Yet another new PC Build - First time I've built - Opinions and abuse welcome!

[martin-w]

I am going to look into a multi-rail PSU (will try having a look at cost for the brand you suggested), Martin. I think I too prefer the idea of a multi-rail PSU. Thanks for the detailed info. Also glad to see you like the NH-D15S! I've noticed you're a bit of a fan...get.it?...haha!

 

 

 

Nice video on multi-rail and single rail here...

 

 

 

Nice that Corsair offer the option of single or multi-rail, selectable in their "Link" software. That's the "i" designated PSU's of course.

 

 

Also glad to see you like the NH-D15S!  I've noticed you're a bit of a fan...get.it?...haha!

 

 

 

Love Noctua to be honest. As soon as you pull them out of the box the quality blows you away. Nice spring mounting system to absorb dynamic load, nice big, secure backplate. Love em.

 

 They don't suggest many different types of RAM in the QVL list, and nearly all of it is 4x4GB for 16GB.  I think I'd rather 2x8GB than 4x4GB, I've heard 2x8GB is better?  I've been having a look G.Skill's memory configurator which matches RAM to the motherboard so maybe will go by that.

 

 

I would recomend either the Trident Z you originally linked to, or Ripjaw V. GSkill designed Trident Z and Ripjaw V specificity for Skylake, they also use top quality Samsung modules. I went fro 3200, but 3000 would be nice too.

 

I agree in regard to two sticks instead of 4. Two is better. However, not to the extent it used to be. You can actually achieve good overclocking results with four sticks with Skylake. To be on the safe side I too would go for two sticks though.

[martin-w]

Multi rail continued.

 

The easiest way to look at it is a follows... If you imagine a short circuit on the 12 volt rail, and the short circuit protection fails to catch it in time. The draw on the 12 volt wire and 12 volt PSU circuit board trace will increase until the OCP trip point is reached or until something vital burns out. It could be your motherboard, it could be the cable, it could be the PSU itself. If it happens to be a hefty single rail PSU, above 650 watts, then something usually burns before OCP cuts in.

 

In a multi rail PSU, the current climbs until it hits the lower OCP trip point and then shuts down to protect itself and your other PC components.

[swiesma]

For your information:

 

I installed an AIO watercooling system on the weekend and get around 10-15°C cooler temps compraed to my former Alpenföhn Brocken 2.

https://www.arctic.ac/de_de/liquid-freezer-240.html -> easy to install, not very expensive, very good temps.

 

@martin: But I cannot get more than 4,5 GHz stable. No chance. No matter what i do... And even with 4,5 GHz @ 1,34V I had a freeze in P3D after about 2 hours.

[martin-w]

For your information:

 

I installed an AIO watercooling system on the weekend and get around 10-15°C cooler temps compraed to my former Alpenföhn Brocken 2.

https://www.arctic.ac/de_de/liquid-freezer-240.html -> easy to install, not very expensive, very good temps.

 

@martin: But I cannot get more than 4,5 GHz stable. No chance. No matter what i do... And even with 4,5 GHz @ 1,34V I had a freeze in P3D after about 2 hours.

 

 

 

1.34 volts isn't particularly high. Asus and Intel recommend a maximum of 1.45 volts for Skylake. So you do have more headroom to increase voltage further to increase stability. This will be dependant on your CPU temperature of course.

 

What sort of temp are you seeing at 4.5 GHz and 1.34 volts, under load? Do you have any more headroom in terms of CPU temperature? 

 

It also depends how you manually overclocked. Did you set the RAM XMP profile before or after overcloking? If you set it before, and the memory controller on your board isn't as capable as we would like, it would limit your CPU overclock. Best idea is to overclock your CPU first, and then try the XMP profile. If not successful, then it's an easy task to drop the RAM frequency until stable. Otherwise you are sacrificing CPU frequency to run your RAM at a higher frequency. Just a suggestion, it could of course be that your board is perfectly capable of handing the higher RAM frequency without compromising the max CPU overclock... it's all down to the silicone lottery.

[swiesma]

Temps are no problem. I get around 65°-70° (which is by the way the same temp I get when running P3D at 4,3 GHz, somehow the temps when running P3D are higher then in Prime95 with custom settings to 1344 and FFT in place) while running Prime95 at 4.5 GHz.

I read that no more than 1.4 Volts is recommended for daily use. Where do you have the 1.45V from? If that's true: Yes, then I have enough room to overclock! :-)

 

I think I set the XMP profile before the tuning. But I guess I will go for the higher voltage first.

 

But tonight I wanna make a long haul from VHHH to EDDM so I set back the frequency to 4,3 GHz as I am FULLY stable there at the moment.

 

Edit: Just tried 4.6 GHz with 1.4V and XMP off -> 80° in Prime95 and a freeze after about 3 minutes. :-/

[martin-w]

Temps are no problem. I get around 65°-70° (which is by the way the same temp I get when running P3D at 4,3 GHz, somehow the temps when running P3D are higher then in Prime95 with custom settings to 1344 and FFT in place) while running Prime95 at 4.5 GHz.

 

 

I have no experience of P3D, but yes, I've heard temps are higher in P3D. P3D seems like a great way to test for thermals then.

 

 

I read that no more than 1.4 Volts is recommended for daily use. Where do you have the 1.45V from? If that's true: Yes, then I have enough room to overclock! :-)

 

 

Quoted in numerous places.You will also find that Asus's 5 way optimization sets this as the max voltage. 

