790i ULTRA SLI + E8500 + kingpin F1 EE + Corsair Dominators + LN2 = 5.7GHz benchmarks

[dinos22]

some notes from last night's testing at high FSB for 3D stability



first of all............if i get a 32M SuperPi run i should be 3D stable as well ...very good indication

actually using AM3 is probably quickest way to find out

now the settings....didn't take me long to get to this but there is a fair bit of trial and error and with subsequent testing i realised these settings are sweet spots atm

here are the volts set in bios which gave me the highest stable FSB i could benchmark with (595MHz)

Under System Voltages Section:

CPU Core >> set value required for MHz OC
CPU FSB >> 1.45v
Memory >> set to value required for MHz OC (1.9-2v is plenty for 2GHz speeds and decent timings)
Nforce SPP (NB) >> 1.45v (VERY important) going lower or higher reduced stability > higher probably due to possible better cooling required (will have to test that but NB is generally pretty cool
Nforce MCP (SB) >> 1.75v (PUT A FAN ON SB)

LEAVE GTL REF at AUTO >> system will determine the best settings (-80 for me at high FSB) >> for stability at ultra high FSB you can also try dropping it to -90 to -110 otherwise leave it at auto


Note in RAM settings there are two settings called P1 and P2 which require you to increase volts manually or you will corrupt your windows as the chipset latencies are set very tight particularly when both P1 & P2 are enabled. For high FSB testing i could not boot even at 575MHz FSB with both P1 and P2 enabled (probably would work with better cooling on NB and possibly some more volts). I had P2 enabled for my 3DMARK runs which i was very happy with

RAM Settings >> i normally set main timings 8-7-6-20 1T and rest are left at auto which i tune through memset

[dinos22]

done some more testing on my single stage last night

my first ever voltmod as well
did vcore mod on 8800GT card i was benching on and went from 700MHz core to 800MHz core




Got some decent scores

299K Aquamark3 (4th fastest run on HWBOT)



3DMARK05 28337
seems poor >> need some help with this bench i think heheh




3DMARK03 48744
seems poor >> need some help with this bench i think too heheh



3DMARK01 92012 (2nd fastest on HWBOT)
didn't do any extra CL runs ... was in a rush

[DMH]

Nice results now crank the CPU clock to 5400Mhz

[dinos22]

need some dry ice for those clocks

[DMH]

Your in watercooling right?

[dinos22]

single stage phase change

[Yellowbeard]

done some more testing on my single stage last night

my first ever voltmod as well
did vcore mod on 8800GT card i was benching on and went from 700MHz core to 800MHz core

Very cool Dino! How easy was the mod? And, what was the original voltage and what did you raise it to? Got a link to a "how to" so easy a chimp can do it?

[dduckquack]

how to get hold of that pot?

[dinos22]

Very cool Dino! How easy was the mod? And, what was the original voltage and what did you raise it to? Got a link to a "how to" so easy a chimp can do it?

hehe Mike
i'm a volt mod chimp too lol
i just thought it if i don't try a mod now i will always keep asking ppl to do it for me
how lame is that

basically all you need is a low wattage soldering iron with a fine tip (like pencil type tips)

you need a steady hand (or do what i do and have both elbows on the desk while soldering

in terms of knowing what to solder to what basically all the guys that create solder mod threads tell you where so for example i searched XS for 8800GT mods and went to largon's and T_M's thread and looked at the pics

Largon's thread was good for actual mods spots and Tim's thread was good to see which wire goes where (for us dumbasses hahah)

make sure you measure resistance before and after mod too (VERY IMPORTANT) normally if you get the correct VR it will be identical as they are wound back all the way >> worth checking hehehe


default volts for 8800GT are 1.06v idle / 1.111v load

i pushed it to 1.277v load with 800MHz core (core speed affects volts your GPU core gets >> at stock speed my load volts are 1.25/1.26 somewhere

i will need better cooling to push this core more seriously

actually i might strap Corsair Nautilus to it
afterall that's what it's there for (great allrounders those coolers)

[dinos22]

how to get hold of that pot?

if you live in australia you can buy them online from www.jaycar.com.au

[Yellowbeard]

I drink WAY too much coffee for steady hands. I'll look over the guide first and see if it is something I need to try.

[dinos22]

one other thing

i found that soldering to read points and ground points was very difficult and i had to keep the soldering iron on those points for a little while to warm it up but still wasn't getting a lot of luck (problem with that is that you can burn some traces on PCB as well if it gets too hot)

i donno if it's my iron or what but it's more difficult than i thought
would be good to get some tips from more experienced guys why that is

[BenchZowner]

one other thing

i found that soldering to read points and ground points was very difficult and i had to keep the soldering iron on those points for a little while to warm it up but still wasn't getting a lot of luck (problem with that is that you can burn some traces on PCB as well if it gets too hot)

i donno if it's my iron or what but it's more difficult than i thought
would be good to get some tips from more experienced guys why that is

You can heat up the ground spot for 2-3 seconds, get some soldering material on the tip of your iron, and touch the ground spot, the solder will "sit" on the ground spot.
Then take your tinned cable and hold it steadily over the ground spot, touch it with your iron tip for 1-1.5s... you're done

It's pretty much like everything in this life...the more you practice, the better you get at it.

