Old AMD Rebuild

[Troika]

Ok, so, let me state up front that I'm not intending this to be some ultra high end top tier 4k machine or anything like that. I have most of the parts already, I just want to optimize it the best I can. This computer is intended to be a backup/guest machine.

 

As it stands, here's the current parts list that I have for it with the components I'm still looking to aquire.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Troika/saved/k9pnnQ

 

My plan for the build, as it stands, is to overclock the 940 to 3.6~3.8Ghz. Originally, I wanted to get to 4Ghz but from what I've red, its not particularly likely to get a 940 that high. I know it'll probably bottleneck the 570 sli but it'll probably perform, not on every game, better than a single 570.

 

All that being said, here's some changes that I've come across that may or may not be reasonable.

 

I have a lead on a Phenom II 1090T that I may be able to get a hold of. If I can get it for a good deal, I'll probably swap the 940 for that, lessening the impact of the bottleneck and improving overall performance somewhat. I've seen reviews that a 1090T could hit 4Ghz, provided adequate cooling and component quality.

 

That brings me to my second change. The CM hyper 212 evo with good airflow may be enough to keep a 940 cool enough but I think it may struggle to cool a 1090T under full load to prevent thermal throttling. Would it be better to go straight to a good 240/280mm aio or is there a good air cooler that's a better value than something than say, a corsair H100. I know Noctua makes some pretty good coolers so recommendations would be very welcome.

 

Next is the case, this is probably more of asthetic preferance but maybe there's better airflow with this one. I found a Corsair Carbide 300R for $40. The seller is local and is including a blu ray writer. I don't particularly want the drive so maybe I could get the price down a bit more but its still not a bad deal. I think I remember seeing 300Rs go for about $80 new.

 

Last is ram. I have 8GBs of DDR2 800Mhz but I found a fairly reasonable looking seller on ebay, who also accepts returns, that's selling 4GB (2×2GB) kits of 1066Mhz DDR2 ram. They're G.Skill kits with the model tag F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK. They're listed at $34.99 a kit with free shipping. Is it work using the higher speed ram or is there no real difference between 800mhz and 1066mhz or would the difference be in stability of the overclock?

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, Troika said:

That brings me to my second change. The CM hyper 212 evo with good airflow may be enough to keep a 940 cool enough but I think it may struggle to cool a 1090T under full load to prevent thermal throttling. Would it be better to go straight to a good 240/280mm aio or is there a good air cooler that's a better value than something than say, a corsair H100. I know Noctua makes some pretty good coolers so recommendations would be very welcome.

The Hyper 212 EVO is very low performance for its market segment. It's only popular because, well because people see it be popular and blind-recommend it to other people

 

Here are some options that are higher performance:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jK8H99/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h5universal

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hJFPxr/deepcool-cpu-cooler-gammaxx400

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6Rfp99/raijintek-cpu-cooler-0p105250

 

The gammaxx even costs $13 after rebate. You can swap the fan if you don't like it. In terms of performance, it traded blows with the $60 Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim in tomshardware's review.

[Herman Mcpootis]

11 minutes ago, Troika said:

I have a lead on a Phenom II 1090T that I may be able to get a hold of. If I can get it for a good deal, I'll probably swap the 940 for that, lessening the impact of the bottleneck and improving overall performance somewhat. I've seen reviews that a 1090T could hit 4Ghz, provided adequate cooling and component quality.

 

That brings me to my second change. The CM hyper 212 evo with good airflow may be enough to keep a 940 cool enough but I think it may struggle to cool a 1090T under full load to prevent thermal throttling. Would it be better to go straight to a good 240/280mm aio or is there a good air cooler that's a better value than something than say, a corsair H100. I know Noctua makes some pretty good coolers so recommendations would be very welcome.

 

Last is ram. I have 8GBs of DDR2 800Mhz but I found a fairly reasonable looking seller on ebay, who also accepts returns, that's selling 4GB (2×2GB) kits of 1066Mhz DDR2 ram. They're G.Skill kits with the model tag F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK. They're listed at $34.99 a kit with free shipping. Is it work using the higher speed ram or is there no real difference between 800mhz and 1066mhz or would the difference be in stability of the overclock?

you'll see a small improvement, but i'd look for 4gb ddr2 sticks instead. AMD 4gb sticks are dirt cheap and should work just fine with the cpu+mobo you have. the 212 evo sucks for the price TBH, if you can spend abit more i'd get an enermax T50 or reeven justice instead.

 

7 minutes ago, Energycore said:

The Hyper 212 EVO is very low performance for its market segment. It's only popular because, well because people see it be popular and blind-recommend it to other people

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-AIDOS-K&c=CJ same performance and smaller for 10 bucks

$20 more for the same performance is just embarrasing, the 212 evo...

[Energycore]

9 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-AIDOS-K&c=CJ same performance and smaller for 10 bucks

$20 more for the same performance is just embarrasing, the 212 evo...

To be precise, the Aidos was 99% of the 212 EVO's performance in TPU's review. Whatever 99% means.

[Sharky23]

I've got a Phenom II 1075T with a Hyper 212 EVO on it and can tell you that under heavy loads it won't keep up.  I made the mistake of trying to run Plex on it and transcodes brought it crashing down regularly.  That cooler just can't dissipate enough heat.

[Herman Mcpootis]

18 minutes ago, Energycore said:

To be precise, the Aidos was 99% of the 212 EVO's performance in TPU's review. Whatever 99% means.

TPU says 1% better than the 212, though i doubt you'll ever notice 1%. amazing how everyone still goes gaga over the hyper 212s and borderline worship it...

[Troika]

42 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

you'll see a small improvement, but i'd look for 4gb ddr2 sticks instead. AMD 4gb sticks are dirt cheap and should work just fine with the cpu+mobo you have

Asus' spec sheet for the crosshair II says it only supports 8GB max so using 4Gb dimms are probably not compatible. Their supported ram list reflects that since no single 4Gb dimms are listed as compatible.

[Troika]

Based on everyone's comments that the hyper 212 isn't a particularly robust cooler, I think I feel better about going with a liquid cooler instead just to make sure I can keep temps low. I'm still not 100% though. I remember seeing Linus doing a air vs liquid cooling on LTT and showed that good air coolers vs lower end liquid coolers were both cheaper and performed as well or even better than liquid cooling. I can't remember what coolers were tested but the liquid coolers were definitely corsairs but I think the air coolers were noctuas but that's only because I remember them having brown fans and noctua is the only air coller brand that uses brown fans, to my knowledge.

[Troika]

I found the video, the best performing Noctua cooler they used to cool a threadripper was the Noctua NH-U14S and according to thier website, its am2+ compatible. Though, I started checking out some reviews on it and while it did perform very well, the NH-D15 out performed it but when I looked for reviews on that, I found another one that I've never heard of that outperformed that one.

 

http://www.reeven.com/okeanos-rc-1402

 

Its also am2+ compatible. Thoughts?

[Herman Mcpootis]

4 hours ago, Troika said:

I found the video, the best performing Noctua cooler they used to cool a threadripper was the Noctua NH-U14S and according to thier website, its am2+ compatible. Though, I started checking out some reviews on it and while it did perform very well, the NH-D15 out performed it but when I looked for reviews on that, I found another one that I've never heard of that outperformed that one.

 

http://www.reeven.com/okeanos-rc-1402

 

Its also am2+ compatible. Thoughts?

the justice isn't much worse but much cheaper, go with the D15(or another cooler if you think the fan colors suck) instead or the justice to save some money.