Time for an upgrade

[dicecca112]

doesn't mean he couldn't get his hands on an ES

[FZ1]

Nah, I have an e6550 in a the moment so I can do my build which I'll prolly sell when the E8500 comes out.

[FZ1]

Ooooh...this is gonna be fun. Using an E6550 (stock 2.33GHz) while waiting the release of the E8500. I simply raised the FSB to 425 (7 x 425 = 2975) and left all else on auto. Seems perfectly stable (haven't run Prime95 or anything yet) but did run 3DM06 and got this...

.

I imagine this CPU will hit 3.4GHz easy.

[Methious]

What kind of cooling you using on that rig? I'm on my last AMD for a while, next year venturing back into Intel territory after I sell my current build. Do you have to use an after market chip set cooler to achieve the higher FSB? My main concern with Intel is the heat they generate.

[FZ1]

The cooling is a Swiftech compact h20-120 kit. This mobo has a built in NB water block (it's the special edition version of the board which is rapidly disappearing). A lot of people with the non-SE version are hitting 450+ FSB on air. These don't run as hot as the 680i/780i boards.

[kenc51]

Ooooh...this is gonna be fun. Using an E6550 (stock 2.33GHz) while waiting the release of the E8500. I simply raised the FSB to 425 (7 x 425 = 2975) and left all else on auto. Seems perfectly stable (haven't run Prime95 or anything yet) but did run 3DM06 and got this...

.

I imagine this CPU will hit 3.4GHz easy.

Joe, get off the 3:4 divider and use either the 1:1 with 333 ref freq or use the 266 ref freq and the 2:3 divider!
Also, Cas 3 or 4 is the only way to go ;)

The secret to your boards performance is the "Transaction Booster" setting in the Bios. Set it to "Enabled" and try increase it to as high as it will go.
I gain ~300mb/sec bandwidth by going from 1 to 2, 3 will post but isn't stable for me with 4 dimms at such high speed. (see updated sig)

[FZ1]

I'm not gonna mess with it too much until I get the E8500. I just literally upped the FSB and left EVERYTHING else on auto so it set the divider etc itself.

[kenc51]

I'm not gonna mess with it too much until I get the E8500. I just literally upped the FSB and left EVERYTHING else on auto so it set the divider etc itself.

Cool, but if it was me, I'd try and learn the board now so when the E8500 comes along you willl know what your limits will be.

[FZ1]

If I have time to mess with it, I may see how high I can get the FSB although I'm SURE it will do 450 (500+ is very common) and that is about all I want to go - it will get me to 4GHz. Things really start to heat up after that and even though I am water cooling, it makes the room hot. I need to see what timings I can get out of the Ballistix though.