Icee-"Back in the saddle again" w/ Thuban

[MrIcee]

Hi my friends

Welp, it seems after a 5 year hiatus away from the overclocking and review writing world I've finally been able to saddle up again and start testing with my old friend AMD

I've spent the last few weeks reaquainting myself with AMD, thanks to the many Phenom threads here and encouragment of many. Many thanks to FUGGER for allowing me to turn the knobs here again, and to chew* for his advice on OS's for particular benching.

I rebuilt my gaming box with an ASUS CH3 and Phenom 965BE to get a handle on the intricate details of overclocking on the new platform. Lets face it, much has changed since my days on Abit NF2+3 and my favorite, the many iterations of the DFI NF4 platform.

With needless ado, I will present an ongoing bench and overclocking fest within this thread, concentrating first on water cooling and at some point switching to a 404A charged Prometeia as most of the folks here can relate, as high end air and watercooling are the predominant cooling methods amongst the majority. Someday I'd like to elevate with our high end brothers and bench 3D utilizing LN2 once I have developed and maximized system bandwidth for the common 3D benches.

My current bench setup is as follows:

-Thuban 1090T, Phenom II 555BE
-Asus Crosshair IV Formula, 0707 bios
-Corsair Dominator GT "1600C6" ram 4GB, 4GB Corsair GTX2 in coming weeks
-MrIcee custom watercooling setup w/ an old Swiftech water block; am open to suggestions for a waterblock upgrade
-404A modded Prommy for future overclocking
-2 Asus EAH5870 V2's currently on stock air 1002/5005 1.35v
-Corsair HX1000 PSU
-Asus 19" widescreen LCD
-When the time arrives, "MrIcee", my dual block custom built -35C waterchiller for the videocards with Danger Den SLI/Crossfire Acetal/copper waterblocks. Built this back in 2002 when I was actively competing in 3DMark benching.


Enough of the formalities, I finished setting up the bench yesterday afternoon, and shot for 4Ghz out of the box with previous settings compiled from my gaming box.
Also included is my first stab at 3DMark '06 with the initial settings.


I'm currently burning in the Thuban with OCCT today. The changes I had to make for stable burn-in, and I'll upload a pic later on, is a reduction of the CPU NB to 2600Mhz and a bump of the CPU voltage to 1.38v. Even at 1.38V, I'm cruising under full load at 29-30C I haven't tried a higher CPU NB for burn-in but merely matched the HT link in sync. More to come on that front. Thanks to everyone who comes in to read, and to the site for allowing me this opportunity again

Best regards,

Randi

[Daveburt714]

I'm a new comer compared to you MrIcee, but let me be one of the first to say Welcome Back...

As for newer water blocks I'm personally fond of this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835708019
The price/performance is pretty hard to beat!

The other favorite in the AMD community seems to be this one:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10...k_-_14050.html

I'm not really sure the slight performance boost justifies the cost, guess it all
comes down to how much money you have to spend....

Looking forward to your testing and tips!

Dave

[buff]

I remember the days of you running crazy DDR volts on the KX7-333R.........good luck with the Phenom!!

[charged3800z24]

great start on Thuban. Looks like you have some nice gear there

[Lightman]

Great to have you back MrIcee!

I've joined this forum about when you've left, but read quite a few post of yours before that!


Exiting times ahead

[i found nemo]

wow... not bad at all for stock volts lol

[[XC] Oj101]

I remember the days of you running crazy DDR volts on the KX7-333R.........good luck with the Phenom!!

Good memory on the motherboard used, you're going back about six years if not more

Welcome back MrIcee, I've been waiting for this

[buff]

Good memory on the motherboard used, you're going back about six years if not more

Yeah.....I think that was around 2003

Those were the good ole days of buying cheap Athlons and cheap DDR and overclocking really easy. No silly NB or any other stuff to play with

[Zeus]

Good to see you around again old friend! Have fun with that setup, soon i will have the same mobo/cpu/VGA's combo.

As for waterblocks, the EK Supreme highflow and Heatkiller 3.0 are highly recommended.

