Qubit finally upgrades his CPU!

[FreedomEclipse]

Like i said - if it hits 4ghz, its a keeper if not - ring up your solicitor

[qubit]

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

Like i said - if it hits 4ghz, its a keeper if not - ring up your solicitor

But it's nearly 4GHz, only 200 little megahurtz short...

And I might be able to massage it a little more if I try harder, although it's probably not worth the pain for the gain.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by qubit

But it's nearly 4GHz, only 200 little megahurtz short...

And I might be able to massage it a little more if I try harder, although it's probably not worth the pain for the gain.

Ah - its the Old C1 stepping, you'l be lucky to hit 4ghz with that chip. not saying its impossible, just saying its a lot harder for that chip to pull it off. but you still got a good mobo so there could be still hope.

crank the multi to 8.5x and lets go!!

[mastrdrver]

Yea for a C1 that's quite impressive.

Also need to get off the 8.0 multiplier. 8.5 is better then 8.0 and might get better voltage because of it.

FYI: For stability testing use LinX or IBT. The closer the GFlops are from one pass to the next the closer you are to the GTLs for the FSB you're testing.

[FreedomEclipse]

AND if you do kill it in the process of overclocking - Just send it back and tell them it was DoA

[Ev1LrYu]

Originally Posted by FreedomEclipse

AND if you do kill it in the process of overclocking - Just send it back and tell them it was DoA

But then wouldn't he have to kill us cuz we noes ze truuth?

[qubit]

The old C1 stepping - great. I saw it was C1, but didn't know what the latest was. I guess E0 is the latest, like on my E8500?

The major fixes from C1 to E0 stepping for that chip are:

AV37. Performance Monitoring Event IA32_FIXED_CTR2 May Not Function Properly when Max Ratio is a Non-Integer Core-to-Bus Ratio
AV41. VM Exit with Exit Reason “TPR Below Threshold” Can Cause the Blocking by MOV/POP SS and Blocking by STI Bits to be Cleared in the Guest Interruptibility-State Field
AV44. NMIs May Not Be Blocked by a VM-Entry Failure
AV45. Partial Streaming Load Instruction Sequence May Cause the Processor to Hang
AV46. Self/Cross Modifying Code May Not be Detected or May Cause a Machine Check Exception
AV47. Data TLB Eviction Condition in the Middle of a Cacheline Split Load Operation May Cause the Processor to Hang
AV49. RSM Instruction Execution under Certain Conditions May Cause Processor Hang or Unexpected Instruction Execution Results

Seems quite a lot, doesn't it? General stability with E0 seems better, doesn't it?

I did have the multiplier at 8.5 and hit 4GHz, but while it would POST, it wouldn't boot into Windows at that speed. It seems it doesn't mind a higher FSB. I tried upping the core voltage, but it didn't help with the clock speed. I suspect that it either won't go any higher, or some of the other voltages and timings would have to be adjusted very carefully. Again, not worth the time and effort I don't think.

That 5:6 FSB:RAM ratio doesn't seem optimal. I'll have to play with that, as I have very fast DDR2.

Shit, I'm still undecided what to do with it.

[FreedomEclipse]

up the NB voltage

[qubit]

Thanks, I'll try when I get home tonight.

[FreedomEclipse]

the highest id go to is 1.4v on the NB. but if you gots active cooling then you can do 1.45 or 1.5. but then this is what i gots on my P5Q Pro

[qubit]

I set my PC to switch on at 4pm every day, but when I got home today, I was greeted with a blue screen.

Been mulling this all day and I was leaning towards returning it, so this has pushed me over the edge and it's going back.

I've written out the webnote on the Overclockers website now, going straight for a complaint and didn't mince my words about it being second hand.

Once again, thanks for all your advice people. This is why TPU rocks.

[qubit]

Ok people, I finally got my refund - in two parts.

Overclockers acknowledged receipt of the CPU and processed the refund within a couple of days. But of course, they conveniently forgot to include the shipping costs both ways, like they always do. In fact they do this regardless of whether they get email and telephone reminders (and the fact that I was fraudulently sold a used CPU) which they did this time. One always has to remind them after they've processed the bloody refund, to add the shipping costs.

Bastards.

So yeah, I had to remind them today to pay the shipping money too, over £15 of it. I've had a reply that they're processing it. Finally, this damned saga is over.

[mstenholm]

You are not the only one that got f..k by them, but we are not allowed to say that in this forum.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by mstenholm

You are not the only one that got f..k by them, but we are not allowed to say that in this forum.

