Official Sandy Bridge / LGA1155 for HTPCs Thread - Page 70

Originally Posted by gorthocar

Here's a quick warning for those of you thinking about upgrading to BIOS 0146 on a DH67BL, DH67CF, DH67CL, DH67GD, or DH67VR motherboard. I have a DH67BL. I just upgraded to 0146, and my motherboard instantly became incompatible with my DDR3. I have some G.skill sniper 1.25v 4GB modules that had been running fine for weeks between reboots. Now I can't even POST at 1.25v, and though it POSTs at 1.5v, it is only stable for a couple of minutes. I moved this RAM into another system I have here and ran some memory stress tests, and the modules are fine. I installed some old DDR3 modules into my DH67BL, and so far it seems to be stable with those, but now I'm only at half the RAM I had before.

And to top it off, this BIOS update comes with a warning: "Warning: BIOS version 0146 includes support for future processors. Due to structural changes in this BIOS version, once a board has been converted to this version or later, it will no longer be possible to downgrade the BIOS to version 0132 or earlier. Attempting a BIOS downgrade to a previous version may fail – the board BIOS will remain at its current version."

Originally Posted by Mfusick

Hey guys

I have decided on the Asus Z68 LGA1155 and the 2500K Sandy. My mobo with be either the MAXIMUS or the DELUXE both Gen3.

What DDR3 should I get? I want to OC the hell of of this little chip. I will upgrade the cooler, and the case is going to be a COSMO II. Right now I have a Thermaltake Armor 10 bay full tower till the COSMOS II is released.

What speed DDR3 should I get? WHat brand? What model?

I want 16GB I think. 4x4GB probably.

My budget is $200 or less.

I saw some RIPJAWZ and G.SKILL models for about $129 that seemed to fit the bill. Worth it over CORSAIR or MUSHKIN ?

Anyone up to date with current memory choices for Sandy ?

Originally Posted by lag0a

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell...oarchitecture)

Haswell sounds a lot more impressive than Ivy bridge and it is only a year away in 2013.
I wonder how long it will take until everything built into a motherboard can be integrated into the CPU then the motherboard is only left as a CPU socket with only input/output connectors.

I'm guessing the more things integrated into the CPU from the motherboard will mean a lesser failure rate of the motherboard.

Originally Posted by lag0a

Haswell sounds a lot more impressive than Ivy bridge and it is only a year away in 2013.

Originally Posted by Mfusick

Ivy should be better than Sandy- but I am not sure I would wait for it.

Originally Posted by renethx

If you are interested in madVR, perhaps you will want Core i3-3225.

Originally Posted by tiorapatea

I'm planning a new HTPC, but one thing I am unclear about is whether the 23.976 issue is confined to the chipset, or whether there is anything in the CPU itself that might contribute.

My thought is that I might just pick up a G840, since they are going relatively cheaply and the Ivy Pentiums are not due for a few more months, and then stick it in an H77 motherboard when they come out (maybe in early April).

I know the 23.976 issue may not be the be-all and end-all, and probably the answer is I should just wait until this can be tested on production boards, but I am curious if the experts know the answer already. I know Anandtech has talked about the problem being in the PCH (a chipset feature), and that Intel carried over that design from Clarkdale (see their review of Sandy Bridge dated 3 January 2011). If so, the new motherboards should fix the issue, at least in so far as Intel is trying to fix it (Intel has recently admitted the fix is not perfect).

I do know about Reclock, and I know some people get annoyed by the excessive attention this bug gets, but just thought I'd ask because I often read a kind of shorthand here where people say "Wait for Ivy" to fix the issue, but it isn't always clear whether that is necessary both for the CPU and the chipset/motherboards, plus I don't want to wait for the new Pentiums and don't want to pay for the i5-3470T (first release dual core Ivy).

Originally Posted by Zon2020

Do you know yet whether using the 3225 will eliminate the need for high speed SDRAM? Do you think you'll be able to drop it in an H67 motherboard with DDR3-1333 and be able to get madVR HQ?

Originally Posted by assassin

From what I have read from multiple sources sources Ivy Bridge will not fix the "24p bug".

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

I don't know how you define fixed or what sources you read, but the latest official word from Intel is that they improved the timings in the upcoming chipsets to greatly diminish the problem, so it will be much better in Ivy then it was in Sandy.

I never expected it to be 100% exactly spot on, because the 23.976 timing is just incompatible with the clocks used in PCs.

If its only a chipset thing or a combination of CPU and Chipset, i cannot say.

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

I don't know how you define fixed or what sources you read, but the latest official word from Intel is that they improved the timings in the upcoming chipsets to greatly diminish the problem, so it will be much better in Ivy then it was in Sandy.

Originally Posted by babgvant

I don't think that word was "Official", just some guy talking at IDF. We'll have to see how different it is when IVB launches.

Originally Posted by assassin

Right. I just want to make sure we tell people right. I don't want a bunch of pissed off people coming in here complaining about it once its released and its still not fixed.

I have no idea why people are so passionate/outspoken about 23.97x. I just hope we aren't scaring people away from HTPC in general.

Originally Posted by assassin

Right. But right its about .003 away. So if its improved more that's great. But to say that its going to be completely perfect just isn't accurate at this point from what I have read.

Originally Posted by dbone1026

I think generally HTPCs scare people away from HTPCs

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

"You'll have a hard time to notice it, if you manage to at all".

Originally Posted by assassin

But aren't we already there?

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

Without any tricks like ReClock, i'll notice it. Once every 5 minutes is quite often.
I might be sensitive to such things, who knows, but it does bug me. A hiccup in a slow pan, and i start wondering what is broken in my htpc now again.

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

Like i hinted at, it'll never be 100% perfect in any HTPC, with any GPU, because the clock generators in a PC are not meant to create that exact clock (but instead usually a nice and round value)
Thats why you can easily get 24.000 exactly, but not 23.976.

Originally Posted by Nevcairiel

Anyway, Intel did acknowledge the problem early with Sandy already, and some engineer did also confirm that it was improved in Ivy, paraphrasing them: "You'll have a hard time to notice it, if you manage to at all".

When asked about this, Dr Hong Jiang, senior principal engineer and chief media architect for Intel, said that we've improved the clock for Ivy Bridge, so that issue is much reduced. Compared to Sandy Bridge, it's a major step forward.' Tom Piazza, Intel senior fellow, chipped in, adding that it's significantly reduced - you'd have to look real hard to catch it.'

Originally Posted by assassin

Well they shouldn't, imo. That's my goal --- bring HTPC to eveyone.