My Dual Harper - Asus Z7S WS living review *56K warning*

[jcool]

I will quote myself



Just did some searching on this topic and on Google and it seems like people struggle to get stable with the E5420 past 2.8-3.0Ghz so it does appear as though the L5420 has more headroom - rock solid stable at 3.3GHz...

It wouldn't surprise me if the L5420s are machined to a higher quality than the E5420s, that would explain their better thermal efficiency, better overclocking potential and of course the 25% higher price point!

Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

For example, my 5420 C0 could do 430x7,5 even back when the Z7S was released, no Vcore nothing. Z7S gave them 1,14V Vcore under load, VID is 1,2V.
I couldn't go higher than 430 stable even with 6x mult, because they would need more VTT to go higher, which the Z7S still doesn't provide.
Any E0 step CPU will do FSB 440-450 on the Z7S regardless of what they are binned for.
The B1 step E5440 I had wouldn't go past FSB 370, go figure.

My X5450 which are also E0 can do a max of FSB 452 primestable (at any multiplier). Above that either the CPUs or mobo have reached their limit.

[drewhemm]

Lol dude.. the L is exactly the same as the E or X, they just have different VIDs and are binned differently. How good a given set of chips are depends solely on luck of the draw and their stepping.

That's cool - it still means I have a setup at least equal in performance to 2 x E5420 but with up to 60w less power draw/heat generation - it gets very hot here in the summer and cooling is a challenge; no, I don't want air conditioning - I didn't move to the Costa del Sol to be cold!!!

In addition to being a power-saving freak, I am also a silence-man. I am looking forward to getting an external RAID enclosure for my mechanical hard drives so I can take them out of my case and leave the SSDs to run Windows and everyday file storage and just turn on the mechanicals when I need something (which will be nearly never) and enjoy the sound of my thoughts the rest of the time!

[jcool]

Actually my E5420 didn't draw 85W at stock... neither do my X5450 draw more than ~120W even though they are OCed to 4Ghz (because they run 1,23V vcore load which is below their vid).
It all comes down to how you set Vcore. Frequency plays its role, but Vcore is where it's all at. Your L's will take 90-100W if you feed them 1,3V as well, just as my E5420 will run in 50W mode at 1,1V Vcore

Of course, on any mobo other than the Z7S, where you can't adjust Vcore, the L chips do eat less power.

Tried FSB 450 yet?

You should have a look at my storage solution, WD6400AAKS in a watercool quadbox - completely inaudible from 0,5m distance.

[drewhemm]

Frequency plays its role, but Vcore is where it's all at. Your L's will take 90-100W if you feed them 1,3V as well, just as my E5420 will run in 50W mode at 1,1V Vcore

Tried FSB 450 yet?

You should have a look at my storage solution, WD6400AAKS in a watercool quadbox - completely inaudible from 0,5m distance.

Thanks for the tip - I didn't know about the correlation between vcore and power consumption, I will work on having it as low as possible while remaining stable.

Funny thing with the FSB, I can't set it to 450 in BIOS and get past the BIOS reset prompt, but I can set it to 449, which is reported by Core Temp as 450 and that gives me 3375MHz - 450 x 7.5. I can now run Cinebench R10 64-bit in 33 seconds flat - a score of 26092.

Please can you post a link to your storage enclosure?

[jcool]

It's a bit old (same rig with aircooled 5420's ) but still the same rig: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=465

[angelshonnny]

Hey jcool, please check your messages. Thx

[Madman666]

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

[jcool]

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

Well it is CSX (Compustocx) memory, not mine
Glad it's working though

[angelshonnny]

I changed my memory, from Kingston to jcool memory
With Kingston my OC froze at FSB 400, now I'm already @ FSB 425
This memory rocks!!!
I keep pushing and let you know what will be the end result.

@jcool:you got PM

Update
@FSB 430 vCore auto = 100% stable

Great to hear you are happy with the ram Madman.
Waiting for the same jcool ram Will post as soon as the system is up and crunching

[Movieman]

Ok, time to pick your brains..
best bios for Z7S? and where to get it?
I have clovers to use for flashing to new bios so thats not an issue.
Ball park settings to start for voltages or anything else that needs to be changed from defaults..
Will be using X5460 G0's and 4x1 gig Kingston HyperX DDR2-800FBDimms.
Any and all comments appreciated.

[Jaco]

Ok, time to pick your brains..
best bios for Z7S? and where to get it?

0401 - asus.com

I have clovers to use for flashing to new bios so thats not an issue.
Ball park settings to start for voltages or anything else that needs to be changed from defaults.

nothing really. Possibly you need to raise vMCH when overclocking.

