What motherboard for i7-3930k with 8 ram slots should i choose?

[jaquith]

The H100 is fine, looks nice and clean installed, and I prefer it over the Noctua NH-D14 (lawn mower engine). I'm not concerned about the H100 and leaking unless you do something stupid before installing it; your case must support at least 120x240x(25~50).

On a 4.8GHz OC my temps were 65C~71C with the H100 in medium speed mode.

 

[Shad0w]

It does indeed look nice and clean and I'd like to have one, but I think I would worry a bit over the possibility of leaking even if installed correctly..

How do you find the noise level on medium compared to low? And I assume you are using the stock fans with it?

 

[jaquith]

The only time you hear the fans is under high load, the fans are variable from the built in H100 fan controller. Under full load it's not any louder than any HSF. The folks who say any different either are lying, don't know, or somehow didn't install the unit properly.

Again, I am not worried about a 100% sealed unit leaking. Any stories otherwise makes me think folks dilibertly did something to their units.

 

[Shad0w]

Maybe I should just try out that H100 - would be very nice to avoid those gigantic air coolers

However, if I do find the stock fans on H100 a little loud and change them to something else, would the fan controller still work?

 

[jaquith]

Yes you can change out the Corsair stock fans, but don't bother with any fan <70 CFM. Anything better is going to run you $15+/fan.

 

[Shad0w]

Okay that's nice I might even be ok by using the low profile (and stock fans) with just a small oc to 4.0GHz?

It's just nice to have the option to replace them with no problems if they get a little too noisy.

 

[jaquith]

It's NOT that noisy and I have sensitive ears. Sure, when I'm running Prime95 at full bored for an extended period of time it does get a little load but nothing OMG and even the best of the best fans for the same CFM are barely less loud.

I run on the defaults both on the Corsair controller (medium), frankly (high) isn't much different dBA @ 100% load/fans, and I use the ASUS's onboard fan headers (they accept both 3 & 4 pin fans).

Some of these reviewers simply want something/anything to bitch about.

For the best cooling get a 'real' water cooling loop or loops and throw $500+ and yeah sure, lower temps and lower fan noise. However, for a 'bolt-on' dirt simple solution the H100 works well.

 

[Shad0w]

I just see many opinions, not just from reviewers, with mixed opinions about the noise - even people very satisfied with the H100 - but anyways, I think I'll just have to hear it myself, what I think is quiet other people may call loud or the other way around

I suppose the Corsair controller doesn't have an effect when connecting the fans to the onboard headers? If so, you think this is better than using the fan controller?

 

[jaquith]

Hook-up:
1-pin pump <-> CPU_FAN header ; signal
Standard Molex <-> power for pump and fans from the H100 unit ; power
(2 or 4 fans 3/4-pin) <-> (x4) 4-pin H100 fan controller; Corsair's stock fans are 3-pin ; fans

Folks often don't hook it up correctly, and the instructions are clear as mud. I prefer the MOBO to signal to fan speed with any HSF or 'bolt-on' unit. Full water, even then there has to be some form of temp monitoring.

Also, the TIM (thermal paste) is fairly good that comes pre-applied, otherwise use Arctic Cooling MX-4.

 

[Shad0w]

But you're not using the other fan headers on the mobo except for the cpu fan header right?

That's what I thought you meant originally - and I was wondering if this could be good idea - wouldn't I be able to control the fans with the Asus suite software in this way?

 

[jaquith]

There's (2) CPU fan headers, and you could use both of them for the H100 fans.

However, that's not how I did it.

Yes, on my personal X79 I do use three of the MOBO fan headers: 1. Rear exhaust, VRM AUX fan, and bottom fan in another case fan.

The Corsair 500R has (3) other fans: 240 side and 2x120 front, as it is they're connected to the case's 3-speed switched fan controller. I could use a splitter and extenders and run them all off the MOBO. Normally, I prefer a Fan Controller, and until I decide if I want to add a fully water cooled and blocked system I'm leaving it as-is.

In my instance, this is NOT meant to be a gaming system at all, and more a day to day. I run HUGE SQL tests at home and office where I code. SLI GTX 560's are okay, but nothing like my daughter's gaming system; the plan there is to replace the current 3-WAY with GTX 600's which is fully blocked / i7-980X system.

 

[Shad0w]

Okay - I've never really used onboard fan headers for some reason, I think I will experiment a little with it when I get my computer - would be nice to control the fans with the Asus Suite software as the fan controller on the P280 is placed in an awkward spot

Btw, I noticed a little typo in your hardware description, CPU: i7-930 (2.8 MHz), I assume it's a little higher than 2.8MHz

 

[jaquith]

Yep it runs just a tad faster, I don't think it even possible to run it that slow. I'll correct tonight; it's a pain to do it on my iPhone.

Normally, I use a fan controller. ASUS was making a point that their new fan controll system was so good, so I am trying it out. All my other systems have some form of separate fan control including the 2.8 MHz i7-930's

 

[Shad0w]

Also considering that the fan controller on the H100 is sitting inside the case it would be really nice to be able to control those fans with the asus software - but what's the actual difference between the cpu fan headers and the other fan headers?

