Increasingly, we see comments in the spirit of “i7 easily take 5 GHz, and you gave only 4.5”. Or "4.6 GHz is not a question for Core i3". We decided to show why the processors Intel Do not drive up to 5 GHz in stock, tell in detail about the scalping procedure and evaluate its expediency.
Test stand
We took all the iron to Citylink. The processor is the most discussed by today Core i7-8700K.
Technical characteristics of Intel Core i7 8700k
Technician: 14 Nm
SOCKET: LGA 1151V2
Nuclei/flows: 6/12
L3-Cash: 12 Mb
Frequency: 3.7–4.7 GHz
Memory channels: 2
Type of memory: DDR4-2666
Built -in graphics: Intel UHD 630
PCI Express 3 lines.0: 16
TDP: 95 watts
Price for April 2018: 24,500 rubles ($ 420)
Motherboard – Asus Rog Maximus X Hero. All with her: high-quality power subsystem, a lot of useful settings in BIOS, developed cooling system, post-indictor and set of buttons for basic control. And most importantly – stable work!
Technical characteristics of Asus Rog Maximus X Hero
Chipset : Intel Z370
SOCKET : Socket 1151
Form factor: ATX (305 x 244) cm
RAM: 4x DIMM, DDR4-4133, up to 64 GB
PCIe slots: 3x PCIEX16, 3X PCIEX1
Disk subsystem: 2x m.2, 6x SATA III 6GB/S
Sound subsystem : 7.1 HD (Realtek Alc S1220a)
Net : 1 Gbit Ethernet (Intel i219V)
Panel Input / conclusion : USB BIOS Flashback and Clear CMOS, DisplayPort, HDMI, 2X USB 2 buttons.0, 4x USB 3.0, 2x USB 3.1 (Type-A + Type-C), RJ-45, S/P-DIF output, 5x jack 3.5 mm
Price for April 2018: 17 500 rubles ($ 300)
The cooler for the processor was chosen liquid, with two 120 mm fans-DeepCool Maelstrom 240.
Technical characteristics DeepCool WaterCooler Maelstrom 240
Type : He
Supported Sokets : Intel LGA20XX/LGA1366/LGA115X, AMD AM4/AM3+/AM2+/AM2/FM2+/FM2/FM1
Fan: 2x 120 mm (600–2200 rpm, 182 CFM, 30,000 hours, 182–39 DBA)
Type of connection: 4-pin
Radiator: Aluminum, 274 × 120 × 17 mm
Pump: 2800 rpm
Pipe length: 310 mm
Weight: 1.1 kg
Price for April 2018: 4300 rubles ($ 75)
RAM was taken with a standard Hyperx Fury Black set for 16 gigabytes.
Technical characteristics Kingston Hyperx Fury Black Hx421C14FB2K2/16
Type: DDR4
Volume: 2x 8 GB
Supported frequencies: 2133 MHz
Delays: 14-14-14-28
Standard voltage: 1.2 c
Price for April 2018: 13,000 rubles ($ 225)
Since the processor will accelerate, the top card was chosen – MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z with a huge air cooler, spectacular backlight and decent frequencies under load.
Technical characteristics MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z
Core: GP104
Technician: 16 Nm
Stream processors: 2816
Texture blocks: 176
Rasterization blocks: 96
Frequency: 1607–1683 MHz
Memory: 8 GB, 7010 MHz
Energy consumption: 250 watts
Price for April 2018: 60,000 rubles ($ 1035)
An 850-vat Accord Gold ACC-850W was sent to food. The model is not the most modern in filling, but it will suit us.
Technical characteristics Accord Gold ACC -850 W
Form factor : ATX
Power: 850 watts
Fan: 140 mm
Lines: +3.3 V: 20 A, +5 B: 20 A (+5 and +3.3 load up to 120 W), +12 V: 70 A
SATA: 7
PCI-E: 3
Dimensions: 150x86x160 mm
Price for April 2018: 7500 rubles ($ 130)
And finally, two pieces were taken-the classic Black-teutheral WD1003FZEX and a strongholder of the Blue WDS250G2B0A series, which is positioned both by a reliable and productive SATA solution for both the office and for games.
