New Intel i7 3930K

All I can say is...WOW!!!

My Q6600 @ 3.3GHz has served me well, and I definitely expected some performance improvements from this CPU, but I wasn't expecting this! With 6 physical cores and hyperthreading, this thing is a beast. The Asus motherboard made overclocking this thing idiot proof. I'm ashamed to say that this is the first complex UEFI BIOS that I have worked with, and not knowing any better I selected "Fast" in the initial BIOS settings on knowing what it would really do. Without more than a single click the board overclocked the CPU to 3.93GHz. I haven't even begun to explore manual overclocking, which I'm guessing could push this beast into the 4.2GHz range without much work; VCore is only at 1.28 volts to support this!

I bought late enough to get the C2 revision. Was it expensive? Yes! Even with the $30 off at Newegg I still paid $570. Was it worth it? Yes! It took awhile because I was doing a pay-as-you-go rather than putting it all on the CC, but I am definitely pleased.

The Intel i7 3930K gets a big +1!!! :D

When I'd first gotten my 3960X, I was amazed at its performance, blew away my X9650 @3.8ghz. The UEFI BIOS was pretty new to me too, never seen one where you can use your mouse before. When I'd first tinkered with AI Suite II, I clicked on CPU Level Up and chose 4.25ghz....restarted and my CPU was cruising @4.25ghz, just like that! I'd left it alone since because, honestly, even at stock speed, this CPU performs incredibly fast. With my AC on (ambient temp's about 25C, it idles at 25C with load temp not exceeding 40C I believe). The X79 chipset is amazing, isn't it? Feature rich and user friendly...and as you've said, OCing is idiot proof. I chose the Rampage IV Extreme because I'm an Asus man, and wanted to try an ROG board once....from now on, I'd be buying an ROG board whenever I upgrade.

BTW, Un4, welcome to the LGA2011 club, where all the cool dudes hang out.....pffft to all those LGA1155 users! Buncha Plebians! :p :D *ducks for cover*

I wish I could roll with the big boys, but I just dropped 500 on a 680. I'm eying the 3770k, but will probably wait for Haswell to upgrade my 2500k that is at 4.4Ghz daily.

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Originally Posted by mikeysg

When I'd first gotten my 3960X, I was amazed at its performance, blew away my X9650 @3.8ghz. The UEFI BIOS was pretty new to me too, never seen one where you can use your mouse before. When I'd first tinkered with AI Suite II, I clicked on CPU Level Up and chose 4.25ghz....restarted and my CPU was cruising @4.25ghz, just like that! I'd left it alone since because, honestly, even at stock speed, this CPU performs incredibly fast. With my AC on (ambient temp's about 25C, it idles at 25C with load temp not exceeding 40C I believe). The X79 chipset is amazing, isn't it? Feature rich and user friendly...and as you've said, OCing is idiot proof. I chose the Rampage IV Extreme because I'm an Asus man, and wanted to try an ROG board once....from now on, I'd be buying an ROG board whenever I upgrade.

BTW, Un4, welcome to the LGA2011 club, where all the cool dudes hang out.....pffft to all those LGA1155 users! Buncha Plebians! :p :D *ducks for cover*

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I've never been an Intel or AMD fanboi. I've always bought what I thought would serve me best for the money spent. All I can is you are absolutely right. The new Intel chips are fast and run cooler. Even with all those cores overclocked that high, my max temp to this point was 61C, and that was with 8 instances of SETI running on the CPU, and Milkyway/Collatz running on the video card. Yes, the chipset supports many features, and Asus has made us old school overclockers look like a bunch of poo flinging chimps. :D

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

I wish I could roll with the big boys, but I just dropped 500 on a 680. I'm eying the 3770k, but will probably wait for Haswell to upgrade my 2500k that is at 4.4Ghz daily.

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That's not necessarily a bad thing. I still game when I can, but I've been more into the BOINC processing, rather than gaming. As such, the CPU did more for me than a GPU upgrade. My next upgrade will likely be the video card. Again, this has been a much longer than normal cycle for me. I've had this video card for 18 months. The CPU was like 5 years.

In my old age ( :D ) I have been working more towards putting money into my savings account and upping my 401K contributions. I still likes my computers, gaming, women, and drinking, I just can't do all of it as much as I used to. I'll leave it to you younger fellas to pick up the slack. :p

LMAO! :D (at 'a bunch of poo flinging chimps' comment)

Actually, things have come a long way, even AMD CPU's are waaay easy to OC, especially with these newer chipsets. My 3rd rig, FX4100 BE + Asus M5A97 EVO OC just as easily. I went to the UEFI BIOS and level up my CPU, it's now @4.2ghz and spanks all the games I've thrown at it.

