Cheap x79 for overclocking

[Puffing]

Are the cheap x79 boards from China good or ok at overclocking? Would it be worth getting a p9x79 or rampage motherboard for over clocking, any suggestions are welcome I’m trying to make a good gaming workstation for 300 usd so yeah that’s my goal. Anything will help especially people who know more about the China boards etc thanks in advanced

[Vishera]

Those boards are the worst for overclocking and have the bare minimum VRMs required for stock speeds,

Some cheap boards may have questionable VRMs.

Either way overclocking on these boards isn't recommended and won't get you far.

There is also the risk of frying the board or fire hazard due to the cheapness of the board and in case of questionable circuitry.

[Puffing]

1 hour ago, Vishera said:

Those boards are the worst for overclocking and have the bare minimum VRMs required for stock speeds,

Some cheap boards may have questionable VRMs.

Either way overclocking on these boards isn't recommended and won't get you far.

There is also the risk of frying the board or fire hazard due to the cheapness of the board and in case of questionable circuitry.

Ah so what about p9 x79 or rampage c79?

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Puffing said:

Ah so what about p9 x79 or rampage c79?

It depends on the price of the board,if it costs more than $100 then it will be better to just use new platforms like B450.

[Zando_]

3 minutes ago, Vishera said:

It depends on the price of the board,if it costs more than $100 then it will be better to just use new platforms like B450.

Depends on the CPU lol, since only the Zen 2 chips are actually faster than the OCable Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge chips available for the X79 platform. 

[Vishera]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Depends on the CPU lol, since only the Zen 2 chips are actually faster than the OCable Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge chips available for the X79 platform. 

That's wrong,I have Zen+ and i beat Haswell CPUs no problem in both multi core performance and single core performance.

[Puffing]

3 minutes ago, Vishera said:

That's wrong,I have Zen+ and i beat Haswell CPUs no problem in both multi core performance and single core performance.

@Zando Bob this is more about the experience of working with older hardware. I’ve very new to the pc building scene maybe 4 years ago is when I built my first rig Ive built 4 in total a 2nd one for me recently and 2 for my friends. This project is seeing how fast I can get only tech to go and see if I can make a decent photo/video editing rig for 300-400 usd. My first question regarding the motherboard has been answered... my next question is about the cpu for a decent photo editing and gaming rig what Xeon would be good for me I am personally thinking about:  e5 1650, or if I change to a x58 probably muck cheaper a w3670. Or even moving into the x99 range. What cpus would you guys recommend. (Bear this in mind I’m not doing this to get a really good pc it’s for me to build and my friend will be buying it from me if I get it all to work. All suggestions welcome.

[Zando_]

28 minutes ago, Vishera said:

That's wrong,I have Zen+ and i beat Haswell CPUs no problem in both multi core performance and single core performance.

At stock? Yeah, they had lower base clocks. But a 5820K OCed is gonna beat that 2600, same as how my 5960X beats the 2700X I had. And a 4790K will beat those on single core with a proper OC. Same story with X79 hardware, Tech Yes City has even done a set of videos on an OCed Xeon 1680v2 vs a 2700X and 9900K, it lands between the two, solidly beating the 2700X, but not quite able to catch the 9900K (other than on input lag where it beats both). 

The issue is that Zen+ can't clock high on an all-core, though X chips with PBO can fare better in gaming and such due to higher clocks on a few cores, but then again the Intel chips will clock yet higher, while having a similar IPC, and benefiting from ringbus arch which has lower core to core latencies, which is why it still has an advantage in games. Even with current Intel vs Zen 2, which has better IPC and a better single core at times in benches. The Intel chips are still faster in games because ringbus. They can be faster in some all core through just higher clocks as well. 

So yeah homie I had Zen and Zen+ too, it's slower than 6/8 core chips from X79 and X99 on the Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell. Haven't seen how it compares to Broadwell, those chips were first gen 14nm and it's hit or miss as to whether they clock well a lot of the time. But even there I'd bet at 4.2Ghz (a safe OC for most of them, but much lower than what a lot of Haswell chips will do) they'd be very comparable to, if not faster, than the Zen/Zen+ chips. 

Zen and Zen+ are often very overrated tbh. They're very decent processors and the pricing was insane, that's what made them so popular. Raw performance numbers, they have to compete with Intel chips that are 4+ years older. Especially if you're talking overclocking. Overclocking on Ryzen chips is fun up to 4-4.2Ghz, then it's oof. Even worse on chips with PBO if you game, because there a manual all core is actually slower lmao. Unless you enjoy fucking with RAM and tricking PBO a lot, it's going to be hella disappointing. 

 

18 minutes ago, Puffing said:

@Zando Bob this is more about the experience of working with older hardware. I’ve very new to the pc building scene maybe 4 years ago is when I built my first rig Ive built 4 in total a 2nd one for me recently and 2 for my friends. This project is seeing how fast I can get only tech to go and see if I can make a decent photo/video editing rig for 300-400 usd. My first question regarding the motherboard has been answered... my next question is about the cpu for a decent photo editing and gaming rig what Xeon would be good for me I am personally thinking about:  e5 1650, or if I change to a x58 probably muck cheaper a w3670. Or even moving into the x99 range. What cpus would you guys recommend. (Bear this in mind I’m not doing this to get a really good pc it’s for me to build and my friend will be buying it from me if I get it all to work. All suggestions welcome.