Technical characteristics WD Black WD1003Fzex
Form factor: 3.5 ’’
Volume: 1 TB
Interface : SATA III 6 Gb/S
Buffer: 64 MB
Spindle rotation speed: 7200 rpm
Thickness: 26 mm
Price for April 2018: 4810 rubles ($ 85)
Technical characteristics WD Blue WDS250G2B0A
Interface : SATA III 6 Gb/S
Form factor: 2.5 ’’
Capacity: 250 GB
Type of memory: 3D TLC
Controller: Marvell 88SS1074
The declared reading speed: 550 MB/s
The declared recording speed: 525 MB/s
Price for April 2018: 5600 rubles ($ 95)
Here we will make a reservation: it was this model that was taken to just evaluate the novelty. We liked the results. The disk gave out almost 500 MB for recording and reading and equally well shown itself on both small and large files.
Acceleration to scalp
We move on to practice. The temperatures without overclocking are not bad: 35 degrees in simple, 50 under load and 70 under stress tests. Try to disperse a stone without a scalp. We increase the frequency to 4.8 GHz and rest over the load under the load already at a voltage of 1.215 V – 90 degrees. Is there any option to take 5 GHz? No, the temperature grows with an increase in voltage and the frequency does not increase. There are two outputs: roll back to 4.7–4.8 GHz to lower the temperature, or scalp and change the thermal interface. We choose the second option.
Scalping
There is not so much for scalp. Vice, replaceable knife blades, a building hairdryer, degreasing, several toothproofproists, a large clothespin, a liner -free car sealant, superclly, thermal interface “Liquid metal” (Coollaboatory Liquid Pro), form for the processor and – most importantly – straight hands.
The cover is glued to the underwear. In the old days, they used thin blades, cutting the sealant, but the substrates of modern processors are very thin, the cover is massive, and therefore the deformations of the substrate with the subsequent breakdown of the processor are inevitable. Now the lid separation is performed by shift: it is required to shift the lid relative to the substrate in the horizontal plane. It is extremely important to attach a shift force strictly horizontally, without distortions. This requires a form. It excludes all sorts of displacements during scalping and constructed so as to evenly distribute the loads – very significant – to the ends of the substrate and cover. The form can be bought on the Internet or printed on a 3D printer, but we decided to make on our own out of plywood.
Yes, it looks a collective farm, but the appearance on running qualities does not affect – two processors have already passed through it successfully, today's copy will be the third. There is no complicated shape in the design, according to the principle of operation, it looks like a drawer of the table. The main point is to accurately adjust all the details of the internal and external parts so as to exclude the movement of the processor inside the form.
Before scalping, slowly heat the processor cover with a building hairdryer to 70–80 degrees, this will slightly reduce the strength of the sealant. We set the temperature control at 100-130 degrees, periodically controlling the heating of the lid.
After laying the processor in the form, centering it in a vice and begin to slowly and evenly shift the lips.
A deaf click announces the successful separation of the lid. It is clearly visible a layer of standard thermal paste, reminiscent of slightly soaked plaster.
We will replace it with CoolLaboratory Liquid Pro liquid metal, its thermal conductivity is much higher than that of the usual thermal paste from Thermalright, Noctua, Arctic Cooling and other respected vendors.
But before that we will carry out a number of treatment and cleaning events.
First we will help ourselves – from the outside along the prints of the crystal circuit on a thermal package we draw a sharp end of the blade. Allowance – millimeter, minimum pressure. This scratched rectangle is very useful when applying a new thermal interface.
Rinse the standard thermal grease with a napkin moistened in gasoline, degreaser or solvent. We remove the remains of black sealant with a blade, and here we need the ultimate accuracy – under a thin layer of varnish on the substrate thin conductors, the damage of which is unacceptable. Therefore, it is important to use new blades with an ideal cutting edge and control the direction of the cut.