 

[jaquith]

Off the top of my head, at least on my Sabertooth X79 they are all 4-pin so in that case there is no differences other than you can set alarms if the CPU/pump fails.

As I mentioned, if you connect the H100 the fans are controlled just fine and without doing or running anything; the Default BIOS and H100 work perfect out of the box. When the load is low ditto are the H100 fan speeds.

 

[Shad0w]

I just thought it could be a little more flexible using the fan headers instead.
For example the low or medium mode is fine when working and not rendering for many hours in a row, but for overnight renders I could just as well have it on the highest settings for optimal cooling - could be nice if I could change that easily

 

[jaquith]

IDK, try it the way it's supposed to be and if you don't like it then change it...

 

[Shad0w]

Yeah I will

 

[Shad0w]

I just saw the review of the new Xeon cpu's here on Toms hardware, and I was wondering if there would be any point in going with the Xeon equivalent of the 3930k, the E5-1650 instead? As far as I can tell it's more difficult to oc, but has pci 3.0 and uses ecc memory?

I'm thinking the 3930k is still the best choice for me, but since my order got a little delayed due the owners being at Cebit I thought I'd ask

 

[jaquith]

I have nothing but praise for Xeon. Further, it's counter productive to use them without Enterprise components e.g. HDD (WD RE4), SSD (Intel SLC), RAM (ECC), etc.

They are indeed difficult to OC and the MOBO must have the ability to raise the Strap values. This is similar to BCLK but it's now it's split into (2) clocks BCLK (SATA, USB, PCIe) and Strap (CPU).

Correct, the E5-1650 is the identical CPU, but if I were to get one then I'd look at the 8-core E5-2650 but only after seeing how it stacks up and how well it does with a 120MHz~125MHz+ CPU Strap; 125MHz * 28 = 3.5Hz
ref - http://ark.intel.com/products/64590/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2650-(20M-Cache-2_00-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI)

 

[Shad0w]

The 2650 is going to be too expensive for me unfortunately The 3930k is already stretching it a bit. So in terms of a xeon cpu I think only the E5-1650 would fit my budget.

Consindering that, and the fact that the computer is going to be an allround computer where I will be doing gaming too, do you think I would get any real benefits of the 1650 over 3930k? I'm also not experienced in oc'ing so maybe I would end up losing performance because oc'ing is difficult with a xeon?

 

[jaquith]

After reading, don't get the Xeon; reread the "I have nothing but praise..." paragraph.

The i7-3930K IMO is the way to go. Nice but a little blah blah review - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y76iQh1WpDI IF he compared clock-per-clock then the differences would be nearly zip on all tests.

i7-3930K (3.2GHz) vs i7-3960X (3.3GGHz) -- IF he raised the i7-3930K +1 bin (3.3GGHz) then nearly NO difference. Both CPU's easily OC to 4.5GHz and most can do 4.7GHz~4.8GHz with a 1.4v vCore.

 

[Shad0w]

Regarding what you said about the other components I could get ecc memory - could also change other components, but price is a factor and I am not sure how much that would cost me extra.. and if it would be worth it in my case.

As for 3930k vs 3960x I haven't been in doubt about what to go for, the 3960x is also way too expensive for me - the price for that one is going up to the same level as an 8 core xeon And I'm sure the 3930k is a nice processor, I just got a little in doubt if a E5-1650 would be better.

But I guess I stick with the 3930k

 

[jaquith]

I have no doubt that the i7-3930K will run faster at stock than the E5-1650, and I have some doubts about how successfully you can OC the E5-1650. 95% of the OC's on the i7-3930K are done exclusively with the CPU Multiplier and the more problematic ones are done with the CPU Strap.

The advantages to Xeon are it's ECC and stability @ stock and when used in conjunction with Enterprise level components as per above. As far as extra costs, the ASUS P9X79 WS is $380, and ECC RAM e.g. UDIMM ECC CT2KIT51272BA1339 4 kits $280, WD RE4 1TB $250/HDD.

Trust me, I am all for a 'real' Workstation, and you'll add $300 for a similar system. Gaming on a WS can be done. You can use a screwdriver as a hammer.

edit/ASUS P9X79 WS - 'should' eventually support Xeon's as it has in the past (X58/P67), but as of today no E5's are listed so a BIOS update is required first! ref - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/P9X79_WS/#CPUS

I mentioned the same to Chris in the review you mentioned earlier...

 

[Shad0w]

I'm just thinking that the increased stability of a "real" workstation will be overkill for me? And actually, what kind of stability are we talking about - fewer crashes?

I mean it's not going to be used 24/7 all the time doing looooong renders a lot - I'm not sure if I would notice the increased stability. I've also been very happy with my current "regular" pc for ~4 years, I just need more perfomance now.

Maybe I'll appreciate the OC possibilities of the 3930k more than the benefits of a Xeon system.

And no matter what computer I get Maya (which is what I'm using the most) will crash quite a lot - that's for sure