Time For A New Build Decision

Time for a new build for my office. I don't need to upgrade. My old Intel C2D e6400 is good enough for office work, but I can send the motherboard and CPU down the bookkeeping food chain so why not give my office life a little excitement. I need to do one of these every now and then to satisfy my obsessive compulsiveness. I bought the old Intel CPU/mobo combo used from Technodanvan on the DFI forum so it owes me nothing. It should live out its life happily crunching numbers the way computers are meant to live out their lives.

But what to buy, that is the question. I thought I had put all this upgrading behind me and then Newegg had this deal on a Plextor M3 SSD 128 for $99 and if I'm going to all the bother of installing an OS on an SSD, I'm not doing it for an old C2D e6400 rig. I already have a couple sticks of 4GB G-Skill Ripjaws that I couldn't pass up some time ago for $25 so a motherboard, CPU and cooler should do it.

I just set up a Dell Intel Sandy i5-2500 and I am not overly impressed with it (I partially cleaned the Dell crap off but didn't do a clean install, which may have made a difference) (once I got all the Dell stuff cleaned out I am more impressed). Some things are shockingly fast.  I'm sure the 2500k overclocked would be impressive but then I would want Ivy Bridge but that has heat problems so I had given up and figured I'd wait for next gen. But now I have my new SSD and it needs a home so I am leaning toward jumping the fence and grabbing an AMD FX-8120 Zambezi for $159. Why not the FX-8150? These faster chips don't have as much overclocking room so bang for buck suffers. And people are complaining that the 8150 is hot and not complaining about the 8120. I'll just save the $40 and be happier. There is a lot of love coming from the 8120 people and that always sways my decision.

For a motherboard I will stick with ASRock. My last two ASRock 870 EXTREME3's were great to set up so why go anywhere else? The difference between the 970 for $99 and the 990FX for $144 appears to be in Crossfire, which I will likely not use. But then again the 990FX includes a USB3 front panel unit the fits into a 3.5 drive space so the $40 difference is really only around $10 because I want front panel USB3 and I don't want to buy a new case. So 990FX wins the day. Or ... GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 ro $139 after rebate.

That only leaves the cooler. I love the Noctua NH-D14. It is a quiet and efficient monster but $85 just rubs me wrong since the curiosity factor is missing (I have one on another unit). Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus it is for $29.

The Plextor is at "packaging" stage on Newegg. The guys over on HardForum (where I saw the deal alert) say these are fast and great. I put my first (and only as of yet) SSD in my laptop. I thought at the time my 240GB size might be on the small side. Now I realize the 128GB may be overkill for me. I still only have 15GB used of my 240GB. I redirected the user profile to the HD and when I install, I manually choose the HD for most programs. Here is my SSD install blog post.

My OCZ SSD is no huge deal for bench marks but the performance for me in real world operation is something I would hate to give up. This could get interesting if the Plextor can achieve speeds reported.

Those dip patters have always been there but at least is is consistent across the drive. The SSD is 3.75 times faster than the HD. Tests say it is still at 100% with estimated life remaining of 7+ years.

$  99 Plextor M3 Series PX-128M3
$159 AMD FX-8120
$144 ASRock 990FX
$  29 Hyper 212
$431 Total

vs

$  99 Plextor M3 Series PX-128M3
$219 Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge (205 at Amazon)
$134 ASRock Z77 Extreme4
$ 29 Hyper 212
$481
$ 30 Front Panel USB3 if I want it.

$50 difference? Agonizing decision.
The costs add up but I am an "enthusiast" and must live up to my label. I have everything else. Maybe need a PSU.

Then again I may decide to do nothing and delete this post. The SSD may be just what my C2D e6400 needs for redemption and regeneration.

Today more parts were established.
$ 19 for Hyper 212 after rebate Newegg
$ 69 ASRock Z77 Pro 3 picked up at Microcenter 50% off (not doing dual video anyway but I wanted the Extreme 4 - couldn't pass up the price. If I had thought more, I would have done the Extreme but saving $50 is a good thing and it has everything I really need at the moment.)
$169 Intel I-5 2500K Microcenter (currently $219 everywhere else)
Here is an overclock guide to check out.

