Is it upgrade time again?

ChrisUK · Jun 9, 2005, 02:56 AM

Hi,

I'm running a 3.4EE ES (800FSB) LGA775 at a leisurely 3.75Ghz right now with a lowered multiplier and FSB at a shade over 1066Mhz. The board is an ASUS P5AD2-E and I have 2Gb of Corsair DDR667 C4Pro ram running at about 711 odd Mhz. The processor is cooled with a Asetek Waterchill at around 31 degrees C.

I can push the system further and have got 4Ghz from the chip but am reluctant to push the voltage to it more as I'm not 100% sure of the default on this ES chip. It wasnt stable at this speed without more tweaks.

Anyway, in the need to "upgrade" the system again (every few months) I am looking at the new 3.73Ghz EE processor and possibly a new ASUS motherboard.
I see that the reviews of the lastest ASUS top end boards 955 and NforceSLI that the difference in performance is pretty negligible. I dont use SLI right now (I do use a single X850XT PE) but do play the golden oldie Quake3 (not much stress going on with my setup at 1024x768 resolution!!).

I have some questions to ask members.

1) If money is no object is it worth changing me 3.4EE ES to the standard 3.73EE and then overclocking the new chip to 4Ghz and byond? AMD chips are not on my buying list (Sorry AMD lovers!)

2) Is it really going to be worth upgrading my board to a newer ASUS seeing that I have the P5AD2-E? I am leaning towards the 955 as I cant see much point right now in me going NforceSLI for Q3 gaming use.

3) Seeing that I am already runnning my processor at 1066 will I benefit from the new 3.73 enough to notice a difference in benchmarks. The new chip will be overclocked.

4) Should I save my dosh on the chip and board and upgrade to lower timing DDR2 instead for a more worth while gain?

5) Can someone please confiem the default voltage of my current processor. Different utilities I have show it at varied voltages. Do ES chips use the same voltages as normal EE chips?

Lots of qustions but I'm hoping someone can help answer them....Zardon is probably the best to advise on this I guess.

Cheers,
Chris

Necrosis · Jun 9, 2005, 07:32 AM

Why not this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116214

Lowfat · Jun 9, 2005, 10:51 AM

I really wouldn't waste you money on an upgrade, there is nothing wrong with you have @ the moment.

Fat`Albert · Jun 9, 2005, 11:05 AM

dude... just.... dude...

just buy some games or something!! your computer could eat mine, and i consider mine pretty awesome

jasonbourne · Jun 9, 2005, 11:16 AM

u wont need to upgrade your computer for at least 1 or maybe 2 years .

ChrisUK · Jun 9, 2005, 02:30 PM

Hello,

I agree with what you have all said but I'm just one of those people who continually upgrade my system.

I have other games which I play but since I have been playing Q3 (7 years) I consider that to be my all time fav game.

I have looked into benchmarks for the 840 processor against the 3.46 and 3.73EE's and it would appear that as a whole the 3.73EE is a faster chip or at least the 3.73 is in 90% of the benchy's. The downside of course with the 3.73 is that it is single core.

Any more thoughts anyone?

Thanks

Necrosis · Jun 9, 2005, 03:06 PM

Why does it have to be processor and motherboard. How about new speaker and/or a new LCD?

ChrisUK · Jun 10, 2005, 02:44 PM

I am using an old DELL 19" CRT which I'm perfectly happy with to be honest. I thought about going LCD but am kind of thinking that game play might not be as good on it.

I have speakers but I only use headphones for Quake etc. I can't play without them and they are Technics so are prety good for that.

I need more speed. I'm basically at the peak of this system. You know when you think "there's a better processors out so I need to have it" well thats the situation I'm in.

Money doesnt grow on tree's but at the end of the day I can sell my existing EE ES and add some for the newer processor. I will of course miss the "unlocked multiplier" but hey if I can get beyond 4Ghz (which I should think I can) then I'll be happy for a bit.

Does anyone know any of the asnwers to my questions by the way?

