If you were building the ultimate gaming machine...what parts would you get?

[Albuquerque]

You think the average forum-goer can just magically pull 500+ FSB out of their ass after reading a thread or two? I never said you and I couldn't do it, I said the OP would have a hard time. People that ask questions are in a different league than those that provide answers.

Lower multiplier, increase fsb, reboot. Done. Yes, I think he could do it. Did you not see the machine in his signature?

I can bench @ 4.32GHz (540x8) if I want, a whole two ****ing MHz shy of your FSB clock. RAM in-sync with the FSB, no less. Sure you want to continue this petty pissing contest?

I can bench at 4675 (550 x 8.5) if I want, but 4336 is a daily usable clock with reasonable temperatures and reasonable voltage. And yes, I only run ram at 1:1.

Bring it

 

[suryad]

Oclocking to a certain level is not hard but getting the right hardware that will do it with the right memory etc etc is a bit of a trial and error game. I am not trying to go for record breaking overclocks since a 3.4 ghz oclock and a bump from 1333 mhz to 1600 and 1:1 is enough for now for me. Maybe when I get a new mobo then yes I will try it out.

I have not seen benches of Crossfire scaling as well as the Nvidia I must admit. I will try to google some right now but if you have any handy links please feel free to post them.

And thanks for all the posts everyone I really learn a lot because sometimes its good to hear other peoples POVs and perspectives right or wrong is another matter of course!

Shaidarharan I know a bit or 2 about oclocking I just dont care for it too much. If theres a fast chip out of the box I will go for it. Money is not much of consideration for me. Of course if someoen says why dont you get a Skulltrail and 2 x qx9770s then I am going to laugh at that person and say that there is nothing I am using that deserves that many cores! And also I can surpass what the 9770 can do with a teeny bit of oclock...perhaps I might try the 540 x 8 when I get my new stuff but I am not so much sure how DDR3 memory oclocks. I am guessing the 1600 DDR3 memories are equivalent to in terms of clocks as a 400 FSB? Especially going 1:1?

 

[Albuquerque]

For what you do (and the hardware you have), I say stick with your idea of upgrading your video cards. If you're comfy with NVIDIA, well then, ok I'm a bit of an ATI fanboy, so I'm liking where the RV770 cards are these days in terms of price vs performance.

I'm not sure what my next upgrade will be; Nehalem is looking mighty promising though.

 

[suryad]

Well its not just whatever I am comfy with. I want to get a sizeable upgrade while I am at it as well.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Lower multiplier, increase fsb, reboot. Done. Yes, I think he could do it. Did you not see the machine in his signature?

What would be the point in doing this? We're not talking about an FSB clocking competition, we're talking about overclocking to gain performance. That means adjusting the CPU clock primarily, and the FSB clock secondarily.

I can bench at 4675 (550 x 8.5) if I want, but 4336 is a daily usable clock with reasonable temperatures and reasonable voltage. And yes, I only run ram at 1:1.

Bring it

Nice. What memory are you running? Cooling?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Until NV can pull off 70-80% perf. increases with SLI, and eliminate micro-stutter as ATi has done with the 48x0 generation, I won't be recommending SLI to anyone but benchmark and framerate whores

 

[Albuquerque]

What would be the point in doing this? We're not talking about an FSB clocking competition, we're talking about overclocking to gain performance. That means adjusting the CPU clock primarily, and the FSB clock secondarily.

Sigh. I just got done quoting you about "good luck hitting 2Ghz FSB". That's the entire point I was trying to make -- hitting high FSB's is not difficult. I'm not suggesting he's going to hit half a terahertz, but I am suggesting that massive amounts of FSB isn't that difficult. I was still ultimately agreeing that Nehalem was the better way to go, and I've never stated that massive FSB is going to net any significant performance increases except for memory throughput (which is mostly synthetic benchmarks that care anyway.)

Nice. What memory are you running? Cooling?

Bonneville radiator, Via Aqua pump (ancient!), Apogee GT block, Sun ACE 120mm fans at 5v for daily (they'd be at 12v for a run like that though) along with about 1.55vcore for that kind of speed. It's stable enough to do 3DMark06 and SuperPI 1M runs. I doubt it would make it very long under something like Prime95; I wouldn't suggest running it at that kind of speed for very long anyway

Memory is Micron D9 (Ballistix DDR2-800), they need 2.05v (bios) to do 1100Mhz. They'll go as far as 1200mhz on 2.25v but the heat and excess voltage just isn't worth it to run 'em that fast except for just quick benches and not much else.

Until NV can pull off 70-80% perf. increases with SLI, and eliminate micro-stutter as ATi has done with the 48x0 generation, I won't be recommending SLI to anyone but benchmark and framerate whores

+1 to this

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Sigh. I just got done quoting you about "good luck hitting 2Ghz FSB". That's the entire point I was trying to make -- hitting high FSB's is not difficult. I'm not suggesting he's going to hit half a terahertz, but I am suggesting that massive amounts of FSB isn't that difficult. I was still ultimately agreeing that Nehalem was the better way to go, and I've never stated that massive FSB is going to net any significant performance increases except for memory throughput (which is mostly synthetic benchmarks that care anyway.)

