Contribute
Register

i7 3930K LGA 2011 Processor

Status
Not open for further replies.
BobMc said:
maffel said:
Man, I so want to upgrade my x58 hackintosh with a x79 machine(Asus P9X79, 3930K).
The thing is that i'm able to get about 200 US Dollars off the original price if i buy the components before the 21'st of December. But the uncertainty of it all is not encouraging?

What would you do in my situation? Should i buy it and hope the next mac pros use Sandy Bridge-e?
Click to expand...

After playing with the x79 for a few weeks, I decided to sell it and go back to my 2600K. With both CPUs running at 4.8GHz, the difference in performance between the two was minimal. I'm waiting for Ivy for my next upgrade.
Click to expand...

The performance between the two is in no way minimal.

Sandybridge-E is about 50% faster by virtue of having 50% more cores. For an easy OS X build I would definitely not recommend socket 2011, but just because it is slow right now does not mean anything other than the software/your install is not supporting it properly.

An i7-970 scores ~10.7 when overclocked to 4.2-4.3GHz, while the 3930K can be overclocked higher and scores about 13.4 @ 4.8GHz.

That is a 20% improvement over one of the fastest reasonable choices for X58, and about a 35% improvement over a 2600K at 4.5GHz.

It seems like no one has really taken a stab at 2011 so far, but burying our heads in the sand is not going to make there be a better platform from Intel anytime soon. I agree X79 is underwhelming. But, just plugging it into a 10.6.8 hard drive hardly counts. I would like to see 10.7.2, SMBios of iMac12,1, and likely a patched kernel. Then that overclocked 3930K will be within spitting distance in renders (13.4 vs 14.3) of the 12-core 2.66GHz from Apple. (Cinebench 11.5)

Sandy Bridge-E will be the highest performing processor family from Intel for about 12 months, perhaps longer if Ivy Bridge-E is delayed. X79 will be the chipset in use for at least 24 (perhaps 30) months as Ivy Bridge-E will support it and there will be no reason to switch to the next one until a superior performing processor comes out. Sure, you might get a better motherboard based on this chipset in a year, but it will still be the same core chipset.

It would be nice to have an 8-core Sandy Bridge-E, but that is not happening, nor is an 8-core Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge is delayed yet again until Q2 2012 and is only bring quad-cores with a 17% increase in CPU benchmarks over Sandy Bridge clock for clock. That is less than we already have with both Westmere (i7-970) and Sandy Bridge-E (i7-3930K). The bottom line is that quad-cores simply can't stack up to a 6-core, so we need to get the newest and fastest 6-core working instead of waiting months for just another quad-core.

Ivy Bridge does bring a large increase in Intel onboard video and almost a 40% decreases in TDP. Unless you are worried about your electricity bill there is no reason you want to upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Westmere and Sandy Bridge-E are are the top performers now and they will be in 6 months when Ivy Bridge hits the shelves. You could wait until Ivy Bridge-E comes out, but that will be what--12 months? Luckily, those upgrades should be drop and lock with the same architecture and just 2 extra cores added.

This was rather long, but in summary--don't plan on getting Ivy Bridge. That won't be worth it. You either should be happy with an i7-2600K, or get an i7-970/980 for an extra 20% boost in CPU (and one that is a completely obsolete chipset), or get the i7-3930K working fully to enjoy a 40-50% increase over that i7-2600K.

Rant aside, did you have audio de-sync issues like how Sandy Bridge was originally? What about when overclocked?

I guess I will order some parts. Was hoping someone would post some promising information =/

Sources:
http://barefeats.com/wst10.html
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2205721
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/i ... _date_leak
http://legitreviews.com/news/11889/
 
What sort of booting issues do you get with HT on? Have you tried patching the AICPUPM?

Also, have you tried booting with RevoBoot instead of Chimera, and HT turned on? It suppose to have a better SB support than the current branches of Chameleon.
 
