Question i9 9900k PCIe lanes

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lordreyrey

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I am an avid gamer, as well as a content creator, using Premiere Pro. I currently have a Windows 10 system with the following setup.

  1. i7 6700k on a Maximus Hero VIII board.
  2. Geforce1080ti
  3. 48gb memory
  4. Onboard 970 PRO m.2 drive
  5. PCI expansion card with USB 3.0 slots for Oculus Rift.
  6. PCI expansion card with 960 EVO m.2
  7. PCI expansion card with another 970 PRO m.2
  8. SATA HDD and SSD.
Naturally, with this setup, my 1080ti is running at 8x, not 16x. Which I want that card running at 16x for my Oculus, anyone that knows VR can tell me if that will make a difference, I assume it will.

I want to UPGRADE to a i9 9900k processor on a Maximus Hero XI board. And move everything into the board...

My questions are:

  1. What configuration can I use to make sure the 1080ti is 16x? Do I have to abandon all my PCI expansion cards?
  2. Assuming I have to get rid of the cards, can the onboard USB slots of the Hero XI adequately handle the Oculus Rift USB needs?
  3. Also assuming I have to get rid of the expansion cards, would I be able to use my expanded m.2 drives on the board and not take away the 16x from the 1080ti? The onboard m.2 drives would have to be sata and not PCIe correct, to not affect the 1080ti? Or can they run together?
Sorry if I am confusing.

Edit: Also if anyone that uses 9900k for workflow or gaming wants to chime in on if it is a worthwhile upgrade, let me know.
 
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Rogue Leader

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Yeah I'm probably over thinking...
Anyone have an opinion on the corsair hd120 vs ll120?
Or maybe I'll do both and buy a corsair commander pro.

The LL is just a different look depends what you're going for.

My entire case has the cheaper AF120 and AF140 LED fans with ML140 fans on my radiator. All are Red LED. The more expensive ML fans are noticeably quieter. I shouldn't have cheaped out lol but too late.

They do offer ML RGB fans if you're looking for quieter.
 

lordreyrey

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I've read some people saying that there are issues getting the asus.maximus hero xi into the corsair crystal 570x case.
Pcpartpicker doesnt show a xompatibility issue. And it is an atx board so.....
I'm assuming they just didnt know how to it right.

Anyone have issues with it. Or have this setup and it works perfectly?
 

lordreyrey

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Ok. One more thing.
I love the noctua performance.... but I hate its ugly... and I'm spending time on rgb lighting.

What about the h150i 360mm liquid cooler? Versus the noctua.

Both for performance and overclocking. Anyone use this one?
 

lordreyrey

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PSU Question.

My 750w power supply, Antec HCG750m, has CPU power connectors 4x4 8 pin.
The Maxmius Hero XI board has that connector plus another 4 pin connector next to that.
Manual says it may overheat if not used blah blah blah.

Is that connector necessary?

pcpartpicker showed no conflicts with my mobo and psu...
 

Rogue Leader

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PSU Question.

My 750w power supply, Antec HCG750m, has CPU power connectors 4x4 8 pin.
The Maxmius Hero XI board has that connector plus another 4 pin connector next to that.
Manual says it may overheat if not used blah blah blah.

Is that connector necessary?

pcpartpicker showed no conflicts with my mobo and psu...

So I think you misinterpreted the manual, it says don't ONLY connect the 4 pin connector. Connect the 8 Pin OR the 8 pin AND the 4 pin. Your HCG should have come with a second modular connector to be able to connect that additional 4 pin (if its the GOLD model, the Bronze model does not), if you have any desire to overclock you want that connected, but at stock speeds you should be ok.

If you are running a heavy load and the system shuts down then your PSU isn't up to snuff. That Antec (the bronze model) is good quality but is not up to snuff to overclock a 9900k and 1080ti. Keep that in mind.
 

lordreyrey

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Minor thing. My old PC used to do this, now I am getting the same issue on this new one...

So, I have Power Settings set to turn screen off after 20 min, and go to sleep after 45...

That being said, when I come back to turn it on, i press a key on keyboard. The PC turns on and lights up. The keyboard lights up. The monitor turns on and shows Acer... then the screen says no signal and stays dark...

I cannot get a display and I have to use the power switch to restart the PC.

