AJLynn Posted April 23, 2011 Author Share Posted April 23, 2011 Yeah, just make sure you have an open SATA connector, and the right power connection - if the drive requires a SATA type power cord and all you've got free is the older 4-pin type, Microcenter will have adapters. (It's the only brick&mortar store I buy parts from.) MSI does have drivers for everything on the motherboard here: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html so you'll just have to use another computer to download them to a USB disk. See if there's an important BIOS update while you're there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 OK, so i got everything up and running....MSI P67A MB, 8GB Cosrair RAM, and Intel i7 2600K CPU. Everything else in my old machine stayed the same. I ran a Cinebench CPU test and went from a score of 2.7 to 6.75. I have not overclocked anything yet and I can't seem to get the OC Genie function of the MB to work yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 23, 2011 Author Share Posted April 23, 2011 Hmm, yeah, I can't speak to any MSI specific features but usually when those auto-OC programs don't work you're going to want to go into the bios and set it up yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 OK...somehow I got OC Genie to work and it looks like I am now running at 4.2GHz rather than the standard 3.4. Cinebench CPU score went from 6.75 to 8.10 I have no idea whether this is safe or not. I did no manual overclocking, just used the OC Genie one button function with one change in the system Bios to enable OC Genie. According to the manual this should not have been necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 23, 2011 Author Share Posted April 23, 2011 Yeah, that's consistent with what others have been getting with those chips, but you're going to want to look up the procedures for post-OC testing and temperature monitoring, and you might need an upgraded CPU cooler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I would like to get a recommendation for a CPU cooler for my i7 2600K. For the moment I just put the cooler fan in that came with the CPU and my temp range is 41-44 degrees C at idle. When rendering they climb into the 80's - low 90's. I have a Zalman Quiet CPU Cooler ZF-1125BTH from my old MB which I may install, but it is dusty and a couple of years old. Any recommendations? And how much reduction can I expect in temp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 This one is very popular. Not for compact cases. Use with some of this stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Thanks Andrew.....What are your thoughts on the Thermalright Silver Arrow? It's quite a bit more expensive. Is that overkill? I do intend to overclock to 4.2Ghz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 That one does look pretty huge. I couldn't tell you exactly how much you can OC with one of these, I haven't tested them, though I've read about going as far as 4.5 with the Hyper 212. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Andrew, I sent you a private message with some questions. Not all are related to this post, so thought I would go that route. Just letting you know. Thanks, Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Got it, haven't had time to write back but I will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Andrew, Just and FYI.....I installed the Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU cooler. It is large but fit into my box without issue. I ran Priime95 for a few hours to get an idea of its cooling. The highest temp I saw was 57C, running at 4.2Ghz. This compares to 88-90C with the stock cooler. I am much more confident having the 2600K overclocked now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Um, wow. That's a heck of a lot of cooling power right there. What does it look like in Cinebench? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Cinebench was 8.2 pts.....if that's what you were asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 That's quite good. It's along the lines of what one would expect - which just means things seem to be working properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Yeah, thanks to you and this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 @ Dan and Adnrew, I just 'did a Dan' to all my machines. Bought everything at Microcenter. Cost me about $4k to upgrade 7 x Q6600 machines to i7 2600k. Did all the work in 5 hours. Man, am I looking forward to DR. Thanks to both of you. Next comes overclocking and a slight cooling upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Best of Luck Tommy! Cant wait to hear how that farm performs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 The performance increase (without overclocking) means 1080p frames are cooking a little quicker than 720 on the old machines. Roughly 2.5x performance. I'd say with overclocking its going to be 300% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasteland giant Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 AJ, when you write on the blog - whats the difference between the high end and Maxer - Is that the maxxed up system or is it a targeted machine for 3DSmax users (or the 3D user). That's all. Haven't a look at the various options now. Thanks for the thread. WLG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 The Maxer is higher end than the High End. It has two Intel 6-core CPUs, where the High End has one. The name is a bit of a play on words - it's a maxer as in maximum-er, as in the most I'd ever recommend buying, and it's also in there primarily because Maxer expressed disappointment one month last year when the i7-980X was new and was faster than the dual-4-core-Xeon box I'd previously had as the high end, so I made a 980X box the high end - he wanted to see something in the $7-8k range. But everything from the Budget on up in targeted at 3DSMax users, so that you can choose a price point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaHood Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Hi all, ok i have some question about a 2600k Setup. It could be that i need to render some times single pictures with a resolution round about 8k or more pixels with 3dsmax/maya + vray. I have an actual project where my resolution will be 8.5k. Its an architectual rendering with an building and trees/gras around it. I know that i can use proxys for the trees/gras to handle the ram usage. But im really not sure about the bottleneck from 2600 CPUs/Mainboards with the usage of ram. For a normal price u will use 4 x gb ram sticks. (2 dualchannel 4gb) So it means u get 16gb at 1 machine. And im not sure, if that will be enough. Whats your experience about that? Only for that reason i think about to switch to i7-970 cpu/mainboard to get more ram on my mainboard. But that will cost more. Another question. If my scene is soo complex that i need more than 16gb ram, and my workstation would have 24 or 32gb, what is with the slave machines? My primary thought is to build 2600 cpu based slave, cause its an very cheap way to get render power. With an H-Board i have graphic ability too to setup the computer without a need to plug an additional graphiccard inside. That option looks sexy. But could that be a problem if the slaves has less ram than the workstation if they should render distributed? thx a lot! Greetings LH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 (edited) I have a machine with an i7 920 cpu running @ 2.8 Ghz, Asus P6T Deluxe MB, 12GB Ram and a Quadro FX 4600 card. This machine only scores a 4.01 on the Cinebench CPU test. I need to get that number up while trying to keep my MB and memory. (if it costs less to not keep MB and memory, I guess that's another story) What recommendations do you have for a new CPU that will work with my configuration and what kind of gain could I expect? I am also going to get a new heatsink just like I have on my Sandy Bridge machine (Thermalright Silver Arrow - great!) so that I can play around with overclocking a bit. PS...MicroCenter has a i7 Extreme 980X for $700. Newegg has it listed at $1,050. Whats wrong with that picture? Is that a good processor?? Edited May 12, 2011 by danb4026 Adding stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 Well, if you need to work with scenes you can't fit in 16GB that's going to rule out 16GB systems. What do you have now and have you tried similarly difficult renders on it? And have you used memory optimizing techniques like instances and proxies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 PS...MicroCenter has a i7 Extreme 980X for $700. Newegg has it listed at $1,050. Whats wrong with that picture? Is that a good processor?? Microcentre sell some processors at a loss to bring in customers. They say you can only have one per customer. Its quite wierd, I went in and had to buy 7 x i7 2600k's and they wouldnt let me. They were $280. I talked to a manager and they let me have 1 at $280 then they checked newegg and gave me the other 6 at that price ($315). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now