Just stumbled upon this latest video clip (from @3:50)
[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Wk4QWHjpc[/VIDEO]

It turns out there was a serious incident in Taiwan where the motherboard's MOSFET smoked, burned and exploded/penetrated. The SB-E CPU is fry'd. (Ouch!)
I will definitely keep a close eye on the latest development and as much information as possible.
Definitely eye-opening and jaw-dropping.

Update: According to the owner, he wasn't running that built in any overclock settings. He was simply stress-testing his rig to make sure things are running stable. He was about to conduct a review of the new 3D Bios feature.
(This makes perfect sense to me. Because I always make sure everything works before I screw the entire system into my case. Things get way too difficult for me to troubleshoot with my clumsy hands.)
 
LOL just look at his setup, seems like he loves overclocking things to 11 terahertz.
 
So i ended up Buying an x79 system; P9X79 and a Core i7 3930K.
Does anyone have any tips on installing? BIOS settings, kexts, bootloader and org.chameleon.Boot etc?
I tried using EasyBeast on a lion usb but i immediately get a panic! or instant reboot :sick:
 
I managed to install OS X Lion 10.7 on my setup (p9x79, Core i7 3930K, ATI 4870) and i thought i could share some instructions how to get it fully working. There are only a few cosmetic flaws with the system. The CPU shows as unknown, the sata controllers shows as unknown but so far everything works really good.

I can't remember any specific bios settings, but as usual HD's should be AHCI etc.

I Created a usb-installation with UniBeast and kept the org.chameleon.Boot.plist as:
Code: 
<key>Boot Banner</key>
	<string>No</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>-v npci=0x2000</string>
	<key>Legacy Logo</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>Instant Menu</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
After installation i installed Chameleon-2.1svn-r1573, Updated to 10.7.2 and placed the following kexts from the UniBeast usb in System/Library/Extensions on the Lion HD:
Code: 
AHCI_3rdParty_SATA.kext
EvOreboot.kext
FakeSMC.kext
NullCPUPowerManagement.kext
IONetworkingFamily.kext
and then repaired caches with Kextwizard.
Final org.chameleon.Boot.plist for the completed install:
Code: 
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
        <string>1920x1080x32</string>
	<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
	<string>npci=0x2000</string>
	<key>Legacy Logo</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
	<key>UseKernelCache</key>
	<string>Yes</string>
        <key>Timeout</key>
        <string>1</string>

Not tested:
Sound, I use and External Firewire audio interface, and onboard sound does not interest me.
USB3.0 - I haven't even bothered researching this as of yet.
Onboard firewire - I use an pci-e x1 firewire card with a TI chipset, therefore onboard not tested.
:update: 30'th december 2011

Sleep does not work
For some reason my apple keyboard does not function with Chameleon if i have my Korg midi keyboard connected.
Power management does not work, a system without a NullCPUPowerManagement.kext results in an almost instant reset at boot after chameleon.

Geekbench score at stock speeds with a p9x79, Core i7 3930K HT - ON, 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz:
15175
 
Excellent! Throw a 40% overclock (4.5GHz+) on there and you should be out-benching the fastest 12-core Mac Pros with your 6-core.

What does it get in Cinebench? Geekbench is pretty meh.
 
Sweet! Hopefully overclocking does not pose any problems with power management on this board.

Thanks for posting your required kexts. It looks like this is an incredibly easy install with no special steps even required. We'll see though. Sandy Bridge was easy to install as well, but power management, ALC892, and overclocking with native power management took a while to get working.

I have placed my order for my own 3930K build and will update once I get it working. I went with the MSI X79A-GD5 as they have generally had more Apple compliant BIOS'es of late than Gigabyte and ASUS. It also uses tried and true Realtek audio and networking that should not require anything beyond a simple DSDT edit to get working.

I'm excited!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Copyright © 2010 - 2024 tonymacx86 LLC
Back
Top