# I love the smell of new hardware in the mornin'(Main Rig P55 Upgrade time!)



## newtekie1 (Jun 11, 2010)

Finally got the last bits in today.







Upgrading:

Thermaltake Toughpower 750w -> Corsair HX850(Not really needed, but the fan in the Thermaltake has been buzzing.)
eVGA 780i -> eVGA P55 FTW 200(If your going to go P55, do it in style!)
X3370 -> i7 875k(Unlocked Intel for under $1000...did Hell freeze over?)
XFX HD4890 -> eVGA GTX470(I must admit, I've been playing with this already for a few weeks, I couldn't resists while I wait on the other parts.)
8GB G.Skill DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 -> 8GB(4x2GB) Corsair DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20(Curitsy of Darwin96's awesome fast shipping!  I mean seriously, I paid for them on Tuesday and I got them today, Friday, that is some damn fast shipping!)
500GB 7200.10 -> 1TB 7200.12(I think this is the first retail hard drive I've ever bought. What's with all these extra cables and shit in the box?!?!)

Everything else will be re-used from my main rig.  Pics of the build process, I hope, tomorrow.


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## mlee49 (Jun 11, 2010)

Nice upgrade, you'll like the cpu's improvements for sure.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 12, 2010)

Here is a before shot:





Here is the case without the motherboard, funny how the TRUE braket left a mark:





The new motherboard and CPU installed:





Heatsink installed.  This was the biggest bitch part of the build.  At first, I tried installing it vertically, like you see in the picture, but it was hitting the heatsink in the middle of the board.  So I installed it horizontally, but then it hit the RAM.  Finally, I had to remove the stupid plastic piece on the top of the heatsink, and the little light, and the TRUE fit fine vertically:





Finally, the end result with the graphics card, new HDD, and RAID card installed:





Of course after booting, I found out that the RAID card being in that slot forces the main graphics slot to function at x8, so my GTX470 is running at x8 right now, but I'll fix that this weekend sometime.

Now on to re-installing all my software...


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## sneekypeet (Jun 12, 2010)

I wouldnt be too worried about the 8X

I run my second one there to keep it cooler on my board, benches saw very little increase @16X.


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## overclocking101 (Jun 12, 2010)

and X16 stresses the 1156's a little more. good rig bro. my 55 ftw was a little trick at first but I finally got the hang of it and they can fly after some tweaking. you wont need it because of the unlocked multi but the sweet spot cpu signal wise is -25 for both cpu and pcie signal setting.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 12, 2010)

sneekypeet said:


> I wouldnt be too worried about the 8X
> 
> I run my second one there to keep it cooler on my board, benches saw very little increase @16X.



Yeah, I'm not real worried about the X8, but it does bother me a little, I'll just move the RAID card down to one of the other PCI-E slots next time I pull it out from under my desk to blow out the dust.



overclocking101 said:


> and X16 stresses the 1156's a little more. good rig bro. my 55 ftw was a little trick at first but I finally got the hang of it and they can fly after some tweaking. you wont need it because of the unlocked multi but the sweet spot cpu signal wise is -25 for both cpu and pcie signal setting.



Yeah, I took a peak at the overclocking section and was just overwhelmed with all the options, I'm going to have to do some research.

I tried upping the multiplier two, just to see what would happen, but it reverted back to 22 after reboot, so I'm not sure what is going on with that...again time for some reasearch.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 21, 2010)

Damn, moved the RAID card, and the graphics card was still at x8.  Reseated the card, and still same issue.  I'll have to look into this some more later.  But for now OVERCLOCKING!

First the CPU:





This is the clock I decided to live with 24/7 for now.  The CPU does 4.0GHz@1.3v, but it gets insanely hot.  It doesn't help that it is summer, and the room my computer is in hits 90°F easily.

Now the GTX470:





These are the clocks I decided to stop on, it might go higher, but to get these I already had to max out the voltage.  After running this speed/voltage combo for a day, and my room hit 95°F while I was playing games, I decided to drop back to stock clocks and actually undervolt it below stock voltages.  Performance is still great.


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## Cold Storm (Jun 21, 2010)

Looking good Newtekie. Looking good.

I'm with Sneeky/overclock, on the worring. I've been threw the FTW, UD7 and this Trinergy to see that there isn't anything wrong with having card, cards, at x8 on these chips/mobo's. I really wish I didn't give up my FTW or Ud7 after seeing that their was no gain on having:


x8 card
x8-x8 crossfire
16x card
16x-8x crossfire
16x-16x crossfire

But, I like your set-up man. Looks real nice.