Will be using X5460 G0's and 4x1 gig Kingston HyperX DDR2-800FBDimms.
Any and all comments appreciated.

Don't reboot or your board will pop

[jcool]

Dave.. they are called E0, G0 is as old as my Q6600
And yeah.. people seem to be having bad luck with the Z7S lately... also some issues with manually set Vcore pertain.
For max FSB use 1,35V MCH, good MCH cooling, 1,83-1,9V Vdimm and whatever Vcore you need... try with Auto first, as there are some issues with bios resets still.

[Movieman]

Dave.. they are called E0, G0 is as old as my Q6600
And yeah.. people seem to be having bad luck with the Z7S lately... also some issues with manually set Vcore pertain.
For max FSB use 1,35V MCH, good MCH cooling, 1,83-1,9V Vdimm and whatever Vcore you need... try with Auto first, as there are some issues with bios resets still.

Ok, a slip of the finger.. yes, E0's..
Now what is this about rebooting and "popping"
That I don't like..Explain please?

[s0lid]

Now what is this about rebooting and "popping"
That I don't like..Explain please?

Reboot your cruncher when the board is at bad mood and it will not wake up anymore

[D_A]

Sounds a bit like my wife.

[komseh]

Are USB devices supposed to show up in the BIOS under Advanced / USB Configuration?

[STEvil]

Reboot your cruncher when the board is at bad mood and it will not wake up anymore

I dont think its limited to rebooting as seen in my thread in the other place..

[komseh]

Swapped the board to get the USB ports working... whew this has been an interesting build, and it's not quite over.

I want to get some better cooling going. Can someone verify that I have the right idea? There is some contradicting information in the thread.

My goal:
HR-01-X for CPUs
Stock HS for NB
Asus Memcool for Memory - What size fan does this thing take?

Will I have problems with the HR-01-X if I'm using the Asus supplied backplate? The backplate adhesive seems super strong. Right now I have the rubber pads stuck in the middle of them to provide extra support to the mobo in that region.

[STEvil]

With the HR-01X's you need to either change the northbridge heatsink or mod one of the HR-01X's but cutting a few fins off a bit.

As long as whatever backplate you are using lines up with the motherboard mounting holes you will be fine (you need a backplate, there is no exception, the asus ones works fine). They do not need to be attached to the case but it helps.

[komseh]

With the HR-01X's you need to either change the northbridge heatsink or mod one of the HR-01X's but cutting a few fins off a bit.

As long as whatever backplate you are using lines up with the motherboard mounting holes you will be fine (you need a backplate, there is no exception, the asus ones works fine). They do not need to be attached to the case but it helps.

A quick check for NB heatsink turns up the HR-05 IFX... does this work well with the HR-01-X?

[Madman666]

Asus Memcool for Memory - What size fan does this thing take?

You get it with a 70mm noisemaker
I just removed this one put on a 80mm Papst with some silicone kit (works like glue only if you want to, you can still remove it without breaking things).
I even attached another 90mm to cool the NB.
I love my silicone kit

[ulvac]

Komseh, I set mine up in a similar way, but I chose the Ultima 90's instead of the HR-01's because I didn't want to hack the heat sinks to get to the attachment screws. Even then, I ended up buying some hex head 5/8 inch 6-32 captive screws so I didn't risk stripping out the Phillips heads or busting my knuckles with the little wrench. You'll need to get a long shaft 7/64 ball end hex driver from Bondhus or similar to get easy access. I'll post some pictures once I crop them down to under the forum's 200kB limit.

[STEvil]

I'd go with Ultima 90's or Noctua U12F's. U12's have holes so you can reach the mounting screws properly.

I think jcool or serlv used the HR-05 northbridge sink, worked fine. I used a Noctua U6 or something. It is "too tight" when you get it on (you cant get it off without side cutters to cut the plastic push pins) but the heatsinks clear it easily.

[komseh]

Wow thanks for mentioning Noctua. I'm going with two NH-U12DX and a HR-05 IFX. Will post pics

I think I'm gonna end up getting a new case because I've realized that this CHENBRO SR10769-BK-H has bad airflow(only one exhaust fan in the rear). Can anyone recommend a case with 8 internal 3.5" bays, 120mm push and pull fans for hard drive cages, and rear/top exhaust? It would be nice to have a 120/140mm fan blowing on my gfx and raid card too.

[D_A]

The Antec 300 (and probably the 600 and 900 ) would fit your requirements. I have a 300 and am pretty happy with it (comes with a 120 rear and 140 top variable speed exhaust plus mounts for two 120s in front of the drive cages and another in the side panel) though I did feel it worthwhile to use silicon rubber fan mounts to cut down the noise (pretty nice now though).