Hi comunity, I'm *thinking* of building a new system. To more than likley replace my current I7 980X. (Partly because of cpu noise due to running at 100% & I want faster ram.) Thought why not think about upgrading. I'm looking for weather you guys think this is a good build. Will be used for everday use, Boinc & gaming mainly racing & flying.

Case= Raidmax Ninja Gaming Case Black Side Window, No PSU $159(case has to have power button on the front) Will this case allow enough cooling?
Motherboard= ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Rev 3.0 Intel P67 DDR3 USB3+SATA3 SLI+ CrossFire LGA1155 PCI-E ATX $499
CPU= Intel Core i7 2600K Sandy Bridge 3.40GHz 8MB 95W LGA1155 $495
GFX= Gigabyte nVidia Geforce GTX580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-E (GV-N580UD-15I) $869
RAM= Corsair CMT6GX3M3A2000C8 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3-2000 CL8 Dominator GT x2 (12GB) $798.01
HD = Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 32MB 7200rpm SATAII X2 $218
OS= Win7 Pro OEM 64 bit $235
Optical drive= LG BH10LS30 10X Blu-Ray Writer Lightscribe Black SATA Retail $229
PSU= Silverstone Strider Plus Series 1000W ST1000-P PSU $339

Total NZD$3,841
Total USD$2,501.79 @ 0.7187 for International Money Transfer

Single amounts are in NZD price is parts only includes GST exclude freight

GFX & mb aren't out as yet in NZ
Please tell me what you think

Would be interested to see a result computed by a 200k to see how much faster than a 980X compute time with opti ap.

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Just an opinion from me, but you would be wasting your money swapping from a 980x 1366 to a 2600k 1155. As far as ram speeds go there would be a negligible different between going from say 1333 to 1600+ unless you look at synthetic benchmarks and definitely not worth the cost of admission to build a whole new system for that. Also the difference in performance from a 980x to a 2600K is laughable at best. Check out this link to OCN where a guy compared two overclocked processors HT on and off.

If I was in your shoes and the noise of the cooler is getting annoying would be to spend my money on water cooling my machine or getting a better air cooler. You can water cool relatively cheaply especially when talking about building a second machine. Totally not worth it changing between those two systems.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

OK link was an interesting read thanks. My 980X has stock cooling air.

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I'm with Bent, that's a lot of money for not that much of a boost in performance. Maybe upgrade the video card on the existing system if it's not up to speed with your existing games.

The 2600 is faster than the 980X, and uses less power. But the cost really isn't justified IMHO.

980X v 2700K

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Grant
Darwin NT

Another thing to note, with the 470, if it was anything like my 480 was the noise you are hearing isn't from your processor; it's from your gpu! I finally water cooled this build after 2 years or so of thinking about doing it again. I went full bore into a custom DangerDen build and I can hear myself think with it running Seti@Home full bore, temps never jump above 50. ;)

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

What performance boost can you gain by using an AMD based system and putting more of your money into one or two 1 GByte GPUs?

AMD's new "Bulldozer" design looks interesting but I'm guessing you'll be waiting until way later this year to the see consumer versions.


Happy fast crunchin'!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Even one 2500K at 4,6 GHz, which is way faster than any present AMD, no matter how high clocked it is, can do 5 mid-range AR WUs in an hour. One GTX 460, clocked 800/1600/2000 can do 6 WUs of the same type per hour.
So do the math yourself.
Anyway, keep in mind, slow processor can significantly kill GPU performance. And the faster the GPU, the worsen impact slow CPU has on it.
Saving money by buying an AMD slug is questionable saving. With p67 platform, we have in our hands very affordable motherboards, like AsRock P67 Extreme4, able to accommodate 3 PCI-e x16 cards. And 2500K CPU worths the price. For 100 watts(4.6 GHz with 1.28 V) it can bring comparable performance per watt with very effective cruncher like GTX 460.
I personally run 2 cores of it, for 60 watts, leaving other to to feed two GTX460 768 MB. I found they are more efficient in this way - one free CPU core for each GPU.
To summarize the picture, for 300 watts/h I have around 35K RAC on this machine(gotta note here - 460s are undervolted, but overcloked).

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OK link was an interesting read thanks. My 980X has stock cooling air.

That is your problem right there, the stock HSF. Like others have astutely mentioned, upgrading your system would create negligible performance difference. If it's truly only the noise that drives you mad, spend the money on a good HSF like a Zalman or Noctua. Or even better, water cooling! the rest of the money would be better spent on a 22nm build in the future.