Cheers

SaberZ · Jun 17, 2005, 02:33 PM

Honestly save your money

Jumping from a 3.4 to 3.7 is a very minute gain considering that your 3.4 is @ 3.7 your buying an expensive processor thats running the stock speed of your OC'd 3.4.

If you have sufficient cooling upping the voltage a tad more for stability @4 or passed is worth the money saving over a 3.7 extreme.

LCD's have improved a lot and i recently made the switch from a Phillips 720-T 17inch to a Sony SDM-73 17inch LCD and its beautiful. Samsung also makes great LCDs both companies as you can imagine do make 19inches and beyond as well.

Save your money there isnt a need to upgrade any of your components, your just wasting money for trivial gains at best.

nitrousoxide52 · Jun 17, 2005, 02:46 PM

Yeah, save your money and prepare your self for ATI crossfire!!!

ChrisUK · Jul 6, 2005, 10:32 AM

Hello all,

Well I read through the posts and against all your advise opted to upgrade (just needed the change). Anyway, I now have a 3.73Ghz Extreme Edition and its currently running at 4Ghz with my OCZ DDR2 4200 EB Rev2 running at 760Mhz. I will burn the kit in at 4Ghz for a short while and then up the FSB again. I am aiming for around 4.3 to 4.5Ghz with this chip.

I'll post back once I have acheived it!

Cheers,
ChrisUK

dipstick · Jul 6, 2005, 10:41 AM

Man you crazy!! lol Personally i would have recommended a dell 2405fpw(that is an upgrade if Ive ever seen one) but you sure got some sick hardware. Good luck with the OCing; im sure you'll come close to to what you want it to hit.

ChrisUK · Jul 7, 2005, 03:36 PM

I'm back!!

Well the processors had a bit of a burn in now (my pc is on pretty much all day) and I'm up to 4.2Ghz @1200FSB (voltage on AUTO), the memory is looking good too at 800FSB (4-3-3-8 timings @ 2.1v).

I'll give it another day or two and then up her again to 4.3Ghz or 4.4Ghz.

I'm getting a much better Sandra 2005 scores now than on my old 3.4EE ES @ 3.75Ghz.

Here they are.
CPU arithmetic Benchy: Dhrystone = 12262, Whetstone = 5118/8696 Flops
Memory: Int. Buffered = 7346, Float Buffered = 7349

Damn, I've just seen the scores on the new Dual cored AMD Athlon64 X2 and Intel Dual cores chips. Hmmmm, I wonder if I should................................don't even think about it!

Will post again in a few more days, if the chip hasnt fried in the mean time.

ChrisUK

ChrisUK · Jul 8, 2005, 02:49 PM

Next update!

I am now running the 3.73EE at 4.5Ghz (1288FSB, 1.475v) and its running fine at that. The OCZ memory has decided to flake out at 838Mhz though (4-3-3-8 @ 2.2v). If I increase the memory timings to 4-4-4-10 it still flakes out so I have reduced the divider to a 1:1 ratio which gives me a memory clock speed of just 642Mhz, 3-2-2-8 @2.0v.

The processor temps are increasing now to mid to high 30's (degrees C) but thats ok with me as I am only on the 7v twin fan setting for the radiator. 12v brings it down by 3 or 4 degrees but its a bit on the noisy side.

My new timings are:
Here they are.
CPU arithmetic Benchy: Dhrystone = 13107, Whetstone = 5513/9254 Flops
Memory: Int. Buffered = 7452, Float Buffered = 7473

Its a pity really as the memory scores above were not far off of 8000 when running the memory @ 837Mhz.

It appears that the processor will go further and that any crashes were due to the memory topping out.

I might try and bring the cpu voltage down a tad as I think I was increasing it to get over the memory problem. The 3.73Ghz processor default voltage is between 1.25 to 1.4v.

I'll see how she runs at this for another day and then change FSB again.

ChrisUK

~~homeboye~~ · Jul 12, 2005, 07:32 PM

someone should kick your ass..
1.)you have such high-end PC and you want to upgrade?!
2.)AND YOU PLAY Q3 WITH SUCH A PC?!

no offence...