Upgrade time!

[Puck]

I'm off from work today and my new processor should be in as well, so decided to start working on my next upgrade even though my GPUs and third rad aren't in yet. I snagged a 4K monitor not too long ago and it finally made my crossfire 7970's start to show their age. Not so much because of their speed, but the 3GB VRAM is a bottleneck at that res and causes terrible hitching and slowdowns once it maxes out the VRAM buffer. 

 

These are the changes being made:

 

Mobo: Going from my Sabertooth Z77 to a Sabertooth Z97 (MK1).

CPU:   Finally replacing my dud 3770k with a cherry 4790k that is already verified 4.8ghz @ 1.32v w/ H100i. Hoping with delid, way better cooling, and more volts I can hit 5ghz. My poor 3770k needs a ton of volts for 4.6ghz 24/7, and is just benchable at 4.7ghz w/ a toasty 1.45v lmao.

GPUs: Swapping out my trusty 7970s (flashed to GE speeds then ran at 1100/1500 most of their life on stock volts) with 2x 290s. Hoping they are flashable to 290x's, but either way they will be OC'd as far as they will go. Will be a long shot to get two that are both unlockable, so if not "oh well".

 

My GPU's wont be in for a bit, so will swap my CPU/Mobo today and run it with the 7970s for now. The extra 200-400mhz clocked Haswell will be worth a bit more speed over my IB, but nothing dramatic.

 

First up, insulating and setting up the mobo. This is the first layer of art eraser by the socket. After this I need to grease the socket then install the CPU, add more art eraser around it right up to the IHS, then cut a piece of shop towel to lay over it to help absorb any moisture before it condenses. It's just a TEC setup and not a trace freezing phase cooler, so I only need to insulate ~1" around the socket. The DIMMs and traces will be fine.

 

For the back, a quick single layer of Armaflex is more then enough. The mobo backplate is a nice bonus on the newer Sabertooths, keeps the whole board nice and rigid and should hopefully reduce/eliminate the bowing caused by my bolted on heavy block.

 

I love love LOVE the dust protection plugs and shield that come on the Sabertooth boards. I have two dogs and keeping the internal and external ports and plugs clear of dust makes them worth their weight in gold. Doesn't hurt that they look pretty cool too! This one comes with a lot more plugs and caps then my last one...everything from audio ports on the IO to all the internal SATAs have individually labeled plugs for them. Even the RAM sockets have two dummy sticks to keep the plugs clean .

 

Almost ready to go! Just waiting on the CPU, which will be delidded and replaced with CLP under the IHS before installing.

[IVIYTH0S]

Looks like a good start, I'd consider buying one your 7970s to try out CF but at the same time I'd probably just wanna invest in a better single card to satisfy 2560x1600

Edited March 18, 2015 by IVIYTH0S

[Puck]

Looks like a good start, I'd consider buying one your 7970s to try out CF but at the same time I'd probably just wanna invest in a better single card to satisfy 2560x1600

I would say it depends on if you plan on going 4k and what games you play. They worked great for almost everything at 1440p (Dyling light needed Medium settings and lowered view distance to stay under 3GB, but was smooth 60+ fps until then, but it also has virtually zero crossfire scaling so I was basically on one card). The 15.2 cats coming out soon are supposed to help a ton, but I'm a bit disappointed that AMD went so long without addressing any crossfire issues.

 

7000 series have still been some of my favorite cards from AMD since the 4870s. I got a TON of use out of these things for a looonnggg time before they started holding me back.

 

If you do decide you want one, let me know and I'll hook you up when my 290s come in. One is going in my Fiance's rig to replace her 6870, no plans for the other one.

[El_Capitan]

If it was me, I would wait for Broadwell's soon-to-be release (or not upgrade at all), and also the R9 390X's release. Even watercooled, crossfired R9 290X's get plenty hot. The R9 390X should be better.

 

That said, I love the Sabertooth line of motherboards (as far as aesthetics go). Great choice for that.

