technology The Glorious PC master race thread

[long gone 8,929]

Intel 730. It's a rebadged datacenter drive with top-shelf Intel flash running on an Intel controller.

An overclocked Intel controller, at that. Out of the factory.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

An overclocked Intel controller, at that. Out of the factory.

 

Right on that, but Intel would never compromise reliability just to score points on a benchmark -- this ain't OCZ.

[Celli 4,338]

Intel 730. It's a rebadged datacenter drive with top-shelf Intel flash running on an Intel controller.

Ok, sounds good.

Another question, when I re-install Windows on the SSD, will I have to re-install all my steam games and stuff? I'm keeping everything else on my main 1TB, save for a few games that would benefit from the SSD(i.e. WoW, Skyrim,Minecraft.)

[long gone 8,929]

Since SSDs are on the subject, I'm starting to see them pop up in budget builds. Just goes to show how much the pricing of SSDs has gone down since they hit the mass market.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Ok, sounds good.

Another question, when I re-install Windows on the SSD, will I have to re-install all my steam games and stuff? I'm keeping everything else on my main 1TB, save for a few games that would benefit from the SSD(i.e. WoW, Skyrim,Minecraft.)

 

No, you can just reinstall Steam to the same folder and it should pick up all your games. You might need to revalidate some of them (Left 4 Dead 2 comes to mind) but other than that, you should be fine.

[Celli 4,338]

No, you can just reinstall Steam to the same folder and it should pick up all your games. You might need to revalidate some of them (Left 4 Dead 2 comes to mind) but other than that, you should be fine.

Ok, thanks. Another question, for overclocking, where do I do that? I put in an aftermarket heatsink, the Hyper 212 EVO, and also, do I leave the voltage alone, and what RPM should I set the heatsink to for good overclocks, and keeping the temperature under a good level?

[long gone 8,929]

Ok, thanks. Another question, for overclocking, where do I do that? I put in an aftermarket heatsink, the Hyper 212 EVO, and also, do I leave the voltage alone, and what RPM should I set the heatsink to for good overclocks, and keeping the temperature under a good level?

Since you're on Devil's Canyon (same as me), here's an overclocking guide for it. It doesn't really that different than "normal" Haswell, tbh, but this guide is here anyway because Devil's Canyon fixed overclocking.

 

Edited February 25, 2015 by Daring

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Ok, thanks. Another question, for overclocking, where do I do that? I put in an aftermarket heatsink, the Hyper 212 EVO, and also, do I leave the voltage alone, and what RPM should I set the heatsink to for good overclocks, and keeping the temperature under a good level?

 

Since you're on Devil's Canyon (same as me), here's an overclocking guide for it. It doesn't really that different than "normal" Haswell, tbh, but this guide is here anyway because Devil's Canyon fixed overclocking.

 

I was about to link the same thing. These new boards have really nice OC features from what I've read and it seems like the automatic overclocking features aren't half bad. Still not up to the level of manually going through the motions, but if you're not too interested in getting down to the extreme details, they can be a real timesaver and shortcut to getting a stable overclock.

 

More heresy -- I'd give the auto-OC a go and see where you land.

 

Another easy way is to just leave your volts at stock and increment the multiplier and run a stability test. Keep going until you crash and then you can decide whether or not you want to tweak the voltage to get more out of it.

[long gone 8,929]

Automatic overclocking features still need a bit of work imo, 1.346V is too much (especially since the highest "safe" voltage for Haswell is 1.3V). Although higher voltages on the G3258 might be a bit safer, since that chip outputs so little heat to begin with. You don't even need an aftermarket cooler to overclock it apparently.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Daring

[Celli 4,338]

I haven't touched jack, and somehow my CPU is running at 3.9 GHz

[long gone 8,929]

I haven't touched jack, and somehow my CPU is running at 3.9 GHz

Oh. That's Turbo Boost doing its thing. The 4690K is a 3.5 - 3.9GHz processor.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

I haven't touched jack, and somehow my CPU is running at 3.9 GHz

 

It'll turbo depending on load. 4690K goes to 3.9 stock iirc

[Celli 4,338]

Oh. That's Turbo Boost doing its thing. The 4690K is a 3.5 - 3.9GHz processor.

Ah, I see.