[MrIcee]

Yeah.....I think that was around 2003

Those were the good ole days of buying cheap Athlons and cheap DDR and overclocking really easy. No silly NB or any other stuff to play with

First, thank you Gentleman. Its great to see old friends and new friends alike here, appreciate your participation in this thread

To address the quote above, might I say that it was not actually cheap nor really easy. With the boards and CPU's today and of the last 5 years anyone with a modest sense of daring can overclock. But back in 2000-2003 it was not quite as easy. The board makers gave you some tools to clock the FSB etc, and some voltages.....but never enough voltage Especially NB
and ram. Every board we'd aquire meant finding the voltage regulators, finding the white papers online and wiring a cermet VR up to get enough voltage to clock the FSB and ram.

I remember on a couple of boards, we couldn't figure out how to overcome the OVP even though we were fooling the voltage regulator. I took a chance and wired in a direct 3.3v off the PSU into the ram circuit and walla!! LMAO
Hey, it worked and didn't kill anything Sometime after that OCZ came out with a device that did a similar deed. You plugged it into an empty Ram slot, plugged it into a molex and dialed in your volts. I think I still have one in the box kicking around.

But it really never was cheap. OPPAINTER and I would go out and pay a premium to buy a CPU before the mainstream could get them, and I'll tell you we killed quite a few too trying to provide the forum with the latest and greatest. Killed many boards too. At a point, I almost bankrupted myself to stay on top of this deal, then I had to fade back a bit with mid line vid cards etc. It was also a time when cooling was going the way of cascades, just too much $ involved indeed.

The good DDR was not cheap either comparitive to pricing today. I was very fortunate back then to have been noticed and had opportunities to test for OCZ(First DDR @ 350Mhz), Kingston, Corsair and several smaller companies. But it was all fun and it still is, I hope I can provide some useful knowledge now as we did back in the day.

Best regards,

Randi

[buff]

Well, I guess I must correct myself, it was cheap for those of us not competing

[MrIcee]

Good to see you around again old friend! Have fun with that setup, soon i will have the same mobo/cpu/VGA's combo.

As for waterblocks, the EK Supreme highflow and Heatkiller 3.0 are highly recommended.

Thank you Zeus my old friend, and Dave, for the waterblock recommendations. I had looked at, the last few days, the Swiftech Apogee XT and the EK Supreme HF. Hadn't paid attention much to the heat killer. Keep in mind with my water system even with the antique Swifty block i'm holding 30c load under OCCT and Prime. Out of the above choices....which would make a significant difference? I'm idling at 16C right now

BTW folks, OCCT didn't pan out. I keep getting errors on the 3rd core after a little over an hour. I'm Priming right now. It's definitly not a heat issue, maybe a bum chip??

I'll keep you posted. I have some screenies of benches at higher frequency I'll post up later.

Best Regards,

Randi

[Daveburt714]

Here's the best review I could find comparing the Enzotech to some of the other blocks:

http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...i7-tested.html

It has exploded views of the internals and some other info.
I can't find the info that helped me decide on this block, your probably looking for top of the line. (Probably Heatkiller V3)

Bang for the buck the Sapphire is hard to beat though...
Maybe I'm just cheap!

[[XC] Oj101]

Ah yes, the OCZ DDR Booster The PC I'm using to type this has one

[Hardass]

Picking up right where you left off I see. Good to see. I highly recommend the EK Supreme HF. I am using it on a 920. Enjoy yourself my friend.

[TheBlueChanell]

Welcome back. Though you were here way before me it's always nice to see the return of framiliar names to the community.

As other's have suggested the EK Supreme HF is the latest and greatest and CPU Block.

[Titan7171]

Here's the best review I could find comparing the Enzotech to some of the other blocks:

http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...i7-tested.html

It has exploded views of the internals and some other info.
I can't find the info that helped me decide on this block, your probably looking for top of the line. (Probably Heatkiller V3)

Bang for the buck the Sapphire is hard to beat though...
Maybe I'm just cheap!

not cheap just smart.....the dam thing has sick performance for only $35



Enzotch Sapphire ftw

[afireinside]

That's a name I haven't seen in a while... Welcome back! Nice results.

