Upgrading, but is it worth it?

[Apocalypsee]

1) I have a crappy 16GB DDR3-1600 CL11 that won't do CL9 at that speed, overclocking it to 1866MHz requires 11-12-11-33, anything higher like 2133MHz requires absurd timing like 12-13-12-40 to be stable. Is it good to upgrade to 1866MHz CL9 for example?

2) Is it worth for me to upgrade to GTX 1080 for 1080p gaming? The 980Ti runs rather warm for my crap case, or should I buy better vented case instead? I'm thinking of Corsair Carbide 400C.

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

 

[basco]

just my opinion
for ram= no
are ya so unsatisfied with 980ti? which games? how hot does it get?
do ya have only the included fans=2x120\1xfront+1xrear?
there is place for 4 more fans in your nzxt 240 case

 

[Apocalypsee]

just my opinion
for ram= no
are ya so unsatisfied with 980ti? which games? how hot does it get?
do ya have only the included fans=2x120\1xfront+1xrear?
there is place for 4 more fans in your nzxt 240 case

Performance of 980Ti is great in any games I throw at since I only games at 1080p 70Hz. Problem is it dump quite a lot of heat in the case. All the fan in the case has been occupied, and all of it pointed to exhaust, one at the rear, two on the top (cooling the 240mm AIO radiator for CPU) and two at the front. I need to open up the drive bay to dump the extra heat when gaming. And this include undervolt the 980Ti by 100mV using my own custom vBIOS

 

[P4-630]

You are from Malaysia I see....
Does it still run hot if you use AC?
Or no AC available?

 

[Apocalypsee]

You are from Malaysia I see....
Does it still run hot if you use AC?
Or no AC available?

Card temperature is fine, usually hovers around 75C on stock volts, only the fanspeed vary. AC or no AC it is still the same, that's the wird part. The case fans already set to high performance profile

 

[Divide Overflow]

All the fan in the case has been occupied, and all of it pointed to exhaust, one at the rear, two on the top (cooling the 240mm AIO radiator for CPU) and two at the front.

The two front fans should not be exhausting out, they should be drawing air into your case.

 

[ERazer]

Ram=No
GTX 1080 over kill for 1080p, is the monitor high refresh rate?

Heck even my old 970 was perfect for my 144hz 1080p

 

[Flow]

Investing in a good case is the best option imo. It will last you for years to come and may carry multiple generations of cpu's.
The ram wont benefit you though. It would if you had 8GB and wanted 16GB.
I went from 4x2GB 1600mhz cas7 ram to 2x8GB 1866 cas9, and I can clock that at 2133mhz. But besides improved benchmark scores it does not give extra fps.
Games on the edge of 8GB run smoother yes, but that's about it.

So get a big case for good airflow.

Maybe one of these :
Coolermaster CM 690 III or Antec Eleven Hundred V2 or the Twelve Hundred V3

 

[Static~Charge]

Investing in a good case is the best option imo. It will last you for years to come and may carry multiple generations of cpu's.
[ snip ]
So get a big case for good airflow.

Maybe one of these :
Coolermaster CM 690 III or Antec Eleven Hundred V2 or the Twelve Hundred V3

According to his system specs, the OP has an NZXT Phantom 240 case. It has good fan support:

Front: 2 x 120mm (one included)
Top: 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm
Rear: 1 x 120mm (one included)
Bottom: 1 x 120mm

It's just an issue of locating the fans properly to get good airflow through the case. I would do two front fans (blowing air in), one rear fan (blowing air out), and one top fan (also blowing air out).

 

[Flow]

Since the op mentioned buying a better case I googled his current one, and while it would be sufficient in a mild climate, for hot environments there are certainly better cases.
But anyway, those I mentioned are bigger, thus offer more breathing room, and allow for multiple 200mm fans, while also offering the choice instead for high speed 140mm fans etc etc.
His current case is rather narrow.

On a side note, if one debates whether to trade a 980ti for a GTX1080, then I think money is not an issue.

 

[Apocalypsee]

According to his system specs, the OP has an NZXT Phantom 240 case. It has good fan support:

Front: 2 x 120mm (one included)
Top: 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm
Rear: 1 x 120mm (one included)
Bottom: 1 x 120mm

It's just an issue of locating the fans properly to get good airflow through the case. I would do two front fans (blowing air in), one rear fan (blowing air out), and one top fan (also blowing air out).

In case you didn't read my post, all the fan position has been occupied except the bottom. The two front fan is currently blowing out to the front instead of bringing air in. I could feel hot air out of it when gaming, I don't think blowing air in would make it better. All fan are 120mm size.