 

It'll turbo depending on load. 4690K goes to 3.9 stock iirc

It's been like that for a while now, though, it hasn't dipped at all, I mean, when it was idle before, like if I was just browsing the web, it would fluctuate from 1 GHz to 3 Ghz

[long gone 8,929]

Check your power management settings, if you're on Balanced then Turbo Boost should work normally and your frequency should scale normally.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Ah, I see.

 

It's been like that for a while now, though, it hasn't dipped at all, I mean, when it was idle before, like if I was just browsing the web, it would fluctuate from 1 GHz to 3 Ghz

 

It works on any number of factors, current load, power consumption, temperature, etc. In general, it'll clock to the highest possible turbo bin on demand based on these parameters. So long as your temps are under control, no reason to worry about it fluctuating, just doing its job.

[Celli 4,338]

Check your power management settings, if you're on Balanced then Turbo Boost should work normally and your frequency should scale normally.

Oh, dur, I just remembered I had set it to High Performance.

It works on any number of factors, current load, power consumption, temperature, etc. In general, it'll clock to the highest possible turbo bin on demand based on these parameters. So long as your temps are under control, no reason to worry about it fluctuating, just doing its job.

My CPU temp is showing 45-48 degrees celsius. Is that good?

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Oh, dur, I just remembered I had set it to High Performance.

My CPU temp is showing 45-48 degrees celsius. Is that good?

 

It's a little higher than I'd expect but not too bad. How are your load temps running p95 or AIDA64 or something?

[Celli 4,338]

It's a little higher than I'd expect but not too bad. How are your load temps running p95 or AIDA64 or something?

I expect it might be because the frequency is at turbo. What are p95 and AIDA64?

[long gone 8,929]

I expect it might be because the frequency is at turbo. What are p95 and AIDA64?

P95 (Prime95) and AIDA64 are stress testing software. AIDA64 also has some additional features, including temperature and voltage readouts and diagnostics, but costs money while Prime95 is free.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/download/

AIDA64 http://www.aida64.com/

 

Tools used to stress test your CPU.

 

Personally I use prime95 and a temp monitor like CoreTemp or OpenHardwareMonitor and run the 'blend' option with as much RAM used as possible. There are probably newer ways to go about it and others can chime in, but this is what I've used in the past.

[Celli 4,338]

Prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/download/

AIDA64 http://www.aida64.com/

 

Tools used to stress test your CPU.

 

Personally I use prime95 and a temp monitor like CoreTemp or OpenHardwareMonitor and run the 'blend' option with as much RAM used as possible. There are probably newer ways to go about it and others can chime in, but this is what I've used in the past.

I downloaded this:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

Is it a good option or are those ones better for that?

[Azure Envy 1,092]

I downloaded this:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

Is it a good option or are those ones better for that?

 

I've never used it, personally. People use it to tweak their OC settings but I'd rather just do that all in the UEFI.

 

It does have a stress test that's comparable to p95 and AIDA. A note, if you do use AIDA or p95, the latest versions use AVX instructions which cause Haswell/DC CPU's to overvolt slightly. Not a concern normally but if you're tweaking voltage, it could be an issue -- prime versions 26.6 and before don't use those instructions.

[Celli 4,338]

I've never used it, personally. People use it to tweak their OC settings but I'd rather just do that all in the UEFI.

 

It does have a stress test that's comparable to p95 and AIDA. A note, if you do use AIDA or p95, the latest versions use AVX instructions which cause Haswell/DC CPU's to overvolt slightly. Not a concern normally but if you're tweaking voltage, it could be an issue -- prime versions 26.6 and before don't use those instructions.

If I run a stress test, how long should it be?

[Azure Envy 1,092]

If I run a stress test, how long should it be?

 

You're gonna hear everything from 10 minutes to two weeks. I personally run prime for two or three hours. If its stable during that, it's good enough for me. Just know that prime will push your CPU far harder than any game.

 

But really, play a few games after that. Sometimes you'll crash in a game and not prime... every program uses the CPU differently.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Lunatic Envy

[Celli 4,338]

You're gonna hear everything from 10 minutes to two weeks. I personally run prime for two or three hours. If its stable during that, it's good enough for me. Just know that prime will push your CPU far harder than any game.

 

But really, play a few games after that. Sometimes you'll crash in a game and not prime... every program uses the CPU differently.

Should I change the fan speed as well?