 

 

There is no official word on a safe CPU core voltage. But it is widely accepted that you shouldn’t exceed 1.45V If you’re the type of user who likes to play it safe, then keep it under 1.4V

 

 

http://rog.asus.com/454262015/overclocking/guide-overclocking-core-i7-6700k-on-the-maximus-viii-extreme/

 

 

Then I decided to push further, and was able to complete a set of three test runs at 4.9GHz. That was only possible with the CPU Core Voltage at a whopping 1.43, which is pretty high (Asus and Intel documents recommended a maximum of 1.45V).

 

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/overclocking-intel-core-i7-6700k/

 

 

 

It is recommended with the Skylake processors to not exceed 1.45v, so 1.4v on a daily overclocked machine should* be safe. 

 

 

 

http://www.eteknix.com/intel-core-i7-6700k-i5-6600k-skylake-processors-review/2/

 

Obviously it's your CPU though, so if you choose to increase voltage it's at your own discretion and risk.

[martin-w]

Edit: Just tried 4.6 GHz with 1.4V and XMP off -> 80° in Prime95 and a freeze after about 3 minutes. :-/

 

 

 

When you say "XMP off", what was the RAM frequency? 

 

Could be of course that you have a very bad chip for overclocking, could be that the silicone lottery didn't do you any favors. Most can achieve between 4.6 and 4.8.

 

Of course I have no idea what settings you used in the BIOS.If I were you i'd set everything to optimized defaults and alter just the absolute minimum of settings. Nothing fancy.

 

I would also suggest that you install Ai Suite, and run 5 way optimization. Just to see what sort of overclock it generates.

 

Or you could simply set everything to optimized defaults... and then flip the TPU switch on the motherboard. This is just a generic non stress tested overclock, a "one size fits all" overclock if you will. But it should give us an idea what sort of overclocking capability your chip has. With good cooling, most chips should be able to handle TPU 2. This should give you 4.6 GHz.

 

 

What was the AIO cooler you installed by the way?

 

What's the make and frequency of your RAM. Don't forget, some of the older DDR4 kits caused issues with Skylake.

[swiesma]

When you say "XMP off", what was the RAM frequency? 

 

Could be of course that you have a very bad chip for overclocking, could be that the silicone lottery didn't do you any favors. Most can achieve between 4.6 and 4.8.

 

Of course I have no idea what settings you used in the BIOS.If I were you i'd set everything to optimized defaults and alter just the absolute minimum of settings. Nothing fancy.

 

I would also suggest that you install Ai Suite, and run 5 way optimization. Just to see what sort of overclock it generates.

 

Or you could simply set everything to optimized defaults... and then flip the TPU switch on the motherboard. This is just a generic non stress tested overclock, a "one size fits all" overclock if you will. But it should give us an idea what sort of overclocking capability your chip has. With good cooling, most chips should be able to handle TPU 2. This should give you 4.6 GHz.

 

 

What was the AIO cooler you installed by the way?

 

The RAM frequency was set to 2400 as far as I remember which should be ok.

I can run the 4.5 GHz stable at the moment but as the CPU isn't the bottleneck most of the time (except for P3D) I run it in daily use at 4.3 GHz with lower Voltage.

 

This is ok for me :-)

If my chip isn't willing to give me 4.6 GHz or more that's also ok for me :-)

 

I installed the Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 and the temps it gives me are pretty good. I read a lot about AIO solutions before buying it and was not really sure as there are some negative comments.

But in my eyes it is worth the money. 70 Euros is ok I would say.

But it is a little bit louder than an air cooler as you have the fans "outside" of the case and with the Arctic you have 4 coolers.

 

But I don't really care about noise as I always use a headset.

[martin-w]

This is ok for me :-)

If my chip isn't willing to give me 4.6 GHz or more that's also ok for me :-)

 

 

 

It does happen I'm afraid. As I said, most achieve at least 4.6, but on occasion some chips just won't do it. My old 3770K was a very bad overclocker.

 

I would suggest you try the TPU switch though, or 5 way optimization. After setting back to defaults. That way we know that if it still doesn't achieve a reasonable overclock, that it is the chip and not something you have done wrong.

 

Also make sure you are using the latest BIOS.There are usually tons of tweaks, plenty of performance tweaks with new platforms.

[DescendDescend]

For info, my 6700K is 4.6Ghz 1.35V and 60-65C on ND H15 and Z170-A

[martin-w]

60-65 during a stress test or in the sim?

[DescendDescend]

Hi Martin

 

Just ran Realbench 2.41 HT on (previous figures were from memory with HT off)

 

4.6Ghz. Peak VID 1.31. Typical 1.28.

 

Peak Temp on hottest core. 76C. Typically 68-70C. This varies a bit because the fans throttle up at around 71C and the temperature drops into high 60's again.

 

Strangely, Vcore sits at 1.264 and hardly moves (using latest CPU-Z)

 

Bios is in offset mode -0.06V and LLC is at 3.

[martin-w]

Thanks Howard. 

 

I was curious as my new rig, soon to build, has an NH-D15S waiting for it. Was curious at to the temps you were seeing under what conditions.

[VHOJT]

This is all very interesting reading guys, I am looking forward even more to sticking stuff together now.  You're a welath of information!