Sabertooth X58 - 2 Questions

[darkshadow]

Ok, sorry about the late post on the pic. busy day. but anyway. here ya go.

Top left corner of the fan is the one screw I used to hold it in place.

Its just a 40mm x 10mm fan, nothing special. just keeps the air moving over the heatsink.

Just a different angle

Is that the tempest evo case? I was planning to get that but saw the phantom for 99.99.

 

[ShortAlieN]

nah, thats the phantom. love it. its great to work with. loads of room and looks good to

 

[darkshadow]

Oh sweet, than we have almost the same rig

, except for the cpu cooler, im running with the stock one for now.

 

[JezEngland]

The Sabertooth doesn't have the lovely load of power phases stuff around the CPU socket and phases are for overclocking. That's all that I see a disadvantage with that board though I'm not educated enough to know for certain

 

[S_I_N]

The Sabertooth doesn't have the lovely load of power phases stuff around the CPU socket and phases are for overclocking. That's all that I see a disadvantage with that board though I'm not educated enough to know for certain

Deja vu??

 

[ShortAlieN]

it has 8+1 power phase for the cpu, it is not the greatest, but it works well and delivers pretty clean power. my i7 920 gets crazy hot really fast with this H50 @ 4.2ghz. so if I ever find that handy xspc kit stock that Tom was kind enough to show me I'm going to replace it.

 

[Illydth]

T-1 Day (tomorrow) till I start ordering parts. Won't be able to get the full Rig together till sometime later in the week however when Newegg gets parts to me. I'll be abusing my local microcenter for a lot of this (they actually have cheaper prices than Newegg on a lot of stuff) but the PS I want isn't carried...so I can't even power the dern thing up till Newegg gets my order in (shipping tomorrow).

Thanks for the pics Short, I'll have to do that.

Now, next question. So I was GOING to go for the stock CPU cooler with the i7 950 since I've been using stock coolers for a while now and not having a problem (I've also not overclocked). That said, I've known for years that aftermarket >>>>> stock any day of the week.

Seeing what you guys are doing with your CPUs (Seriously? 4.2 GHZ with a i7 920 overclock? That's an extra 1Ghz...) I'm starting to wonder if that's a mistake.

So...Cooling? Stock? Water? Recommended Air Cooler? I have absolutely 0 experience with water cooling at this point and the idea has always utterly TERRIFIED me...but when I'm looking at CPU air coolers running just under a kilogram of weight and reading horror stories of the thing pulling off the mount and falling into the case, I start to wonder if spraying non-conductive fluid all over the case or hearing a CLUNK of CPU cooler breaking $200 video cards is worse...how tough are water cooling systems to get installed? Anything I need to know? Should I even be considering it?

"Stock" has always been the "safe" bet for me, what SHOULD I be looking at since I'm already paying about $1800 for a new mid/top gaming rig?

Corsair H70?

--Illydth

 

[ShortAlieN]

Excellent. Even if you are not looking to overclock you CPU (though it is not to tough, and it's also quite fun) I would highly recommend an aftermarket cooling solution for your CPU. Though the stock one you will get with the 950 is sufficient enough for cooling, they do not work that well and can be noisy. I have used a few different coolers on my 920 and know that you get what you pay for, usually. I got the H50 on advise from my local computer shop because they said they were able to achieve a stable overclock of 4.2ghz on a 920 in a rig they built. I thought I couldn't go wrong here, but the performance of the H50/70 is quite lacking. Yes I can get a stable overclock with it, but no I will not leave it running long. It gets hot fast and does not dissipate the heat well. For mild overclocks it does work nicely and with my 920 @ 3.78ghz it peaks at about 80C. In my book this is unacceptable so I ordered myself a real liquid cooling setup today.

I would recommend getting a good air cooling setup. Many people on these forums recommend the Noctua Nh-d14, yes it is a great cooler, probably the best out there, but it is HUGE. If you have tall RAM heatsinks they may not clear the cooler. Though if you are going for high overclocks it may be the one for you. Corsair, Cooler Master, and many others make good aftermarket heatsinks that look good and function better than the stock one. My advice is get a new cooling solution, if nothing else, at least its fun

 

[Illydth]

Excellent. Even if you are not looking to overclock you CPU (though it is not to tough, and it's also quite fun) I would highly recommend an aftermarket cooling solution for your CPU. Though the stock one you will get with the 950 is sufficient enough for cooling, they do not work that well and can be noisy. I have used a few different coolers on my 920 and know that you get what you pay for, usually. I got the H50 on advise from my local computer shop because they said they were able to achieve a stable overclock of 4.2ghz on a 920 in a rig they built. I thought I couldn't go wrong here, but the performance of the H50/70 is quite lacking. Yes I can get a stable overclock with it, but no I will not leave it running long. It gets hot fast and does not dissipate the heat well. For mild overclocks it does work nicely and with my 920 @ 3.78ghz it peaks at about 80C. In my book this is unacceptable so I ordered myself a real liquid cooling setup today.