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## cdawall (Jun 21, 2010)

i like the unlocked comment can i add it doesn't overclock any different even unlocked  great clean build newteckie


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## newtekie1 (Jun 21, 2010)

cdawall said:


> i like the unlocked comment can i add it doesn't overclock any different even unlocked  great clean build newteckie



I'd need some extreme cooling to decide for sure if the unlocked multiplier helps overclock any differently.  However, I can say anyone on air doesn't need one of these to be unlocked.  In fact, I only have the 875K because it was cheaper than an 860...

I will say that overclocking using the unlocked multiplier feels lazy, but maybe that is the old school overclocker in me.  We didn't have fancy unlocked multipliers back in my day!  We overclocked our processors with jumpers!  And walked to school, in the snow, uphill, both ways...oh wait, sorry got off on a tangent there.


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## NdMk2o1o (Jun 21, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> We didn't have fancy unlocked multipliers back in my day!  We overclocked our processors with jumpers!  And walked to school, in the snow, uphill, both ways...oh wait, sorry got off on a tangent there.



This made me lol 

And congrats on the new toys, I am jealous, hmmm I sense a performance build coming later this year!!


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## cdawall (Jun 21, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> I'd need some extreme cooling to decide for sure if the unlocked multiplier helps overclock any differently.  However, I can say anyone on air doesn't need one of these to be unlocked.  In fact, I only have the 875K because it was cheaper than an 860...
> 
> I will say that overclocking using the unlocked multiplier feels lazy, but maybe that is the old school overclocker in me.  We didn't have fancy unlocked multipliers back in my day!  We overclocked our processors with jumpers!  And walked to school, in the snow, uphill, both ways...oh wait, sorry got off on a tangent there.



Don't worry I hear you on that that's why im going back a little bit s754 hasn't got unlocked multis but no jumpers either


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## Cold Storm (Jun 21, 2010)

I remember with my only unlocked qx9650, I had the multi at 9 for 24/7 but it went to 17x for my 4.7ghz run.. lol.

Man, I remember the good days..oh, how they were fun!


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## overclocking101 (Jun 21, 2010)

which slot is your raid card in?? I hear the only way to keep X16 for slot 1 is to put it in the bottom slot (X4) yeah word has it those 875k's were more of a PR stunt than anything, most dont oc anybetter unlike the Q9XXX series the unlock multi helped this chip not so much, what is your standard voltage?? its odd, the voltage in your screenshot actually is higher than mine with same clocks but higher bclck. lol got me puzzled a bit


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## newtekie1 (Jun 21, 2010)

overclocking101 said:


> which slot is your raid card in?? I hear the only way to keep X16 for slot 1 is to put it in the bottom slot (X4) yeah word has it those 875k's were more of a PR stunt than anything, most dont oc anybetter unlike the Q9XXX series the unlock multi helped this chip not so much, what is your standard voltage?? its odd, the voltage in your screenshot actually is higher than mine with same clocks but higher bclck. lol got me puzzled a bit



I think the standard voltage was 1.20v, it is set to 1.25v in the BIOS, but gives between 1.26 and 1.282v w/ VDroop control enabled.


I'm still kind of tweaking really, so the voltage might go a little lower.  Got it runninag 4.0GHz, then lowered it to 3.6GHz because of the heat, then started backing down the voltage.  I only left it at 1.25v because I knew it worked at 3.6GHz, and I wanted to get some time playing some games instead of tweaking all night.


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## HUSKIE (Jun 21, 2010)

*cool stuffs...  i hope your pc runs very fast....*


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## btarunr (Jun 21, 2010)

Nice box. Move the RAID card to the last slot, your graphics card will run at x16.

edit: you've tried that.


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## Crazykenny (Jun 21, 2010)

Good luck with your new rig. I'm sure she'll do fine


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## newtekie1 (Jun 21, 2010)

btarunr said:


> Nice box. Move the RAID card to the last slot, your graphics card will run at x16.
> 
> edit: you've tried that.



I haven't tried the very last slot, but I'm guessing that is what I need to do.

The manual is lacking to say the least when it comes to the PCI-E configuration and how the slots work.  I really wish motherboard companies would pay more attention to explaining that to the user.

On the big fold out document that came with the board, that explains the layout, the slot configuration says:

x16/x8
x16
x16/x8
x8

So my assumption when I put the computer together was that the first and third slot share bandwidth.  So putting the graphics card in the first slot, and the RAID card in the second and leaving the third empty would give the card the full x16 bandwidth.  I guess I'll have to move the RAID card to the last slot.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 3, 2010)

Well crap, even with the RAID card in the 4th slot, the graphics card only get an x8 connection.  If I remove the RAID card entirely, the graphics cards get x16.

Maybe if I move the graphics card to the second slot...


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