An FM2+ Adventure 09/01/15 New Cooler For the HTPC!

[Jumper118]

Testing Doc (not yet complete): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlC81MjwelBgdGJjcFpEUmhUc3J3eEVPeS1kRDh5cWc#gid=0

 

This build is going to be a HTPC and NAS once it is finished. I will be building this over the next 6 months. Anyway here is the schedule/plan:

APU: 5400K, 6400K and 7850K confirmed more apu's and cpu's may be tested. 5400K i have, 6400K will replace it next month once the 5400k has been tested with new ram 

Motherboard: The HTPC motherboard is a Asus A88XM plus. at some point i will definitely be getting a beast atx board to see what these apu's are made of, however the final build will be matx. asus board is in the post on the way.

RAM: not decided on this yet, it will most likely be whatever 2400/2666mhz ram is on offer

GPU: R9 295X2 

Case: Lian Li PC-C50B HTPC case, because it looks nice, is matx, has decent airflow and will last forever and still look nice.

PSU: this will be something that is low wattage and 80+ bronze around 400-500w depending on what i decide

HDD: 2X2tb hdds + 60gb ssd. one 2tb drive for recording tv/movies. the other will be my nas drive for all my other pc's to back up and share files.

TV tuner PCIE card: not sure on this one. something that can record 2 or 4 things at once.

 

Got the first bit today. the 5400K has landed. It is a brand new cpu with a pathetic stock cooler bought from OCUK for £39.95

it may be pathetic but it is magic  :lol:

 

more coming soon..........................................

 

 

[PassionFruit]

Can't wait to see this

[lani100]

I'll stay tuned.

[MogIsWinning]

Pumped

[consoleconvergence2pc]

Normally here on the forum with peoples builds their psu is quite overkill but you sir need more power if you think 400-500w will power the r9 295x2

[MogIsWinning]

Normally here on the forum with peoples builds their psu is quite overkill but you sir need more power if you think 400-500w will power the r9 295x2

I'm not quite sure he was expecting it to, considering they sent even out yet

[Jumper118]

here it is 

started it yesterday on the box with 4gb of ram and stock cooler. i got it to 4.4ghz

 

some nice pics of the horrible yellow and brown board. the gold heatsinks wouldn't be too bad if the pcb was black. i'm glad the case that its going in doesn't have a window

 

stole the other 4gb of ram from the folding rig

 

then i decided the stock cooler wasn't big enough.................................................  :lol: 

 

so i borrowed the thermalright hr-02 from the folding rig

 

much better?

 

then i set the fan speed appropriately according to cpu power and room temps

 

and the results of that  

 

more to come yet. i haven't done any testing with the gpu bit of the apu yet and memory clocks. i still think the cpu bit can go higher yet.

once i've finished with the cpu bit i'm planning to back it down to 4.5/4.6ghz and test how the memory speeds and timings effects scores in firestrike, heaven, valley and maybe a few other things.

[Jumper118]

new update. i'm finished ocing the cpu on this board with this ram now. ive manage to reach a respectable 4.74ghz on 1.495v in the bios. i had to put a bit of extra cooling on the vrm and chipset just to be on the safe side, as im actually going to use this pc for something other than overclocking later on so i dont want to stress it too much.

 

and some benchmarks .

 

i was going to do geekbench and pc mark vantage but you have to veiw the scores online and it hasn't got interwebs yet.

next sets of tests will be at 4.4ghz with stock and oc'ed gpu with different ram speeds. might even throw the 7970 for lolz to see how it compares with the apu    

[Jumper118]

i've done some memory testing last night. the cpu was 4.5-4.515ghz in all test and i used the same kit of avexir 1600mhz ram 

the ram and cpu settings are:

cpu                                              ram                                   open gl fps

43X105=4.515ghz                       1400mhz cl8-8-8-24          21.78 <1.5v ram

41X110=4.510ghz                       1466mhz cl8-8-8-24          22.83 <1.5v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl8-8-8-24          24.13 <1.5v highest cpu performance setting in super pi and cinebench

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl9-9-9-27          24.08 <1.5v XMP timings for this ram@1600mhz

41X110=4.510ghz                       1760mhz cl9-9-9-27          25.19 <1.55v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1960mhz cl10-10-10-28    25.95 <1.65v

41X110=4.510ghz                       2053mhz cl11-11-11-31    27.07 <1.65v highest gpu performance however is not 100% stable. it was getting a bit shaky over 2000mhz 

45X100=4.5ghz                           2133mhz cl11-11-11-31    0 <1.65v bsod ram failed, possibly could have held it if i had gone to 1.7v or cl12 but there wasn't much point as i'm getting 2400 or 2666 soon to do high speed tests

 

screenshots in spoiler below

 

 

i did a couple of tests with valley benchmark on the extreme HD preset  

cpu                                              ram                                    score/ average fps

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl8-8-8-24           128/3.0<1.5v

45X100=4.5ghz                           2133mhz cl11-11-11-31     148/3.5<1.65v 2133 was just about stable @2133mhz

 

i will be running some more valley 1.0 tests as well as heaven 4.0, but on lower settings to get a more sensible fps and score. probably 720 high and 900p medium. 

