What's the best motherboard/CPU/RAM upgrade for me??

harry5522 said:
Have you tried the steam VR benchmark? Good test for if your system can handle vr games
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Yeah I ran it a few days ago before I even started messing with the clocking etc - it basically said my system was fine!

From memory you get either "Not Ready", "Capable" or "Ready" and mine came up with ready on all three of OS, GPU and CPU!

The Vive has just landed so will hopefully get the chance to test it out for real tonight! :)
 
Quick update on this - my system still seems to be solid - no crashes or other issues since the overclock and it seems to be handling the Vive very well from what I can tell!

The only game so far that I've noticed much in the way of performance issues is in Project CARS - but to be honest the odd judder isn't really that bad when you are streaking down to a corner at 100+ mph - you've got other things to be worrying about!

Had a bit of an issues setting up my room space for the Vive....but in all fairness I was trying to mark out the space with a huge wardrobe that has mirrored doors right next to it! (doh!) - A quick sheet over the reflective surfaces and the Vive tracks like a boss!

Happy to answer any Vive questions but remember I'm still very much a beginner!!
 
Thanks for the update Stevie - glad to read the clock is still proving stable.

My main question is - is the driving experience as immersive as you had hoped - say compared to 3 screens?

Does it feel natural - or is the experience a bit like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time (i have kids - best analogy i could come up)?
 
I've never actually tried the whole 3 screen setup to be honest - however, the immersion is quite something in terms of an experience!

The main issue I've had so far is that the view off-centre is a little bit "fuzzy" - not too much of an issue because you are moving your head to see things clearly but I've found that my peripheral vision is a bit off-putting! In all fairness I'm not sure I've got the headset perfectly fitted to my head yet (too damn eager to experience it to worry about getting settings right!) and there are other adjustments you can make, I'm just not sure what differences they actually impact upon yet!

In an ideal world it would be lighter, wireless and a higher resolution! 1080 x 1200 per eye sounds like a lot but when your eyes are that close to the "screen" you can see the pixels (which I'm sure you can tinker with but with my 970 barely meeting the minimum required specs, I didn't want to go poking around in settings too much!)

All in all it's an incredible experience, I'm just not sure it will be a daily thing for me personally!
 
Just resurrecting my old thread - I'm happily running my 2500K at 4.3GHz and running my RAM at 1600MHz (thanks to plec and Harry!) but I quite fancy upping the RAM to 16GB - my question is, what is the best sort for me?

There is Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 16GB 2400MHz RAM (2x 8GB) for sale in the members market but according to the MSI website my motherboard only supports up to 2133MHz - will this run at 2133MHz (so, underclocked) or am I better off getting more specific RAM for my board??
 
harry5522 said:
I would advise you forget changing your cpu/ram/mobo for now. Get that cpu to 4.3/4 for a nice boost off the bat, get a nicer gpu IE gtx 1070/80 and you will be set! no need to re build everything else. And maybe add another 8gb of ram.
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Will a Cpu that old still handle a 1080? I currently have i3 3220, would that still handle a rx 580 or gtx 1060?

Wanted to upgrade to i5 3570 but worried aboit buyimg used one off ebay.
 
StevieP said:
There is Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 16GB 2400MHz RAM (2x 8GB) for sale in the members market but according to the MSI website my motherboard only supports up to 2133MHz - will this run at 2133MHz (so, underclocked) or am I better off getting more specific RAM for my board??
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Hey Stevie

Glad to read your system is still stable.

Yes, your board can support up to 2133MHz - these sticks may require a bit of extra voltage - 1.55V typically being the accepted rule when clocking Sandybridge - but i know builds that have been ruining at 1.65V and are still running.

The sticks you listed will underclock to 2133MHz, 1866MHz or even 1600MHz and at £100 is they seem a solid buy as they're still cheaper than off the shelf 1600 kits plus they give you options.

Hopefully, you could have a clocked 2500K with 16GB of 2133MHz memory running along side (maybe difficult with a p67a) - and the accepted mantra used to be that there wasn't any discernible difference qith anything higher than 1600. But users are noticing significant gains when coupled with a top end card - such as the GTX 1070. So the rule of thumb has changed somewhat with the addition of new hardware.

Only is some games - either way it wouldn't hurt and it's cheaper than buying new.

Additional: as you will be underclocking the sticks it may be that they wont require the full 1.65V to hit 2133MHz too. So worth experimenting if you do decide to purchase. I would get them stable first at full voltage and then drop to 1.6V for while and then 0.02V increments for speed. Or you could try 1.55V straight off the bat :)

EDIT: Also check you have the clearance for the memory with your cooler - although you could move them.
 
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Thanks for the continued help!

I've managed to source 16GB of "Kingston Hyper DDR3 1600MHz RAM" for £70 so I'm assuming this will work just fine with my board? (and from the picture they aren't any taller that regular sticks of RAM and so I don't think I need to worry about clearance?)
 
