Tagged in: hardware

1935.40€ is the exact amount I paid for my machine + 27” screen.

Here is the list of hardware: (also on PCPartPicker)

• i5 6600K
• MSI Z170A SLI PLUS
• Corsair DDR4 3000MHz 16GB
• Noctua NH-D14
• Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury
• Phanteks P400s (closed, black)
• 2xWD20EZRZ
• Crucial BX200
• Corsair RM650x
• Asus MG279Q

So actually, quite a bit of a beast.

§ Asus Screen

The M279Q is actually quite nice, comes with two cables (of which a mini-DP to DP), if memory serves me right. However it has this stupid, stupid flaw: sometimes, just sometimes, it will display two 1440x1280 zones that overlap on ~20 pixels. The issue is known though. How it passed QA is a mystery.

There’s still a redeeming quality though: if you turn it off and on again, the problem might disappear.

Asus, your screen sucks.

§ XMP and iGPU

The MoBo has built-in OC capabilities, and also XMP. So on my merry way, I go and activate said XMP to truly enjoy the performance of 3000MHz memory! HAHA, well guess what? Can’t use your iGPU with XMP. That was in 2016. We’re in May 2018 and it still isn’t fixed. See also this.

The redeeming quality this time, is that I can tweak many voltages in Click BIOS 5, including CPU SA Voltage and CPU IO Voltage (resp. 1.050V and 0.950V).

MSI, your ClickBIOS sucks.

§ Noise

Noise is annoying, if it comes from your machine, and continues after you unplug your case fans. Yup, the noise was caused by my NH-D14 cooler. So I used the U.L.N.A (Ultra Low Noise Adaptater) that came with the cooler to reduce fan rotation speed (and thus, noise).

Noctua, clearly I expected better!

§ Overclocking

The i5 6600K is made for overclocking, and given my 75€ investment in the NH-D14 cooler, I would be a fool not to even try.

Multiplier	Smallest stable Vcore	°C top percentile
38	1.100V	?°C
39	1.110V	?°C
40	1.140V	?°C
41	1.170V	62°C
42	1.280Vnot a typo	?°C
43	1.305V	75°C

In the end, I stopped at 4.1GHz (a ~17% increase in frequency).