[MrIcee]

Again thanks to all my friends.... the insight on waterblocks has been more than helpful

Chuck, great as always to see you here and glad to be back at it finally.

Next up after a not great session with OCCT(3rd core errors after an hour at a pop), then next several hours of successful Prime 95, I decided to take a turn and do some FSB OC'ing to study the theory of the relationship of HT and its effect on bandwidth in conjunction with elevated NB Mhz. As Bingo13 stated, with the 0707 bios "Just one key to this BIOS, be sure to max NB and HT speeds in sync to keep the memory tables at optimum settings". My goal was many fold: bump up the overall overclock by upping the FSB, increasing the overall memory overclock while trying to retain tight timings, and to get the HT sync'd at 3200Mhz with the NB.

I am providing comparative screenshots: the first is with the HT at 2100(as close to 2000 as I could get) and another with HT+NB sync'd @ 3214Mhz. I had to bump the CPU up .1v to achieve stability @ 4286Mhz along with a bump of the ram voltage to 1.73v from 1.65v. NB voltage is set to auto in the bios and is running @ 1.46v

My findings: There was no benefit as far as running Super Pi 32M is concerned, an increase of a 1+ secs, even with a slight increase in overall system bandwidth in Everest with HT+NB sync'd. Nothing drastic but an increase never-the-less.I was hoping to see a reduction in the SuperPi time,no matter how small.

I'll follow this post with another with a 3DMark '06 run at the sync'd settings. Time did not allow me to run the comparative non-sync settings but I will do that tomorrow and post it.

Best regards,

Randi

[MrIcee]

Again, this next screenshot is a run of 3D '06 at the aforementioned sync'd settings. All pertinent info is in the screenshot. I will bench this tomorrow out of sync for a 3D comparison.
Best regards,

Randi

[mdzcpa]

Hey Randi, long time no see. I only lurk here now for the most part, but it is great to see you around again, and back to the hobby.

We've come a long way from the Icrontic days

And, wow, both you and Chuck in the SAME thread here. Two of my very good friends from the old days. I'm feeling.....nostalgic.

[Titan7171]

this is a good read right here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=224502........definitely check it out

[MrIcee]

Hey Randi, long time no see. I only lurk here now for the most part, but it is great to see you around again, and back to the hobby.

We've come a long way from the Icrontic days

And, wow, both you and Chuck in the SAME thread here. Two of my very good friends from the old days. I'm feeling.....nostalgic.

Mike, Mike, Mike my man

Gawd it's great to see you indeed If you want nostalgia, and a little incentive I got to get back into it, go over to the Wamps section and check out Dales (TheDude) birthday thread, and leave a post..LOL It's prolly buried to the 2nd page now.THAT was a blast from the past, we even got OPP back here for a few words, amongst others.

Icrontic was a blast back then, then we got pulled over here by Eric

BTW, i've read some of your posts here Mike, particularly on the Corsair H50. I bought one for my Crosshair III, 965 BE gaming box before I read the positive posts here on it. I have to say for what it is I love it. Leaves alot of room and lets me OC pretty darn well besides.


Titan

I have read Tony's thread at length previously, and thank you I have been aware of his previous findings, but with Bingo13's revelation as mentioned earlier with the 0707 bios of needing to sync HT+NB, I wanted to see if the current platform benefits or doesn't compared to the last generation. Until I run the un sync'd 3D '06 for 3d comparo I won't really know. As illustrated, unlike the previous generation, there is a slight increase in bandwidth sync'd.

Best regards,

Randi

[Major]

Hey Randi, long time no see. I only lurk here now for the most part, but it is great to see you around again, and back to the hobby.

We've come a long way from the Icrontic days

And, wow, both you and Chuck in the SAME thread here. Two of my very good friends from the old days. I'm feeling.....nostalgic.

This is getting scary now!!! Mike and Randi back in XS town! lol

Good to see both of you posting, Randi turn up the heat!

I've been asleep at the wheel for the last 5 years too Randi but nothing has really changed.

[Daveburt714]

Your not drinking beer are ya Randi?...

You'll never fit in with the new crowd man!

NVM'd... It's probably just me thats buzzed, it don't make me bad!