[IVIYTH0S]

 

Looks like a good start, I'd consider buying one your 7970s to try out CF but at the same time I'd probably just wanna invest in a better single card to satisfy 2560x1600

I would say it depends on if you plan on going 4k and what games you play. They worked great for almost everything at 1440p (Dyling light needed Medium settings and lowered view distance to stay under 3GB, but was smooth 60+ fps until then, but it also has virtually zero crossfire scaling so I was basically on one card). The 15.2 cats coming out soon are supposed to help a ton, but I'm a bit disappointed that AMD went so long without addressing any crossfire issues.

 

7000 series have still been some of my favorite cards from AMD since the 4870s. I got a TON of use out of these things for a looonnggg time before they started holding me back.

 

If you do decide you want one, let me know and I'll hook you up when my 290s come in. One is going in my Fiance's rig to replace her 6870, no plans for the other one.

 

I likely won't be going to 4K for a long time since this 30" is probably the biggest I'd wanna go for a computer monitor and 2560x1600 is a great resolution as well. Everything is still legible at standard scaling but looks brilliant.

 

I agree with you on the 7000s, my 7950 and my currenty 7970 were my favorite cards in a long time! (any my dad's 7770 blew me away with what it could do at 1920x1200 while my 7970 was wrongly being RMA'd)

 

I'll definitely let you know, my interest is piqued since I'm finally at a resolution to really make use of CF (but still jaded about CF from all my 5970's performance that was capped by the mirrored Vram)

Edited March 18, 2015 by IVIYTH0S

[Puck]

Booted right up at 4.9ghz 1.35v. No clue if its stable or not - I haven't played with any settings or tweaked anything yet. Literally just set 49x multi, manual 1.35 vcore, and disabled Spread Spectrum. Did a quick 4M Hyperpi to make sure my cooler was mounted properly, now gonna leave Realbench running to test for stability at this voltage.

 

If it was me, I would wait for Broadwell's soon-to-be release (or not upgrade at all), and also the R9 390X's release. Even watercooled, crossfired R9 290X's get plenty hot. The R9 390X should be better.

 

That said, I love the Sabertooth line of motherboards (as far as aesthetics go). Great choice for that.

With a 4k monitor and dual 290s coming I needed something with more grunt then my 4.6ghz 3770k, and did not want to wait. Running hot doesn't matter to me, I have plenty of cooling and they are on their own loop . Plus for the money, the two 290s are cheap for their performance and will be quite a bit quicker then a 390x (although with a ton more power draw).

[El_Capitan]

Booted right up at 4.9ghz 1.35v. No clue if its stable or not - I haven't played with any settings or tweaked anything yet. Literally just set 49x multi, manual 1.35 vcore, and disabled Spread Spectrum. Did a quick 4M Hyperpi to make sure my cooler was mounted properly, now gonna leave Realbench running to test for stability at this voltage.

 

If it was me, I would wait for Broadwell's soon-to-be release (or not upgrade at all), and also the R9 390X's release. Even watercooled, crossfired R9 290X's get plenty hot. The R9 390X should be better.

 

That said, I love the Sabertooth line of motherboards (as far as aesthetics go). Great choice for that.

With a 4k monitor and dual 290s coming I needed something with more grunt then my 4.6ghz 3770k, and did not want to wait. Running hot doesn't matter to me, I have plenty of cooling and they are on their own loop . Plus for the money, the two 290s are cheap for their performance and will be quite a bit quicker then a 390x (although with a ton more power draw).

I won't argue that. My 120Hz 1440P gaming machine sports a 3930K at 4.6GHz and two R9 290X's.

 

4.9GHz at 1.35V's? That'd be pretty sweet if it could hold that.

Edited March 18, 2015 by El_Capitan

[Puck]

 

Booted right up at 4.9ghz 1.35v. No clue if its stable or not - I haven't played with any settings or tweaked anything yet. Literally just set 49x multi, manual 1.35 vcore, and disabled Spread Spectrum. Did a quick 4M Hyperpi to make sure my cooler was mounted properly, now gonna leave Realbench running to test for stability at this voltage.