Hell yeah! I just got into tech uh... IIRC early 2018, maybe late 2017? Haven't been in it all that long, but thanks to the combo of a good job and horrifyingly bad spending habits, I've churned through a lot of hardware in that time. 

X58 is fun for tinkering, I used to main it but it eventually got to be too much hassle because I couldn't stop tinkering with it and my main rig was unstable because of that lol. Still have a bunch of that hardware, this weekend I may pull it out and actually use it again. X79, all my experience there is second hand, I skipped that gen (due to getting a great deal on my X99 motherboard). X79 is basically X58 with easier OCing (not BLCK based, so not as complicated), with some dopeass buffs. CPUs are also much faster, even a well tuned X58 chip can't beat a stock R5 1600, whereas the hexacores for X79 can usually curbstomp a Zen/Zen+ hexacore with relative ease. X99 is solid as well, especially since there's even some OCable 8c Xeons for under $200 (1660v3 IIRC). On X79 the big boye chip is the 1680v2, OCable 8c Xeon. But the hexacore OCable Xeons and i7s are great for both platforms as well. 

X58 CPUs are cheap af and can take some abuse that would make you wince (they'll survive in excess of 1.5v vCore for bench runs). X79 CPUs are based off Sandy and Ivy Bridge and usuall clock very well. Haswell-E chips on X99 will usually hit 4.2-4.5, j-bin 5960Xs will do higher on average (mine isn't a stellar bin and it does 4.7Ghz on 8c/16t with just 1.3v). Broadwell chips are usually lackluster for OCing, but the golden chips on that platform are indeed golden. Also if you have the oodles of cash people still demand for them (), you can get the 6950X, which is a full 10c/20t chip. There's Xeons up to 22c/44t IIRC, but they're locked ones so no OCing fun. 

X58 was the first platform supporting DDR3 AFAIK, but their IMC is beefy as heck, you can pump some voltage and clocks through your RAM and the CPUs won't complain. IDK that much about X79 chips but I haven't seen complaints. On X99, Haswell IMCs can be pickier or straight up die if you put too much voltage through them, so best to ask more experienced OCers what's safe (AFAIK it's up to 1.4v). I believe this was fixed with the Broadwell chips but X99 has never been that great for RAM OCs. 

All of them are solid platforms in their own right, all of them have unique reasons they're special, all of them are fun to use.

If you plan to become an addict like me, I reccomend that you go with X79 or X99 though, they're more usable as a main system. And you're lucky to be looking into it now, since DDR4 prices have come down massively. You can get a 3200Mhz CL16 kit for like $130 now, mine was twice that (literally, it was $260). You don't have to pay a massive DDR4 tax to hop from X79 to X99 now. Also if you get a later board on X99, they have much better NVMe support. But if you use the right drive, you can get NVMe drives running with an add-in card even on X58. 
 

[Puffing]

10 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

If you plan to become an addict like me, I reccomend that you go with X79 or X99 though, they're more usable as a main system. And you're lucky to be looking into it now, since DDR4 prices have come down massively. You can get a 3200Mhz CL16 kit for like $130 now, mine was twice that (literally, it was $260). You don't have to pay a massive DDR4 tax to hop from X79 to X99 now. Also if you get a later board on X99, they have much better NVMe support. But if you use the right drive, you can get NVMe drives running with an add-in card even on X58. 

I’m not planning on becoming an addict but ya know thing may go south or north depending on how you look at it . Anyway what would be the best cpu for x78 1680? I really don’t know I’ll spend some time on my pc tonight looking around but maybe you can give me a place to start.

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, Puffing said:

I’m not planning on becoming an addict but ya know thing may go south or north depending on how you look at it . Anyway what would be the best cpu for x78 1680? I really don’t know I’ll spend some time on my pc tonight looking around but maybe you can give me a place to start.

For X79 the 1680v3 is pretty much the best chip AFAIK. It's a solid 8c/16t OCable chip. If it's not a rig you need multicore from or are building for the flex though, a hexacore will be fine. The 3930K and such are known to usually clock well and are often cheap, I'd get one of those for starters. Also since they're cheap, if you abuse it and degrade/toast one you and your wallet won't feel as bad. And depending on the bin you get it can be hella fly, IIRC some guys have X79 hexacores that'll do 5Ghz bench stable, and pretty high clocks at safe daily settings. 

 

[Puffing]

2 hours ago, Zando Bob said:

For X79 the 1680v3 is pretty much the best chip AFAIK. It's a solid 8c/16t OCable chip. If it's not a rig you need multicore from or are building for the flex though, a hexacore will be fine. The 3930K and such are known to usually clock well and are often cheap, I'd get one of those for starters. Also since they're cheap, if you abuse it and degrade/toast one you and your wallet won't feel as bad. And depending on the bin you get it can be hella fly, IIRC some guys have X79 hexacores that'll do 5Ghz bench stable, and pretty high clocks at safe daily settings. 

