Z790 APEX Availability Overclocking and Playtime Thread : )

[JohnAb]

The other surprising thing is that I was expecting 6G range to be worse than 5G, but in fact I'm getting a stronger signal than before. Sometimes in life, there is nothing better than raw, naked and excessive transmission power. Long live the high frequency radio spectrum. The water in my fish tank is probably boiling as I speak. Well not really, since water dipoles respond to 2.4GHz in truth. Anyway, I don't care, 6G is cool and shiny.

[kvarq]

Thank you. I set active e-cores to 0, boot time is faster and single thread performance also improved.

Now, I'm going for the big 8000!

I'll use 1.45v and 38CL for 1st attempt.

I was just curious if just enabling XMP is... stable (at least with TM5 with anta's profile, GSAT or karhu...)
Z690 apex mostly failed to do so even XMP was 6000... XMP 6400 has been an unfulfilled dream for many back then, sometimes not even booting, many times SAME kit and same processor mounted on another board (let's say EVGA's KP, MSI or Tachyon) worked perfectly fine and stable in tests...

correct me if I'm wrong, but you succeeded to run 8000 only if you disabled the E-cores, right?
well, it's not the same as deactivating hyperthreading... just sayin'...

[kvarq]

Snagged an i9-13900KS chip Pre-Order on Tuesday morning for $725.28 US.

Listed Tuesday morning for $971.99 CAD on PC-Canada.com,.. they had 200 listed for Pre-Order.

Checked back today,.. Out Of Stock, On Backorder. https://www.pc-canada.com/item/i9-13...bx8071513900ks

Geez they sold out fast.

Seems when the i9-13900KS chips arrive in stock,.. the first 200 will be sent to Pre-Orders,.. as now site says Back Ordered.

did they actually ship a KS so far???
many stores list months ahead some products, sometimes even seem available, but it's just a glitch or update error in their system

we would have seen at least some screens so far
ok, maybe not working because no bioses available, but at least some pics with the boxes )

[iBruceypoo]

I was just curious if just enabling XMP is... stable (at least with TM5 with anta's profile, GSAT or karhu...)
Z690 apex mostly failed to do so even XMP was 6000... XMP 6400 has been an unfulfilled dream for many back then, sometimes not even booting, many times SAME kit and same processor mounted on another board (let's say EVGA's KP, MSI or Tachyon) worked perfectly fine and stable in tests...

correct me if I'm wrong, but you succeeded to run 8000 only if you disabled the E-cores, right?
well, it's not the same as deactivating hyperthreading... just sayin'...

I didn't have a step by step plan on Sunday, was just having fun with new hardware. The work apps I use benefit from single-thread performance, so no need for the e-cores and greater multi-thread. I only thought disabling them might be an advantage moving into uncharted DDR5 8000 territory, I could have easily disabled the e-cores before XMP 7600, but I simply did not know how until Braegnok showed me under Advanced in bios.

Serious OC'ing for me takes all the fun out of the first 48hours of Apex ownership, especially with the good board/bad board controversy that surrounded the Z690 Apex. The very moment your new Z790 Apex passes the first few hurdles that deserves a mild celebration, and my celebration went a bit too far - was just so relieved. lol

------

Before I do any serious OC'ing I'll have a healthy grasp of the new features in bios, read over a few Raptor Lake guides and won't be having any beer.

[iBruceypoo]

This paper towel was probably not a good idea, all those paper fibers flying off, but I had no place else to rest the heavy CPU block before prepping the nickel surface and IHS with 91% IPA. This time I didn't use the Thermal Grizzly included spatula and do an even spread of the Kryonaut. I know that's what the TG instructions recommend. Yet two days prior, I used Kryonaut for the first time under a Noctua C14S air cooler with the Z590 Apex repurpose to 2ndary office rig, using the "in line with die" method straight line of Kryonaut and a dot on either side, no even spread no spatula I just let the cold plate mounting spread out the Kryonaut and got outstanding results.

So did the same with the EK CPU block coldplate 13600K and Z790 Apex, and also achieved outstanding results. Have both Noctua pastes in the parts drawer, probably won't be using them again.

Not recommending this method to anyone, simply sharing a positive experience.

[iBruceypoo]

By the way, I am now enjoying wi-fi 6E. No real-world difference in speed to be honest (as I suspected) but I have the pleasure of knowing that I have all of that 6G goodness and the router firmware is a lot better than my last Netgear router which was 10 years old. For the price of the router, I could have easily have got a mid range laptop instead lol

To be fair, my peak interweb speeds, whilst no higher than before, do occur more frequently now and latency is lower too, so I can't complain

That must be fun, I'm still using WiFi 6, without the E, lol.

By the way John, Fenix had a 20% OFF sale on torches yesterday CyberMonday deal, plus the new member account discount of 20%, a whopping 40% OFF a new torch, might still be going on today. Meant to let you know yesterday, but I couldn't get out of bed.

[JohnAb]

Thanks for the torch heads up Bruce. I did look on Amazon for discounts but nothing spectacular available on Fenix. Also, just looked on the UK Fenix site but again, prices seem about the same. I can't find any mention of a 20% discount on the UK site either but I'll continue to keep an eye out. The torch is probably on hold for the moment, at least until I clear my credit card lol.

Very pleased that your Apex is doing so well, keep up the good work. I bet you are so pleased that the first big hurdles have been passed

[Braegnok]

did they actually ship a KS so far???
many stores list months ahead some products, sometimes even seem available, but it's just a glitch or update error in their system

we would have seen at least some screens so far
ok, maybe not working because no bioses available, but at least some pics with the boxes )

The i9-13900KS was listed as Pre-Order item, they had 200 listed as arriving mid-December 2022.

They only excepted 200 pre-orders, your account is not charged till item arrives, you get an email showing charge and order processing than another email showing shipping and tracking information. You can cancel pre-order any time up to receiving processing email.

Most likely the chip will sell out quickly at Newegg US when it drops, and will sell for $200 over MSRP at launch in December.

Yes, you will need a BIOS update for Z690 and Z790 for KS support.

[JohnAb]

Funny how it goes. My PC was all up to date in April this year and already I'm a full chipset and CPU generation behind, not to mention that my GPU is no longer the fastest. That's progress lol. These faster clocking KS chips will be interesting.

Braegnok, thanks for mentioning that BIOS updates will allow the Z690 boards to use them. I hadn't even thought about that to be honest - will they still be able to support the same max clock speeds OK? Suppose I'm really asking if there is a Z790 benefit (vs. Z690) with KS chips in mind?

[iBruceypoo]

The i9-13900KS was listed as Pre-Order item, they had 200 listed as arriving mid-December 2022.

They only excepted 200 pre-orders, your account is not charged till item arrives, you get an email showing charge and order processing than another email showing shipping and tracking information. You can cancel pre-order any time up to receiving processing email.

Most likely the chip will sell out quickly at Newegg US when it drops, and will sell for $200 over MSRP at launch in December.

Yes, you will need a BIOS update for Z690 and Z790 for KS support.

Didn't think the 13900KS would launch until after CES like Feb/Mar, thought I'd have some time with the 13600K, I'm not ready for a CPU upgrade yet.

You're gonna come in here with the a new Z790 board, 13900KS running 6.2Ghz daily and that new Gskill 8000 kit running 8600MT/s stable - I can't keep up with you bro. lol

https://www.gskill.com/product/165/3...48H16GX2-TZ5RK