StevieP said:
Thanks for the continued help!

I've managed to source 16GB of "Kingston Hyper DDR3 1600MHz RAM" for £70 so I'm assuming this will work just fine with my board? (and from the picture they aren't any taller that regular sticks of RAM and so I don't think I need to worry about clearance?)
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No worries Stevie

Yes, 1600MHz will be fine - good price too.

Run between 1.35V and 1.5V which is perfect too - Clicky
 
Hmmmm, picked up my new RAM above but I'm not sure what voltage I should be running the sticks at?

The settings in my BIOS from the previous sticks is set at 1.5880V - does this need reducing now?

Also, the "XMP" option seems to have completely vanished from my BIOS?? The DRAM Frequency is now set to auto and is showing as 1600 KHz - I assume this is now right?
 
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StevieP said:
Hmmmm, picked up my new RAM above but I'm not sure what voltage I should be running the sticks at?

The settings in my BIOS from the previous sticks is set at 1.5880V - does this need reducing now?
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If they're the sticks i linked to in the post above then 1.5V should be enough - and there's no harm entering the voltage in manually.

I would certainly try the lower 1.5 voltage but if you run into problems then i would bump up to 1.55V as that's still perfectly acceptable for clocked Sandybridge.

StevieP said:
Also, the "XMP" option seems to have completely vanished from my BIOS?? The DRAM Frequency is now set to auto and is showing as 1600 KHz - I assume this is now right?
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Run CPU-z and check the memory tab values against the XMP values for 1600MHz for compariosn.
 
NP - Stevie

1.5V is not a problem for that memory (default voltage) - timings: CL 9-9-9 @ 1600MHz (look in the CPU-z Memory TAB for you current settings)

Note: Frequency will read 800MHz - memory is DDR so 2 x 800MHz being equal to 1600MHz.
 
Here are the "Memory" and "SPD" tabs from CPU-z (purple banner is the old memory and the blue is today's test on the new RAM)

2v9ylqf.jpg
opo0ie.jpg


I've also changed the DRAM voltage to 1.5V (to which my BIOS reverted to "Auto" - I'm guessing this is correct?)

What's the best way to test the new RAM for reliability??
 
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Your new memory is running at optimum specs with your revised voltage at 1.5V (recommended voltage for the memory) so initial signs are very good.

You could run memtest to for few passes for stability purposes - i think you ran it before?

EDIT: And use and abuse with games etc... - how's the system feeling?

Hopefully with the clock, and 16Gb of memory it should feel like a new build. Great bang for buck upgrade if it's achieved what you wanted. Are you still planning on getting a new GFX card? (or have i remembered that wrong).
 
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nice upgrade and ram is set up fine from the looks of it. Should have no issues. 16GB is really useful now as i often see the most ram demanding games creeping around the 12gb mark.
 
The system seems to be running fine! Certainly feels a bit zippier than before that's for sure!

I guess a new GPU is the next logical step but given that I've not noticed any performance problems I'm not sure I can justify the money I'd need to spend for a decent upgrade!

Besides, if I did go for a 1070 or better, wouldn't the rest of my system be a bit of a bottleneck??
 
StevieP said:
The system seems to be running fine! Certainly feels a bit zippier than before that's for sure!

I guess a new GPU is the next logical step but given that I've not noticed any performance problems I'm not sure I can justify the money I'd need to spend for a decent upgrade!

Besides, if I did go for a 1070 or better, wouldn't the rest of my system be a bit of a bottleneck??
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It would be a "bottleneck" yes but not one that would be noticeable in real use. Especially with your overclocked cpu that would be a really great performance boost
 
StevieP said:
>GTX 1070 bottleneck?<
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You've virtually got the same setup as one of my PCs:
  • [email protected]
  • 16GB 1600MHz memory
  • GTX 1070
  • SSDs x 2
  • 2 x 1440P 27" Dells Ultrasharps 60Hz @ 75Hz
I bought the GTX 1070 knowing that the CPU would bottleneck in certain games - but the reality is you don't notice - even more so with a clocked CPU.

I bought the GTX 1070 thinking i would update to a Ryzen build soon after - but i've really not felt the need. I don't feel the CPU maxing out - but know that it does in a few games - but it doesn't visibly affect performance. If anything it almost act as a virtual V-Sync in some games keeping the FPS very steady (Wildlands being a good example - i had similar FPS results to a Ryzen 1700 running a GTX 1070 on a 1080p screen - was stunned. My cores were maxing out at some points - the Ryzen was cruising - but the results were still very similar as it's a GPU intensive game. The pairing really is a worthy buy at 1440p gaming with a clocked 2500K).

Plus, when i do eventually upgrade in the Autumn/Winter - i'll plug in the GTX 1070 into the new build.

Win win...
 
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