Now for power supply. I'm not going dual video so I shouldn't need a Tesla coil. I hate buying power supplies. I tend to over buy for stability and because of the memorable occasions from the past where I went to add something and didn't have enough power. Any supply can be DOA so holding your breath is appropriate. I think this time I will try a lower budget item and see how it goes.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Continuous Amperage Available on the +12V Rail(s) is the most important,

A single GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card NVIDIA specifies a power supply that has a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 30 Amps or greater. (check for your card)

When you overclock the i5-2500K to 4.5 GHz you will only be drawing an additional 4 Amps from the +12V rail. 

I may not even use a separate video card so the power supply could be cheaper than usual but the mother board needs a 12v 8 pin (or 2 x 12v 4 pin). I am not finding cheaper PSU units with these connectors. OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W at $50 after rebate it is then. I'll be ready for that game monster video card in the future or one of the "deals" I already have in my closet.

Parts are all in, let's slap it together:

Plextor performs nicely:

PCWizard shows both controller and drive interface version.

WD Black performs as expected:

Updated the Z77 to 1.60 bios in Windows successfully.

Crazy thing when I did symbolic link for Users I ended up with a duplicate Users folder in D: that I can't access. I will need to use Linux to delete it. I can't delete it from repair command prompt because it has the same name as the real Users folder.

Windows boots so fast the little colored lights don't even have time to join on the boot screen and not even overclocked yet.

My first use of Hyper 212 and it was a pleasure to install. This could be the easiest heat sink and fan I have every used. For $19 discounted I can see why Newegg has sold a zillion of them.

I had the Hyper 212 loosely attached and no paste to get started. This is always good enough to start and I hate to lock things down in case things need to be changed. I decided to set CPU at 40 to see if it would boot and it did. Then I figured a short burst of prime couldn't hurt. Yikes ... the temps shot to 98C ... how do I turn this thing off!!! Time to paste this baby down. I left the voltage on auto ... I wonder if it is auto adjusting above spec. on auto? Maybe I could under volt and reduce heat?

Fresh AS5 on Hyper 212, one fan with CPU at 40, Vcore at +.005. Running Prime temps much better. I could leave this for everyday use without problem but I do like stress temps at 50C max. This is not a cool chip but temps will improve somewhat a the AS5 ages. Maybe 60C is the new 50C with Sandy Bridge. I can't see getting to 4.5 under 60 but maybe temps will not rise. I doubt a second fan will do much, the fins are cool now as it is and the air feel cool. If I do push/pull it would be good to have the PWM controlling without drawing all the power from one header. 

This Rosewill splitter looks like a perfect solution. I could power the push/pull and one case fan all from the PSU but speed controlled by the PWM. Shipping is a killer so Amazon is the way to go. It doesn't qualify for free shipping but shipping is only $2.74. It is better than fighting with a fan controller. First I will hook up a second fan on a 3 pin header to see if a second fan actually helps. I remember that my Noctua 14 included a Y cable that allowed its two fans to work properly off of the single 4 pin PWM header but this PSU connection is a better solution.

I stuck this into an old Antec Sonata which is not air friendly but I'm not going for some super ultimate overclock, 4 GHz is good enough, 4.5 GHz might be possible without setting the house on fire.

If you can adjust your mind to a 60C max instead of 50C, then life is good.

On board video works well but Windows Experience is not overly impressed. My old 8600GTS scores 2 points higher. I thought maybe removing the video card would reduce heat but nothing changed. Maybe the processor runs hotter when using on board video so the trade is equal. Who knows.

My 1600 ripjaws score high 7's WIE. This thing really rocks and rolls. Installs finish in a flash. Everything just smokes and is silky smooth. It is unquestionably the best system I have ever had. The 2500k is the right choice. I would still like to see what Zambezi is like, maybe someday when prices tank. But when Sandy can be had for less than Zambezi it makes no sense to look elsewhere. I am looking forward to encoding some video.

I guess hot is OK for these CPUs. 4500 is easy but it blue screens on 4700 and I don't want to up vCore.