My Q9450 / 780i Build, OC, & Benches! [PICS]

A

AuxNuke

Gawd
Joined
Nov 11, 2001
Messages
605
Finished up the build earlier this week. After some tweaking today, I thought I'd share my results for anyone considering a Q9450 / 780i combo. Specs are in the sig!

Results

Q9450 @ 3.6GHz / 1.4v
cpuz_cpu.jpg


4GB OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 @ 1125 [5-5-5-18] / 2.1v
cpuz_mem.jpg


Close up of the CPU
http://8ots.com/images/Q9450/q9450.jpg

Large Picture of the Rig
fullcase.jpg

*I swapped the 4 sticks of Ballistix shown in the pic for some OCZ Reaper*

Benchmarks

WPrime: 10.53s
wprime.jpg


Everest Mem Latency: 47.7ns
Everest Mem Read: 11150 MB/s
mem_late.jpg
mem_read.jpg


3DMark06: SLI 8800GTX's @ 625/2000/1450 = 18,664
3d_mark.jpg
 
Nice. I'm just wondering why I get 1500 more 3Dmarks than you with two 512MB GTSs.

The only thing I see different other than that is I have 2GB 8-8-8-24 2T @ 900 (1800)



??? difference of 780i and 790i ??
 
what bios did the 750i board come with ? did q9450 work out of the box ?

any issues with 780i board ? i have heard horror stories about it .
 
toddw said:
Nice. I'm just wondering why I get 1500 more 3Dmarks than you with two 512MB GTSs.

The only thing I see different other than that is I have 2GB 8-8-8-24 2T @ 900 (1800)



??? difference of 780i and 790i ??
Click to expand...
The faster memory definitely helps. Plus, those G92 GTS's score higher at the default 3DMark resolution of 1280x1024 than these older GTX's because of their crazy fast shader speed of 1.625Ghz. I'm OC'ed on the shaders and I'm still only at 1450 :)
 
wolf2009 said:
what bios did the 750i board come with ? did q9450 work out of the box ?

any issues with 780i board ? i have heard horror stories about it .
Click to expand...
The Q9450 worked right out of the box; no issues at all. I guess another reason for posting this is to dispel some of those horror stories circling around the 780i chipset. It's not as good as the 790i... but then again you don't have to sell your soul to purchase DDR3 :cool:
 
Fantastic work, and really nice lookin rig. I can tell you put some time and thought into that. (Still makes me sick seeing that chip consistently only hitting a meager 3.6Ghz) But your setup definitely makes up for intels slackering.
 
Why aren't your GTX's plugged in?
I only skimmed the thread, so forgive me if it's been mentioned...

I was impressed by the cable management in the pic.
Then I saw you had two GTX's and I wondered why there wasn't a massive cable mess...

Isn't 1.4v for 3.6 a bit much?
Or it's not fine-tuned yet... I don't know...

This thread confuses me.
 
I was wondering why you need 1.4v to OC to 3.6ghz It seems to high, the new 45nm chips don't need 1.4 to start with any more. You are over volting it. I have my qx9650 oc @ 3.6ghz at 1.26v set in bios, but in in windows is only 1.21 idle. I had prime on all 4 cores running for 7 hours at this voltage with out an issue. But nice overclocking and neat wiring setup btw. What are your temps btw?

That's my setup http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1032293280&postcount=1134
 
UtopiA said:
Why aren't your GTX's plugged in?
I only skimmed the thread, so forgive me if it's been mentioned...

I was impressed by the cable management in the pic.
Then I saw you had two GTX's and I wondered why there wasn't a massive cable mess...
Click to expand...


For the same reason his HDs aren't plugged in.. He's showing off his components, not a bunch of cables.
 
Nice setup. What's up with that side mounted fan? I'd either Dremel or drill more holes in it to allow better flow to the video cards. :p
 
UtopiA said:
Why aren't your GTX's plugged in?
I only skimmed the thread, so forgive me if it's been mentioned...

I was impressed by the cable management in the pic.
Then I saw you had two GTX's and I wondered why there wasn't a massive cable mess...
Click to expand...
Just showing the build without the PS wires installed. Not really shooting for anything special in these pics... just wanted to show what was running these benches :)

Just showing the build without the PS wires installed.Isn't 1.4v for 3.6 a bit much?
Or it's not fine-tuned yet... I don't know...