I would recommend getting a good air cooling setup. Many people on these forums recommend the Noctua Nh-d14, yes it is a great cooler, probably the best out there, but it is HUGE. If you have tall RAM heatsinks they may not clear the cooler. Though if you are going for high overclocks it may be the one for you. Corsair, Cooler Master, and many others make good aftermarket heatsinks that look good and function better than the stock one. My advice is get a new cooling solution, if nothing else, at least its fun

Yea, I'm pretty much already sold on the aftermarket cooler, now I'm just trying to find one that isn't going to block up one of the RAM slots on the Sabertooth. I'm going to be running Corsair Dominator 2x3's on that board so I am just now trying to figure out what my best cooler is going to be without taking away from my setup.

I was considering the Noctuna C14 (I know people like the D14 better but it just seems huge) but I'm really not interested in paying $60 - 80 to find out I can't add all 3 RAM chips.

Advice from anyone out there? I know I continue to abuse my questions on this forum since this really isn't "Mainboard and CPU" (though related)...

And I guess I should also ask what the recommended thermal compound is these days: I've still got a partial tube of Arctic Silver (I think the original stuff) still sitting downstairs unused (It's probably dead by now, been at least 7 years since I've touched the stuff).

--Illydth

 

[S_I_N]

Yea, I'm pretty much already sold on the aftermarket cooler, now I'm just trying to find one that isn't going to block up one of the RAM slots on the Sabertooth. I'm going to be running Corsair Dominator 2x3's on that board so I am just now trying to figure out what my best cooler is going to be without taking away from my setup.

I was considering the Noctuna C14 (I know people like the D14 better but it just seems huge) but I'm really not interested in paying $60 - 80 to find out I can't add all 3 RAM chips.

Advice from anyone out there? I know I continue to abuse my questions on this forum since this really isn't "Mainboard and CPU" (though related)...

And I guess I should also ask what the recommended thermal compound is these days: I've still got a partial tube of Arctic Silver (I think the original stuff) still sitting downstairs unused (It's probably dead by now, been at least 7 years since I've touched the stuff).

--Illydth

if your not going to overclock it (or just a mild one) I'd like to suggest the cooler master hyper 212 plus. As the sink part does not overhang the memory slots at all just the fan does. And thats easily corrected by sliding it up further on the sink or moving it to the other side and have it pull air thru instead of push. The fan clears my ripjaws easily though by simply sliding it up a tad. Most here recommend the noctua tim as the best but I myself still use AS5 and it works well for me. But you have to be cautious with it as it is conductive. I also like the ASC or Arctic Silver Ceramique. Its non conductive. I have that stuff from back when I went sub-zero cooling. But it works for either sub or normal cooling. Hope this all helps

 

[Mumbles37]

if your not going to overclock it (or just a mild one) I'd like to suggest the cooler master hyper 212 plus.

This is a good suggestion. Better than the stock cooler, and cheap.

Again, I've got a setup very similar to yours, using Corsair Dominator 3x2 with the Sabertooth. But I use the NH-D14 and I have no problems. I put the ram in the second set of slots even though I could probably fit it in the first (juuuust barely). If you do want to overclock you can't go wrong with the Noctua. Your Sabertooth will do a fine job accommodating it, and it's never going to break off the mobo or anything like that.

I think you'll have no problems either way you choose.

 

[Illydth]

So I figure after all the help you folks gave to me on my questions and my N00Bness here, I figured the LEAST I could do was write back with my system build.

Surprisingly, I managed all of the components from the local Microcenter (Newegg is great but it's not immediate, *sigh* I guess I never grew out of "GIVE ME NOW!"

)

Without further ado, my new rig is as follows:

Antec DF-85 Dark Fleet Case

Intel i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06 GHz Quad Core/HT

Asus Sabertooth x58 Mobo

2 x MSI N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5/OC Video Cards in SLI

Seasonic X-760 (80 Plus GOLD) Power Supply *

Corsair Vengeance 3x4GB (12GB) DDR3 1600 (BIOS is reading 8-8-8-20 Timings right now...thought they were 9-9-9-24's though) *

OCZ Vertex 2 80G SSD (SATA II) (Boot Drive)

2 x Seagate Barracuda 1T (7200 RPM, 32MB Cache) *

Samsung DVD Burner/Lightscribe

Stock Cooler *

Items with * indicate changed from speced configuration.

So the 12G of RAM and the Seagates were last minute changes. Microcenter was out of the 6G Dominator Kit but has a 12G Vengeance kit for like $50 more or something...figured just as good RAM and double the size works for me...saved $100 on the CPU from them anyway...

Had SATA III 6G/s WD-Blacks speced but I HATE Western Digital (*shrug* too many bad experiences with them back in the day). I didn't need much push to switch these out for my favorite brand...but I do regret not having SATA III drives in this thing *sigh*.

The Seasonic was a last minute change also. I KNEW they didn't carry the Antec CP-850 I wanted, but I figured they'd have other recommendations. Actually (You're all going to laugh at me) I had never HEARD of Seasonic before in the Power Supply world so I was surprised when the tech told me it was one of the big names. He then noted it was 80 Plus GOLD certified and still within my budget and I was sold. BTW, I don't know why I find this funny, but the packaging for this thing is out of this world. Darn PS is shipped in a black velvet bag, I kid you not.

