New build... Order placed!

[xBa380]

Since I have my eight month coop/internship, I decided to upgrade my machine. Currently, I am running:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
Intel Q9550 Core 2 Quad (Overclocked to 3.5Ghz)
4x2GB (8GB Total) Mushkin Blackline Ram
Windows 7 Professional
1.5TB HD 7200RPM
Geforce GTX 275


I just placed an order with New Egg for the following:

Intel i7 2600K
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
128GB Crucial SSD
4x4GB G-skill Sniper DDR3 (16GB total)
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler
Asus DVD Drive

Reusing my power supply, graphics card and case...

I plan to upgrade the graphics card in a few months. All programs and operating system will be located on the SSD drive while all the media is on my 1.5TB internal HD.

I can't wait to get it all installed and going. I hope to overclock the new rig beyond 4.5GHz, hopefully! Should be done next week... Currently backing up all my stuff on my external HD

I use the comp mainly for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop, HD video editing and some gaming (FSX). Look forward to the performance increases!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: xBa380
Re: New CPU build... Order placed!

Nice! But it sounds like a whole new machine, not just the CPU.

 

[xBa380]

Ahh sorry, for some reason I call the entire computer the "CPU" for whatever reason.

 

[SLCraig]

Looks a lot like my PC.
The 2600K is great.. I also have a 120GB SSD and you cannot go back (at least for an OS drive)

 

[MrHorspwer]

Nice build. I built a 2600K machine a few months back, when the Z68 came out, and have been extremely happy.

I assume that the 128GB SSD will be a system drive and not used for SRT with the Z68. I have a 64GB AData (Sandforce controller) being used with SRT to accelerate a 1 TB WD Caviar Black. There is definatly a boost, but not near as much as the same drive being used as a boot drive on my HTPC. I just found 64GB to be too small to use as a system drive on my main PC. It works great on the minimalist media PC though.

I was a little disappointed with the Quick Sync media encoding, primarly because so few pieces of software are designed to use any hardware acceleration, let alone Sandy Bridge. I tried Cyberlink MediaEspresso, but it seamed to be geared toward making media to go on portable devices and not archival quality back-ups.

Since you're a flight sim guy... the 2600k is finally a capable processor for FSX. Just move all the sliders all the way to the right and let her fly! At 1680x1050, I've never had a stutter, even in highly detailed cities like Seattle.

 

[xBa380]

The SSD will have the OS installed on it directly, along with FSX and all my other applications. All programs hopefully will fit and run right off the SSD. Only the media will be stored on the 1.5TB HD (music, photos, video). It will not be used a cache drive, but as a main drive.

Really excited for FSX on this new rig! It doesn't do too bad now, but it can be improved further. I look forward to the faster load times right off the SSD as well!

The only thing left to upgrade will be the video card which I will do in a few months.

Excited!

 

[xBa380]

I decided to go one step further and upgrade my video card now, since there was a $30 rebate going on. Went with the EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked card... Final cost is under $300 with the rebate. I figure I minus well do it all now with everything else. That should remove my only bottleneck on the new system. The 275 GTX was not bad, but this card should give me 40% improvements, at least, in FPS.

 

[xBa380]

I got all the parts in yesterday and installed (minus graphics card that comes today)... Install went well and no issues... Through gigabytes motherboard software, they have easy preset overclock settings... We decided to go for the turbo-clocked or something (highest) at 4.2Ghz over the stock 3.6Ghz and it runs flawlessly. Probably let it run that for a week or two before trying to squeeze it up more. Temps seem to be 34-35*C at idle at the overclocked setting. Should drop 1-2*C once the thermal paste and such break in.

My GPU comes today for install... So I have not installed graphics drivers yet for my current GPU installed. But I must say, those SSD drives are fast! Windows is very quick to load post-bios screen, and lightroom opens up nearly instantly. Same with iTunes, the speed is very impressive. I can't wait to install FSX later today and see how fast that loads up. Spent all night sending all my backups from my external drive back to the formatted internal drive.

Happy so far.. I just can not wait until everything is reinstalled and back to normal

 

[Rand]

Thats a decent overclock. Glad everything went smooth.
I'd also agree Its best to leave it for a week or two to make sure you have a stable baseline result before pushing.

