Project: Style Over Substance (SOS)

I did a fresh install of windows last night so I'm hoping to get some stock benchmarks up tonight then I can start some 'clocking and see where we get :D

I'm also considering new fans/fan controller as the fan & exhaust fans are much louder than I'd like. And I need to figure out how to shut the pump up... it's silent other than the fact that it vibrates the HDD cage it's sat on :(
 
That's awesome, thanks! :D As soon as I get the printer re-installing I'll get it stuck on there... I've got some satin photo paper that should do nicely :)

Quick test completely stock puts it slightly faster than an overclocked Q6600 -

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We'll see how far we can go with this one...
 
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Quick before and after from Unigine, new rig's a tad faster :D

Can't wait to start on some serious overclocking, it's gone straight to 4.5ghz with quite literally no effort (ie, AMD Overdrive) so I'm hoping for 5ghz when I tweak it manually.
 
Got some tests done! All compared to my previous system (Q6600 @ 3.2 with HD5770 1GB)

Gaming - all done @ 1920x1080, highest settings. Crysis was done using the benchmark tool, Skyrim and DOW2 using Fraps on set sections (hence having max, min and av scores).

For reference most review sites but a 2500k with a 6950 at around 50-60fps on Skyrim and 30-35 on Crysis.

Higher is better.

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Encoding - 1 is the time to encode 150 high-res photos in to a DVD slideshow, 2 is using Handbrake to encode a video file (time to get to 5%, didn't fancy sitting there all day :p) and CS5 is time to smart blur a 25mb photo.

Lower is better.

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Finally some benchmark scores, higher is better.

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So an overall improvement all round, games feel a lot smoother and the FX is fantastic for encoding tasks. Probably still not as quick as a 2500k but given that it cost <£100 and I didn't have particularly high hopes for it it's doing very well indeed. And no doubt there's still more to come from it!

And on with todays tasks, these just turned up (current fans were too loud/not shifting enough air) -

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And I really need to sort out the underneath of my desk :(

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Are the results comparing a Q6600 at 3.2GHZ with an HD5770 1GB to a FX6100 at 4.6GHZ with an HD6950 2GB??

Have you installed the Microsoft hotfixes?? I know someone who did it with their FX6100 and got a slight increase in Crysis framerates.

Yes they are and yes I have, I didn't bench it without the hotfixes as I wanted to give it the best chance I could :p

Dawn of War 2 is definitely more CPU limited (as you can tell from the graphs) whereas Skyrim and Crysis are loving the extra GPU headroom :)
 
Tidied the desk up! I love the trunking, I've got it right round my living room with masses of cabling in it :D

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And the rig speaks for itself -

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The rig is now pretty much completely silent unless I'm gaming when the gpu spins up. I've got the Typhoons fan off of MB headers and am letting the board increase the speed as the cpu warms up - it's working suprisingly well.

I'm going to keep pushing it to see how far I can go, I've had 5ghz load in to windows but it wasn't staple but temps are still <45 under load at the moment so there's still plenty of room left for more voltage. If/when I get it stable I'll do some more benchmarks.

Any questions? :)
 
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What size tubing are you using?
And how quiet are those Gentle Typhoon fans as well as the one by Fractal Design?

Job well done btw mate.

The tubing is 7/16" over 1/2" barbs.

The fractal is ran off a non-controlable (assuming that's a real word) header so runs at full speed. It's probably the loudest fan in the system but that's not really saying much as it's still very quiet and shifts a decent amount of air. Plus it's probably less than a metre away from me and is blowing air at me so if it was under a desk it'd be silent.

The Typhoons are only running at 800-1000rpm as the cpu isn't getting hot enough to warrant the mb turning them up. At that speed they are quite literally silent - they're not pushing huge amounts of air through the rad but it's enough that the cpu's never got hot enough for them to speed up (~40-50c). At full speed they're quite a bit louder but they were out of the case when I tested them so I'd imagine they'd still be pretty quiet once the case is sealed up.
 
I'm still debating whether or not to leave the cables as they are (ie, naturally laid out or "intentionally messy" or use some white cable ties to straighten them up a bit.
 
I've decided to do some tests to see how well the FX scales with bus overclocking as opposed to just ramping up the multiplier.

AIDA64 Benchmarks -

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Cinebench -

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As you can see, even at stock speeds it gets a good bump from increasing the bus speed.

From what benchmarks I've found of the i5 clocked up to 5Ghz it just about matches a stock 2500k but it's not something I'd want to run 24/7. 4.6-4.8 would be a more sensible clock with ~1.45-1.5v and load temps of under 45c. Getting up to 5GHz took a huge bump in voltage and temps were above 55c so it's literally just for benchmarks.

I might pop and do a review of the FX6100 in the CPU section later, for the price I really don't think it's a bad little cpu even if it can't match the i5 for outright speed.
 
Thanks for all the great comments :D

My review of the Bulldozer is up in the cpu section if anyone fancies a read.

Next stage is to plan some lighting... Possibly thinking about using leds to back light the motherboard.
 
It's been a while since I've updated here so I figured I'd post up my latest plans!

I've discovered that if I move the front fans to the outside of the case they still (just about) fit under the front cover.

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This leaves pretty much exactly the right amount of space for another 240mm rad internally...


Though I will need to figure out how to route the tubing as the top of the rad would be inside the 5.25" drive section at the top of the case.

I'm also in discussion with Corsair to see if they can ship me out a pair of twin pci-e adapters...

Can't wait 'till pay day ;)
 
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