 

screenshots in spoiler

 

 

 

note: the gpu clock changes with the base clock of the cpu as well. bare that in mind when comparing the scores and fps.

also i was doing these tests from about 10pm to 1.30am so i forgot to change the date on the notepad file.   :rolleyes:

 

a slightly blurry pic of the ram lit up for those who came from pretty pictures. 

 

[MogIsWinning]

Making me want to do a fm2 build

[Jumper118]

Making me want to do a fm2 build

its funny cos i would want to do an am1 build, but when i thought about it, i decided fm2 was a better idea, because of the cooler, motherboard support.

 

ive also got the some more gpu results which ill be editing in while you read this. 

 

Valley 1.0 on the basic preset. 

cpu                                              ram                                   score/fps average

43X105=4.515ghz                       1400mhz cl8-8-8-24           413/9.9 <1.5v

41X110=4.510ghz                       1466mhz cl8-8-8-24           433/10.3 <1.5v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl8-8-8-24           472/11.3 <1.5v 

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl9-9-9-27           468/11.2 <1.5v 

41X110=4.510ghz                       1760mhz cl9-9-9-27           488/11.7<1.55v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1960mhz cl10-10-10-28     512/12.2<1.65v

41X110=4.510ghz                       2053mhz cl11-11-11-31     532/12.7<1.65v 

 

 

cinebench r11.5 open gl test

cpu                                              ram                                   open gl test fps

43X105=4.515ghz                       1400mhz cl8-8-8-24           16.48 <1.5v

41X110=4.510ghz                       1466mhz cl8-8-8-24           17.74 <1.5v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl8-8-8-24           19.62 <1.5v 

43X105=4.515ghz                       1680mhz cl9-9-9-27           19.52 <1.5v 

41X110=4.510ghz                       1760mhz cl9-9-9-27           20.25 <1.55v

43X105=4.515ghz                       1960mhz cl10-10-10-28     21.56 <1.65v

41X110=4.510ghz                       2053mhz cl11-11-11-31     22.54 <1.65v 

 

[Jumper118]

i have done some testing today to see how much the apu will hinder a mid and higher end gpu. i have used my 7970 lightning BE and my mates sapphire 7870 ghz edition. my lightning is screwed again so i only did two run, the second of which is useless. for the higher end cpu test, i have used my i5 2550k.

APU test with A6-5400K@4.5ghz, Valley benchmark 1.0, extreme HD Preset

GPU       Core clock       Memory Clock        Score            Average FPS

7870      1050                1250                      1331             31.8

7870      1103                1250                      1378             32.9

7870      1150                1250                      1409             33.7

7870      1200                1250                      1440             34.4

7870      1240                1250                      1455             34.8

7870      1245                1250                      1461             34.9

7970      1150                1500                      1781             42.6

7970      1200                1707                      1947             46.5

 

 

I5@5ghz test, same benchmark and settings 

 

GPU       Core clock       Memory Clock        Score            Average FPS

7870      1050                1250                      1364             32.6

7870      1103                1250                      1405             33.6

7870      1153                1250                      1437             34.3

7870      1204                1250                      1472             35.2

7870      1222                1250                      1481             35.4

7870      1240                1250                      1490             35.6

7870      1240                1355                      1513             36.2

7870      1254                1355                      1522             36.4

7870      1254                1385                      1541             36.8

7970      1150                1500                      2006             no idea cos ive lost the screen shot

7970      1231                1876                      2257             54.0    

 

 

pics of the gpu's during testing

7870 with my i5

 

APU + 7970 lightning brick edition

 

APU + 7870 GHz

 

 

conclusion on the tests so far:

the apu by itself is perfect for a htpc build with no gaming. the apu's performance is very dependent on memory speed so its worth getting 2133mhz ram over 1600, because it makes the graphical performance from gt610 to gt630. 

Adding a discrete gpu to a dual core apu will greatly improve performance in games however this setup is still handicapped by a large amount over a appropriate gaming cpu like an i5, also with a higher end cpu and motherboard i was able to overclock both discrete gpu's much further, making their performance even higher. i will redo most of these tests once i have some faster ram and a quad core apu to see if it can close the gap to the i5 when using discrete gpu's.

[Jumper118]

currently testing a new apu  . i've also got 2 new cpus to test................. updates coming soon 

 

update 1:9:42pm......... its just got very very interesting. im surprised this is going well 33% more speed................ 

 

Update 2:11pm got to a 50% oc. Ive hit a wall but i think its a bios problem, so im stopping to do some research into this problem, before i do the full update tomorrow.

