http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1hqu8c/build_complete_i5_3570_evga_660_rebuild_project/ PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.98 @ Amazon) Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.99 @ Newegg) Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Newegg) Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Gunmetal/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($97.88 @ TigerDirect) Case Fan: NZXT FX-140LB 98.3 CFM 140mm Fan ($14.98 @ Outlet PC) Case Fan: NZXT FZ-120mm LED 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz) Case Fan: NZXT FZ-120mm LED 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz) Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($185.97 @ Outlet PC) Monitor: AOC i2367Fh 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($159.99 @ Amazon) Total: $1174.73 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-08 11:07 EDT-0400) and pics! http://imgur.com/a/p2iwG -KM
All the hardware save for the case was from my old box so while I would agree that now I would spend the funds on the newer card that wouldn't be possible, on the otherhand I'm loving this case.
Basicly I got 8GB when I initially bought the cpu and mobo, but the next day they started a promotion for 8gb of free ram and I managed to wrangle them into giving it to me. On the other hand I think the overall asthetics and functionality of the mix works in my favor. -KM
You cant run them both at stock since one stock voltage is 1.25v and the other is 1.5v. It takes an expensive board to run both sets as individual voltages, and the Extreme4 wouldnt have that option I dont think.
allow me to rephrase, I'm letting it do whatever the heck it wants by default, or basically stock in my books. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544 These are the two ram sets I got. Looks like pcpartpicker has the wrong item's listed, let me fix that in the OP
I would. Its free performance increase. You bought a locked processor though and there is limited baseclock adjustments you can do and you cant increase the multiplier. You should be able to set your CPU strap to 125 (default is 100) which would bring your clock speed up to 4.25 GHz. That is easily doable and could probably even be done on the stock CPU cooler and possibly even on stock voltage.
According to the manufacturer of my mobo it can OC the locked processor, if you have any familiarity what should I try given I currently only have stock cooling aside from all the extra airflow in my case. I can give you the heat values I have running stock now if you would like as well. Thanks!
By overclocking a locked processor I would have to assume they mean by using the CPU strap. The Ivy Bridge processors can get a little bit more baseclock adjustment over the slightly older Sandy bridge variants, but they still cant get much. Usually it is +/- 5 MHz adjustment within the current strap. Which means after the 34x multiplier your processor runs you could get maybe around 170 MHz extra on the default CPU strap. Fortunately Ivy Bridge also brought along the different speed available for the CPU strap, whereas with Sandy Bridge you were locked around 100MHz, now you can do 100, 125, and I think 166. Sometimes these are listed as MHz values and sometimes they are listed as multiplier values, it depends on your motherboard. So if you have CPU Strap listed as a multiplier then it would be 1.0, 1.25, and 1.66 I think. Im not too sure on that last one because I never really use these options, I just use multiplier changes now days. Anyway, the baseclock speed is 100MHz, this is the base speed of everything in the system and all parts get their speed from this. If you overclock this to increase CPU speed, everything else goes up as well. If you use the CPU strap option it should keep the baseclock speed the same, but use a new multiplier in the CPU area to give the CPU a new baseclock of "100 * s", then it uses that new speed multiplier by the CPU's multiplier to get the final CPU speed. Since you are using a locked processor you cannot raise this CPU multiplier past its default of 34, unless the motherboard has some feature I am unaware of that circumvents Intel's lockdown. So what you would do is increase your CPU strap to the next one up which will give 125MHz * 34 multiplier to = 4.25GHz. This is a pretty mild overclock for your processor and it should handle it perfectly fine on stock cooling. The only thing I am unsure of is the voltage needed to do this, but you should be able to leave that as default because I have never needed to increase voltage on any of the SB or IB processors I overclocked until I got above that speed area.
This is what my system is currently running at: I believe I have the no-k OC on in my bios but I'll have to doublecheck. wish there were some guides for this stuff cause there isn't a mention in the tuning app on the system about the CPU strap anywhere.... -KM
Ok, flipped the OC switch in my BIOS and I do gain about 400MHz, however the cost appears to be about a 5 degree bump in my cpu temp bringing me to a loaded temp of about 65 degrees C. Thoughts? I am running most of my fans in my case at the lowest speed setting save for the cpu fan which I think is running at max. -KM
Congrats on the new build KM. How is it running and what games are you playing these days? Also you still living in Nashua?