This thread confuses me.
Click to expand...
The 780i board here seems to undervolt a good amount from what I have it set to in the bios. I have it set to 1.4v in the BIOS yet in both the BIOS system monitor windows it shows 1.36v. Under load, the core voltage can drop down to 1.32v. It's definitely not the chip holding back this OC as it seems 1.32v is plenty to hit 3.6GHz. Seems like 450FSB is the most the board will do.
 
did you use flash in the large photo? if not, how did you light it? do you have problems with the aluminum oxidizing? thats the one thing i dont like about lian li cases, that they pick up fingerprints so easily and you have to use something like flix (which is a bitch to use) to remove them. did you have a quad before the 9450? do you find any significant performance bump? i had a q6600 with the 780i for a little while and my benchmarks seemed to be a little higher than yours, at the same speed.

re vdroop, there is a pencil mod for this, go here

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2381763&postcount=16

1.4v isnt a "bit much" for anything. i dont get this low voltage stuff. is there really any point to it or is it just "mine overclocks at a lower voltage than yours"?
 
Kowan said:
Nice setup. What's up with that side mounted fan? I'd either Dremel or drill more holes in it to allow better flow to the video cards. :p
Click to expand...
It's a Lian Li BS-01 blower fan designed for these mid tower cases. It sucks air away from both cards and blows it out through a set of pre-drilled holes in the PC-A08. Has consistently lowered temps to the top GPU by about 3C and the bottom card by about 5C under load.
yhst-24067115789173_1996_22444496

a08_blower.jpg
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
did you use flash in the large photo? if not, how did you light it? do you have problems with the aluminum oxidizing? thats the one thing i dont like about lian li cases, that they pick up fingerprints so easily and you have to use something like flix (which is a bitch to use) to remove them. did you have a quad before the 9450? do you find any significant performance bump? i had a q6600 with the 780i for a little while and my benchmarks seemed to be a little higher than yours, at the same speed.

re vdroop, there is a pencil mod for this, go here

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2381763&postcount=16
Click to expand...
Yes, I used a flash in the pic. This Sony DSC-T50 does a great job of auto flash intensity (albeit with a bit too much orangish tint to the flash when not at full strength).

I've owned 3 Lian Li aluminum cases mainly for their size and they do tend to have a slight amount of oxidization. I can see this on the oldest case, the PC-60, mainly on the bottom of the case(where fingers make contact on lifting the case). I'd like to grab a TJ-09 but they are just too damn big for my tastes. With a nice wipe down after handling, the Lian Li's hold up nice.

I had an E6600 @ 3.3 on a 680i board before this. Its a nice jump in performance for me. You mentioned your benches with a 780i and Q6600 were better? Which benches specifically? Thanks!
 
Yeah, i have just a regular fan mounted on the side of mine in my LianLi.

Anyways, good luck with power cables now... it wont be fun.
 
Thanks for posting those pics of the blower. That makes sense pulling heated air and exhausting it out the back. :)
 
To vanilla_guerilla low voltage is better, thats what we aim for. Is not to compete or mine OC with lower voltage then yours just for bragging. Lower voltage = less heat, longer cpu life span and more head room for overclocking. First you can start at 1.4 then start to lower the voltage till you reach unstable, from there keeping bumping up till you can run stable on prime for over 5 hours. That's how you do to fine the lowest stable voltage at a giving clock speed. I tell you all cpus are different.

Example, so lets say you start now at 1.4v at 3.6ghz, then you find your lowest stable voltage is at 1.26. Then you can set it like that to run at 3.6 nice and cooler.
Now you change your mind and want to overclock more lets say at 4.0ghz now you found your stable voltage at 1.39 or 1.4. Then you discover that you needed 1.4 to run at 4ghz and 1.26 to run at 3.6ghz. But if you start at 1.4v with 3.6ghz and stable then say what if I can run at 3.6ghz with lower voltage? Then you might even get lower temperature. Say you start at 1.4 and never care to see if I can run at lower voltage, then next thing you know I want to clock my cpu at 4ghz then you think should raise the voltage to 1.45. Thats if you don't know your lowest voltage at a giving speed.
 
i realize all that. somebody posted that 1.4v was high to run at 3600.i am just saying that it is relative, his cpu might need that to be stable. therefore 1,4v is not high, it is just right. and since most of us will be swapping out our cpus in less than a year, or less than 6 months, does it really matter if you put a few extra one hundredths of a volt thru it? i just dont see the pay-off of trying to get your vcore lower and lower.
 
