down sizing i7 860

[orbitalwalsh]

I can recommend the Coollaboratories Liquid Metal Ultra for between the IHS and die of a Skylake CPU if you happen to be delidding one. Works very nicely with some non-conducting Kryonaut between the IHS and the block. I did put some clear nail varnish over the contacts on the top of the CPU board though...just in case the liquid metal shorted them out. Difficult to be accurate since I changed my loop at the same time but I think about 10°C cooler is about right.

The pads were from Coolaboratories but yeah, will stick to tube paste form!

managed to land another Ti Strix on the bay , minus the cash made from the selling of the broken one lands it at £220 , still cheaper then the 1060 and better performance 1440p wise but now pushing 1080 territory for total sum!
Has ate way at my Zen budget

Harsh expensive lessons learnt .
Kryonaut has been bought!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Not had trouble with Kryonaut myself (other than my colleague using up my tube) but some found it difficult to spread. Warming it in a glass of water is supposed to help but I found that if you spread slowly and push down slightly it spreads fine. Spread faster and the paste sort of tears and doesn't spread.

sorry, i lied, was Hydronaut I bought, due to having to re-paste the incoming Strix Ti, the i7 860 and hopefully bring it down slightly and the 1080 Turbo for testing.

interesting with application, normally I used the pea shape in the middle but im guessing this stuff need to be applied differently?
also got the cleaning kit

 

[orbitalwalsh]

I'm assuming that Hydronaut is the same when I say this. They provide a rubber nozzle that screws on the end of the syringe. This lets you dispense and spread together. Aim is a thin, even layer covering the die.

read the thread on here... will stick with the pea method i think old skool system, old skool ways

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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 .

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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

Spoiler

G.Skill TridentZ 3400Mhz 16GB

Spoiler

Let the Board see its date!

Spoiler

Might as well make it a 3-way

Spoiler

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!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

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!!!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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

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

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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!

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 !

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

Tried both the default bios and it's update

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

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.

Thanks, resisting buying black and red WingBoost 2 fans !

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

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

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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

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 )

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

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!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

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.

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

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Delidding worked nicely for me. Flat razor blades like you get at the barber work well because they bend a bit and are thinner. I actually got some from the barber rather than buy a box of 200. CLU between die and IHS and then Kryonaut between IHS and heatsink.

I've got Hydronaut which works just slightly under Kryonaut but was hoping to use their Conductonaut instead of CLU. Heard its a lot higher in terms of thermal conductivity 73W/mk vs 38.4 or is this not recommended ?

got the delid kit on pre-order from here

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Right, Trident 16GB 3466mhz RGB is on order. System really doesn't like the 3400s and the new kit is supported this time around.

Got to do a quick bench wihlth Ashes, not regrets not getting an i7 and happy with the upgrade from the 860!!

DX11 i5 7600k@ 4.8/4.5



i7 860 @3.8



DX12





DX12 CPU





So, 25-30 fps increase in DX11, 20 in DX12 and 10 increase CPU bound.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

RPG!!!!... or RGB......

quickly installed Phanteks Starts kit

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Phanteks RGB LED Strip Starter Kit (PH-LEDKT_CMBO)= £13.99

Total: £23.89
(includes shipping: £9.90)
​

​

Some reason my OS is corrupt with so many motherboard installs, the worst being the Last ASUS P55 so none of the STRIX software works like the AURA.....

solution will be solved with a nice 512GB PM961 and fresh install but lighting at its default (poor phone shots)



Lighting on the IO has a rainbow effect but when it hits the solid strips, it just mimics a solid colour. May just be down to lack of software editing but if this is the case, will just stick with one strip at the bottom.
Im not a huge fan for RGB but my son loves the stuff at 17 months old. Trident RGB should be here monday too!

just hoping the glass panel doesn't take to long to be shipped from Jonsbo =/

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Ram is here ! Works , XMP works and able to manually overclock at last !!

Quick poor snap ! By default it follows the rainbow marque effect of the IO shield which is great news !




Damn it ! Images should be the other way around ! The led strip takes the last colour of the IO led and displays that full until the new colour runs through
Software update will be out soon

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Looks cool to me. How is the lighting on the RAM controlled? A lead plugged into an Aurora header on the motherboard or does it read it off the memory bus in a devious fashion?

Its meant to be Aura or Trident software but not updated/out yet :/

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Hand was forced into parting ways with the STRIX 980Ti and into getting a STRIX 1070 OC

aye, no real point Hardware wise to upgrade from one to the other but this build is part my own rig and part demo....

was hoping to land a broken Strix 1*** or RX but nothing

photos recycled from the mATX version but this time around its OC version.
and yeah, no way I was gonna pay retail price for this!





Least now the Silent Wing fans can be controlled directly by the card its self, that he first silver lining, second is that GPX Pro unit will be out the the card soon so will be under its own water-eco system, again the card controlling its own Radiator fans

** asus choking market again, hard to find non-oc version not in retail =/