down sizing i7 860

change of plans



sold the i7 860 + Formula iii and Rigjaw 16GB DDR3 on the Bay, along with my old EVGA 960 going so cheeky £300 upgrade to a STRIX Z270E, i5 7600k & Trident 2x8GB 3400hz will go down nicely .

wife has a mac with 3rd gen i7 and photo editing software so no real need anymore for my self to have i7 as i dont do 3D modelling anymore. really couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on i7, so i5 it is.
Would be happy for it to sit @4.6ghz with power states on personally.

Kept wondering why this current i7 860 was only hitting 3.8Ghz on ASUS Suit tuner when i got 4.3Ghz easily last time... i had given that core to my little bro with my old Board. Might of been a different story upgrading, but seems this core can only do 3.7Ghz manually without boiling water .

2 of the 4 parts have arrived



Trident Z is rated at 3400Mhz , should OC to 3600Mhz at default timings & voltage

Presenting the ASUS STRIX Z270E




G.Skill TridentZ 3400Mhz 16GB




Let the Board see its date!




Might as well make it a 3-way






Hopefully, will slide in just fine. Wishing I'd dropped 3 of the Silent Wing 3 fans for Wingboost 2 Black with Red tints would have matched the Tridents Perfectly!

Looks a good combo so far. Had some of that RAM in my build (Gigabyte Z170) and it worked fine first time. Only reason I changed was that another build needed lower profile RAM to clear the rad - the G.Skill cleared, the Team didn't.

Cenedd said:

Looks a good combo so far. Had some of that RAM in my build (Gigabyte Z170) and it worked fine first time. Only reason I changed was that another build needed lower profile RAM to clear the rad - the G.Skill cleared, the Team didn't.

Click to expand...

cheers

installed the board and card at lunch and was about to leave then the i5 7600k turns up. so quick clean with

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/coollaboratory-liquid-cleaning-set-th-014-cl.html

and a blob of

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ther...ormance-thermal-paste-3ml-7.8g-th-002-tg.html

and system was up and running! -snaps taken on phone so not the best and was in a hurry to get back to work









Went into bios to check all was well and hit the XMP button and saw core was idle at 23c - room temp 23c with cores @3.8Ghz and fan RPM @500....

mind blown!!! i7 860 @3.8 idled 35c in BIOS with fans at 60%/900rpm!!!

CPUs don't usually idle in bios. There's usually a load put on them.

ALXAndy said:

CPUs don't usually idle in bios. There's usually a load put on them.

Click to expand...

sorry , bad term of phrase but you get the idea any way of going from an i7 860 to a i5 7600k . big diff in temps

still find it funny how the Silent Loop is cooler with the logo upside down. Alphacool told be the top port is the inlet and the filling port is just above. with the design the inlet forced the water along the edge of the block to the center then up through the block and out the bottom port ( verse pump flow). Looks like any air gets trapped in the top and effects performance by 10c. At least with the 860 which was a hot chip to start with, and the AIO is poorly filled to start with.
Even with the rad mod still couldn't get all the air out but least now it sits above in the radiator.

Have a single glass panel on order for the case, so ordered some Phanteks RGB lighting to give it some glow. Didnt fancy having a glass panel on the back too. see no point for myself

Nobody wants a glass panel on the back, nobody is THAT neat.....eh, yeah there's a few I guess...but I'm not one of them...sadly

What with the BeQuiet logo and the SanDisk logo being upside down, you may just have to flip the case!

Cenedd said:

Nobody wants a glass panel on the back, nobody is THAT neat.....eh, yeah there's a few I guess...but I'm not one of them...sadly

What with the BeQuiet logo and the SanDisk logo being upside down, you may just have to flip the case!

Click to expand...

Haha! The sandisk bugs me the most! If performance was gain by it like that, fair enough haha

Got a problem. Didn't get much change last night ti explore, but setting XMP with BIOS update just loads to a black screen after post and screen turns off.
Reboot and says there was an error with post.
Guessing it might have an issue with XMP/Trident , as always will load defaults and try to get into windows again , or safe mode at least

Also bios update changed thermal temps, 23c on core to 30c and system temp from 21c to 30c .

