150 of the price is in the power layout alone. It is worth it.

I do not like the looks of it at all. I would prefer an all black with chrome heatsinks, but that is not a look anyone is building. :( But I am fairly certain I will make good use of this board. Seeing as I can do 4.8GHz with the rather loose (compairitively) voltage control on the Extreme 4, I am hoping to get 5GHz+ on this board (seeing as the board is the holdup from what I have been experiencing).

And as for the price, You have to pay for the best. After all, you would not put a $15,000 975HP 454 in front of a stock TH400, now would you? Plus it is one of the few that can do 4 way SLI/CF on LGA1155.


I guess if you're doing crazy Overclocking you might get your worth out of it. I don't fully understand the motives behind Overclocking. Just to see what you can get and thrill of pushing something that much further? Sure it makes sense for performance gains. To a point. But beyond that it's just a number.
 

wolfeking

banned
I just want the highest stable OC I can get, because it means I can do more with BIONIC (why don't CF have a BIONIC team?) and can get way more points on FAH with it. Plus the cpu is weak to start with (in my eyes). But this is a conversation that always ends with "there is no competition and that is why" (competition as in matched performance).
Let's just say I want a great board that can OC like no tomorrow and hold off for broadwell (the tick of haswell) with 4 way CF/SLI as an option (again, more points, means ownage in a different kind of way).
 

jonnyp11

New Member
I just want the highest stable OC I can get, because it means I can do more with BIONIC (why don't CF have a BIONIC team?) and can get way more points on FAH with it. Plus the cpu is weak to start with (in my eyes). But this is a conversation that always ends with "there is no competition and that is why" (competition as in matched performance).
Let's just say I want a great board that can OC like no tomorrow and hold off for broadwell (the tick of haswell) with 4 way CF/SLI as an option (again, more points, means ownage in a different kind of way).

for that price it seems like you'd get more out of pne of these with a 3930k

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...28-532^13-128-532-TS,13-128-562^13-128-562-TS

or (v actually only would be 3-way usable with dual slot cards)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188122&name=Intel-Motherboards
 

wolfeking

banned
I would get more out of a 3930k, but you also have to notice the budget. $500ish (too lazy to go searching for my ledger right now.) Meaning I could get one CPU maybe and still be a month without a board, and would have to invest in a far better cooler (probably custom water) to get a 5GHz OC on that. My 2600k will do 66% of a 3930k @ the same speeds, and I only need a better board to do it.

Second the only one of those board that remotely come close to the UP7 is the X79 FTW, and that is a maybe (have not researched the phase layout yet). I would be willing to bet that Gigabyte has nothing to match it on the X79 platform, and if they did, it would be nearing $500 for the board, and for the chip, so $1000, versus $400.

From a budget standpoint, I will stay with 2600k.
 

jonnyp11

New Member
sell the current setup to knock off 250 then only go to 4GHz and you'll end up with better performance by a bit and no need for more.
 

wolfeking

banned
I am going to assume you just don't understand overclocking and leave it at that.
And $250, you are dreaming. Plus still can't get 8GB more a brilliant motherboard and a 3930k for 750 ish.
 
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