New PC specs

[CHEW]

I wanted the H100, but it wouldnt fit in the case I was using, it is a duel fan unit. The H80 i keep running on silent mode and never goes over 41c, so I am happy with it.

[Maximus]

Ordered previously specified components, except I went with the 8350 vs the 6350, on the rationale it'll probably clock higher, and I can selectively disable modules (core pairs) in the BIOS to either save power or if one core seems to be holding back the clock. Should be doing the build next weekend (too bad Newegg's free shipping is 5-7 days now instead of the former 3, but I can't complain about free).

[CHEW]

I like new egg, but they have a warehouse here in memphis, so I have to pay sales tax.

[Maximus]

Apt office received 2 of the 3 packages but has missed the case 2 days in a row . Everything seems to be working on the table top, at least at stock. It's electrically functional and since I'm an EE not an ME, that's good enough to roll out the new sig (overclock anticipated, not actual).

Upgraded some other things while I'm at it:

[Axiw]

Nice PCs (AMD4lyf)
I just got phenom II 965 (yeah im late) but i will upgrade to AMD steamroller when it arrives

[Maximus]

Pulled up literally as the Fedex truck was pulling up, so that's how I got the case finally.
Issues booting Linux with a UEFI mobo... TBD.

The first practical Steamrollers will be in the APU form ("Kaveri"), probably 28nm with GCN architecture graphics on chip. Remains to be seen if these will ship in 2013 or if they will push to 2014. Opterons may be the first shipping Steamrollers, since the Bulldozer series of architectures are really designed for server yews, not consumer; of course those aren't practical to buy. Don't expect FX series Steamrollers until well into 2014. By that time Intel will be shipping Broadwell (14nm shrink of Haswell)... and AMD's lag will optimistically remain what it is, if not get worse.

[Maximus]

I hate Microsoft's activation scheme. Between that and UEFI it took 3 days to get an OS installed and activated... but it's good now.

Good call on my sig; other than tweaks to the voltage, the stable overclock is exactly what I predicted*. See below.

Max CPU test, Windows boot only:


After some experimenting, for the time being I'm calling this my "gaming stable" overclock.


*6 cores enabled, 4 threads OCCT small or large data set, 225 MCLK * 20, 1.47Vcore (1.45V after droop), DDR3-1800, minor bumps to NB and HT voltage, and some of the DIGI+ power specss.

Was stable for 45 minutes before it hit 63 C (where I told it to stop) which I'm saying is good enough for gaming. Most games only yews 2 threads fully, and perhaps 4 lightly. If I want to do encoding/compression/computation most likely I'll need to drop the OC and revert to stock settings, since 8 cores at stock will be considerably faster than 6 cores with a light oc.

Interesting note to Chew and the others who yews AMD Bulldozer or Piledriver architecture processors (this includes the more recent APUs as well as the FX series):
play around with the thread affinity for intensive processes (games etc).
http://windows7themes.net/cpus-how-to-s ... ows-8.html
By testing, I was able to determine that cores 2-3 (module 1) of my setup were the ones running hot, so that's the core pair that I disabled. I noticed lower power usage/temps when I assigned the OCCT threads to certain cores as opposed to others. For example, the 4 threads run coolest when assigned to cores in the same pair (in my case usually 4-5 and 6-7, but I also tested the 0-1 pair as well). This makes sense since various resources are shared in each module, so if both cores in a module are idle, it can go to a lower power state than if one core is idle and one is active. Also there's less shuffling between L1/L2 caches if processes stay in the same cores instead of being reassigned to a random core whenever they're scheduled (I would think, I'm not sure).

TL;DR: try assigning your games to various sets of core pairs and see what happens to performance and temps.

JKA specific: I installed it and played a bit today (!). Found and updated to ESM 9.2 and I think I got most of the maps.
Good news: At least with the configuration of Catalyst 13.4, Windows 8, and Radeon 7850, JKA/OpenGL runs natively without having to yews the old atiogl dll hack. Good to go out of the box (out of Steam in this case, though I own CDs as well).

[Axiw]

^Interesting info. I guess ill just get 6 cores instead of 8 because i have no need for more

[GUARD!AN]

I'm still using my 4 year old computer...still working great.

Gen 1 Core i7 @ 2.66 Ghz
24 GB RAM @ DDR31600
Nvidia GTX570 (this was upgraded 2 years ago, had a GTX 280 before that)
256 GB SSD
2 TB backup Disk

As soon as AMD volcanic islands come out this winter I'll probably get my new rig...unless the gen 5 i7s are on the horizon by then.