It recommends for preventive purposes to check the gap between the lid and the base – ideally there should be a couple of tenths of a millimeter around the entire perimeter, and the lid should hang on the crystal. If the gap is uneven or at some points is absent, straighten the lid on the wide file or sandpaper “five hundred” laid down on glass.
Without fanaticism – you need to remove obvious irregularities plus the tenth fraction of a millimeter.
Protect contacts on the substrate from random contact with liquid metal. You can do this with superglue or varnish, a small drop will be enough. For quick drying, we use a building hairdryer configured to a minimum temperature.
Liquid metal. It is applied to both mating surfaces, carefully cleaned and low -fat. The consumption is minimal, liquid metal is evenly distributed over the surfaces with a syringe needle or a tiny cotton swab. It is important to achieve almost complete wetting over the entire area of the crystal.
Now the turn of the sealant. Once again, degrease the perimeter of the cover of the lid and substrate, apply sealant with a toothpick. Layer thickness – about a millimeter. There is no need to pile up a lot.
The last crucial moment has come. We carefully check the layer of liquid metal for the absence of the slightest pollution, the correct orientation of the cover relative to the crystal and combine them. The first clamp – fingers, strictly along the vertical axis through the geometric center of the crystal. We control the side gaps – the lid should not move off the substrate. This, of course, is more convenient to make a centering pad, which can be cut out of any dense material in advance, but we cost our own eye.
Next-a clamp for a day with a clamp or a clothespin with a force of a kilogram and a half, directed strictly through the geometric center of the crystal. To protect the capacitors on the reverse side of the processor, it is convenient to use one of the parts of the form, it has an appropriate neckline.
Sealant speed – millimeter per day. All this time, periodic control of the cover of the cover relative to the substrate is important, after installation in the socket through it, a clamping force will be transmitted.
After 24–36 hours, you can already put the processor in the connector. Why not use the socket immediately to press? When clicking the bracket, the edge of the external metal frame tends to move the lid. The frozen sealant easily resists the effort, while on the liquid the lid will “swim”.
Acceleration after scalp
The result is evident. At 4.8 GHz, the temperature in BIOS is only a degree above room. Moreover, 1.21 V is enough to conquer this frequency, and the temperature under load is 60 degrees. And this means that you can move on, to the treasured 5 GHz.
Our stone took them at 1.245 V, the maximum temperature is only 63 degrees. Having frozen the radiator of the cooler, we threw off the temperature for another 15 degrees and were able to meet 1.235 V, which is generally perfect for the processor.
Test results
Let's now see what it gave us. In the Games, the average FPS compared to the drain grew by only 2%. Minimum, except for an abnormal jump in For Honor, rose to three.
With applications not everything is smooth. Those that can use 12 flows received 10–20% of performance. Those who do not know how – 1-4%. Why? The difference was compensated by the built -in Turbo Boost, which raises the frequency to 4.5–4.7 GHz.
For most scenarios scalp, the top processor is not needed, there are enough basic frequencies for games and working tasks. Moreover, under a good cooler, normal temperatures are also obtained.
When it is worth changing thermal main? Когда вам критичны плюс 10–15% производительности и ради них вы готовы потерять гарантию и рискнуть жизнью процессора. In other cases, we do not advise doing this, since there is still a risk. And even if the process itself is simple and inexpensive, during a scalp you can bend the substrate, cut the paths, split the crystal itself, pull the capacitors, poorly apply the thermal interface and much more.
Ask the questions in the comments, write whether you scalp your processors and are engaged in acceleration.
Well, we express gratitude to Citinit and Western Digital for the equipment provided for tests.
