Soldato
Sorry - yes. 2T Editing errors.
WJA96 said:Sorry - yes. 2T Editing errors.
WJA96 said:1. E6300 OEM
2. Your choice of CPU cooler (but I like the AC Freezer 7 Pro for cheapo rigs)
3. OcUK PC6400 Value RAM
4. P5N-E SLi
So for £360 you have the core of a 3.5GHz SLi rig that would not disgrace a pair of 7900GTO's and will run almost any game at medium-high resolutions with almost all the eye-candy turned on. That's a really good deal.
EvilGrin said:Think a 3.5 GHz rig would disgrace an 8800 GTS?
EvilGrin said:I'm almost convinced to go for this mobo now, I was thinking of picking up this stuff as ram: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit and a BFG 8800 GTS. Think you could push an E6300 further than 3.5 GHz on a stable overclock on this mobo with a cooler like the tuniq tower?
EvilGrin said:Going OT slightly - As i'm going to be getting a single 8800 GTS and doubtfully ever using SLi, think the DS3 would be a better option and an equally good overclocker?
silversurfer said:It only compromises a 8800 very slightly Ive read so you will be fine
waso_dude said:how do people find the 8x pci-e when in sli?
Much of a compomise compared to 16x?
waso_dude said:i'm just waiting for a paycheck to get this board and another 7900
waso_dude said:Aim is 3.3ghz+
WJA96 said:I think for a long-term ultra-overclock you really are looking at water cooling. OC_A64 showed here that 3.5GHz was perfectly feasible with stock air cooling. I don't think he was particularly trying at that point either. However it is worth bearing in mind that the current crop of E6300's are displaying worrying symptoms of running very, very hot indeed and that is upsetting a lot of people who bought them to clock them. If you get one that idles at 35 with a Tuniq Tower on it then it's still not going to clock well - particularly if you've not yet applied the extra 100mV to overcome the Vdroop. My E6300 on passive water idles at 48 but maxes out at 62. That's because even at rest I'm pumping masses of power through it that is unused and when it's idling that power is being disappated as heat. When the extra voltage is actually required the amount of heat shed is lessened.
WJA96 said:The real benefit with this board is that provided you have the right E6300 you don't need expensive RAM to get a mega-overclock because unlike the S3/DS3/DS4 the RAM isn't running on a fixed divider. The DS3/E6300 combination is almost always limited by RAM because of the fixed divider. So to guarantee 2.8GHz on an E6300 with a DS3 you have to be running PC6400 RAM. Anything over 400MHz FSB means overclocking the RAM too, slackening the timings etc. With the P5N-E SLi you set the RAM speed to whatever you think is the sensible maximum and forget it. The NVidia chipset also allows you to run 1T and vary the speed of the hypertransport bus, neither of which are available on the P965 chipset.
WJA96 said:In comparison with the NVidia 650i chipset the P965 chipset is a very crude tool for overclocking. You ramp up the voltages and ramp up the CPU FSB and make sure you have fast enough RAM to cope. The change in bootstrap at 425MHz on both boards means that with the DS3 you need RAM that will run to 460MHz+ or the PC actually runs slower than it did at 425MHz. That is easily overcome on the P5N-E SLi.
WJA96 said:The P5N-E with it's original BIOS is as a good a clocker as the DS3 is with half a dozen BIOS revisions under it's belt. Add to that the fact that no-one who actually has the board is finding any major "Gotcha's" with it and I do think this is the better board at the moment. Both are very good clockers though.
EvilGrin said:Very worrying that the E6300s are running so hot... I doubt i'd realistically try and push past 3.5 GHz, i'd probably be quite happy running somewhere between 3 and 3.5, stability (and longevity) is most important to me tbh. How hot do you think the processor can run before you should start worrying? Hopefully investing in the tuniq and some good heatsink compound should allow me to get a respectable oc! Oh yeah also as you said OC_A64 managed 3.5 with stock air cooling, any idea what temps he was getting and what cooler he has?
OC_A64 said:It seems to be the "B" batch chips which are running hot. Believe this is the same across the board if you get a B code chip. The hotter running chips tend to need less voltage for a given clockspeed though, so its a case of swings and roundabouts.
OC_A64 said:Cooling = totally stock intel cooler. It's not stable there though on stock cooler due to temps. Vcore = 1.30 or so and temps are in the 70's loaded. Watercooled she's orthos stable at 3.75ghz w/ 1.42v - again temp limited. If you can keep these chips cool they'll scale very nicely indeed.
OC_A64 said:Afaik someone around here has a chip which also clocks nicely (blknoel perhaps?) also a "B" batch chip but his seems to run at much lower temps which is great news for him.
EvilGrin said:It seems to me just now that the difference in price between the ocuk 5-5-5-12 PC2-6400 RAM and the GeIL 4-4-4-12 PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 is only £18, and presumably the geils come with heat spreaders too? Think it would make sense to go for them instead? I can't really see any RAM going for much less than the £140 mark (I go by ex. vat as i claim vat back through my business) for 2 Gb...
EvilGrin said:Forgive my ignorance, but my knowledge of the way current ram works is pretty limited, so I don't quite understand how that works. Is there anything you could point me to, to read up on and be a little more savvy when it comes to the way of the ram?
EvilGrin said:To be quite honest, i've never been a huge fan of gigabyte anyway, so i'm very heavily leaning to the 650, so much so that I think i'm sold! I just need to figure out what other bits and pieces i'll need now too, mainly ram, PSU, cpu fan to go with this lovely mobo. I'm thinking Geil for the ram, something around the £65 mark for the PSU and either the tuniq or the acf7.
WJA96 said:What's holding you back on the P5B? If it's RAM, then OK, you should be able to overclock more freely on the P5N-E, but if it's anything else then you may not get any additional improvement in processor speed.
waso_dude said:and how u know I run 1440x900
waso_dude said:Note: These cards require PCI-E x16 slots, they will not function in a x8 slot so for SLi you need dual x16 mainboard. Finally 500W minimum for PSU and 600W+ is recommended.