Like I said it does payoff, read my previous thread again. You might not have to run the lowest voltage the chip can run but lowering it you get cooler temp. Thats the major reason is to run coolest as possible. He might be doing fine. He start out with 1.4v which is fine, but he didn't have to time to teak it yet. Just want to post an OC q9450 with the 780iboard.

For some reason I can't change me sig, this sever is not letting me.
I now got the evga 780i along with hte qx9650 clock at 3.6ghz
 
∞Velocitymaster∞;1032331024 said:
Like I said it does payoff, read my previous thread again. You might not have to run the lowest voltage the chip can run but lowering it you get cooler temp. Thats the major reason is to run coolest as possible. He might be doing fine. He start out with 1.4v which is fine, but he didn't have to time to teak it yet. Just want to post an OC q9450 with the 780iboard.

For some reason I can't change me sig, this sever is not letting me.
I now got the evga 780i along with hte qx9650 clock at 3.6ghz
Click to expand...
Having a system that is stable is all I care about. If it need more volts or runs a bit warm thats fine with me as long as it is: 1) Stable in all aspects 2) With in the thermal specifications of the chip (I'm at about 38C idle / 57 load).

Either way, I'm happy with the OC and performance. :) ANY amount of OC is a bonus and I'll take what the chip / board combo allows.

Have fun!
 
in the pics it looks like you are running crucial ram, but not in your sig. What ram is it you have in there? I have a nearly identical system and might want to get a look at your settings.
 
He stated he replaced the Crucial with "4GB OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 @ 1125 [5-5-5-18] / 2.1v"
 
I received my 9450 last week along with all the rest of my goodies for my new build - however my eVGA 780i MB posted an 11 after 1 minute of running - dead from that point on. I love that after several hours figuring out my build. Even with a case as big as the Cosmos the IFX was an interesting install.

Of course eVGA was not very helpful however, Newegg as always, was simply amazing and I should have my new XFX 780i tomorrow to redo and finish my build. I am very interested to see where I end up with the overclocking - you have some great info and guidelines for me - thanks for making the post. I will do the same once I have it stable.

Q9450 with IFX-14 Cooler, OCZ Freeze Extreme Compound
Corsair XMS2 DHX 4GIG (PC2 6400 2X2) 8500 wasn't available but I will upgrade at some point.
OCZ ModXStream 780 PSU
XFX 780i MB
Cooler Master Cosmos S case
XFX 9800 GTX

Thanks again for the information.

Regards,
Glenn
 
Well heck, I think a lot of curious people want to know what all you all results will be like :)

I'm STILL waiting for my Q9450 (no ETA at this time - for retail).


Once I get my chip, I'll be referencing this thread frequently for my OC's :)
 
I found mine at Micro Center. Pretty decent price - they said they had it in stock and they did. Still took three days to get it though - they are slow in processing the order but I ordered on Wed and it arrived Fri AM.

The IFX (with SilenX 120mm fan), I found at HeatSinkFactory and the rest at Newegg :)
 
Since some people are using this thread as a reference, here's my voltages on this board to achieve this OC:

CPU Core: 1.4 (in BIOS, reads 1.36 in windows)
CPU FSB: 1.4
Memory: 2.1
nForce SPP: 1.4
nForce MCP: 1.525
HT nForce SPP<-> MCP: 1.25
 
Crysis and whatever other computer intense game is out. Half life 2 and unreal tournament 3 are pretty much owned by now.
 
w1ngzer0 said:
Crysis and whatever other computer intense game is out. Half life 2 and unreal tournament 3 are pretty much owned by now.
Click to expand...
I know its not the [H] way to do canned benchmarks, but I ran the built in Crysis GPU bench with the 64bit executable. For reference, I used the same settings for the 8800GTX in SLI as the [H] did in their 9800GX2 review.

1600x1200 No AA / 16x AF - All high except Post Processing and Particles set to medium

!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 36.46s, Average FPS: 54.85
Min FPS: 37.25 at frame 1970, Max FPS: 77.93 at frame 126
Average Tri/Sec: -37618584, Tri/Frame: -685827
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.34

~Aux
 
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