You're missing my point. My point was that your direct statements (lower multi, raise fsb) results in very little gain in overall performance outside of a few synthetic benchies.

Bonneville radiator,

As in Pontiac? Seriously, I've heard of people doing this so I'm curious.

Via Aqua pump (ancient!), Apogee GT block, Sun ACE 120mm fans at 5v for daily (they'd be at 12v for a run like that though)

Nice setup. I'm just on air (Xigmatek 1283 with dual 120mm in push/pull - 80cfm/100cfm). Temps in low 60's according to coretemp, running FAH SMP, Orthos, SPi, Prime95, or anything else one would care to run. Low 50's for real-world apps (multi-threaded transcoding, gaming).

along with about 1.55vcore for that kind of speed.

Not half-bad. I've got to pump mine up to 1.5V+ for those kind of speeds, although for everyday @ 4GHz it's between 1.45-1.47 under load.

It's stable enough to do 3DMark06 and SuperPI 1M runs.

LOL, same here. I've gotten a few 2M and even an 8M SPi run in @ max. clocks though.

I doubt it would make it very long under something like Prime95; I wouldn't suggest running it at that kind of speed for very long anyway

Yeah, I'm starting to think the few weeks of constant FAH SMP were not such a good idea, as I was previously stable @ 4.1-4.2GHz for 24x7 use, now I can't seem to push it signifcantly past 4GHz without getting the occasional random app crash.

Memory is Micron D9 (Ballistix DDR2-800), they need 2.05v (bios) to do 1100Mhz. They'll go as far as 1200mhz on 2.25v but the heat and excess voltage just isn't worth it to run 'em that fast except for just quick benches and not much else.

Seems to be the RAM du jour for DDR2 platforms. I've had a few bad experiences with Ballistix back in the DDR days though, so I don't use them anymore. 5 RMAs is a bit excessive I'm on a 4GB G.Skill DDR2-1000 kit now though, and loving it! I have an OCZ RAM cooler on there and only need 2.0V for daily usage, 2.1V for max. clocks.

+1 to this

hehe, j/k

 

[Albuquerque]

You're missing my point. My point was that your direct statements (lower multi, raise fsb) results in very little gain in overall performance outside of a few synthetic benchies.

Then why did you make it a point to specifically state this:

Good luck pushing any modern Intel CPU past a 2GHz (effective) FSB. Dual-channel 1GHz DDR2 is enough to saturate a 500MHz QDR FSB = 2GHz

Other than THAT statement, I think we're in violent agreement. But your point in that very quote VERY MUCH seems to be that 2Ghz front side bus really isn't likely, and my point in just about every response I've had for you is that it really IS likely.

And if massive FSB isn't such a performance enhancer (and yet again, I've been agreeing to this point as well) then why even bring it up?

As in Pontiac? Seriously, I've heard of people doing this so I'm curious.

Yup, that's the one. They're slightly wider than a standard "dual rad", to the tune of almost identical to that of a standard 5.25" drive. It's quite a bit thicker than most "dual rad" as well, so you need a bit more oomph to pull through it. I have a set of brass 1/2" barbs soldered to it...

My water loop isn't much to look at; all the hoses are Lowes / Home Depot specials with the PVC-reinforcing mesh material in the walls so they don't kink. The fanciest looking piece of my entire computer is a blue 120mm fan in the back that came with my TT Armor case.

Other than that, it's entirely function over form

 

[suryad]

I dont experience microstuttering one bit. I have yet to see Crossfire scale more than SLI. If from your post I am an fps whore would that not mean that SLI is scaling better?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I dont experience microstuttering one bit. I have yet to see Crossfire scale more than SLI. If from your post I am an fps whore would that not mean that SLI is scaling better?

You haven't seen CFX scale better than SLI because YOU HAVEN'T LOOKED

Check the other thread on this discussion, I gave you a link to a Legit Reviews article showing superb CFX scaling.

 

[suryad]

You haven't seen CFX scale better than SLI because YOU HAVEN'T LOOKED

Check the other thread on this discussion, I gave you a link to a Legit Reviews article showing superb CFX scaling.

Gracias!

 

[suryad]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-radeon-hd4850-cf_4.html#sect1

Interesting read. Does not look like CF scales any better than SLI. That said I have not finished going through the article yet.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-radeon-hd4850-cf_4.html#sect1

Interesting read. Does not look like CF scales any better than SLI. That said I have not finished going through the article yet.

CF scales better than SLI. Look around. Today is 4870 X2 launch day. The X2 operates in CF, and it most-assuredly scales better than any SLI combo.

 

[Ty]

As in Pontiac? Seriously, I've heard of people doing this so I'm curious.

It's the heatercore, not the radiator per se.

I was looking into using one as well.