# Ion goes Bloomfield



## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

Hello Team!

I'm soon going to be building my last planned cruncher of the year--a Core i7-920 system.  Yes, it's four years old at this point, but it still packs quite a punch, especially overclocked.  I don't have all of the parts yet, but everything has been purchased.  Here's what I'll be using:

*CPU*: Core i7-920 D0 (Overclocked)
*Motherboard*: EVGA X58 3X SLI
*RAM*: 1x2GB Corsair + (probably) 2x2GB G.SKILL
*PSU*: Antec Earthwatts 650w
*HDD*: Western Digital Caviar 250GB
*GPU*: nVidia Geforce GTX470 (no brand)
*HSF*: Xigmatek Gaia Push/Pull
*Case*: Probably none, but I might pick up another Source 210 later
*OS*: Windows 7 Professional x64

So far, I already have the RAM, the HDD, the PSU, the CPU, and the HSF.  The motherboard should be arriving Tuesday, and the GPU by the end of the week (I'll set up the system with a Radeon X1300 to test).  I'll post some pictures of what I have later today 

Here's a list of the systems I'll have (New system in bold):


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## ChristTheGreat (Oct 12, 2012)

Nice rig, that will gives a nice boost of PPD


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## Daimus (Oct 12, 2012)

Great!
To what frequency do you plan to overclock?


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

ChristTheGreat said:


> Nice rig, that will gives a nice boost of PPD



I think if I can get a solid 3.8GHz out of it I'll get ~20k between the CPU and GPU


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 12, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> I think if I can get a solid 3.8GHz out of it I'll get ~20k between the CPU and GPU



21x191 = 4Ghz  That is the best setting for I7-920's (D0's anyways) I have owned 3 and they would do 4ghz no problem. Voltages were from 1.275-1.3V


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

brandonwh64 said:


> 21x191 = 4Ghz  That is the best setting for I7-920's (D0's anyways) I have owned 3 and they would do 4ghz no problem. Voltages were from 1.275-1.3V



I'm a bit worried about heat--a $20 air cooler might struggle with 4GHz, even if I can put the system right by the window.  We'll see


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 12, 2012)

Xiggy will be fine.


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

Subscribed. 

Now my new build will have someone to play with


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

Norton said:


> Subscribed.
> 
> Now my new build will have someone to play with



We shall have them fight.  See if AMD's newest can compete with Bloomfield.  Yours will, of course, be a more attractive system, but mine is lower budget.  Just under $300 for everything


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> We shall have them fight.  See if AMD's newest can compete with Bloomfield.  Yours will, of course, be a more attractive system, but mine is lower budget.  Just under $300 for everything



Mine consists mostly of spares and trades/sales I've gathered over the past 6-9 months so the cost on mine is different.... I think we can throw budget out of the equation  

and either way they are both nice systems


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

Norton said:


> Mine consists mostly of spares and trades/sales I've gathered over the past 6-9 months so the cost on mine is different.... I think we can throw budget out of the equation
> 
> and either way they are both nice systems



That they are 

I'm thinking of getting a case for it at some point--I'll wait and see when the Source 210 comes on sale again.  Or perhaps I'll get an Antec 300 or some other budget case 


It would be interesting to know the power consumption of each system


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 12, 2012)

while my newest twiddles it's thumbs in the corner. And just hwen it was spooling up nicely, 3.3k yesterday.


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

Some pictures:




My fan collection.  4x120mm, 1x92mm, 1x80mm, 1x70mm





WD Caviar SE 250GB





ATI X1300.  Old and terrible, but enough to use to set up the computer while I wait for the GTX470





Xigmatek Gaia.  Will go Push/Pull.  Reminds me I need to install the LGA1366 bracket instead of the AMD one...





2GB RAM.  Not much, but we'll see if it works.  Will probably go 6GB later.





Antec Earthwatts 650w.  Works well and was dirt cheap, even if there are an unreasonable number of cables (and they aren't even sleeved :shadedshu)





i7-920 CPU & tube of thermal paste from Buck


I should have the board Tuesday and will build that evening


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## [Ion] (Oct 15, 2012)

UPS says that my EVGA board should be here tomorrow (fingers crossed!) and my GTX470 is getting shipped today, so I hope to have some new updates soon 

EDIT: Board is now in Greensboro...now I just need to figure out how to convince the staff here to let me a take a package that is addressed to someone else


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## [Ion] (Oct 16, 2012)

God damn it.  The replacement board just arrived, and it is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as the old one.  It displays "FF" on the on-board display, doesn't give any beeps, and never gives a display, even with a known-good GPU and RAM.


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 16, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> God damn it.  The replacement board just arrived, and it is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as the old one.  It displays "FF" on the on-board display, doesn't give any beeps, and never gives a display, even with a known-good GPU and RAM.



Yea I have never trusted those EVGA X58 motherboards. may have to just pickup the cheapest X58 board you can for now and put OCing on hold.