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Originally Posted by mikeysg

LMAO! :D (at 'a bunch of poo flinging chimps' comment)

Actually, things have come a long way, even AMD CPU's are waaay easy to OC, especially with these newer chipsets. My 3rd rig, FX4100 BE + Asus M5A97 EVO OC just as easily. I went to the UEFI BIOS and level up my CPU, it's now @4.2ghz and spanks all the games I've thrown at it.

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Seriously, think about all the tweaking we used to do. We didn't have AGP or PCI clocks that were independent of the CPU clock. These were all things we had to consider when overclocking. Now they are clock independent. The youngsters today don't know how good they have it! :D

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Originally Posted by Un4given

Seriously, think about all the tweaking we used to do. We didn't have AGP or PCI clocks that were independent of the CPU clock. These were all things we had to consider when overclocking. Now they are clock independent. The youngsters today don't know how good they have it! :D

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Yeah, I recall the good ole days when I was the third shark to crack 20k in 3DMark 01, it was with my AXP 2800+ Barton Oc'ed with a 9700Pro or 9800Pro, man, I was sweating bullets. Vert was urging me on.....I was just under 20k, but with some tips from vert, I made it. The easy OC on these newer chipsets kinda takes the challenge/fun outta the equation, but in my older age, I ain't complainin' none.:D

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

I wish I could roll with the big boys, but I just dropped 500 on a 680. I'm eying the 3770k, but will probably wait for Haswell to upgrade my 2500k that is at 4.4Ghz daily.

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If you have a 2500K/2600K or higher, don't bother. Performance gain from SB to IB isn't by much, better Integrated gfx and power consumption.....but no substantial performance gain.

Edit - That's one of the reasons why I went SB-E, so that I'd not feel a need to upgrade to IB.;)

At the moment I'm finding the i7 3930K disappointing, upgrading from an i7 940. I knew that not all software could benefit from the 12 threads but had hoped that the video software I was using which boasted about its support for multi-core rendering (it even has the cpu graphics in the main application window) would be able to use the additional resources. However that one was maxing out at 20%, another I'm trying is barely hitting 30%, I've yet to try the video editing software I normally use but so far the extra cores seem to be wasted. The processor is faster than the older Nehalem processor but I'm starting to think I should have gone with Sandybridge or not upgraded.

I've only had the machine a week though so hoping to be proved wrong.

John

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Originally Posted by mikeysg

If you have a 2500K/2600K or higher, don't bother. Performance gain from SB to IB isn't by much, better Integrated gfx and power consumption.....but no substantial performance gain.

Edit - That's one of the reasons why I went SB-E, so that I'd not feel a need to upgrade to IB.;)

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The main reason wasn't for the performance gain but functionality. I was short sighted and bought a budget motherboard when I bought the 2500k. It only has 2 USB 3.0 plugs on the back and it isn't a very stable overclocker. I'm just in a strange place for upgrading. It isn't often when the CPU is fine but the motherboard is lacking. If Ivy wasn't the marginal upgrade over sandy that it proved to be, it would be much easier to justify the switch to a Z77 board.

Oh well, maybe Piledriver will be interesting :)

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Originally Posted by Johnmcl7

At the moment I'm finding the i7 3930K disappointing, upgrading from an i7 940. I knew that not all software could benefit from the 12 threads but had hoped that the video software I was using which boasted about its support for multi-core rendering (it even has the cpu graphics in the main application window) would be able to use the additional resources. However that one was maxing out at 20%, another I'm trying is barely hitting 30%, I've yet to try the video editing software I normally use but so far the extra cores seem to be wasted. The processor is faster than the older Nehalem processor but I'm starting to think I should have gone with Sandybridge or not upgraded.

I've only had the machine a week though so hoping to be proved wrong.

John

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Yeah, I could see being disappointed when you expected more from a multithreaded application. From my Q6600 though, I've found the upgrade to be significant, although I haven't tried any of my video editing software yet.

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

The main reason wasn't for the performance gain but functionality. I was short sighted and bought a budget motherboard when I bought the 2500k. It only has 2 USB 3.0 plugs on the back and it isn't a very stable overclocker. I'm just in a strange place for upgrading. It isn't often when the CPU is fine but the motherboard is lacking. If Ivy wasn't the marginal upgrade over sandy that it proved to be, it would be much easier to justify the switch to a Z77 board.

Oh well, maybe Piledriver will be interesting :)

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Yeah, I had noted the Biostar mobo in your sig, not exactly tier 1 mobo maker I must say. Stark contrast with the GTX680 I might add, should you be looking for a new mobo, look at Asus, I was won over by Asus years back....my P5E has been with me for years and, with the HD6970, is my 2nd rig. This Asus M5A97 EVO has two USB3.0 ports at he back, plus a header for front panel USB3.0, only snag is, my dated Mozart tx case has no such port. Good OCer as well, upped my FX4100 to 4.2ghz using the UEFI BIOS just like that. Just installed Asus AI Suite II, I find options for Fast and Extreme OCing.:eek: I have heard good things about MSI and Gigabyte mobos as well.

