Upgrading to i7-3930K

NicolSD wrote on 6/1/2012, 4:12 PM

It may or may not be overclockable to 4.5Ghz. You may be able to jack it up all the way to 4.7 Ghz. Each CPU and mobo has its own little kwirks. I experienced some unstability at 4.6 Ghz. So I run my machine at 4.3 and it's as solid as a rock.

Am I happy with it? You betcha!

CorTed wrote on 6/1/2012, 5:11 PM

Once I put it all together I will have to play with the OC a bit.
I'll take the 4.3G at rock solid any day ;)

farss wrote on 6/1/2012, 6:35 PM

Pretty similar to what I am contemplating.
The BIG question I'm pondering is just how much more does the i7-3930K bring to the table compared to the i7-2600K. There's a significant cost difference between those choice however there's more than just the 4 / 6 core issue to consider.

Bob.

Steve Mann wrote on 6/1/2012, 8:33 PM

Run RenderTest after you finish building the new computer.

Rendertest

CorTed wrote on 6/1/2012, 8:36 PM

Bob,
It seems the 3930K is better suited for video work (rendering etc)
The 2600 seems more suitable for gaming.

see here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3930k-3820-test-benchmark,3090-14.html

As the article states:
"If the amount of money I make is affected by those performance numbers, or if I do a lot of video work, or if I’m even applying threaded filters in Photoshop, paying an extra $280 for the -3930K is worth it. "

CorTed wrote on 6/1/2012, 8:45 PM

Steve, I will do that.

Just found out that my new upgrade now means a new case as well, so I will be delayed by a few days in building....
(the darn H100 liquid cooler radiator does not fit in my old case)

farss wrote on 6/1/2012, 11:21 PM

Interesting results as Adobe we're being quite specific with CS4 in saying more than 4 cores would yield little improvement.

Bob.

Steve Mann wrote on 6/2/2012, 9:17 AM

"Just found out that my new upgrade now means a new case as well,"

Buy one with lots of internal HD trays.

TheRhino wrote on 6/2/2012, 10:07 AM

Our cases are the older CM Stacker cases that have (11) 5.25 bays. They each hold (2) BR Burners and (3) 5-drive hot swap bays that hold a total of (15) 3.5" SATA drives. All of our critical work drives are RAID10 which means a failed drive does not slow-down work.

Sometimes I even wish they had more than (11) bays, so the more 5.25 bays your case has the better...

Cooling is essential too considering the heat of an overclocked processor & multiple hard drives. We use the quiet Noctua fans at every opening on our cases. the air comes in the front through the hard drive bays and out the back & sides. Our systems have the older 980X 6-core processors and we have had total stability for 2+ years.

CorTed wrote on 6/2/2012, 10:22 AM

I am looking at the corsair Carbide 500R black case.
It holds the H100 cooler perfectly.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009

NicolSD wrote on 6/2/2012, 9:54 PM

I have a 500R case and it is great. It is great for cable management and fantastic for cooling. It is just perfect for that kind of stuff. As for the Hydro H100, you've made another great choice.

Stringer wrote on 6/3/2012, 9:19 AM

Corted,

Did you notice the P9X79-Pro does not have 1394 support?

When I started putting together my SB-E system I first went with that board without bothering to check. I was prepared to go with an ADD-on card, but because of other problems I went with an Asrock board..

I believe the ' WS ' model is the only Asus X79 with 1394 ..

Steve Mann wrote on 6/3/2012, 9:56 AM

"I was prepared to go with an ADD-on card, but because of other problems I went with an Asrock board.."

Good call. Firewire adapters on the PCI bus are limited to the PCI bus speed of 133MB, and that is shared by other PCI peripherals.

Same with USB3 adapters.

CorTed wrote on 6/3/2012, 10:33 AM

Yes I did notice it was without the on board 1394, so i did also order a PCIx1 1394 add on card. I am not aware of any problems with it.
Will have to see how it plays once I put it all together.

I opted for the card vs the -WS board since that was a less expensive route as I did not need the additional features the -WS offeres.

john_dennis wrote on 6/3/2012, 7:59 PM

This version of that motherboard has 1394a and a PCI slot if you need those. It is short some of the features of the pro version but still should be competent.

Terje wrote on 6/4/2012, 8:46 AM

>> MB Asus P9X79-Pro

Just a warning, this Asus board gets a lot of bad reviews on Newegg. BSODs and RAM not being found seems to be the two main issues. Manual of board apparently says that very few RAM manufactureres RAM will work with all slots. G-Skill seems to have problems (at least for some users).

CorTed wrote on 6/4/2012, 10:25 AM

Terje said:"Just a warning, this Asus board gets a lot of bad reviews on Newegg. BSODs and RAM not being found seems to be the two main issues."

I have read most of the reviews on Newegg and I did not read about the RAM issues. The GSkill I bought are on the AVL for this MB, so I hope I will not have any troubles.

NicolSD wrote on 6/4/2012, 11:48 AM

Terje wrote: "Just a warning, this Asus board gets a lot of bad reviews on Newegg. BSODs and RAM not being found seems to be the two main issues. Manual of board apparently says that very few RAM manufactureres RAM will work with all slots. G-Skill seems to have problems (at least for some users). "

I have the P9X79 PRO with 32 gigs of G-Skill Ripjaws X series DDR3 1866 MHz. I have been running this rig for six months now and didn't experience a single blue screen... except when I tried using an AMD Radeon 7970. It gave me BSODs galore. As soon as I went back to an NVidia card, the problems went away.

arrmyslowrdr wrote on 6/4/2012, 8:57 PM

I have about the same parts that the OP does. But 12 GB Ram. Yes not 16 because the board refuses to utilize the 4th stick.

I downloaded and ran render test.

34 seconds.

UlfLaursen wrote on 6/5/2012, 9:36 AM

Hi

I did a build like that arround last Christmas. Same CPU and same board, but the 80 cooler.

I had trouble mounting the double fans for the "radiator" inside the case, so I had to put one fan inside and one outside the case.

Just beware that you might get into trouble with this cooler, Ted.

Ulf

CorTed wrote on 6/5/2012, 10:30 AM

"Just beware that you might get into trouble with this cooler"

Yes, Ulf, I actually did have trouble with my H100 cooler and case, it would not fit !! so I ended up purchasing the Corsair Carbide 500R case, which holds this cooler perfectly. I should have all the parts by this weekend to start the build. Will let you know how it all works out.

Ted

CorTed wrote on 6/9/2012, 9:47 PM

UPDATE:

Well, I got the machine put together, and I'm impressed !!

All parts fit and worked after I put them all together. I must say the Corsair 500R case is a great case to use for this build as it is made to hold the H100 liquid cooler.
After I tested everything, I decided to overclock. This P9X79 Pro board from ASUS is a dream to overclock. It has a Windows interface which allows you to automatically OC with the push of a button.

In no time I had my Intel 3930K running at 4.5Ghz.
Running Prime95 (using all 12 hyperthreaded cores) for a while I noticed that the cooler kept the processor at no more than 68 deg C. and sofar VERY stable.

Along with my SSD & 32 Gig of RAM, and I am a happy camper...

I went looking for John Clines rendertest-hdv as I am unable to locate the V11 benchmark from SCS. This system ran rendertest-hdv test in 8 seconds.

Well worth the cost of upgrading.

Ted

xberk wrote on 6/16/2012, 11:29 AM

Just curious Ted. Is your new system staying stable?
DO you know your cost on this new system, out the door?

TheRhino wrote on 6/16/2012, 4:03 PM

RE: CorTed & arrmyslowrdr render test results:

Did you change the 1080-60i render settings from default to BEST?