I've been 'smacked over' by Intel's latest Extreme Hardware!
This past weekend I was able to upgrade my home PC with the latest in Intel hardware - wow I love this stuff!
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO (Smackover) - cool demo
Processor: Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Processor (3.2GHz)
SSD: Intel X25-M (80GB) Solid State Drive (SSD)
The whole process took me a couple of hours, and I’ll most likely be tweaking a bit more over the next week or so. Here are a few photos to show the build-up over the weekend.
This is all of the stuff that I was preparing to upgrade with, lots of stuff comes with the Smackover board - cables, IOH fan, drivers, games, etc. I already had the case, PSU, SSD, Video Card, spindle hard drive, DVD/RW from my previous PC.
Here’s a cool little note card that comes along with the DX58SO board:
The proverbial “Bone Trail” skull informing you of the need for Intel SSD goodness for your high-end gaming needs!
Here is the motherboard, with the XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler installed - I love it, quiet and cool! The nice thing is that I could re-use this from my previous Socket-775 build by purchasing a new socket 1366 adapter so it’s firmly mounted to the motherboard will a full bracket setup. Here’s everything mounted in the case, and about 90% completed (don’t mind the cabling mess!).
Note that with this aftermarket cooler mounted, that it presses directly up against the DDR3 heat spreaders in the 2nd slot. A 4th stick of RAM (if needed) wouldn’t fit without modification to the hardware. Also, the 40mm fan on the IOH is a bit noisy (for my taste), but appreciated in this setup. It does have a blue LED inside it - so the light is dispersed throughout the case (see below) and it does give a neat ‘glow’ look with all the mesh, etc
I got everything somewhat wire managed into my Antec 300 Case and I have 3 active 120mm case fans right now (1 pull & 2 push). I like this case because it has lots of air flow for cooling, and is nearly as quiet as my old Antec P182 case. It’s just a bit smaller.
I’ve done ‘bling’ cases in the past, but I like a more subdued, clean look right now - a bit of a sleeper! I’m sure I’ll be building something different the next PC build that comes along.
I plugged everything in, powered-up the system and set the BIOS to defaults. I had to modify the SATA config to use AHCI (like my previous build) - and Vista x64 booted! I had to load the latest chipset, audio, LAN drivers - and after a few more reboots - my OS was running. Woohoo! No OS rebuild required!
So what does all this stuff amount to? As I mentioned previously, I usually have a ton of processes (actually 91) running on my system and I’ve uploaded a pic that shows the difference between the ‘then’ and ‘now’. My older Core 2 Quad on the left, and the new Core i7 Extreme setup on the right…
This shows my average usage on my PC - albeit, I do run some ‘extreme’ workloads on a daily basis. Lots of things are everyday apps - i.e. iTunes apps, virus scanner, adware watchers, standard windows overhead stuff - but I also have some higher-end scientific computing tasks (i.e. BOINC) running 24x7.
A few things to note:
- Memory increased to 6GB (versus 4GB) 50% increase
- CPU Thread increase to 8 threads (versus 4) 100% increase
The addition of the extra threads gives me the equivalent of 2 ‘free’ CPU’s under 75% load. And if I turn off my high-end computations this board/cpu combo will take anything that I throw at it! The SSD feeds data at amazing rates, and there’s no heat!
I’ve also noticed a temperature decrease from about 32C to around 24C on the CPU -using a tool called SpeedFan which checks temperature/fan speed sensors. I have to admit, I haven’t tuned the application for the new board yet - but it seems to be working just fine. I will most likely try out the Intel® Desktop Control Center Beta (with Manual Tuning) for DX58SO since it’s a specialized build for this board.
I did fire up Team Fortress 2 last night (not a box burner game, but hey I love it!) and everything ran great! 1920x1200 video goodness at amazing frame rates! The best part was that I didn’t have to disable any processes for the game to run smoothly!
I’m into First-Person Shooters and I definitely have a handful of games on the plate to try out next:
- Far Cry 2 - I haven’t finished this game yet!
- Fallout3 - the post Armageddon version of Oblivion ;)
- Crysis Wars - the multiplayer add-on for Crysis: Warhead
- Left 4 Dead - zombies! Who doesn’t love them!?
- F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin - Alma scared me last time… -
So who’s up for some games? Give me some recommendations!
Also, I’m working on an Intel Atom project for an upcoming blog!
P.S. It looks like I do have adequate space to add a 2nd GTX260 (as many of you have suggested from my last blog) - so if the State of California gets me my tax refund, I just may go for an SLI setup so I can keep this Extreme CPU fed with loads of fun!
Post Your Comment
Comment Policy: We welcome your comments, however all comments are moderated. Offensive, off-topic or fraudulent comments will be deleted and not displayed. By submitting a comment to an Intel Blog, you agree to our legal information and privacy policy terms, including having your name displayed with your comment and that you are 13 years old or older. Your name and personal information will not be used for any other purpose, and your e-mail address will not be published.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intel. All Intel names and trademarks are the property of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Comments
Feb 23 | Shane said:
Very nice system! Im using the Dual Core2 Extreme "skulltrail" system, but mine isnt really built for gaming, but rather 3D and animation.
The only game I have installed currently is Left 4 Dead. First person shooter through a city of zombies.