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Originally Posted by mikeysg

Yeah, I had noted the Biostar mobo in your sig, not exactly tier 1 mobo maker I must say. Stark contrast with the GTX680 I might add, should you be looking for a new mobo, look at Asus, I was won over by Asus years back....my P5E has been with me for years and, with the HD6970, is my 2nd rig. This Asus M5A97 EVO has two USB3.0 ports at he back, plus a header for front panel USB3.0, only snag is, my dated Mozart tx case has no such port. Good OCer as well, upped my FX4100 to 4.2ghz using the UEFI BIOS just like that. Just installed Asus AI Suite II, I find options for Fast and Extreme OCing.:eek: I have heard good things about MSI and Gigabyte mobos as well.

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I was actually looking at the MSI Big Bang II board, due to all the rave reviews. Problem was everyone was out of stock, and had been for some time. I finally decided on the P9X79 Pro, and I'm not disappointed in the least. I've heard many say that dealing with Asus on an RMA can be a nightmare, but to date, I've never had a bad/DOA/problem board with any Asus I've purchased.

One thing I really like about this board is the BIOS flashing capability. This board has their new flash option that allows me to flash the BIOS with a USB thumb drive, w/out the need for a CPU. This is absolutely awesome for those of us that may change hardware frequently, especially when you need to update a BIOS for microcode when installing a new CPU.

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Originally Posted by Un4given

I was actually looking at the MSI Big Bang II board, due to all the rave reviews. Problem was everyone was out of stock, and had been for some time. I finally decided on the P9X79 Pro, and I'm not disappointed in the least. I've heard many say that dealing with Asus on an RMA can be a nightmare, but to date, I've never had a bad/DOA/problem board with any Asus I've purchased.

One thing I really like about this board is the BIOS flashing capability. This board has their new flash option that allows me to flash the BIOS with a USB thumb drive, w/out the need for a CPU. This is absolutely awesome for those of us that may change hardware frequently, especially when you need to update a BIOS for microcode when installing a new CPU.

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I dunno about you guys, but I usually break out in a cold sweat whenever I flash the BIOS. But the R4E, it's a cinch......maybe I haven't upgraded in years, and this has become standard, but I was always afraid something would go wrong. Not with this mobo, there's a backup BIOS should the flash not take. Also, when I decided to upgrade, I figured I might as well go big and get the best that was available then. That's why, when I was deciding between LGA1155 and LGA2011, I concluded that should I go SB-E, I would not feel the need to go IB. The LGA2011 socket is unique for now, and the mobos, even entry level ones, are feature rich and generally well-made.

John, Un4 and I upgraded from LGA775 C2Q, and we'd skipped LGA1366/1156 and even LGA1155, so going LGA2011 was one hella leap for us. Little wonder we'd notice the bump in speed....

I didn't think you ever skipped anything Mikey?! I can certainly see the upgrade being a big one from the C2Q's as even up to the first generation i7's was a decent upgrade. It does make my C2D 3ghz laptop seem even further behind but as the rest of its hardware is still very good I can't yet replace it.

John

I was looking at this Intel roadmap:

http://www.sharkyforums.com/images/i...2012/05/13.jpg

It has me thinking a 3930k is a pretty good purchase to last many years. It looks like it will be the high end enthusiast option for at least another year, possible two years since Ivy Bridge E was put on ice. Haswell-E wouldn't come out until Q1 2014 IMO.

I might have to give myself a graduation present :) :) Then again a 3770k matches the 3930k at pretty much everything I'd use it for. I do not encode MP3's or use handbrake often. ;)

I'm also curious to see what Pile Driver does for AMD. If it matches Ivy performance, then I would go with that just for something different.

Yep, looking at the roadmap more or less confirmed my choice of CPU was the right one for me. I wanted my CPU to be the top end choice for a year at oeast, and from the looks of it, it is gonna stay top end for another year at least. If you recall my thread about upgrading,nI was torn between the LGA2011 & LGA1155 platforms, but I decided to go big with the 3960X since the 3930K was in short supply......I could have waited, but playing the waiting game isn't my forte. Had I gone LGA1155, I may be itching to go IB now, so.....I guess I had made the right choice.

Edit - Btw, john, I have been known to skip a generation or two......but when I do upgrade, I go for broke. My last Intel upgrade was the X9650, and it cost me a pretty penny too. The FX4100 BE was a necessary, but fun, upgrade since Q6600 decided to go to cpu heaven. These newer gen CPUs and mobos are simply kickbutt in terms of features and OCability.

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Originally Posted by mikeysg

I dunno about you guys, but I usually break out in a cold sweat whenever I flash the BIOS.

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I always did too until I went with ASUS bios flashes in the bios and with all my machines on big UPSs I hardly think about it anymore, although now I've probably cursed myself. :eek: