Bones

The one I showed you the other night? That's cool - And did you try an offer as I had suggested or just won it outright? Should be good for what you will be using it for. Yeah..... You'll need water for a 9590 chip when you get one, but for any non-XOC use an 8350 is just as good - Maybe better due to lower overall thermals but it CAN be tweaked down to help with that since the chip's default CPU voltage specs are really high in the first place. Clock it down a bit and drop the voltage alot by comparison, that's how I did mine. At one time I had it running with my Susanoo aircooler around 4.4-4.5GHz and it was fine.

Grab another Asus or another Gigabyte, those are the only two brands that made an AM3+ board than can run anything without issue. If you know you'll be doing alot of Super PI and things like that the UD series like the one you have now is fine but I do suggest either an UD5 or UD7 if you can find one. UD3 is OK but not the best for larger chips and unfortunately, all UD's regardless do tend to run very warm to hot with their VRM setups. For an Asus you have a few choices: Crosshair V (Original) Crosshair V-Z, Sabertooth 2.0 or the newer 3.0 version (Has RGB LED's under the PCI-E latches) and it also has an m.2 drive port as well. I know your Sabertooth 2.0 died but I'll also say due to your statement about the HDMI adapter that could have been the cause and I'm not aware of any board that can hold up to backfeed for long - It just gets nasty when that happens. And to that end the old 2.0 I have here (And posting with now) inspite of being ran hard and put up wet right out of the box onward as an open box item from the egg has really held up well, even pushing a few chips to or over 8GHz, over the course of about 7 years of abuse that way. I did mention the other morning about it always thinking a new chip has been installed and it was finally retired from benching because of that. Aside from that it still works fine and useable for daily rig use. If possible I'd look for one of the newer 3.0 Sabertooths. Great board and it's a real treat to work with. Yes, it too can run a 9590 without issues from the VRMs unlike a Gigabyte could run into, which is why I never ran one of those, going all Asus here. If you can find a Crosshair V-Z that's the ticket out of all but I'd be picky about the price no matter what you decide on. As I had told you it's possible to find one for a good price but I'd pay no more than about $150 for the average Crosshair V-Z found, even those in great condition aren't worth $200+ or more because they sold for around $225-250 NEW and I should know, considering I bought at least two that way back then. I will say concerning the newer Sabertooth 3.0's like mine, those can be pricey due to their rarity and that's more of a "Take what you can get" kind of thing because of it -But I'd still have a price range in mind and not overpay for one. Hit me up if you have any questions - You know where to find me.

I thought you were and see that's still the case. Your listing has you located up in "Isabella" which is West of Clanton. You should keep all that for someone here or at least not for me, I've got enough myself.

Damn dude! I didn't know you were THAT close to me! I'm in Wetumpka myself.

What Pook linked to should work fine. Just know there are also versions for NF2 and NF3-250 boards as well but in the case of NF4 ClockGen, it doesn't work correctly, if at all with certain boards such as the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Ask me how I know...... In fact the other versions as well cannot be guaranteed to work with all of them.

And if that doesn't work....... Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh......

You guys will be fine, Keep is here now and he has plenty of experience as you already know. Take what you learned from last year and mind the basics of it. Looking foward to seeing what you guys can do this time around. Do know even though a few 4 cores are now valid for the comp I woudn't expect too much from all that since the Gigas that can run 4P with an 8 or 9 series FX chip will most likely dominate this stage anyway, but at the same time it's better to have a sub period than nothing at all. And you never know if you'll get a freak chip or not. It's good to hear from you - I hope all is going well for you.

He's not - I'm here too. He's further south than I but temps/heat is roughly the same overall except he has more humidity on average to deal with. BTW in case you guys missed it, for AM3+ I was able to get the bot to allow a couple of 4 core chips for the 7-Zip part, namely FX-4100 and FX-4300 chips. I reminded them there are only a few boards (Mostly Gigabyte boards) that can truly support 1 core/1 module operation (4P) and because of this restriction there woudn't be too many with subs in that category - Effectively making it more or less a "Giga-Fest" instead of a truely competitive stage. My thing was for people that wanted to compete could do so without having to track down these certain board makes & models that do and there aren't too many of them out there to get, nor are they cheap if in good working condition - Which was one point I also made. Also - With lesser availability if you see one for sale, is it a good, useable board or just someone else's junk? That does affect who gets what and has it to compete with but now that these chips are included, basically anyone with a board that supports an FX chip CAN do a sub and it's fine for the comp at least. I mean why impose restrictions that could lead to folks being turned away at the door if they want to compete? You want more competition, you gotta make it doable at least for the majority that would want in on this and that was the point of it.

That's basically what I do and have. I seal the chip itself and socket area with dielectric, have a film of it around it and the socket area on the back too. Doesn't bother heat transfer from my Inferno at all and keeps it protected during times when I'm recovering from a failed OC/unstable system that won't start and run for any length of time. Pots made with aluminum for example can't transfer heat as efficiently as copper does - Lighter weight of course but you do lose efficiency so when subjected to heavy thermal loads the chip heats up more than it would with a copper pot in use, plus temps under load are higher overall too. I've made a few with an aluminum base and they are great for chips with a CB/CBB sometimes. Even with that it can't get too warm or you'll start losing the benefit of subzero cooling itself, meaning less voltage you can use which in turn means lower clocks.... No point in worrying about it in that case. Copper is really the way to go with anything subzero.

I chimed in over there and said if I had that and some machining equip here I could do something with that. I can only imagine how much such a chunk of copper would cost just get these days.

Tough question..... I'll go ahead and say my three (current) faves are: Asus Sabertooth 2.0 Asus Sabertooth 3.0 DFI NF4X Infinity As for any contenders outside of these: ALL of my DFI NF4 LanParty boards for Socket 939..... And I have a few. My Crosshair V-Z boards

That's the spirit guys. Don't look back except to remember the lessons learned from it. I can suggest to everyone, get a test bench like I have - This way you no longer have to bother your PC builds for this and setup/teardown is a snap. I'd suggest getting one that has the board lying flat on it's back instead of at an angle as many are these days because your choices of cooling methods are limited to just air or water with those that are angled. One that has the board lying flat allows you to run any cooling method you want including extreme if you ever take a mind to trying it one day. Kingpin cooling has some in stock to check out if you want. Just know even a cheaper bench will cost a little but you really don't need an expensive one, in fact if you're smart you can actually build one for yourself.

Guys, don't beat yourselves up over it. All of you went in knowing the hill you faced was steep yet you dared to climb it, that's what counts. Take what you've learned and use it to do better next time. Again I'll suggest you guys get in on the upcoming Country Cup comp for even more experience, you can't get it any other way so go for it, have fun and I'm sure whomever participates will learn even more by doing it.

It ain't quite over yet - Now subs will be checked to make sure the results are valid and it's possible you may go up a spot if a team currently ahead of you get enough subs tossed. Just know the same thing can work against you too and drop your placement - That's why getting your subs correct when subbed is so important. Give it I'd say 3-5 days for it all to settle and the final rankings will be known but as is, be proud you're a top 10 team on your very first time out competing AND with many, if not most of you not familiar with the bot or it's comps. Use this as a building experience and take what you've learned in this one to do better later. Country Cup is next up and starts in November, some of you may want to compete there too for the experience that can be gained from that as well - In fact I highly suggest it. Relative to this - Congrats guys and well done.