Sharky's PC rebuild - finally, properly "finished"

[Sharky.]

LOTS OF PARENTHESES WOO (lol) (get on my level) ()

Figured it was time for a bit of an upgrade, so dropped some dough on a few go-faster bits and something to contain it all. Considering I built this system a shade over two years ago, it's just about reached its effective end-of-life for me anyway...

For reference, current build is the following:

(recycling the CF 5770s for now, going to get a GTX 660Ti)
+ 8GB Corsair memory and two 1TB Samsung F3s

Pictures!

What could be in this goody box? (nb. not just a 500R)

The new behemoth in all its blurry black glory:

Opening the sucker up, the newspaper filler suggests there's something else in here...

Jackpot!

(GA-Z77X-UD3H, 128GB Samsung 830 SSD, i5-3570K)

I feel like I'm 8 all over again and I've been let loose in a candy shop Assembly will begin tomorrow night after work, however as I'm reusing some of my existing components - 5770s, memory, PSU - I won't be able to have both systems running at the same time; a minor inconvenience, but if I leave the power supply, 4GB of my 8GB memory and one/both of the 5770s (the 3570K has onboard Intel HD 4000 graphics which will be more than sufficient for first boot + OS install + essential app install) in my current case and just switch around the 24-pin and SATA power when required then I can effectively have both usable at once (but not simultaneously). Ultimate ghetto.

Annoyingly the 830 isn't the desktop upgrade kit version so didn't come with a 2.5/3.5" adapter, but then again SSD so I can stick it anywhere I please and the 500R conveniently coincidentally came with two small squares of double-sided tape. Cheers Corsair!

Plan of attack from here is to get Windows installed, all necessary settings migrated from this system and benched for stability/temps/baseline performance figures before I go wild and turn the 'K up to 4.2+ 5770s will definitely be replaced with a 660Ti and I may switch from 8GB of RAM to 16, but that's not set in stone just yet.

Installation pics tomorrow and hopefully a first boot video

 

[Terronium-12]

I'm jelly.

In-depth photo shoot!

 

[Sharky.]

We'll see, I'm no photographer and I just want to get the thing together and running.

 

[dice1998]

Let's share UEFI profiles!

*also has a UD3H/i5 which'll be shown in my thread update.

 

[Sharky.]

*brofist*

Not sure what I'm more excited to see in action to be honest, Ivy Bridge K or an SSD...

 

[Terronium-12]

You'll go "OMFG" at the SSD more than Ivy.

Trust me.

 

[Sharky.]

Initially I probably will, but I expect once I start dealing with Handbrake (thanks for no .avi support on iDevices, Apple) I guarantee I'll be rofl'ing at the speed of the 3570K. It's worth bearing in mind that my 750 is still a pretty decent powerhouse, especially with that 35% oc, but even so it's no match for current-gen tech!

 

[Korza]

Looking good. I am surprised you plan on upgrading to a 660 Ti. I was half expecting to read GTX680.

What do you plan on doing with the old components once you've got your new/upgraded rig running?

 

[Sharky.]

Well the original plan was 670 + 500R + 830, but then I heard about the 660Ti so I quickly scrapped that. 680? Absurd, that's far too much money for a graphics card imho!

Probably going to give my current system to my mother when this new one is complete, she's always complaining that her 2.2GHz dual-core Phenom 64 X2 with 1GB DDR2 is slow (no wai!) so I probably ought to be a nice son and remedy that At the very least I'd have to stick a new power supply in it and assuming I don't buy a 16GB memory kit for myself, some RAM. I tried to offer it to her tonight for $500 but she was all Chuck Testa

 

[nick09]

Looking cool. Even SATA II SSD's are fast. You should be in pure heaven with that Samsung considering what it is.

 

[dice1998]

You could always do an EVGA 670 FTW which has a stock 680 cooler fan and is clocked at pretty much 680 speeds

I also dropped bricks when I first used my SSD! Totally worth it! (it's a SATA II).

 

[tlowr4]

Lubley. I'd like to see that board in action. That's the one I've had lined up for my rig. You know, the one I posted about 6 months ago and havn't done so much as order the parts. Yea, that one.

Either way I'd like to know what that board is like. Toms hardware likes it, apparently.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Probably going to give my current system to my mother when this new one is complete, she's always complaining that her 2.2GHz dual-core Phenom 64 X2 with 1GB DDR2 is slow (no wai!) so I probably ought to be a nice son and remedy that

Another gig of RAM probably would've fixed a good portion of that.

 

[Sharky.]

Probably, but I'd still be left with a very quick machine sitting around doing nothing

I absolutely hate installing Hyper 212s, and everything I'm initially booting with is wired up bar the power supply, which is being used by this system at the moment... slipstreaming SP1 takes a long time >_> I want to experience SSD speed and Ivy Bridge power right now gosh darnit.

