My Time With A Friend's Skylake Gaming Rig

"Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura" (sundowne36)
01/13/2016 at 19:20 • Filed to: None

This could only be summed up with two words and a straight face laced with absolute anger and malevolence that would make Gordon Ramsay run for the hills while screaming in fear:

Never. Again.

Now, where do I start with this damn thing (apart from a faulty HDD adapter)? Let’s see:

1. It can’t sort out Graphics drivers as if its life depended on it.

Now, unless you’re AMD, installing a driver for your graphics card (my 980 is also thrown into the mix) is a fairly simple task; download, click, install. Nothing else.

Easy, right?

Except this rig completely butchers that process and leaves you with a crippled driver that would make any Overclocker weep blood.

2. Why the hell is it so hot?

With this being out for quite some time now and given that this is Intel, you would expect the CPU not to be so absurdly overworked and overheating.

Yeah, even with an AIO watercooler, that’s not the case.

I basically placed my hand over where the air would be blown out from the computer and found that it’s rather warmer than my old i7-4790K test bench with a similar AIO unit - what? Does make a nice heater, but I’m not looking for a heating unit, but a machine capable of overclocking.

Needless to say, I’m about ready to send this back for a refund, but the company asked me to bring it back up for service because of the issue in numero uno. Let’s see.

DISCUSSION (11)

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/13/2016 at 19:31

Sounds like there’s something seriously wrong with it.

What are the specs?

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
01/13/2016 at 19:52

CPU: Intel Skylake LGA1151 i7-6700K Quad Core 4.0 GHz

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3

RAM: 2x8GB Kingston HyperX Fury BLACK DDR4-2400 (16GB total)

GPU: NVidia GeForce GTX 980 (Reference design)

HDD: WD Red 2TB HDD

SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB

PSU: Ultra 550W 80+ Gold

Let me know if you need any more.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/13/2016 at 19:56

What’s being used to cool the CPU? And is it overclocked? Also what temperatures is “hot”?

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
01/13/2016 at 19:58

Not sure of the cooler, but it’s one of those AIO 120mm liquid coolers, and it’s not currently overclocked.

And about “hot”, normally, my room would be absurdly cold but the air coming out through the AIO was a lot more warmer than usual. My guess with the air temperature? 77*F upon feeling that air coming out.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/13/2016 at 20:04

That’s not that hot. If you use something to read the temperatures on the die anything under ~170°F should be fine at 100% load. Also, if it’s not throttling the performance there’s no need to be worried.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
01/13/2016 at 20:10

Well, it’s not throttling but the driver issue has been a bit of a pain in my si-

Oh, FFS.

Tohru > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/13/2016 at 20:18

As someone who ran an Ultra LS600 power supply for 4 years on an overclocked rig, I would suggest swapping that out. The EVGA 750 G2 is based on a Superflower design and is one of the best PSUs at that price point.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/13/2016 at 20:19

What have you tried already to fix the driver issue?

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Tohru
01/13/2016 at 20:28

Initially, I planned on using my Thermaltake Toughpower 875 but if I had to swap it out, I’d have to undo quite a lot of cable management, and I wasn’t sure if my friend was a bit lenient on undoing that.

Thanks for not using a module capable of being easily swapped out, Ultra.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest.
01/13/2016 at 20:29

Completely uninstalling the old driver - didn’t work

May have to restore Windows completely.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura
01/18/2016 at 12:44

The stock retail HSFs on Intel CPUs are more than sufficient if you’re not OC’ing to the moon, which is laughably pointless these days. The processor hasn’t been a bottleneck for quite some time.

Why are they running a shitty HDD (designed for use in an array in a NAS box)? Get an SSD and it’ll wake that computer up instantly.

They should also be running a higher-wattage PSU.