Folding/Crunching & Sandybridge advice

[ToxicTBag]

There's a wealth of advice on p67 motherboards and Sandybridge cpu in the relevant hardware sections, but i would rather get a prospective from someone that has/will be using it in the folding/crunching arena and what there particular thoughts are.

Been wanting to upgrade from x58 for a while, as a novice overclocker i found it way to confusing, i have put hours of patience into achieving a good solid overclock not very successfull i have to admit.

So the general consensus the way i see it is an i5 2500k or i7 2600k cpu should be relatively easy to get and maintain a solid 4.5Ghz overclock non?

I read a lot of forum posts and threads eventually decided on a gigabyte ud4-b3. Given that i like my power would i really see an improvement from the 2500k to 2600k i know the latter will give me 4 extra processing threads which would come in handy but an extra £80 hmmmm just not sure.

Now given that your all power mad and believe in wringing the last drop of performance from your hardware what would you do? Am aware of the voltage requirements so its memory shopping today, any thoughts or advice on what might be best please chip in. Would like to get remainder of system ordered over the weekend for a wednesday setup.

Be happy to hear your comments/criticism/input but please keep the "nutter" comments to a minmum

Thanks peeps much appreciated in advance

 

[ToxicTBag]

I've had quite a good experience with the OCZ platinum kits, low voltage so fine for sandy and its been stable as a rock, if anything more stable than the Geil value it replaced, can't comment on how it overclocks though, although thats irrelevent with sandy. If you upgrading then a 2500k is going to be a downgrade if anything so I'd be spending the extra for the 2600k

Yup your right pointless trying to do it on the cheap (wish i hadn't spotted the 580 in mm ) Will get the i7 2600k, now as far as the memory goes i know you can use triple channel in a dual channel setup, just that i've sold r3 and i7 930 and am left with 12gb corsair xms3 ddr3 pc3-12800c9(1600Mhz)Platinum series.
would you foresee any problems in my using these?
Appreciate the input sah

Folding on a 2600K allows the bigadv units and they make one hell of a difference. Pointless to get a 2500K for folding compared to the 2600K.

Thanks for that MikeTimbers i will go 2600k but have got a new gpu as well so seeing as seti is my first love...ahem then i will split the use between bigadv and gpu crunching on seti. Besides i would get sent to coventry if i were to use 2 580 for folding - be ran out of the country more like
Thanks for the input much appreciated

 

[ToxicTBag]

I cant see any problems with the ram, is it 3x4gb or 6x2gb? If you can get a board with 6 DIMM slots you'll be fine as your running in dual channel, if not could you live with running 8gb in either 2x4gb or 4x2gb configurations.

Its 6 x 2gb the ud4 has only 4 memory slots but to heck with it nay more outlay, egg n chips for another month what the heck it's progress

Thank you sah and have a good bh weekend

 

[ToxicTBag]

You can't go triple channel in a P67, it will not do your performance any good. I did the same thing going from i7 920 to 2600K and went from 6GB to 4GB and didn't notice a blind bit of difference. Memory wise I've been ok with OCZ platinum and you'll see it in a lot of my builds. My 2600K however is on Crucial Ballistix, which seems ok so far

You will definitely have to go -smp 7 to keep the 580's fed for Seti at the same time as folding on the cpu, see how it goes, you might be able to make up the performance defecit by running bigadv in a vm.

Evening Mr Biffa sah

I retract my last statement, looks like egg n chips for another 6 weeks
Ok so i best be ordering some ocz platinum to get me crackalakking for wednesday build day ...the joy.

Am sure i will find a way of splitting equally between the 2 not ran a vm for years lost my touch on that subject.
Well i can but try, whatever works gets the vote whatever poops gets booted.
Thanks for letting me know Mr B much appreciated

 

[ToxicTBag]

Hi Snapshot

Did you have any problems or are there any dissadvantages to having 4 x 2gb sticks as opposed to 2 x 4gb sticks.
This memory lark has me well flummoxed(don't know if thats a real word) everything else was straight forward.
Some memory at ocuk shows as 1.5-1.65 and given that reccomended volts are 1.5 is that completely safe.
Am not interested in hammering it, having said that a nice stable 4.5 overclock would be nice

Thanks for your input much appreciated

 

[ToxicTBag]

Thanks guys as allways you've been a hive of information. I realised i could have carried on using the old memory from my i7 ddr3 setup but have settled on the Ripjaws as i was having a lot of trouble finding anything lower than 1.4. But given that Intel have stated the above and OcUk still honour warranty then i will go with the new stuff.

Thanks all i really appreciate it

 

[ToxicTBag]

Funny you should ask, yup all shiny stuff just arrived even though it said dispatched on the 25th. There was something going on with dxsecure yesterday, i think they had scanned all the items onto the system but then realised they did not have enough room on the trailer so there's a small reason for a delay but not from last thursday.

I had put this off for far too long, on the rampage 3 i had a power and reset button which proved handy as i never got around to wiring these switches up, but until i get the rig up and running i don't have access to the saved files which included a detailed "how to" on wiring.
Am on second machine at the minute and have the 2 switches in the pic, after a bit of uncle google i see that terminals 3 and 4 are to be used if used as a regular power switch - no joy on that theory. Alternatively i have the switch on the right, i would have pulled the last hair on my head out but then i realised i had anumber 2 all over at the weekend

Any ideas Mr Loudbob sah? indeed can anyone point me in the right direction

Much appreciated in advance....shelf full of shiny and hindered by a switch

 

[ToxicTBag]

Oh ells bells do i need to connect the leds as well? just thought i could use the power switch header on mobo and 3/4 on switch.
Thanks for the help Mr Loudbob sah

 

[ToxicTBag]

Easiest way would be to use a multimeter on the pairs of contacts.

Sorry i missed your post there Mr Speed sah, bearing in mind i don't have aclue multimeter

 

[ToxicTBag]

Have found myself a jumper will give that and the screwdriver a work out after tea, you just know it's going to be a long night
\will let you know how i get on.

 

[ToxicTBag]

Pataince young Padawan

Been doing this a year now and still i get in these mess ups, going to have a go now and providing i don't incinerate myself or the hardware should be up and running in a few hours.

**Update** All built up and sorted, neither of the switches are working i have tried all sorts .....so i'm going in with teh screwdriver

 

[ToxicTBag]

All sorted chaps, thank you one and all for your input. Allthough i am fairly dim when it comes to switches i did try evrything and the only conclusion is that both are not working so its a phillips flathead powered sandybrisge for me!
TBag is very greatfull

 

[ToxicTBag]

Aye thatd be grand Mr Loudbob sah, please pass me your details and will do the honurs much appreciated. All thats missing from this build is the same thing your waiting for gtx 580? Ram didn't turn up either good job i had spare