System configuration
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K
Coler DeepCool Maelstrom 240
Motherboard Asus Rog Maximus X Hero
RAM 2x DDR4-2133 8 GB Kingston Hyperx Fury Black Series HX421C14FB2K2/16
Video card MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z
Drum 1 SSD WDS250G2B0A-00SM50 240 GB
Drum 2 HDD WD1003FZEX-00K3CA0 1TB
power unit Accord Gold ACC-850W-80G 850W
The dependence of the processor temperature on the thermal interface and the supply voltage
The voltage on the processor (VCORE) i7-8700K regular thermal gun i7-8700K @ 4.8 GHz regular thermal mopast i7-8700K liquid metal i7-8700K @ 4.8 GHz liquid metal
1.2 in 76 – 55 59
1.21 in 77 – 55 60
1.215 in 79 89 56 61
1.22 in 79 90 56 61
1.225 in 80 92 56 61
1.23 in 80 94 57 62
1.235 in 82 97 57 62
1.24 in 84 99 57 62
1.245 in 85 99 58 63
1.25 in 86 99 58 63
The dependence of the power consumption of the system with 8700K @ 5 GHz in Prime95 from VCORE
Voltage on the processor (VCORE) PC power consumption
1.2 in 179 watts
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1.235 in 184 watts
1.275 in 220 watts
1.295 in 228 watts
1.315 in 235 watts
1.335 in 249 watts
Game tests (AVG. Fps / min. Fps)
Battlefield 1
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 134 /123 137 /125 138 /128
Ultra 121 /107 123 /112 125 /115
1920 x 1080
High 174 /155 176 /159 178 /160
Ultra 157 /144 159 /150 161 /151
Total War: Warhammer II
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 102/93 104 /96 104 /94
Ultra 79 /72 79 /73 79 /72
1920 x 1080
High 153 /139 153 /136 153 /136
Ultra 112 /102 112 /101 112 /102
For Honor
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 146 /81 154 /127 157 /125
Very High 119 /77 127 /103 130 /105
1920 x 1080
High 242 /116 242 /189 240 /190
Very High 182 /91 186 /145 186 /147
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
Very High 86 /74 87 /77 87 /77
Ultra 58 /51 58 /49 59 /51
1920 x 1080
Very High 111 /98 111 /97 111 /96
Ultra 72 /63 73 /61 72 /63
Dirt 4
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 208 /177 211 /189 214 /188
Ultra 151 /125 153 /124 153 /126
1920 x 1080
High 216 /177 223 /191 228 /194
Ultra 194 /162 196 /165 196 /167
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 126 /107 133 /122 135 /123
Ultra 95 /81 95 /87 96 /87
1920 x 1080
High 144 /140 143 /139 144 /140
Ultra 139 /119 140 /125 138 /126
Mass Effect: Andromeda
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
2560 x 1440
High 138 /116 140 /121 141 /122
Ultra 94 /79 95 /80 95 /80
1920 x 1080
High 147 /127 147 /125 148 /125
Ultra 137 /112 137 /112 137 /112
Processor tests
3DS Max 2017
Scene rendering (V-ray), C (less-better)
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
211 180 177
Photoshop CS6
Filtering, C (less – better)
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
155 140 137
Media Coder .264
MPEG2> MPEG4 coding (H.264), (less – better)
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
129 122 117
Cinebench R15
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
1370 1535 1614
7zip
Rate, Mips
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
38320 41579 43166
Winrar 5.10
Archive speed, design bureau/s
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
16384 16772 17409
Corona 1.3
Rending time, C (less – better)
i7-8700K i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHz i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
152 138 133
V-ray Benchmark
Rending time, C (less – better)
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
93 83 78
Zbrush 4R7 P3
Rending time (Best, 4x SS), C (less – better)
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
109 96 93
Processor tests
Svpmark 3.0.3
Performance index
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
Decode Video 28 28,23
Vector Search 3 3.36 3.47
Frame Composition 5.63 5.63 5.61
Geekbench 4.2.0
Performance index
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
Multi-Core CPU 23338 24964 25995
AES (Multi-Core) 14434 14973 14612
SPECWPC 2.1
Performance index
i7-8700k i7-8700k @ 4.8 GHC i7-8700k @ 5 GHz
Media and Entertainment 3.02 3.26 3.31
Product Development 2.05 2.16 2.18