 

just looked at the x58 mad lads WOW thats some cool stuff is it worth me going into x58 territory? the 1680 v3/2 is out of my price rance ive set my self a hard cap at 350 trying to keep it at 300 USD just because im not doing this for any other reason than to learn the ropes of older tech and squeezing juice out of cpus. anyway im pretty set on a xeon, and my hope is that all will go well and i can sell the rig that i make for 400 usd to one of my friends. u seem to know a lot about x58 and x99 i think x99 might be a little outside of 300 usd however looking into x58 and x79 i can see it doable in my budget of 300usd. that being said from what ive seen the x79 would yeils more bang fopr the buck if i cant get good deals on them. any suggestion of where to start for this budget?

 

[Zando_]

39 minutes ago, Puffing said:

just looked at the x58 mad lads WOW thats some cool stuff is it worth me going into x58 territory? the 1680 v3/2 is out of my price rance ive set my self a hard cap at 350 trying to keep it at 300 USD just because im not doing this for any other reason than to learn the ropes of older tech and squeezing juice out of cpus. anyway im pretty set on a xeon, and my hope is that all will go well and i can sell the rig that i make for 400 usd to one of my friends. u seem to know a lot about x58 and x99 i think x99 might be a little outside of 300 usd however looking into x58 and x79 i can see it doable in my budget of 300usd. that being said from what ive seen the x79 would yeils more bang fopr the buck if i cant get good deals on them. any suggestion of where to start for this budget?

X79 is much more bang for the buck. Hexacore CPUs aren't expensive, and the mobos are expensive on both X58 and X79, but you have much higher performance options with X79.

X58 is great if you wanna very, very aggressively OC chips and like the balancing act that is BLCK overclocking. Performance wise not so much though, nor ease of use. And yeah the mobos are typically pretty expensive, especially for a platform so old, that's easily beaten by current chips. X79 is more and more becoming what X58 was before Ryzen got as big as it is now (cheap way to get a good OCing platform with higher than 4 cores).

[Mariosti]

17 hours ago, Puffing said:

Are the cheap x79 boards from China good or ok at overclocking? Would it be worth getting a p9x79 or rampage motherboard for over clocking, any suggestions are welcome I’m trying to make a good gaming workstation for 300 usd so yeah that’s my goal. Anything will help especially people who know more about the China boards etc thanks in advanced

Hi,

 

I have probably one of he best Chinese X79 motherboards currently offered (decent vrm with cooling, actual x79 chipset (cheap ones have random chipsets like B45 and similar), good i/o, and lot's of options in the bios.

Unfortunately bios has zero voltage controls, so you can only OC the cpu as much as it will go on stock voltage (for 3930k i'm running that's about 4.2GHz), and also the ram.

That does give decent performance gains compared to stock clocks, but is still good 7-10% slower than it could be on a good motherboard with full voltage controls in bios.

 

There are other aspects though... the original "good" x79 motherboards are usually at least 7 years old, this means that they are very likely to malfunction because of old capacitors and such (even though they often in theory promised superior reliability). Additionally the are still quite expensive on the used market.

Next point is that many of those Chinese motherboards support nvm-e storage booting, and if you'd get that to work, plus a good price on an 8 core ivy bridge chip with lot's of L3, than the voltage limitation won't hurt you that much, and the setup as a whole would be actually as capable as a decent brand new computer that would cost significantly more.

 

Basically the thing is that you must calculate against a new Ryzen 3600.

I went with the Chinese x79 for ~80$ with i7-3930k for ~65$  as I had some decent ddr3 sticks at hand, and that limited the platform cost compared to brand new Ryzen by a lot and gave me a very decently performing computer that still has some upgrade potential.

[Cylon Agent]

On 1/22/2020 at 1:29 PM, Puffing said:

Are the cheap x79 boards from China good or ok at overclocking? Would it be worth getting a p9x79 or rampage motherboard for over clocking, any suggestions are welcome I’m trying to make a good gaming workstation for 300 usd so yeah that’s my goal. Anything will help especially people who know more about the China boards etc thanks in advanced

These motherboards vary in quality with the PlexHD X79 Turbo (V1.03) being the best I've found. I actually have a system running one of these boards and it runs quite cool, including the VRM (its got a beefy heat sink and one of my case fans is in close proximity). You mention overclockng, however, and I have to disappoint you as these boards do not support overclocking in their (ancient) BIOS. You CAN edit the BIOS to enable these advanced features - there is an active Russian community for this - but its obviously not the simplest route. There are, however, options to overclock your RAM and those do work fine, along with various other useful utilities for adjusting TDP, number of active cores, etc.  Long story short, its a good board and I've been surprised by how well it performs. But its not really for overclocking. Other boards may (and will) vary. My only other suggestion would be to get an OEM board i.e. something from HP or Dell, etc, but those too wont have overclocking options and they are notorious for using non-standard pin-outs - everything from the powersupply to the front panel IO (a nightmare).