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The only way I would suggest switching to a Sandy Bridge CPU from what you have now is if your electric bill is an issue. If you had something older and were asking if you should go with the 980 or the 2600 I would suggest the 2600 as the 980 is better performance, but not that much given the much higher cost.

For faster ram speeds you might consider maybe just a new motherboard that supports faster memory. The my i7-860 board supports XMP(Extreme Memory Profile) and runs the memory at 1600 instead of just 1333.

Spending a fraction of what you listed on more efficient cooling would be my first though tho.

You could always save your money and wait for the LGA2011 processors to come out. They replace LGA1366.

Personally I am waiting for Ivy Bridge to see what that looks like.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

If u turn off two cores of 980X, it turns to very similar to 2600K processor but with 12 MB cache and lack of AVX(which has no good use atm). I would never think of replacing 980X with 2600K. Unlocked multiplier of 980 can help reach same frequency which 2600K can.
One good cooler can make wonders with 980X. It can run 4.1-4.2 GHz with all 12 logical cores enabled, on air.

P.S. Ah, I'm sorry, you were the one, who refuses to play with BIOS and overclocking before.

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P.S. Ah, I'm sorry, you were the one, who refuses to play with BIOS and overclocking before.

The reason why I don't like over clocking is because it uses more power & puts extra strain on the CPU. How ever i may look into over clocking. If I was to get a CPU cooler what brand would you recommend? At present I'm running 11 WCG HFCC & 1Rosetta due to there been no Seti work at the mo. temps are between 59 & 69 degrees C. Room temp is 19.8c

For faster ram speeds you might consider maybe just a new motherboard that supports faster memory. The my i7-860 board supports XMP(Extreme Memory Profile) and runs the memory at 1600 instead of just 1333.

My ga-x58a-ud3r board can support 2200 ram at present it's using Kingston 1333.

I only run my 470 when I'm home reason been power consumption & if it the fan speed gets over 3,000 RPM that's around 65% fan speed. Card also on air cooling stock heatsink

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P.S. Ah, I'm sorry, you were the one, who refuses to play with BIOS and overclocking before.

The reason why I don't like over clocking is because it uses more power & puts extra strain on the CPU. How ever i may look into over clocking. If I was to get a CPU cooler what brand would you recommend? At present I'm running 11 WCG HFCC & 1Rosetta due to there been no Seti work at the mo. temps are between 59 & 69 degrees C. Room temp is 19.8c

For faster ram speeds you might consider maybe just a new motherboard that supports faster memory. The my i7-860 board supports XMP(Extreme Memory Profile) and runs the memory at 1600 instead of just 1333.

My ga-x58a-ud3r board can support 2200 ram at present it's using Kingston 1333.

I only run my 470 when I'm home reason been power consumption & if it the fan speed gets over 3,000 RPM that's around 65% fan speed. Card also on air cooling stock heatsink

Several review sites have done tests to see what overclocking does for power consumption. I don't think I have see any done for the 6 core i7's yet. For the most part power usage increase less then the performance does. So for a 17% overclock you might only see 15% more power usage. However at some point it hits a wall and power usage goes up sharply.

Here is a bunch of data from xbitlabs that has done such tests. Looking at the numbers for the i7-950 it goes along smoothly until 3.8GHz. Then at 4.0GHz it is a slightly larger jump. Then at 4.2GHz it is a large jump in power required.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

If u don't increase vCore voltage, power consumption increase is nuisance. I guess your 980X can do even 4 GHz without any need of increasing vCore. Or at least 3.8. I myself am concerned about power consumpion and I make very careful choices and suitable overclock. 980X is already 32 nm and is best market can offer, same as i5/7-2x00 series manufacturing process.

As for coolers, there are many good choices - Prolimatech Armageddon and Megahalems, Thermalright Venomous-X and Silver Arrow, Noctua ND-H14, but my personal choice lies with Megahalems(or its clones SuperMega and Megashadow), bcs of really excellent retention, compact size compared to others and top-level thermal paste included. Combine it with one 1500 rpm 120 mm fan and it is complete. IMHO, Scythe Gentle Typhoon is just about it and looks good too. There are different rpm versions, 1450 rpm is most balanced.

Few words about RAM. It will not bring any significant results if CPU is not fully loaded. This means at least 8 threads in contention in same moment. I think, with your 12 thread CPU, fast memory is a must, aldo it depends on the load as I explained. For example, 2500K(4 threads) does not benefit a much from memory over 1600 MHz, while i7-920(8 threads) with SETI can have overall results bump with like 15-20%.

