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My updated rig

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 1:07 pm
by ajemm
Just completed an update to my 4 year old, Core 2 Duo based rig. It was already very quiet so my main goal was reduced power draw and increased performance. The ASRock board (with it's multitude of features and connectors) and the on-chip graphics allowed me to get rid of all my add-on cards. So far my Kill-A-Watt says idle draw is down from 78 watts to 35. At load, draw ia roughly 120 Watts, same as before. Temps are ranging from 30c at idle to 70 during Prime 95.

ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 LGA 1155
Core i7 3770 
Zerotherm ZT-10D w/Scythe SY1225SL12M
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 2x 4GB DDR3 2133
Samsung 830 128GB SSD
Western Digital WD20EARX 2TB HDD
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000
Seasonic X-660

I'm really happy with the Zerotherm cooler as I bought it new for $17. Performance is through the roof. The switch to the SSD being the most noticeable difference.

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Re: My updated rig

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 2:03 pm
by CA_Steve
Congrats :)

Re: My updated rig

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:40 pm
by xan_user
nicey-nice!

thats a lot of cores/clock speed for no discrete GPU, what do you do with all that power?

Re: My updated rig

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:01 am
by RHN
Clean build.

Does the i7 and the Asrock allow you to take your memory kit to its limits or have you noticed any speed bottlenecks in your system?

Also, since you're using onboard graphics, like xan_user, I'm wondering why the extra oomph.

Re: My updated rig

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:48 am
by ajemm
I'm running everything at stock speeds so I haven't seen any bottlenecks or performance issues. The board supports memory speeds up to DDR3 2800, and has all the bios options to get there.

As far as why I chose this CPU, it came down to budget. The CPU was the last item I bought and and I could afford it. I originally planned to go with an i5 3570K and a fanless Radeon 7750. Then I realized the Intel HD 4000 graphics could give me the same performance as my 8600 GT. No video card allowed me to upgrade to the 3770 and still stay well under my budget. I do mostly media (images, audio, video) editing, so I think the 8 threads and memory bandwidth will be more useful. My last desktop build was circa 2008 and has served me quite well. The way computing is heading (this thread was done from my iPad!), I would expect this to last me even longer.

Re: My updated rig

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 11:18 am
by RHN
"I do mostly media (images, audio, video) editing, so I think the 8 threads and memory bandwidth will be more useful."

I had guessed that video rendering (not gaming) was probably what you were up to. This interests me, because the speech recognition program I use makes hefty demands.

With the i7 and other components, you'll be ahead of the curve for several more years, and though the i7 may seem like overkill, in the end it makes good sense economically.

All in all, well thought out.