Or the whole thing could be DOA, in which case lol

 

[Terronium-12]

I was expecting to see pictures, daggummit.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Don't SSDs have bad reliability? Like, they stop fully functioning after 3 years?

 

[Sharky.]

I was expecting to see pictures, daggummit.

Coming later today once I've had some sleep.

I had half of what would've been a longish post written up but then Firefox decided it wanted to crash so I lost it all. That's neat, Mozilla. For now, let's just say with everything at default the K is idling at 18-22C, scores 7.6 in the WEI and so far has been spending most of its time at 3.8GHz thanks to turbo. The 830 is blisteringly fast, Windows windows (herp derp) open literally instantly, stuff installs in the blink of an eye and the whole thing reboots in less time than it takes for an impotent to finish. And that's with only half its RAM.

This. Thing. Is. Amazing. Most of that's likely to be down to the SSD though, once I have everything migrated to the new hardware and turn up the Intel juice I know I'm going to be even more blown away by the performance than I already am. Best thousand bucks I've ever spent.

 

[Terronium-12]

What batch do you have?

I'm certain you can do 4.5 easy-peasy with the 212.

 

[Sharky.]

Malaysia L220B416.

New day (for my body clock at least) and the power supply is now powering its original machine, albeit while sitting on top of the case instead of inside... it looks real ghetto. Time to image all the driver discs, yay. >_>

 

[Sharky.]

SSD benchmarks!

The 830...

... versus my two almost-full F3 HD103SJs

dat_speed

3570K at stock speed (which is actually really 3.8GHz as more often than not Turbo disables three cores), 8GB DDR3 @ 1600(1605), CFX 5770s blah blah = 7.6/7.6/7.3/7.3/7.9 in the meaningless WEI test. Desktop-desktop restart times are in the 15-20s region. Love it 👍

 

[tlowr4]

^ Very lubley. That's some damn good speeds for a SATA II SSD. Well done 👍

 

[Sharky.]

Build pictures, as promised:

All the goodies:

Intel's stock HSF compared to its extremely large big brother, the Cooler Master Hyper 212

The heart of the operation:

The brain installed in its 1,155-pin receptacle:

The apartment block:

Hyper 212s make for excellent motherboard installation handles. Installing the UD3H was infinitely less painful than my old Asus P55 board, Gigabyte's I/O shield simply has foam padding on the inside whereas my P55's had prongs on all the ports to fix the shield to the board

Cable management holes = best thing ever

Power supply installed and initial boot. 4GB memory, running on the 3570K's iGPU. Red light of death.... er, red light of pwnjuice. SHE LIVES

Everything installed, with the secondary 5770 not powered because AMD drivers. Couldn't use WLAN card as it requires a full-length slot and PCI notches don't match with PCI-E slots, good thing I had an ethernet cable! Kinda wondering what purpose the third PCI-E slot serves when Gigabyte says it only supports two-way CFX/SLI, guess it's ideal for a RAID card? Slightly annoyed that my PSU's 4+4 ATX power is as short as it is, if it was another 10cm longer I could've easily routed it through the cable management holes and behind the motherboard With both cards in there the cable barely reaches the 4+4 socket on the motherboard!

 

[Terronium-12]

Jesus, never reply from Steam's browser while playing Skyrim with the FXAA injector on - I'm like, blind over here.

About time for the pics too! Nice build, the 212+ reminds of the HR-01. All you gotta do now is overclock that Ivy and exploit her for what she's worth.

 

[Sharky.]

I set the turbo multiplier to x40 for an automatic 4.0, but don't worry, I'll squeeze 4.4 out of it soon

 

[nick09]

But I think you should buy a 4+4 cable extension so you can route it behind the motherboard. But nice work.

 

[tlowr4]

How's the click BIOS in that board? And is she all stable? Moar details! Lookin good so far. Might I suggest next investment be a new camera or tripod?

 

[Sharky.]

Just for T-12...

OVERCLOCKING TIME

Voltage, speed, load temps before the hunt for 4.5 begins:

All I did for 4.0 was up the turbo multiplier to x40, leaving BCLK at 100 - obviously that approach works for a quick and cheap OC, but for a more serious boost I'll have to set it all manually. Plan of attack from here is to set multiplier to x45, voltage to 1.2 and see if it boots/runs stable for a wee bit; if not, the voltage is going up a little bit, if it does the voltage is going down a little bit until I find the lower limit for 4.5. Everybody knows what happens after that: Prime95 blend test for a while to test for long-term stability

 

[Terronium-12]

Got mine back to 4.5 because this BIOS doesn't seem to care for 4.6 at all.

Ahem. GO FOR 4.7!!!

 

[Sharky.]

Baby steps, dude, baby steps

 

[tlowr4]

Hehe. Once that chip starts seeing a few more volts, about the 1.35v mark, watch the temps go north. Damn you poorly applied thermal paste stuff intel omgwtf!!`11!

Nice work, if you get a high OC out of that cooler I will be *very* impressed 👍