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## [Ion] (Oct 16, 2012)

brandonwh64 said:


> Yea I have never trusted those EVGA X58 motherboards. may have to just pickup the cheapest X58 board you can for now and put OCing on hold.



I'm not convinced it's the board.  The VRMs and chipset heatsinks are actually getting warm--so it may be the CPU.  I've contacted both sellers to see what I can arrange.  I'm going to try and return everything.  Put the GTX470 along with the other one in the 2700k setup and leave it at that.


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 16, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> I'm not convinced it's the board.  The VRMs and chipset heatsinks are actually getting warm--so it may be the CPU.  I've contacted both sellers to see what I can arrange.  I'm going to try and return everything.  Put the GTX470 along with the other one in the 2700k setup and leave it at that.



Yea TBH if you just returned everything then picked up a big video card you would make double the PPD of the i7-920 :/


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## F150_Raptor (Oct 16, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> God damn it.  The replacement board just arrived, and it is exhibiting the exact same symptoms as the old one.  It displays "FF" on the on-board display, doesn't give any beeps, and never gives a display, even with a known-good GPU and RAM.



As far as I was told, and I have 5 Evga boards, FF means fully functional.  My boards do it every once in a while, power it off and back on and it's fine.  Did your last board do the same thing?



[Ion] said:


> I'm not convinced it's the board.  The VRMs and chipset heatsinks are actually getting warm--so it may be the CPU.  I've contacted both sellers to see what I can arrange.  I'm going to try and return everything.  Put the GTX470 along with the other one in the 2700k setup and leave it at that.



The cpu would be my guess, are there any bent pins in the socket.  I always check it first on every replacement board b4 I even put the cpu in.  Do you have it in the case?  Try it sitting out on a table top to make sure something is not gounding itself out. Have you tried it with the cpu in and no ram.  It should give you 3 beeps in a row.  If it does try only one stick in the farthest slot from the cpu.


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## [Ion] (Oct 16, 2012)

F150_Raptor said:


> As far as I was told, and I have 5 Evga boards, FF means fully functional.  My boards do it every once in a while, power it off and back on and it's fine.  Did your last board do the same thing?
> 
> 
> 
> The cpu would be my guess, are there any bent pins in the socket.  I always check it first on every replacement board b4 I even put the cpu in.  Do you have it in the case?  Try it sitting out on a table top to make sure something is not gounding itself out. Have you tried it with the cpu in and no ram.  It should give you 3 beeps in a row.  If it does try only one stick in the farthest slot from the cpu.



Yes, FF does mean fully functional, _usually_.  I've found that when EVGA boards go straight to FF without displaying anything else or beeping, then something is wrong.  The last board did exactly the same thing: went FF and never beeped or gave a display.

There aren't.  There was a bit of dust in the socket, but I used a plastic cable tie and carefully pushed it out.  All of the pins on both boards have been fine.  And neither have been used in a case--this system has been built on top of a wooden table.  When I try with the CPU in and no RAM, I get no beeps or anything.  Same as before


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 16, 2012)

Hmm You wouldn't by any chance have another cpu to try would you?


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## [Ion] (Oct 16, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Hmm You wouldn't by any chance have another cpu to try would you?



Three other i7s, but they're all different sockets (A Lynnfield, a Sandy Bridge, and an Ivy Bridge Mobile)


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## F150_Raptor (Oct 16, 2012)

Have you tried a different power supply too?


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## [Ion] (Oct 16, 2012)

F150_Raptor said:


> Have you tried a different power supply too?



I have--I've tried two different ones, and both work in a different system (AMD X2 5k+).  

I've PM'ed the seller that I bought the CPU from, but he isn't responding.  I'm afraid I might be out the $110 I spent on the CPU.

Does anyone here have an i7-LGA1366 I could borrow for testing my board with?


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## [Ion] (Oct 18, 2012)

Good news guys! 

I've called Intel and I now have an RMA number.  Even though the CPU is technically out-of-warranty, they didn't seem to check that, and I'll be sending the bad chip off tomorrow


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## Norton (Oct 18, 2012)

Sounds like good news 

Hopefully they take care of it for you!


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## [Ion] (Oct 18, 2012)

Norton said:


> Sounds like good news
> 
> Hopefully they take care of it for you!



I hope so!  I'm going to box it up tonight when I finish my HW and drop it off at the Post Office tomorrow.  Hopefully I get back a working CPU and assemble this system.  Gotta get space for more GPUs 

The GTX470 should be here tomorrow, so I'll throw it in the 2700k system.  It's gonna be hot running two stuffed right together


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## [Ion] (Oct 30, 2012)

Well, it's been a while, but I finally have an update.  Intel shipped me my new CPU today--a BNIB i7-920! 









The system is now as "assembled" as it's going to get (at least for a while.  I'm installing Windows now, then I'll get it crunching.  I'll OC it after class tonight if I have time.

The great thing about a dorm with a window is what I can do with the radiator--50F air does a lot to give cool temps


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