 

If it was me, I would wait for Broadwell's soon-to-be release (or not upgrade at all), and also the R9 390X's release. Even watercooled, crossfired R9 290X's get plenty hot. The R9 390X should be better.

 

That said, I love the Sabertooth line of motherboards (as far as aesthetics go). Great choice for that.

With a 4k monitor and dual 290s coming I needed something with more grunt then my 4.6ghz 3770k, and did not want to wait. Running hot doesn't matter to me, I have plenty of cooling and they are on their own loop . Plus for the money, the two 290s are cheap for their performance and will be quite a bit quicker then a 390x (although with a ton more power draw).

I won't argue that. My 120Hz 1440P gaming machine sports a 3930K at 4.6GHz and two R9 290X's.

 

4.9GHz at 1.35V's? That'd be pretty sweet if it could hold that.

 

It was too good to be true, it failed after only like 3 minutes lol.

 

Probably just needs more voltage, for now I just dropped the multi to 48 since I don't have time to play with it. Lasted over an hour in realbench @ 4.85ghz (it used 101 BCLK) with 1.325v, which is already light years ahead of my 4.6ghz @ 1.4v 3770 so I'm already happy. I'm confident I can get 4.9ghz...5ghz may be too much of a stretch though. Still haven't touched PLL voltage or any power saving features yet.

 

Temps are a few *C higher at 4.85ghz as my last chip on 4.6ghz - even with the slightly hotter Haswell because its using quite a bit less volts  . I'm just running my TEC block too now and I'm pretty much at the limit of it so with my poor water temps hitting 31c thats only a 15-16c block temp...my chillers are still down from a dead pump->melted tubing catastrophe  .

 

Third Black Ice GTX 480 is shipped and on the way though, I was going to use it on my GPUs and pass on my 280mm to my Fiance but I think it's going on my CPU loop now. That should drop the water temp a few *c, 31c is some toasty coolant lol.

[El_Capitan]

Lol, if I had 31C as my load temp, I'd be going for 5.5GHz, lol.

[Puck]

Lol, if I had 31C as my load temp, I'd be going for 5.5GHz, lol.

That's my coolant temp lol! She gets toasty, and my filters are dirty which isn't helping because they get crazy restrictive.

 

After playing Dying Light for an hour three hours at 4.85ghz, my max load temp was 40c w/ my block set to 12c. A synthetic full load will start to max the single TEC out though, so I hit mid 50s. Too lazy to buy some tubing to put the two chillers back in, but that would bring it wwaaayyyy down. I haven't let the cat out the bag yet, but my long term plan is to eventually have the chillers end up on my GPUs, keep the TEC block on the CPU, but make a phase powered insulated chillbox where the internal case temp stays single digits...I would literally be the first fully TEC cooled, phase chillbox rig EVER  . The great part about the chill boxes and what really appeals to me is that you don't have to insulate anything in the box because the ambient is so low.

 

This is at least a year away now, I am house shopping and that will be the focal piece of my LAN room  .

Edited March 20, 2015 by Puck

[IVIYTH0S]

With all the crazy cooling and CPU power you have going on, how aren't you using dual 390Xs while you're at it

[Puck]

With all the crazy cooling and CPU power you have going on, how aren't you using dual 390Xs while you're at it

I spent as much on my cooling setup as my mobo, CPU, and both GPUs combined lmao. Way overkill, and terrible price:performance ratio, but I don't regret it at all. I like tinkering and I enjoyed myself focusing on just cooling for the last year. Heck, I could have went phase and been below 0 for less money, but thats not a 24/7 cooling solution that is loud, high maintenance, bigger, and more complicated. My setup is no louder then normal watercooling and all fits internally (albeit in the biggest case I've ever seen lol). My rig is on 24/7, and it really is just a "normal" every day use computer.

 

BTW I thought it was 48c at these settings but it was only 40c, no clue where I saw 48c lol. An actual CPU bench will still break 50c though...but if I had my chillers set up still it would be an easy 15c cooler  .