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Since the motherboard is capable, perhaps a pair of GTX 560TIs instead of the GTX 580. Here in the US the twins costs a tad less than their big brother. Of course if you are planning to buy another GTX 580 down the road then nevermind.

And yes if you are looking to OC the CPU (why else buy a K version), a nice 3rd party cooler would be a good investment. Here in the US you can get a pretty nice one for under $50.

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"Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh." - The Doctor

If u don't increase vCore voltage, power consumption increase is nuisance. I guess your 980X can do even 4 GHz without any need of increasing vCore. Or at least 3.8. I myself am concerned about power consumpion and I make very careful choices and suitable overclock. 980X is already 32 nm and is best market can offer, same as i5/7-2x00 series manufacturing process.

Not sure what you mean by that? If you are worried about power consumption you shouldn't be overclocking among other things. You should be trying to achieve the best clock with an undervolt. For instance my q9650 is running at 3.4Ghz at 1.088 volts. Stock voltage at 3.0 is 1.256.

As for coolers, there are many good choices - Prolimatech Armageddon and Megahalems, Thermalright Venomous-X and Silver Arrow, Noctua ND-H14, but my personal choice lies with Megahalems(or its clones SuperMega and Megashadow), bcs of really excellent retention, compact size compared to others and top-level thermal paste included. Combine it with one 1500 rpm 120 mm fan and it is complete. IMHO, Scythe Gentle Typhoon is just about it and looks good too. There are different rpm versions, 1450 rpm is most balanced.

Megahalems are considered one of the best coolers for your money right now, the Noctua ND-H14 in my opinion is the best, but you have to put it in push/pull to get it there. But quite frankly by the time you buy $100 worth of air cooling you might as well spend a bit more and go water. Size per performance though you can't beat that megahalem!

Few words about RAM. It will not bring any significant results if CPU is not fully loaded. This means at least 8 threads in contention in same moment. I think, with your 12 thread CPU, fast memory is a must, aldo it depends on the load as I explained. For example, 2500K(4 threads) does not benefit a much from memory over 1600 MHz, while i7-920(8 threads) with SETI can have overall results bump with like 15-20%.

I don't think "fast" memory is the issue with a larger cored processor. It would be more in the ram timings and bandwidth. There have been plenty of tests that show in i7 systems that 1333 is the sweet spot, with triple channel. There is less than a 5% difference going from 800-1333 and not enough difference from 1333-1600 to even mention. However this is for desktop and gaming usage, the 15% could be seen when testing with something that is heavily memory subsystem sensitive. The test doesn't include 1800/2100/2200 etc though. Seti could be that app that uses more effectively those speeds, I've only compared the speed of Seti on DDr2 800/1066 and DDr3 but never faster than DDr3 1600. Every DDr3 build I have done used 1333/1600 ram because people wanted 'overclocking' abilities even though it's extremely easy to hit 4Ghz+ on 1333. Interesting something else I need to look into more lol.

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Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!

Not sure what you mean by that? If you are worried about power consumption you shouldn't be overclocking among other things. You should be trying to achieve the best clock with an undervolt. For instance my q9650 is running at 3.4Ghz at 1.088 volts. Stock voltage at 3.0 is 1.256.

I mean exactly what it says. He can have faster processor without increasing the voltage. Its pointless to discuss other options, since his primary goal is to have faster processor.

Megahalems are considered one of the best coolers for your money right now, the Noctua ND-H14 in my opinion is the best, but you have to put it in push/pull to get it there. But quite frankly by the time you buy $100 worth of air cooling you might as well spend a bit more and go water. Size per performance though you can't beat that megahalem!

Is this @me?
I have my main rig watercooled - CPU, NB, two GTX 470s, two radiators. Since the man didn't mention it, I didnt put it on the table. He has some disabilities, so it might be problem for him to build and own watercooling.
This Noctua cooler is very large piece of metal, very unhandy and it doesnt worth headaches for having two degrees less temperature(eventually). Hes not going to overclock it till it starts to bleed, as for these two degrees making a difference. Thats my opinion.
Im cooling my second i7 rig, at 4035 MHz with Megahalems and 1500 rpm NB XL2 and its unadible. With SETI, 8 threads, it was in low 70s, even during summer. Summer here is hot, almost like in Greece.
Mehalems is very easy to mount, not expensive and he can pick fan of his choice. Noctua has ugly colors too.(Luckily, they changed this favorite pale brown of their fans to more bareble pale blue).

