Need to upgrade CPU / RAM / Cooling!

[Vociferate]

So my MOBO is an Asus Rog Formula Maximus Vi.

I have an i5 4950 and 16gb of RAM already.
And a Titan X GPU. The bottleneck is the CPU and Ram.

I've OC'ed the CPU to 3.8ghz which has just given me the ceiling to 5 box. The ram is just about 100% used as well.

I really need to upgrade those to keep 5 boxing. And I'm in the market for a cooler to keep the CPU chilly with a moderate overclock. I am not a fan of my liquid cooler (antec kuhler) as the fan on the beast sounds more a blackhawk in my room.

My case is a Coolermaster HAF 912

[fpsware]

Personally I'm running an i7-7700K, 16Gb RAM. My CPU cooling is handled by a Corsair AiO.

I don't have a RAM problem, 16Gb is sufficent for 5x WoW + plent of background apps. The CPU is not maxed.


So my MOBO is an Asus Rog Formula Maximus Vi.

I have an i5 4950 and 16gb of RAM already.
And a Titan X GPU. The bottleneck is the CPU and Ram.

I've OC'ed the CPU to 3.8ghz which has just given me the ceiling to 5 box. The ram is just about 100% used as well.

I really need to upgrade those to keep 5 boxing. And I'm in the market for a cooler to keep the CPU chilly with a moderate overclock. I am not a fan of my liquid cooler (antec kuhler) as the fan on the beast sounds more a blackhawk in my room.

My case is a Coolermaster HAF 912

[Vociferate]

Personally I'm running an i7-7700K, 16Gb RAM. My CPU cooling is handled by a Corsair AiO.

I don't have a RAM problem, 16Gb is sufficent for 5x WoW + plent of background apps. The CPU is not maxed.

16gb of RAM is enough for you? Maybe I have shitty RAM. Mime is maxing out even in unpopulated areas.

I'll post a dxdiag when I get home, if you don't mind having a look.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I presume you've already gone through the high/low detail settings macros to see if those help? It's a pretty drastic improvement.

[Vociferate]

I presume you've already gone through the high/low detail settings macros to see if those help? It's a pretty drastic improvement.

Yeah I've made some subtle changes last night. But busy with work until Wednesday, so I'll have a better look at it then.

Are the new I7 Karby / Coffee Lake CPU's compatible with my motherboard as long as they are LG1151 socket?

[fpsware]

Your motherboard is only socket 1150 if its a Maximus VI Formula.
https://www.asus.com/nz/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_FORMULA/specifications/

And it only supports up to 4th GEN CPUs.



Yeah I've made some subtle changes last night. But busy with work until Wednesday, so I'll have a better look at it then.

Are the new I7 Karby / Coffee Lake CPU's compatible with my motherboard as long as they are LG1151 socket?

[Vociferate]

Your motherboard is only socket 1150 if its a Maximus VI Formula.
https://www.asus.com/nz/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_FORMULA/specifications/

And it only supports up to 4th GEN CPUs.

I had a better look when I finally got on my break.

Kind of a bummer if I want to upgrade. I have only just replaced my old MOBO with the Asus from a friend. I'd have to go new everything. Mobo, RAM, CPU, and a cooler. :(

https://www.dual-boxing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2011&stc=1https://www.dual-boxing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2012&stc=1

Below is what I have in my system now.

Any ideas on how to improve performance currently while I save up the extra coin to do an upgrade later this month?

[MiRai]

I'll start off by saying that 16GB of RAM should be enough for 5-boxing, at least for now. It's unlikely that the game clients are going to surpass 2GB of RAM usage, each. So... 5x2GB = 10GB, which leaves 6GB for the rest of your system to do things. It's cutting it close, but as long as you aren't running 300 tabs in Chrome and have 15 other unnecessary programs running at the same time, then it should be enough. However, if you have a bunch of add-ons that store data, then that could easily be chewing through your RAM.

As for upgrades, the best CPU you can move to, while keeping your motherboard and RAM, would be a 4790K. Otherwise, if you want to upgrade your CPU, you're going to need a new motherboard and, in turn, expensive DDR4 RAM, as well.

Finally, did you make adjustments to the BCLK in the BIOS when overclocking? If so, I can't recommend that you do that on low/mid-range chipsets, since doing so overclocks everything attached to your motherboard, and not just the CPU, and that can cause adverse, unwanted effects. If you want to overclock your CPU, then you should only be touching the multiplier—again, for low/mid-range chipsets.