 

the full update from yesterday:

 

on friday i purchased 2 cpu's and 1 apu for a bargain price of £55 for all three. 1 athlon X4 740, 1 athlon X2 370K and 1 a4 4000. its was fairly warm yesterday so i thought i would try out the a4 4000 first. i was expecting to around 3.6ghz before it failed because it doesn't have a unlocked multiplier so i have to do all of the overclocking on the base clock. 

 

 

all 3 cpus were grade b from ocuk.the athlons were £19.99 each and the apu was £15. the athlon x4 and a4 4000 came in the retail box with the heatsinks, the a4 4000 was like new and the stock cooler hadnt been used. the athlon x4 was missing the sticker the box was a bit ripped, and the heatsink had been used. the athlon x2 came in a small oem box which is fine because i don't use the stock heatsink.

 

the athlon x4

 

the athlon x2

 

and the a4 is under my heatsink

 

i went from stock (3ghz) to 4.5ghz in 5mhz steps on the base clock, adjusting the ram to try and keep it under 2000mhz, but not lower than 1400mhz.

the results are in the spoiler and ill explain them underneath. 

 

 

first off the reason why i stopped at 4.5ghz and didnt carry on past to 4.65ghz was because when i do 155 on the base clock is the bios, when i save and exit, it will still only be 150 in windows. i think its a cpu limitation because i haven't seen one faster than 4.5ghz. currently researching this one though.

as for the scores. it was slow to start off with  and upto 3.6ghz it was slower clock for clock than the 5400k, however as the ram speed and base clock rise it get nearly 200mhz faster than the 5400k. as soon as i had to loosen the ram to cl10 the performance drops off again before making another big jump from 4.35 to 4.5ghz as i put the ram down in speed and back to cl9. that mean that this cpu is more efficient at certain speeds, depending on how good your ram and memory controller are.

 

just done some more benchmarks at 4.5ghz im mostly 2nd fastest on hwbot with this apu 

 

[MogIsWinning]

This is all pretty good work

[Jumper118]

This is all pretty good work

everything is going to plan so far. i'm afraid there is a a hell of a lot of overclocking to be done still. this is quite a long term build though. well i call it a build but im pretty much going through a good selection of fm2 and fm2+ cpu's and a couple of boards before i do the final build. its looking like a 9 month project at the moment. 

 

seems as though you are the only person commenting. i will give you a choice of what i do next:

a: carry on with this a4 4000 and test the graphics and compare it to the 5400k.

b:start overclocking the athlons.

 

either way i will do both and i will enjoy doing either.    

[MogIsWinning]

Over clocking the athlons, I'm really interested in the cheaper cpus and how the preform.

If you have a mantal enabled card any chance you would test it with one of these?

[Jumper118]

Over clocking the athlons, I'm really interested in the cheaper cpus and how the preform.

If you have a mantal enabled card any chance you would test it with one of these?

i don't have any mantle cards yet. i did have to borrow the 7870 off my mate and my 7970 is very very very f****. i will probably be replacing the 7970 with something amd though like 2x270x's just to get me over to 20nm gpu's and 4k . i do want to try dual graphics as well.

 

i will start with the athlon x4 740 now. i might not update for a couple of days now but i should get a lot done at the weekend and on friday.    

[MogIsWinning]

Great

[Jumper118]

Great

got the athlon X4 740 done last night. it was a bit hit and miss, because 5 of the pins were bent, but i got them straightened up and it works, so here are the results

 

 

I'm going to do a spreadsheet with all the scores for the cpu's and apu's and gpu's when i get the time and put it in the op, so that it is easier to compare them for people who haven't seen the thread and will there being so many thing it will be easier to read too.

[Jumper118]

athlon ii x2 370k done

[MogIsWinning]

What are you cooling all these with? Just the stock coolers?

[Jumper118]

What are you cooling all these with? Just the stock coolers?

im using this: bit overkill, but you can never have too much cooling, right? 

[Jumper118]

i did some tweaking of the a6 5400k because being the first thing i oc'ed on this platform, i didnt really know what configs would be fastest. after a bit of tweaking i have managed to improve it slightly. its the fastest dual core i've got so far and i nearly got it to 4.8ghz to run cinebench r11.5

[Jumper118]

forgot to upload the actual pics of the set up with the athlons  :rolleyes:

 

the athlon x4 740 had bent pins but it was ok after i straighten them out.  :wacko:

to run the athlons i needed a gpuso my 8400gs was the obvious choice, because it was lying around doing nothing and it doesn't require a pcie power connector    

:angry:

8400gs for graphical power B)

18.9ghz cpu+ 7200mhz ram. asus were optimistic when they were designing this bios

 

the 2400mhz ram has been put on hold due to ram going up in price a little and the slightly more important issues of having no monies  to spend, because i'm hopefully getting a new car. 

[Jumper118]