Silicon Lottery - worth it?

[Alan_A 1,650]

Am continuing to research my next build and have been reading pretty favorable reports about Silicon Lottery.  They're a new name to me - either they weren't around for my last build (a Haswell) or, more likely, I just missed hearing about them.  Question to the group - are they worth it?  I'm perfectly happy trying my luck with a standard-issue boxed 7700k - have done my own delidding and overclocking in the past.  But I have to admit that the idea of a pre-tested chip is pretty appealing.  It'd help to know how much variation people are seeing in 7700s - if they're reliably going to 5.0, I might stick to a normal retail box.  But if there's a lot of variation, then I'd be inclined to pay a little more for a pre-tested high performer.  What do you think?

 

[westman 257]

The last batches is good on air water, tested 2 later batches for fun not delidded both did 5.2 at 1.44 my good chip do 5.2 1.375v with silcon lottery settings

if you go for a 5.1 chip and they say it can diff 100mhz you must be unlucky if you not get a 5.1ghz 1.4v chip.

think its 70% that do 5.1 and higer ( never batches) the early approx 50%

[Alan_A 1,650]

So would your suggestion be, do it myself with a stock chip, or go for a Silicon Lottery 5.0 chip?  Your percentages suggest that 5.0 ought to be well within the range of a stock chip - I'd have to have really bad luck not to get that.  Am I reading you correctly?

 

 

[westman 257]

All later chip a tested 100% did 5ghz

[Alan_A 1,650]

Perfect!  Thanks for that - I think I'll stick to stock.  I don't want to push past 5.0 - I like to run with lower temps and a bit of overhead.  I tried for 4.8 on my 4790k, couldn't get it there, settled for 4.6 and never regretted it.  Will aim for something similar here.

 

 

[JamesIceland 14]

Hi Alan,

I have literally just finished building a computer using a Silicon Lottery 5.1Ghz CPU which I got them to delid also - I am running it at 5 right now but can confirm that I briefly bench marked it for a stable period at 5.1Ghz. When I have more time I am going to over clock my system more fully. 

I found the guys at Silicon Lottery to be very good - communicative, open and they've delivered what they sent - their forums also show many happy customers. I hadn't delidded anything myself before so I was not comfortable doing so. Temps after delidding at 5.1Ghz maxed out at 69c on the CPU so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can get out of it when I turn things up in the coming weeks. 

Hope that helps.

James

[martin-w 3,235]

I believe you pay $64 dollars extra for a 5.1 chip at silicone lottery. So not a huge amount of money. Worth remembering though that a few hundred megahertz extra equates to very little in terms of frame rate. So the urge to achieve 5 GHz or 5.1 GHz isn't about significant gains. 1-2 frames per second at 30 frames per second or thereabouts. 

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Definitely not worth it for this generation.  Almost every Kaby Lake chip can hit 5GHz (it's 80% according to Asus).  Paying $570 for an extra 200MHz (which is the most you'll get without extreme voltages or cooling beyond water) isn't remotely worth it.  It's a 4% difference in performance for a 63% difference in price.  

[martin-w 3,235]

1 hour ago, TechguyMaxC said:

Definitely not worth it for this generation.  Almost every Kaby Lake chip can hit 5GHz (it's 80% according to Asus).  Paying $570 for an extra 200MHz (which is the most you'll get without extreme voltages or cooling beyond water) isn't remotely worth it.  It's a 4% difference in performance for a 63% difference in price.  

 

Initially Asus were saying 80% achieve 5 GHz, but from what I read the other day, the figure is looking closer to 50%.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

 

Initially Asus were saying 80% achieve 5 GHz, but from what I read the other day, the figure is looking closer to 50%.

Can you show me what you read the other day that made you think this?  Asus still has the 80% figure up on their overclocking guide.   https://rog.asus.com/articles/guides/the-kaby-lake-overclocking-guide/

[Alan_A 1,650]

Thanks, guys - exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping would break out.

@James - have been following your build - a big part of what made me think about Silicon Lottery in the first place.

I'll be interested to see where the 50 percent vs 80 percent reports land.  Anecdotally, I'm hearing about a lot of people hitting 5.0 without much, if any, trouble.  Admittedly a small sample, but still, it's information.

I'd thought about running a Silicon Lottery 5.2 chip at 5.0 and enjoying the overhead.  But that seems like overkill.

Am continuing to lean toward rolling (or at least delidding) my own.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

I bought a chip off retail shelves and have been running @ 5.2 and less than 1.4V for the last month.  Best piece of silicon I've ever owned.  

[Alan_A 1,650]

7 minutes ago, TechguyMaxC said:

I bought a chip off retail shelves and have been running @ 5.2 and less than 1.4V for the last month.  Best piece of silicon I've ever owned.  

Very nice!  I could easily live with that as an end result.  

Could live with 5.0, too.

So looking good for retail, and saving a couple hundred bucks - not a bad thing.

 

[joemiller 269]

9 hours ago, TechguyMaxC said:

I bought a chip off retail shelves and have been running @ 5.2 and less than 1.4V for the last month.  Best piece of silicon I've ever owned.  

Consider yourself very lucky. 5.2 with less than 1.4 ? Daaaaaaammmmmm

[joemiller 269]

On 4/6/2017 at 2:13 PM, Alan_A said:

Am continuing to research my next build and have been reading pretty favorable reports about Silicon Lottery.  They're a new name to me - either they weren't around for my last build (a Haswell) or, more likely, I just missed hearing about them.  Question to the group - are they worth it?  I'm perfectly happy trying my luck with a standard-issue boxed 7700k - have done my own delidding and overclocking in the past.  But I have to admit that the idea of a pre-tested chip is pretty appealing.  It'd help to know how much variation people are seeing in 7700s - if they're reliably going to 5.0, I might stick to a normal retail box.  But if there's a lot of variation, then I'd be inclined to pay a little more for a pre-tested high performer.  What do you think?

 

 

$570.00 for an Intel 7700k ? No way! That's a waste of time and money.  I paid 299.00  @ Microcenter for mine, and can hit 5.1 However P3D cares little to nothing about this. So, I left mine at 4.9Ghz . Other games might take advantage of a 5.1 or 5.2; but our beloved sim? pfffff-  Zero!