Thor (Desktop System)

July 8, 2009 Khaosx

My current desktop system (Thor) is a home-built gaming rig that I’ve been upgrading (and will continue to upgrade, as technology evolves) for about the past 10 years. As best I can tell, the oldest system component is about 4 years old, and that would be the keyboard. The newest, as of this writing, would be about 4 days, giving some indication of how often I swap components out.

I will freely admit that this is WAY more computer than I actually use, and indeed, has always been that way, even when I was gaming regularly with highly demanding games. I prefer to have the bleeding edge components, use them, drool over them, tinker with them, and then sell/give them to friends and move on. I have a hardware fetish. I admit it.

As of this writing, I have completed a full system overhaul, and will attempt to capture a baseline system profile for future performance comparisons.

Section 1 – Component List:

Main Hardware:

Motherboard:	Asus Rampage II Gene (BIOS 0809)
CPU:	Intel Core i7 920
Memory:	12GB (6×2GB) Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz DDR3
Graphics:	BFG Nvidia GTX280 H2OC
Storage:	2×120GB OCZ Vertex SSD (RAID0)
Optical Drive:	LiteOn Blu-Ray Reader / DVD Writer
Case:	Coolermaster ATCS 840
Power Supply:	PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad

Cooling:

CPU Block	HeatKiller CPU Rev3.0 1366
GPU Block	Dangerden DD-Tieton
Radiator	Swiftech MC320QP-BK
Reservoir	DangerDen Bay
Pump	MCP350 12v
Controller	Scythe Kaze Advanced Fan Controller
Fans	3 x Enermax UC-MA12 120mm case fans (on radiator, 70CFM)
	Scythe SlipStream 120mm case fan (rear exhaust, 110CFM)
	Coolermaster 230mm Case fan (front intake, ~70CFM)
Fluid	Swiftech HydraX + Distilled Water
Misc.	TFC 3/8" Compression Fittings

Peripherals:

Display	2 x Dell 24” LCD
Keyboard	Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard (1st Gen)
Mouse	Logitech G9 Gaming mouse
External Optical	Pioneer DVR-112
Audio	Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Speakers
Webcam	Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000
Communications	Logitech Premium Notebook Headset
Other	Thermaltake BlacX eSATA hard drive dock

Section 2 – Overclocking & BIOS Settings

Currently, the CPU has been overclocked to two levels. While I have done an “extreme” overclock to 4.2 GHz, I do not consider this a production setting, as running it in this state constantly would place undue stress on the CPU, memory, and motherboard. This section will discuss only what I consider to be my stable, 24×7 daily use setup.

Current CPU specs:

Overclocked from 2.6 GHz (stock speed) to 3.8 GHz
Intel Turbo Mode deactivated
Sleep and power management states fully active

Current Memory specs:

Memory “stock” at 1603 MHz for stability

Current GPU Specs:

GPU is factory overclocked to 680/1225 MHz

BIOS Settings:

This is a record of my personal BIOS settings. Overclocking is a highly dynamic art, and will vary greatly given different physical components. Use of these settings could, in fact, fry your system and cause you to cry. I am not responsible if these settings destroy your system. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

BCLK (the base system clock, formerly known as FSB) – 200
Ratio (Ratio * BCLK = Frequency) – 19 (Setting to “Auto” enables turbo mode on my board, raising the ratio by 1 over default)
UCLK (must be 2x DRAM freq.) – 2935
QPI – 6605 MT/s
DRAM timings set to 9-9-9-24
Load Line Calibration Enabled
CPU Differential Amplitude (this affects vDroop) – 700mV
vCore – 1.275v
CPU PLL vCore (connects the core to the memory) – 1.82917v (this can go as high as 1.96 for higher overclocking)
QPI/DRAM Core (MUST be within .5v of vDIMM) – 1.275v
vDIMM (DRAM Voltage) – 1.65681v
All other voltages AUTO
Spread spectrum DISABLED
C1E DISABLED
Virtualization DISABLED
CPU TM DISABLED

Section 3 – Performance & Validation of Data

Synthetic Benchmarks:

Benchmark	Result
3dMark06	20133
SANDRA Memory Bandwidth – Int Buff’d SSE2	27.4GB/s
SANDRA Memory Bandwidth – Float Buff’d SSE2	27.43GB/s
SANDRA CPU Arithmetic – Drystone	92.56GIPS
SANDRA CPU Arithmetic – Whetstone	78.9GFlops
SuperPI – Pi to one million decimal places	10.728 secs