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Looking to make some minor upgrades...

Post Date: 2014-07-19
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AussieJT View Drop Down
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Posts: 50 		  Quote AussieJT Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Looking to make some minor upgrades...
    Posted: 19 Jul 2014 at 4:01pm
Hi all, it has been a long time since I have been on here. I have moved back to Australia and still have my Digital Storm rig which I still love but looking to make some minor upgrades just to tweek things up and here is where I need your help. Keep in mind that I bought this rig in Oct 2010...

What would be the first things that you would look at? Currently the most load on the rig is playing BF4, the rest of the time there is minimal load. So should I start with RAM? Upgrade the Graphics Cards? What would give me the most 'bang for my buck' I guess noting that I will have to buy the stuff in Australia and everything is twice as expensive over here.

I was personally thinking of going Corsair 16Gb 2300 RAM and see how that goes to start...

Thanks in advance for any help... Here is my current setup:

Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz o/c to 3.93
Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI 3 Edition (Intel X58 Chipset) (Model: 131-GT-E767)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series
Power Supply: 1000W Digital Storm Certified
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: INTEL SSDSC2CW180A3 ATA Device
Hard Drive Set 2/3: Multimedia\Data: 2x (1.0TB Seagate Barracuda (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Sound Card: Creative SB X-Fi

And my review when I first got the rig here

***EDIT*** - Playing BF4 today for about 2 hours after a computer restart and RAM was getting crushed. Was reading 5.6Gb used so that would explain the slowness of the game



Edited by AussieJT - 20 Jul 2014 at 2:32pm
HAF Case w Noctua 14 Cooling
Intel Core i7 9503.0Ghz/4.0Ghz
Intel 520 Series 240Gb SSD
EVGA X58 FTW3 Motherboard
6GB DDR3 1600Mhz
2x SLI GeForce GTX 470 1.2Gb
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 20 Jul 2014 at 6:10am
Hi AussieJT....  You still have a solid build.  If the sli 470 are giving you the frames you want then stay with them for now.  If not, or you want to drop sli and the added heat and power required, a single gtx 770 is about the same gaming and has added vram.   Depends how happy you are now.  Each bump up in cards, from 770 to 780 to 780ti, etc is roughly a 20% increase per. 

For ram, 6GB is usually still fine, but ram is getting more usage.  Being a tri channel memory mobo, 3x 4gb ram at 1600mhz wouldn't hurt.  Plenty of headroom.

Good luck. Big%20Smile
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AussieJT View Drop Down
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Posts: 50 		  Quote AussieJT Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 20 Jul 2014 at 2:25pm
Hey there bprat22... I don't really mind the 2x 470s and they are doing their job. Summers in Australia can hamper them a bit with heat and all but I work through it. I think I will wait until the next gpus come out and get just one of those.

As for RAM - this is what I was thinking - CorsairDominator. Not thinking of going without the fan because the cpu fan that I have pictured in my review (link above) would get in the way.

Thoughts?
HAF Case w Noctua 14 Cooling
Intel Core i7 9503.0Ghz/4.0Ghz
Intel 520 Series 240Gb SSD
EVGA X58 FTW3 Motherboard
6GB DDR3 1600Mhz
2x SLI GeForce GTX 470 1.2Gb
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 20 Jul 2014 at 3:22pm
You don't need a ram cooler. More of a looks thing.    Unless you're into overclocking the heck out of the ram, they take care of themselves. Plus Noctua pulls air right across them.

Looks good.

Edited by bprat22 - 20 Jul 2014 at 3:23pm
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AussieJT View Drop Down
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Posts: 50 		  Quote AussieJT Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jul 2014 at 1:03am
Hey again there bprat22... So I went and got these Corsair Dominator

I put them into the same slots that the DS guys had put my other RAM into - I'm guessing I could not add that other 6Gb into the other three slots on the mobo?

Either way... here is the speccy and CPU-Z numbers. It looks like the Voltage is down and I thought that by running XMP it would change the voltage to around 1.65 on its own. Is this something that I need to change in BIOS or does this look right? Just looks like it is running slower than it should.

Thoughts?

The first word doc is the old 6GB of RAM and the second lot are for the new 12GB.
HAF Case w Noctua 14 Cooling
Intel Core i7 9503.0Ghz/4.0Ghz
Intel 520 Series 240Gb SSD
EVGA X58 FTW3 Motherboard
6GB DDR3 1600Mhz
2x SLI GeForce GTX 470 1.2Gb
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jul 2014 at 2:53am
I definitely would retire the old sticks. Mixing ram can cause issues. Keep them for future troubleshooting.

On my tablet I can't open the files so i'll do this blind and generically.

The thing with XMP, from my limited exposure, is that the profiles in bios might work if the mobo supports that ram. I don't think you can tell until you try it. Tricky. If XMP is working for you, the speed is good, 1600, and voltage is a bit lower, like 1.6, and not crashing then it's good. Lower voltage is a good thing if it runs fine.

Or, I would just set your 9-9-9-24 timing manually and set the voltage to 1.6 first. Might not need 1.65. Then set the speed.

Good luck.

Edited by bprat22 - 22 Jul 2014 at 3:10am
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AussieJT View Drop Down
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Posts: 50 		  Quote AussieJT Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jul 2014 at 3:53am
So basically the DRAM is saying 714.2 or 1428 which isn't quite up to the 1600 and the voltage (even though its reading XMP) is only 1.5. With the old stick it said 1.65 there - which I would assume would up it as well... CPU-Z is reading the timing correct but I have not checked this in bios.

Being that I have a wireless keyboard I am having mass issues getting into BIOS to manually set timing and voltage. I'll have to wait until tmw after work when I steal a corded keyboard for the evening. I have read that this happens regularly with wireless keyboards.
HAF Case w Noctua 14 Cooling
Intel Core i7 9503.0Ghz/4.0Ghz
Intel 520 Series 240Gb SSD
EVGA X58 FTW3 Motherboard
6GB DDR3 1600Mhz
2x SLI GeForce GTX 470 1.2Gb
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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DigitalStorm East -- (Unofficially!)
Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 08 Jun 2011
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jul 2014 at 8:08am
One other thing is that I think the 950 was one of the first chips to have the memory controller built into the chip.   The cpu overclock effects available  ram speed and vice versa.  It can be a balancing act.  Also, adding more ram, from 6gb to 12gb, can also put more stress on the memory controller and effect the speeds, etc.  

No way to tell until you try it, since each cpu and memory stick has its own properties, with some being better than others.  The silicon lottery as some put it. 



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FrankDDougherty View Drop Down
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Posts: 10 		  Quote FrankDDougherty Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 28 Jul 2014 at 1:43am
I think this is just fine. It still functions and it has good specs. I won't recommend any upgrade on this one to avoid complications.
I have the best gaming laptop for under $1500.
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