How can I fix this?
 

lordreyrey

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And another thing.
Overclocking...
Last night... i played around with it a little.... now i know that I dont have that extra CPU power connector that we discussed, but I wanted to see how OC would do.

9900k out of the box was at 3.6ghz. I used Asus software in the Aisuite3 to overclock. It predicted 5.0ghz, for a 38% increase. It restarted my computer.

When it came back on, it was running fine, shopwing me 4.7 on all cores, well goes up and down, but averaging 4.7....I did have it freeze up installing Adobe Premiere, but since then no issues.

I was planning to just see how it went and turn the oc off. I even went into the bios...and default.. nothing. The chip still shows me 4.7 on all cores no matter what. I cant seem to figure out how to reset it.

So I decided to test it. I have run Cinebench, and Aida64.

My Cinebench score was 4640, and the temps averaged in the 80s.

On Aida64, i ran the system stability test, and temps shot into the 90s, with a couple cores hitting 100. Speeds averaging 4.7, with a couple cores going to 5.1. I then went into Icue and set my h150i fans from quiet mode to balanced, ramped up the fan speeds, and ran the same test again. Temps sat in the high 80s to low 90s, with a couple spikes to 95 range..

Thoughts on these results and stability? should i reset to stock speeds, and if so what am i doing wrong?
 

Rogue Leader

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DO NOT USE AISUITE TO OVERCLOCK. Especially with a 9900k. I've literally seen people fry motherboards with it. Uninstall AISuite to wipe its settings, if they are in your BIOS, reset the CMOS (its in the manual how to do that). Also if it froze just installing software, its not even vaguely stable.

AiSuite is worth re-installing afterwards as it has other non-oc features that are worthwhile, but DO NOT use it for overclocking.

Theres a proper sequence for overclocking which you can find in our overclocking section, once you get the right PSU you need to follow that specifically.

As for your power issue, I believe thats your PSU not supporting sleep mode properly. The platform that the bronze High CUrrent Gamer is on does not support sleep states properly. Yet another reason to replace it.
 

lordreyrey

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So it shows 4.7 on the clock speeds test....

When starting up it was saying 38% overclock on the screen... Now it says nothing since i reset the bios settings.
Perhaps it was always operating at 4.7.
The screen in bios says cpu/memory 3600, but it has always said that.
Clearly im confusing myself.
 

Rogue Leader

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The 9900k runs at 3.6 base frequency and will all core turbo to 4.7 (and 2 core turbo 5.0), so if you bench it and use something like HWMonitor you'll see 4.7 at 100% load. I believe AISuite can write settings to the BIOS but I'm not sure. Either way it should remain stock until you upgrade that PSU.

Make sure you go into your bios and turn on XMP so your memory runs at full speed. Sounds like its on already but worth it to check.
 

lordreyrey

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Then it was prob always at 4.7 and I didnt notice ok perfect.
And I have the psu coming amazon tomorrow. I got the focus plus platinum 750 looks like it has two of the power cables for the psu, and they split. 8/4 I hope at least lol.

Thanks as always. This has been fun.
 

Rogue Leader

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lordreyrey

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Thanks.
And everytime I think im done asking things..

Again with the ram, you mentioned the XMP, but with my setup..

2 x 8gb modules of Patriot DDR4 2400
2 x 16gb modules of Mushkin DDR4 2132

XMP is disabled, the different speeds.

I know that you mentioned not worrying about my RAM, and using what I have. Without XMP, does it matter?
 

lordreyrey

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And another thing, to make sure my fan setup is correct..
I have my h150i radiator setup on the front of the case, as intake, with 3 LL120 rgb fans.
The back of the case has one HD120 fax, as exhaust, and the top has two HD120 fans setup also as exhaust.

This setup i read, of bottom and front are intake, and top and back are exhaust..

But reason i ask is, if the only fans that are intake are bringing air through a warm radiator, is any cool air entering the system?

Or am I overthinking again?
 

Rogue Leader

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Yeah no XMP, and TBH on an Intel system it makes minimal performance difference, so don't worry about it.

Overthinking the air thing. Using exhaust fans to draw heat away is as important if not more important than pulling in cool air.

Its only a couple screws to try different setups, you can see it for yourself it you'd like.