You actually can use naughty words here, if it's not gratuitous or used to attack another member and it's to emphasize how you feel about something - there was a little poll about it a while back.

Just another of those little things that make this forum great compared to others.

[mstenholm]

You might be right, you have been here longer that me. The fact still stands....you+me plus others are not so please about how "they" handle returns.

[qubit]

Yup, +1 And they get away with it, because Trading Standards are so damned useless in this country.

Overclockers dirty tricks are the reason that I only ever buy one-off end of line or b-grade specials that interest me.

For example, I've got 8800 GTX & 8800 Ultra graphics card from them cheaply, both as b-grades to play with, in 2008 & 2009. Couldn't get these from anywhere else, so I reluctantly gave them my money.

At least the cards work fine. In fact, all their b-grades have worked without trouble, which is something.

[FreedomEclipse]

Originally Posted by qubit

You actually can use naughty words here, if it's not gratuitous or used to attack another member and it's to emphasize how you feel about something

Just another of those little things that make this forum great compared to others.

Within reason - Dont forget there are kids that view these forums also as well as parents that have children that view the forum with their children.

Otherwise Krej will make shit go bump in the night and you'l wake up with your head a few meters apart from your body most likely with a mouth full of dirt from him slamming your head down like a rugby/american football ball player at the touchline.

[qubit]

Freedom, by using said naughty word, in said reasonable manner, you've just illustrated exactly what I said!

[Corduroy_Jr]

just my 2 cents going from a dual to a quad is a huge upgrade, i would take quad at 3.8 to a dual 4.1ghz any day

[pantherx12]

i5 set up now?

Or x6 amd setup? ooooh choices!

If you go AMD I actually reccomend ASrock these days, cheap as hell, but keep the important bits decent so you can overclock nicely with them .

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Corduroy_Jr

just my 2 cents going from a dual to a quad is a huge upgrade, i would take quad at 3.8 to a dual 4.1ghz any day

Well, there's yes and no to that one. If you do stuff that really uses those four cores, such as video transcribing, then you'll really feel the performance benefit. But you wouldn't have wanted the Q9550 I got, see below.

For my usage however, it makes hardly any difference - tried it and Windows felt the same. My PC spends most of its time at the desktop doing internet and email and only occasionally* some gaming, where a higher clock speed is of much more benefit.

Also, I don't know if you read the whole thread, but these were the reasons why I insisted on returning it:

- I was sold a used CPU as new. This is fraud. I wouldn't accept it on this alone
- It was the old stepping, which didn't clock as high and had various significant bugs in it
- I could only overclock it reliably to 3.68GHz

*My version of "occasionally" means modern FPS games played intensely for a couple of weeks or so at high quality settings, requiring a powerful PC and then not going back to it again for ages.

[zhadlp]

If it was me I'd returned it as well...

I might downgrade again soon, just switched from an i3 530 @ 4.5GHz to an i7 clocked at a similar frequency (4.4GHz), didn't really feel any boost in performance, and the only thing I do with my PC is occasional gaming, so I'm really doubting the fact that I need an i7, might just re-install the i3 any day now...

[mastrdrver]

Originally Posted by qubit

Also, I don't know if you read the whole thread, but these were the reasons why I insisted on returning it:

- I was sold a used CPU as new. This is fraud. I wouldn't accept it on this alone
- It was the old stepping, which didn't clock as high and had various significant bugs in it
- I could only overclock it reliably to 3.68GHz

In passing I just want to mention this real quick even though I know it wasn't the sole reason you returned the cpu:

Every microprocessor (that covers cpu, gpu, cell, arm, etc) all have bugs. There is not a single microprocessor that does not have "bugs" as it is impossible. The difference between the errata bugs in production microprocessors and errata bugs in preproduction microprocessors is the former have bugs that are unlikely to be encountered in real life use. As such just because a microprocessor has a bug and some later stepping has less, others of a same amount, or more overall should not be the basis for not buying a microprocessor.

[qubit]

BTW people, that dodgy CPU appeared in the same clearance section again a few days later, with the same "OEM" description and was sold within a couple of days. Definitely a case of fraud if ever there was one.

Such a shame that they can get away with this.

[FreedomEclipse]

should have kept the CPU and taken them to court instead - get paid £900 in damages for emotional distress and hurt feelings and you could probably have enough for a top sandy bridge i7 and a 6990 to boot (when that gpu finaly comes out)