 

[xBa380]

Never got the chance to install my games yet over the weekend, but the computer is running extremely well. No issues at all at 4.2Ghz. Probably can handle more with ease. Windows Experience Index is impressive (I do know this "test" is not really worthwhile, but still fun). My ratings are 7.8 on both CPU and Memory, 7.9 on Graphics and Aero Graphics and 7.5 on Hard Disk.

Tonight I will finally get around to installing FSX and my other game. Can't wait to see how it does with FSX.

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: xBa380
Never got the chance to install my games yet over the weekend, but the computer is running extremely well. No issues at all at 4.2Ghz. Probably can handle more with ease. Windows Experience Index is impressive (I do know this "test" is not really worthwhile, but still fun). My ratings are 7.8 on both CPU and Memory, 7.9 on Graphics and Aero Graphics and 7.5 on Hard Disk.

Tonight I will finally get around to installing FSX and my other game. Can't wait to see how it does with FSX.


Betcha FSX will STILL Max out the CPU. It does on my system, and that's with dual radeon 5770s.

 

[xBa380]

Oh, I have no doubt in my mind it will! But I must say, with the CFG tweaks and such I had done, even with my Q9550 and 275 GTX it ran quite good. It ran smoothly on very high settings. The new GFX alone should almost double my performance, and along with the extra CPU power, hard disk speed and additional faster RAM, it should handle even more with better FPS. I look forward to it. Ill report back tonight how it does!

 

[Nick R]

Out of curiosity, what power supply do you have?

 

[xBa380]

Not sure of the exact model number, but it is an OCZ 650W Supply.

 

[xBa380]

Well, that power supply came back to haunt me!

Obviously, I overlooked the power needed for such a setup. I start having weird issues and eventually the computer would not boot beyond the bios... Or even let you in to the bios for that matter.

The PSU was not good enough.

Replaced it with a Cooler Master 1000W Gold PSU I overnighted from Amazon (love Prime!), and the computer is all back to its glory. We got the CPU overclocked currently to 4.5Ghz stable, as well as the RAM. GPU will be done tonight, as I pre-did it last week but with all the issues set back to default. Now that I have proper power, all should be perfectly fine now. I had the GPU at 900/1800/2000 though I believe it was (570 GTX Superclocked)...

We also finally got AHIC mode to work with the SSD drive... Probably was power issue as well. Now the read/write speeds are even better.

Windows Experience Index is completely maxed out, except for my CPU at 7.8... All else is at 7.9, which is quite awesome to see.

So yeah, make sure you always have proper power! My GPU alone required something like 550W and 14A... My OCZ was only 600W and only 12A or something crazy. Way underpowered for my rig.

All better now, though!

 

[Nick R]

I'm so not a fan of Cooler Master power supplies. Even the Gold ones, so many cruddy low end stuff from them it really has turned me off to them. I stick with anything made by Seasonic, XFX 850W would be my choice (I have the 650W version, 52amps on the 12V Rail.

 

[OVERKILL]

Antec and Corsair have been good for me regarding PSU's. I have an Antec 850W at the moment.

 

[SLCraig]

Seasonic and Corsair for PSU's.. I just replaced my hella old S12 600W (still working fine - replaced due to age) with a Corsair AX750 and the system is ROCK solid.

 

[Nyquist]

I built a similar machine using the I-7 2600 with the Hyper 212 cooler. It's a great combo especially with our load temps only reaching 45C. The machine runs a numerical weather prediction model, so it is maxed out nearly 24/7.

 

[xBa380]

Great processor, that is for sure!

Yesterday I start doing my overclock via bios... Currently, I have it at a stable 4.5Ghz (noticed in opening post I said OC to 3.5, mistake!). Used software for that but decided to do it manually instead. I will be dropping the voltage until it is no longer stable and then bump it up from there, trying to get 4.6 or 4.7Ghz without going over 1.4V VID. Supposedly these chips are good to 1.52 via Intel, and many prefer not to go over 1.45V or even 1.4V.

Once the CPU is where I want it, I will start on the RAM. The RAM I have should be an easy overclock. GPU is already done via Evga Precision, and it runs at 900/1800/2000 up from speeds slightly lower then 797/1594/1950. It needs a small voltage bump to run at the OC stable (safe voltage) and I only use those settings before going into a game.

FSX is running amazing right now. Definate improvement from my old computer. I have yet to do any tweaks, but I flew out of ATL with 100% traffic no lower then 20-25FPS maxed out. Usually running from 30-60 FPS.