[fpsware]

As MiRai has suggested the only CPU upgrade path is a 4790K. Having upgraded from that many months ago (roughly 12 months) I can't say you're going to significantly improve performance for 5x multiboxing.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Make sure your min/max detail macros include the /console renderscale 1.0 (on main, 0.6 on slaves) setting as I found that made a tremendous difference in the main's performance.

[Vociferate]

I'll start off by saying that 16GB of RAM should be enough for 5-boxing, at least for now. It's unlikely that the game clients are going to surpass 2GB of RAM usage, each. So... 5x2GB = 10GB, which leaves 6GB for the rest of your system to do things. It's cutting it close, but as long as you aren't running 300 tabs in Chrome and have 15 other unnecessary programs running at the same time, then it should be enough. However, if you have a bunch of add-ons that store data, then that could easily be chewing through your RAM.

As for upgrades, the best CPU you can move to, while keeping your motherboard and RAM, would be a 4790K. Otherwise, if you want to upgrade your CPU, you're going to need a new motherboard and, in turn, expensive DDR4 RAM, as well.

Finally, did you make adjustments to the BCLK in the BIOS when overclocking? If so, I can't recommend that you do that on low/mid-range chipsets, since doing so overclocks everything attached to your motherboard, and not just the CPU, and that can cause adverse, unwanted effects. If you want to overclock your CPU, then you should only be touching the multiplier—again, for low/mid-range chipsets.

Cheers for the response, I'll have a proper look at my OC tonight. I used the EZ Asus OC tool that came with the MOBO so I'm not entirely sure.


As MiRai has suggested the only CPU upgrade path is a 4790K. Having upgraded from that many months ago (roughly 12 months) I can't say you're going to significantly improve performance for 5x multiboxing.

That's such a bummer! Maybe I'll just get some extra RAM to start and hope for the best!

[fpsware]

Adding more RAM isn't going to make a difference, as you've already got 16Gb. You'd just be throwing money at it for the sake of it.


Cheers for the response, I'll have a proper look at my OC tonight. I used the EZ Asus OC tool that came with the MOBO so I'm not entirely sure.

That's such a bummer! Maybe I'll just get some extra RAM to start and hope for the best!

[Vociferate]

So I'm back. I need to upgrade my CPU. Badly. I'm tired of Dalaran ravaging my PC to the point of screenlocks.

I've done a lot of the macros and graphic changes. And I submit want more eye candy.

Anyway hardware talk time.

I am hastily looking at a new CPU/MOBO/RAM. At this point I don't care if it's AMD or Intel, I just want good performance. If I save money to get relatively close by going AMD, great if not. Go Intel. I don't need to worry about built in wifi. I live to OC a bit, and I am partial to Asus boards. Never really had any issues. I have used a few of the Rog boards in older builds. And RAM was usually Corsair.

From what I've been reading liquid coolers are not all that quiet. (Misinformed in guessing). So I want a great cooler that is quiet and works well enough to keep temps below 60° under load. Do I go with the tried and true Noctua and cooler? Or a custom liquid kit? This is the only part I'm unsure of.

Lastly, I think I need a bigger case. I have the Coolermaster 912 HAF. It's roomy enough. But not for a liquid cooler, if I got that route.

In a sense I am building my PC around my GPU a Titan X.

So what do you think?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[MiRai]

In a sense I am building my PC around my GPU a Titan X.
There are three "Titan X" GPUs that nVidia has released in the past 2+ years. Which one do you have?


So what do you think?
I think we need an estimated budget in order to properly move forward.

[Vociferate]

There are three "Titan X" GPUs that nVidia has released in the past 2+ years. Which one do you have?


I think we need an estimated budget in order to properly move forward.

RIght - good point. Been busy with work, so currently this is the GPU I have.

PNY Titan X 12 GB (https://www.cnet.com/products/pny-geforce-gtx-titan-x-graphics-card-gf-gtx-titan-x-12-gb/specs/)

Budget is roughly another $800-$1000 - I will be able to sell my old MOBO/RAM and a couple monitors which should fetch roughly $500. But that'll come after the upgrade.

I do want to upgrade my cooling, as the Antec Kuhler 120 I have is stupidly loud. I am either going with the Noctua NH-D15 - but I am not ruling out a nice liquid cooling system. (I have never used a custom loop, are they hard to install?)