**********************************

XMP doesn't like the Trident 3400's . Tried selecting XMP profile with CPU performance enabled and default and refuses to go into windows load screen.

So will have to enter speeds in manually . Considering G.Skill are releasing RGB version which can work with Asus's Aura , you'd though their Trident kit would be supported from the start !

You may find that it's the bios. Newer is not necessarily better. I had to go for a slightly older one to get my pair of M.2 SSDs in RAID0 working.

If the temps have gone up, either air has settled somewhere it shouldn't, or they've increased the voltage to the CPU.....or recalibrated the sensors.
Maybe try a slightly older bios to see if it helps.

The Sandisk sticker should come off with a hair dryer. Then you can flip it (if you are super careful) or just bin it. Oddly the upside down BQ logo doesn't bother me that much. It's the stickers on the fan that make my OCD alarm bells ring

Nice looking build though man.

Cenedd said:

You may find that it's the bios. Newer is not necessarily better. I had to go for a slightly older one to get my pair of M.2 SSDs in RAID0 working.

If the temps have gone up, either air has settled somewhere it shouldn't, or they've increased the voltage to the CPU.....or recalibrated the sensors.
Maybe try a slightly older bios to see if it helps.

Click to expand...

Tried both the default bios and it's update

Just realised, had the case open with first readings pmsl !

ALXAndy said:

The Sandisk sticker should come off with a hair dryer. Then you can flip it (if you are super careful) or just bin it. Oddly the upside down BQ logo doesn't bother me that much. It's the stickers on the fan that make my OCD alarm bells ring

Nice looking build though man.

Click to expand...

Thanks, resisting buying black and red WingBoost 2 fans !

Looking good mate, I'd have to alter the stickers on the upside down bits though or my OCD would set smoke alarms off

Strange to find RAM that won't work with XMP profile these days, certainly isn't very confidence inspiring if it wouldn't even boot! I'd say either try the same settings as XMP but with a tiny bit more voltage or use same voltage but knock it back a click, see if that helps.

OJ46 said:

Looking good mate, I'd have to alter the stickers on the upside down bits though or my OCD would set smoke alarms off

Strange to find RAM that won't work with XMP profile these days, certainly isn't very confidence inspiring if it wouldn't even boot! I'd say either try the same settings as XMP but with a tiny bit more voltage or use same voltage but knock it back a click, see if that helps.

Click to expand...

Haha, didn't bother me since its a solid metal panel, but now Cooltek is sending me a Glass one and everyone's mentioned the stickers, its gonna have to come off haha!

Right, I got Ram working with XMP... Had to select it on the drop down box for RAM, not selecting the XMP option generatally which gives you the option to enable CPU performance increase or not.
You'd thought not enabling CPU increase would be the same as selecting RAM option in the drop down box....
Had the details for ASUS Taiwan so sent them a recording, hopefully its sorted in an update .
Most general buyers would often select the XMP button and allow Performance CPU increase, so here's hoping its just an isolated incident

That's one reason I always use Asus boards mate, now you've highlighted the issue I'd be very surprised if it wasn't fixed with a BIOS update soon. After switching to their routers (from Netgear) I couldn't believe the amount of firmware updates & additional features they kept adding. Others seem happy to sell items then end all support 12 months later...

If you ever want any vinyl cut just give me shout, bought a cheap plotter for my current build and have loads of different vinyl just sat here doing nothing! As long as you covered the postage I'd be happy to cut & send whatever you need

OJ46 said:

That's one reason I always use Asus boards mate, now you've highlighted the issue I'd be very surprised if it wasn't fixed with a BIOS update soon. After switching to their routers (from Netgear) I couldn't believe the amount of firmware updates & additional features they kept adding. Others seem happy to sell items then end all support 12 months later...

If you ever want any vinyl cut just give me shout, bought a cheap plotter for my current build and have loads of different vinyl just sat here doing nothing! As long as you covered the postage I'd be happy to cut & send whatever you need

Click to expand...

That would be awesome !
Always uses Asus and gigabyte boards and have an Apex on order but must say this has been thebworst launch board I've used.
Features advertised like the auto overclocking doesn't work ... Of course everyone on here manually does it but wanted to check what it can do. Every times, bios crash! From XMP to the EZ tweak tools in bios, even tried the 5Ghz preset , all give a bios crash .
Hoping this isn't the case with Zen launch !