Since the op mentioned buying a better case I googled his current one, and while it would be sufficient in a mild climate, for hot environments there are certainly better cases.
But anyway, those I mentioned are bigger, thus offer more breathing room, and allow for multiple 200mm fans, while also offering the choice instead for high speed 140mm fans etc etc.
His current case is rather narrow.

On a side note, if one debates whether to trade a 980ti for a GTX1080, then I think money is not an issue.

Not a lot of case caught my attention, the case I use right now is simply because I'm on a really tight budget back then. I don't like bigger case though, I don't think I'll ever get another optical drive again so a case without one would be fine. Also my current 1 SSD + 2 3.5" HDD is enough for me.

 

[kn00tcn]

75 C gpu, isnt that quite nice especially for the watts it uses? i dont see any problem unless you want to reduce electricity usage or heat in your room

you didnt say what voltage the ram is, i remember people getting great overclocks on generic looking samsung ~1333mhz low voltage 1.35v ddr3 by overvolting to 1.5-1.65v (standard ddr3/intel spec, so it's not really overvolting, the original stick is actually undervolted by samsung instead)

all frequencies are arbitrary, chips are pretty much the same, they would have a range of stable frequencies at a range of stable voltages, higher frequencies require higher voltages, the user can overclock underclock overvolt undervolt to do whatever they want instead of using what the sticker officially supports

a real world example is ryzen, if you look at overclocked results of 1700 vs 1700x vs 1800x, purposely making them equal speed, you will see how the 1700 usually uses more power (output watts or required volts) than the 1800x, but they are the exact same chip... amd tests each chip, checks what voltage is required at target frequencies that marketing may have decided, the most efficient chips then get branded 1800x, this is called 'binning', gpus do the same, ram does the same, there are always fewer amounts of different chips than amounts of different models/parts

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I don't think blowing air in would make it better.

and that is where you are incorrect. Your hardware needs fresh cool air to cool it. Also, you need positive air pressure in the case for the cooling to properly work. With all fans pulling air out of the case, you do not have adequate cool air entering the case for cooling, and you also have negative air pressure in the case, also not beneficial to cooling your hardware.

 

[Apocalypsee]

75 C gpu, isnt that quite nice especially for the watts it uses? i dont see any problem unless you want to reduce electricity usage or heat in your room

you didnt say what voltage the ram is, i remember people getting great overclocks on generic looking samsung ~1333mhz low voltage 1.35v ddr3 by overvolting to 1.5-1.65v (standard ddr3/intel spec, so it's not really overvolting, the original stick is actually undervolted by samsung instead)

Yep 75C is a nice temps for 8 billion transistor chips working at 1.35GHz speeds. Only thing is the excess heat it dumps to the case. Although the reference cooling is noisy but it dumps heat out of the case. Thankfully the SC+ fan is very quiet.

My RAM voltage is stock 1.5V, I'll try to play around with voltage and see if there's any difference or not. I've tried upping to 1.6V and the timing dropped slightly to 11-11-11-30 at 1866MHz

and that is where you are incorrect. Your hardware needs fresh cool air to cool it. Also, you need positive air pressure in the case for the cooling to properly work. With all fans pulling air out of the case, you do not have adequate cool air entering the case for cooling, and you also have negative air pressure in the case, also not beneficial to cooling your hardware.

It's just my theory that put everything to exhaust to remove all the heat.

A quick reversing the fan really did made the difference, the ambient case temps is much lower now. Thanks for that Only thing I didn't like is the amount of dust it will gather. I need to buy dust filter for it. Looks like I don't need to upgrade after all.

 

[Static~Charge]

It's just my theory that put everything to exhaust to remove all the heat.

A quick reversing the fan really did made the difference, the ambient case temps is much lower now. Thanks for that Only thing I didn't like is the amount of dust it will gather. I need to buy dust filter for it. Looks like I don't need to upgrade after all.

You overlooked one little detail: With all fans on exhaust, where will the fresh air come from? It has to get in the case somehow, and all of the easy entrances are blocked by exhaust fans.
With the front fans on "in" and the rear & top fans on "out", you got lots of fresh air, and the temp dropped noticeably. Air flow is the name of the game.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Yep 75C is a nice temps for 8 billion transistor chips working at 1.35GHz speeds. Only thing is the excess heat it dumps to the case. Although the reference cooling is noisy but it dumps heat out of the case. Thankfully the SC+ fan is very quiet.

My RAM voltage is stock 1.5V, I'll try to play around with voltage and see if there's any difference or not. I've tried upping to 1.6V and the timing dropped slightly to 11-11-11-30 at 1866MHz

It's just my theory that put everything to exhaust to remove all the heat.

A quick reversing the fan really did made the difference, the ambient case temps is much lower now. Thanks for that Only thing I didn't like is the amount of dust it will gather. I need to buy dust filter for it. Looks like I don't need to upgrade after all.

your welcome