[dinos22]

yeah true that man

corrupted my last windows install from 3 different hard drives last night
790i doesn't like it when you push it too hard RAM wise

nvidia sent me some crucial sticks that have EPP2.0 so i thought i'd quickly test them and after setting max vdimm and 2GHz 7-6-5-15 1T the windows instantly got corrupted
the sticks were able to boot at 2225MHz 8-7-7-20 1T(1M SuperPi stable only though) and can't even get near 2GHz 7-6-5

i bet new corsair RAM will smoke 'em easy when they eventually get the right ICs to bin them agressively at 2133 CAS8 that some website reported on recently

they'll probably have to use 2.1v i guess

[andre X_X]

great going dinos .... now let see some LN2 on cpu and gpu

[3oh6]

would be good to get some tips from more experienced guys why that is

biggest tip i can provide is to use FLUX. joints will flow 100X better and with the lead free solder that most of these cards/boards/etc... are built with these days, it really, really helps.

a 15w soldering iron is the best bet to start out with as you will have less chance of lifting a pad or burning a trace as opposed to a 30w iron or higher. but with a 15W iron and a conical tip, joints like the 6-pin/8-pin connectors of video cards are sometimes too big and take a lot of heat to flow.

as someone else said...practice. get some flux, a 15w iron w/conical tip, and an old piece of dead electronics. rip the circuit board out and have at it. start by just seeing how much heat it takes to flow (liquify the solder) a small capacitor joint and then a bigger one. see how much heat it takes to damage it. then work your way up to soldering wires to capacitor joints and then move on to IC legs. once you get the rhythm of heating up a joint to flow, adding the wire, and pulling the iron out letting the joint cure...it is all downhill from there

oh yeah...nice to see you made the jump to the soldering side of the fence Dinos...congrats.

[dinos22]

googles FLUX
results are a bit
my iron is some 18W Japanese one
guy at electronics store told me it's decent lol (so i bit the bullet heheh)

[3oh6]

you can buy flux in paste or liquid form. i am use to liquid flux as that is what we use at work (and where i happen to get mine from ) but can be a bit of hassle to clean as it is liquid and a small drop can spread over a large area making clean up a bit of a hassle.

paste on the other hand would in theory be a bit easier to clean up afterwards.

what flux does is it cleans the joint and allows the solder to make a better joint. when you heat up solder without flux, it can be kind of pasty, especially lead free. with flux, heating up a joint makes the solder flow better.

you see in your image of the joint here...



the solder is all grainy, chunky, and just looks 'bad' (no offence at all, just trying to describe it, you did a damn fine job for a first timer...if it works it is perfect )

compare that joint to this one here of mine...



notice how smooth and shiny it is? there is more to it than just flux but it plays a BIG role in making a joint that nice. here is a joint (the capacitor) of mine where i didn't use flux...look familiar to yours?



same grainy, 'rough' texture to it. a little more heat and it would be smoother but still not as smooth and shiny as the other one above.

as for your iron, sounds perfect for starting out. heck, i still use a cheapy 15w iron from radio shack at home for almost all of my mods. just keep your tip tinned (give it a heavy coat of solder after each use before turning it off) and you should be good to go. tinning the tip prevents the actual tip from oxidizing when not in use. when it oxidizes, it doesn't transfer heat as well. even while you are modding, if your not soldering, tin the tip. then when you go to use the iron again, wipe the excess solder off the tip with a wet sponge. the tip will then have a shiny thin coat of solder on it and will transfer heat very well. the key to soldering is quick heat transfer so you don't have to heat the joint for long.

[dinos22]

WOOOOOOOW

i love your work

i have to look into this

now i know what those stains are on the back of the mobos i've seen in the past LOL

what camera are you using. you're a pro eek

i'm glad you used that example as that point isn't reading properly due to an extremely poor attempt at soldering hahahah
[edit] lol just looked at your website >> cheater >> you are a photographer too hahahah
no wonder the pics are so great heh

[3oh6]

thanks mate

what camera are you using. you're a pro eek

it's not about the camera, it's the lens that matters

[edit] lol just looked at your website >> cheater >> you are a photographer too hahahah
no wonder the pics are so great heh

not cheating...just relying on my resources

[andre X_X]

there's one good thing of not using flux. if your card/mobo are dead, then you can just put it out with less trace

[BenchZowner]

I'm using Fluitin ( solder with flux core )...it's good, and leaves no trace at all

[3oh6]

flux shouldn't leave trace, you can just clean it off with isopropyl alcohol. as for solder with flux core, yes, that is good for initial soldering of the solder to your wire or to something else, but once it is heated up, it is gone.

so when re-flowing a joint, all the flux in the core is gone. anytime your doing volt mods, you are re-flowing a joint...or at least the easy way is too

[Insane_Tech]

A friend of mine who solder rollbar for rally cars teached me something and the cause of the "roughly" aspect of the soldering is just because it's cold; if you warm up the component, and then you put some stain on it, you just have to put the wire, and touch the stain, that will flow on the wire.
If you are fast and the stain stay hot the solder point will become shiny and smooth, even without the fluxe

That is how my friend explained to me, but i always do that, and the results are very good

[dinos22]

you are right

an old friend of mine i no longer talk to used to come over and show me how to do this stuff

shiny=good
the way i do it=bad