Feb 23 | Todd Christ said:
Very cool Shane! I always wanted a Skulltrail! I bet you get some pretty stellar compute cycles. I can't wait to tweak a bit more on my Core i7 - who knows what this machine is capable of!?
Feb 23 | Jason said:
Nice post and nice setup! I'm still very happy with my E6600 @ 3.0ghz. I'll upgrade when W7 comes out.
Sep 24 | Michael said:
How about giving some useful information instead of a shameless intel plug. Actual useful info wold be nice, like what kind of ram would make best utilisation of the cpu or how far the 850w(?) power supply will stretch with the given hardware.
Sep 24 | Lee Urban said:
Holy cow, are you going for Quad SLI and will there be enough room in your box for that? Because if you're going to go over the top on gaming you might as well put in a 2nd graphics card ...
I need to upgrade my media PC to include a blu ray player and I'm already 100% sure the current single core won't do it. Since you're the guru, can you help me spec out the most cost effective way of doing this? Someone told me to get a N-2 generation Xeon DP as this would work better than the latest i7 system with good graphics card. You can email me your thoughts :)
Sep 24 | Todd Christ said:
Hi Michael - to answer your RAM question, since the Core i7 with/X58 setup runs best with a fully populated tri-channel memory setup - I chose to use 1600MHz DDR3 DIMMS to best match the processor (Core i7 965). 3GB was too little for what I do, and 12GB was not needed (for me yet) - so I picked the middle of the road at 6GB for my day-to-day computing needs. The RAM I chose also has SPD settings to maximize the timings in conjunction with the CPU. Also remember, that on a Nehalem based system not to exceed 1.65v for your memory voltage.
Since I wrote this article, I did upgrade to a 2nd GTX260 video card and hooked up a power meter - the whole box running 3dMark06 was pushing around 475W total, so my Tier1 ETASIS PSU has plenty of headroom. I have yet to run Everest or Prime95 - I'll most likely be rebuilding to Windows 7 in the near future...
Thanks for reading and asking for suggestions!
Sep 24 | Todd Christ said:
Hi Lee - I have upgraded to a 2nd video card (which is SLI in this case) - not Quad SLI (those would be different cards - and a bit more pricey!) The 2nd video card did boost all my games - I really am a bit overkill for my 1900x1200 setup at this point, but it's awesome to not have any video lag and the graphics are STUNNING! I may do a follow-up blog to update everyone on my added parts :-)
There are some next-generation Xeon workstation boards which are also based on the Nehalem architecure - I hope to get some blogs out on that setup - plus I'd love to use that 2nd socket which would give 8 more threads (bringing it up to 16 threads!)
Sep 24 | Scott said:
OMG!!! Cheesy, cheesy, cheesy! Come on guys, I wouldn't read past that opening...to eliminate confusion, here it is: "I've been 'smacked over' by Intel's latest Extreme Hardware! posted by Todd Christ on February 23, 2009
This past weekend I was able to upgrade my home PC with the latest in Intel hardware - wow I love this stuff!"
FIRE that marketing crew and start all over!!!
Sep 25 | Todd Christ said:
haha - thanks Scott, I'll take that as a compliment... I'm not in marketing, I'm an engineer at Intel and I love the new hardware. I guess my title caught your eye ;)
I hope to have a blog up soon on my experience with upgrading to Windows 7, and I'm also going to add a 2nd SSD to the system as well. Keep reading, I'll go easy on the cheesy (maybe) :)
Sep 26 | FusionZ06 said:
I'll be upgrading to i7 920 in just another 30 days! I'll be retiring my E6600.
Sep 26 | Scotty said:
You got sponsored link on Digg with this post with "POS to High Powered Gaming Rig" I was curious how you converted your "Point Of Sale" cash register into a gaming rig... OK, I get the point. I will eventually upgrade to the i7 and EFI-X for tri-boot 7, OS-X, and Ubuntu 9.10 or 10.04.
Sep 28 | Jay said:
This reminds me of the old TechTV episode on YouTube where they talk about the "ultimate" gaming machine from 1998 and it's pretty much laughable by today's standards.
I'm therefore skeptical of saying how great any new machine is, as it will one day be worthless as well.
Therefore, I propose we focus on what we actually create and do with our computers. Brilliant!
Sep 29 | John Doe said:
I am good with my celeron 1.6 and 1 gb of ram. I honestly don't see the use of a super fast computer. Unless your doing CGI work for Dreamworks or animation for Pixar. Just buy a PlayStation 3 and play it on your 55 inch LCD. Useless! What a waste of money. Go buy a supercharger for your car and find out what its really like to do 180 miles per hour! Or buy a carbine assault rifle and join a club to find out what its like to be solid snake. Come on now do something better with your money and time.
Sep 29 | Todd Christ said:
Hi Jon - Extreme computers aren't for everyone, they're for the guys who love this stuff. Just as you mention superchargers, large LCD's, and assault rifles - those are all extreme usages for enthusiasts of those venues. But in the PC realm - I'll keep my hard-core PC for my PC stuff... I can't imagine not being able to do so much on a PC.
Sep 29 | Jonathan said:
Nice new PC! And man, that's one of the biggest fans I've ever seen! :)