I don't think "fast" memory is the issue with a larger cored processor. It would be more in the ram timings and bandwidth.

What do you think I mean, using word "fast"?

There have been plenty of tests that show in i7 systems that 1333 is the sweet spot, with triple channel. There is less than a 5% difference going from 800-1333 and not enough difference from 1333-1600 to even mention. However this is for desktop and gaming usage, the 15% could be seen when testing with something that is heavily memory subsystem sensitive. The test doesn't include 1800/2100/2200 etc though. Seti could be that app that uses more effectively those speeds, I've only compared the speed of SETI on DDr2 800/1066 and DDr3 but never faster than DDr3 1600. Every DDr3 build I have done used 1333/1600 ram because people wanted 'overclocking' abilities even though it's extremely easy to hit 4Ghz+ on 1333. Interesting something else I need to look into more lol.

Take an i7(s.1366. s.1155 is other story) and do the tests yourself. I did it long ago. Focused on SETI. Perhaps 1333 is enough(where "enough" is not fixed value) for 2.66 GHz and 8 thread, but for 4.3 it is inadequate, by far. Not speaking for 12 cores. And yes, gaming is not SETI. While SETI utilizes every tick it can grab, games doesnt, so they don't get bottlenecked.
I think, I was pretty clear explaining the case where he needs fast memory, in context of SETI. Fast memory can mean of course two things. Either of them is welcome for SETI. It also depends on client u run. Both 1600/7 and 2000/9 show similar results, since u keep UnCore high. Nowadays 2000/9 memory is not uncommon like it was 1.5 years ago, so its worth having it.

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Is this @me?
I have my main rig watercooled - CPU, NB, two GTX 470s, two radiators. Since the man didn't mention it, I didnt put it on the table. He has some disabilities, so it might be problem for him to build and own watercooling.

Thanks hbomer for your support on the watercooling topic.

For people that are unaware I have Cerbral Palsy. This means my hands will not allow me to work in confined spaces. That's also why I'd go with a Raidmax Ninja Gaming case as I'm able to reach the power button as it's on the front.

I mean exactly what it says. He can have faster processor without increasing the voltage. Its pointless to discuss other options, since his primary goal is to have faster processor.

Yes I'd like a faster PC I also want to lower the CPU noise under full load without using alot more power. If I get a CPU cooler for my 980X this is the 1 I like the look of the Prolimatech Super Mega

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Yes I'd like a faster PC I also want to lower the CPU noise under full load without using alot more power. If I get a CPU cooler for my 980X this is the 1 I like the look of the Prolimatech Super Mega

I don't know if all the Prolimatech coolers use the same mounting scheme, probably they do, but the Megahalems had my favorite mounting system of any cooler I've tried, and I've tried a bunch....

-Dave

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Yes I'd like a faster PC I also want to lower the CPU noise under full load without using alot more power. If I get a CPU cooler for my 980X this is the 1 I like the look of the Prolimatech Super Mega

I don't know if all the Prolimatech coolers use the same mounting scheme, probably they do, but the Megahalems had my favorite mounting system of any cooler I've tried, and I've tried a bunch....

-Dave

Nice to know Dave. What temp dose your system run at with the cooler & is the CPU fan really quite?

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I don't have the Megahalems any more, replaced it with a Corsair H70.
The noise will completely depend on the fans you put on it (the cooling, too). It doesn't come with any fans - at least it didn't from Newegg, maybe the one you're looking at does?
I put a couple of Scythe Slipstream 88 cfm, 1800 RPM fans on it, and it ran in the mid to high 60s on an i7 940 @ 3500-ish speeds (2 HD 5870s in the system too, room fairly warm, HAF 932 case). It was noticeable in terms of noise, but if I wasn't OC-ing the processor at all, I would have put some lower airflow fans on it and it would have been fairly quiet. I tried it with a couple of 110 cfm, 2000 RPM Scythe Slipstreams, that was pretty loud. You can get some good 50-ish cfm fans that are pretty quiet, though, and if you're not OC-ing, you might even get good enough cooling with a single fan. Also, depending on what you're also running, you might not notice the CPU fans... I had another system with a video card in it that was crunching Milkyway - to keep it cool enough, I was running the fan on a constant 70% speed. That was the only thing I could really hear in that system until I would stop Boinc and slow the fan down!

-Dave

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