And lastly, the one I can hear you all groaning over now...the stock cooler. Ok, so I DIDN'T go with an aftermarket (note: YET). The only aftermarket they had that I was even remotely interested in was the Thermalright Silver Arrow...they simply don't carry the D14...or pretty much anything else. Decided I would hold off on the aftermarket Cooler for a while till I figure out what I really want and then get it from Newegg instead of hunting around here...till then, I'm still showing 39C at somewhat idle (granted, not OC'd at this point either).

The rest was exactly what I was looking for. All in all a VERY nice upgrade from an AMD Athalon X2 2.21 GHz with 2G of RAM and a 120G 7200 Harddrive...and an NVidia 8800 GT.

12G of RAM, good lord I don't think I know what to DO with it all...this is larger than most of my SERVERS at work!

In retrospect the raid question was just Useless...set BIOS for the intel controller to "RAID", all 3 drives popped up in the Raid Config on the controller and allowed me to select the two Seagates for Raid without touching the OCZ...

Also, even for as large as this case is, the 18" cables shipping with the Sabertooth are MORE than long enough to exit to the back side of the case and hit the top DVD slot without blinking...no need for additional cables there.

Thanks to EVERYONE who responded to my questions and provided advice!

--Illydth

 

[S_I_N]

very nice yeah seasonic has been around for awhile now. Glad ya got her all up and running now but fyi TTL rates the silver arrow as a close second to the nh d-14 but all in all seems like you got a good build there

now snap some pics and show it off in the rig gallery

oops just saw this is the ssd on with the raid controller???? not good to do you want it set to achi I'm sure the sabertooth has dual controllers I'd put the ssd on the secondary controller and leave the others in ur raid. Looks like a reinstall is in ur future

 

[Illydth]

very nice yeah seasonic has been around for awhile now. Glad ya got her all up and running now but fyi TTL rates the silver arrow as a close second to the nh d-14 but all in all seems like you got a good build there

now snap some pics and show it off in the rig gallery

oops just saw this is the ssd on with the raid controller???? not good to do you want it set to achi I'm sure the sabertooth has dual controllers I'd put the ssd on the secondary controller and leave the others in ur raid. Looks like a reinstall is in ur future

Yea, I have the SSD on the same Intel controller as the 2 Seagates (Raided)...that a problem? It's really no issue if I have to re-install, I don't have much up on it yet anyway (Mostly just the OS).

Would I really have to reinstall the OS? Isn't it as simple as shifting the cable over to the Martel controller? I guess maybe drivers are a problem...

Re:Silver Arrow: I may go back down and pick that up, I'm kinda regretting not going with an aftermarket off the bat...debating but if I can't find anyone to go to lunch with today I'm probably going to end up buying a cooler.

--Illydth

 

[Illydth]

When I did a fast lookup on AHCI (From Wikipedia):

"Many SATA controllers offer selectable modes of operation: legacy Parallel ATA emulation, standard AHCI mode, or vendor-specific RAID. Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards (which also enables AHCI) rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility, due to the issues caused when the mode is switched once an operating system has already been installed.[1]"

Reading the linked Intel page, it looks like enabling raid on the Intel controller ALSO enables AHCI mode as well. Setting the controller to AHCI only not as recommended. And yea, don't bother to answer the "Do I really have to re-install the OS? I see why.

That said, if there's a reason I'd want to run the SSD on the Martel under AHCI and the Seagates on the Intel RAIDed (i.e. 2 controllers = faster performance) I have NO problems re-installing but I need to know that's the recommendation NOW before I start installing a metric ton of programs on the new box.

--Illydth

 

[S_I_N]

just from all I have read that raid disables trim control and that trim heps with the longivity of the drive (keeps the speed normal) where without trim you'll get degrading speeds over time.

 

[Illydth]

just from all I have read that raid disables trim control and that trim heps with the longivity of the drive (keeps the speed normal) where without trim you'll get degrading speeds over time.

That's all I need to hear. Looks like I'll drop the SSD on the Martel controller and re-install. Thanks for the advice, you probably saved me quite a bit of time in the near future..

Off to pick up the Silver Arrow, I just decided.

--Illydth

 

[S_I_N]

cool glad to help we wanna see some benches and oc soon

 

[Illydth]

cool glad to help we wanna see some benches and oc soon

Benchmarks I can provide, PIX I took last night, just have to figure out which ones I like.

OC I'm not likely to get too agressive with right off the bat...but I may run it up to 4GHz 24/7. Ran across a pretty good thread on bleedingedge.com talking about OCing the Sabertooth/i7 950, but are there any really good "Guides" out there for me to follow to understand what it is I'm doing? I have to admit: I haven't looked at the OC boards here yet (Will in a few minutes).

--Illydth

 

[ShortAlieN]

glad to hear you are up and running. Did you already switch to the marvell controller? If if is not needed i would keep everything on the Intel one. currently you are not going to gain much performance out of the marvell controller, and the intel one works faster (from what i can tell with my setup) though it will not hurt anything to run on the marvell.