Anyone else having issues with Asus Strix boards with overclocking features on BIOS ? ( again everyone manually does it but if someone else could try, greatly appreciated )

That does sound more than a little irritating, but on the plus side at least they're problems that will no doubt be fixed with a future BIOS update. Just hope they sort it sooner rather than later!

Must admit I've never really trusted any of the auto overclocking features, set the RAM to XMP on the PC in my sig and it was at 3200MHz @ 1.360v. Set the RAM using the MoBo auto clock feature and it chucks 1.5v at it... Didn't trust it going near the CPU after that! Seems they normally default to a higher than needed voltage to make sure even the crappest of chips will be stable.

OJ46 said:

That does sound more than a little irritating, but on the plus side at least they're problems that will no doubt be fixed with a future BIOS update. Just hope they sort it sooner rather than later!

Must admit I've never really trusted any of the auto overclocking features, set the RAM to XMP on the PC in my sig and it was at 3200MHz @ 1.360v. Set the RAM using the MoBo auto clock feature and it chucks 1.5v at it... Didn't trust it going near the CPU after that! Seems they normally default to a higher than needed voltage to make sure even the crappest of chips will be stable.

Click to expand...

Doesn't help with the XMP situation that all of the Trident speeds are supports bar the 3400mhz ones!
again bios should update it.
going to try the one click 5Ghz option aswell for a test.

I did manage to get the EZ wizard basic overclock to work with default RAM timings, was 55c under Intel Extreme stress test, but enabled XMP and boom, bios crash!

well.... found ASUS's preset 5Ghz option and works fine, but RAM is switched back to default speed.

all images were at MAX temps



As you can see that is some fair voltage ! seen reviews with 1.35v working just fine



Heat wasn't to bad with the Custom Silent Loop AIO, default 240 30mm low density rad is replaced with 26mm high density EKWB SE and Pure Wing changes changed to Silent Wing 3's



CPU-z snap shot



Max Unigine Valley temp was 64c

great, I know my chip can work at 5Ghz! so naturally i want the Nice Trident Zs working at their correct speed. Couldn't enable XMP without disabling the 5OC settings, no biggie i'll just default, reboot and enable XMP with 50 multiplier and the voltage at 1.425 and also try auto just in case... No luck, failed to Post.

Managed to find the TU overclock settings and tried option 2, which is for Watercooled systems, and finally a Auto Overclocker works! hits 4.8 with 1.35v but again, RAM is default. This time around I manually enter in the timings and settings and run Intel Extreme CPU & Ram stress tests and all is fine ! although forgot the screen shots .

Next point of action is to see about overriding the Default AUTO voltage on the CPU to see how low it can go, again seen OC with 1.28v @4.8.
Also need to bump up the Cashe frequency to hopefully 4.5Ghz maybe and avoid any bottlenecks with ram speed.
Could also be nice to keep power saving features aswell

Im glad to know that my chip can hit 5Ghz with ASUS pre-set, so its within the lucky 80% that can... but I won't attempt to OC at that point until its had its TIM replaced.

Might be worth researching the power saving issue. I clocked mine deliberately to keep the speedstep etc as I thought it would keep power usage and heat down when not required. Apparently though the cpu doesn't use much power when it's idling even at full clock.

Cenedd said:

Might be worth researching the power saving issue. I clocked mine deliberately to keep the speedstep etc as I thought it would keep power usage and heat down when not required. Apparently though the cpu doesn't use much power when it's idling even at full clock.

Click to expand...

Cheers for that info, as well as keeping power down its keeping the temps down to run the lowest Fan profile. Hopefully Delidding will help keep temps down at well

Just a bit of a pain I cant enable XMP and then try clock speeds and voltages, but should be sorted with BIOS updates I hope.

Not sure were to play around with LLC levels as well, current set to Auto be Default

would recommend anyone with ASUS boards to try the 5Ghz pre-set to see if you've got a nice CPU, does run high voltage but saves the hassle of trying out multiple overclocks and allows you to work backwards in getting the voltage down