Tight space for RAM under NH-D14 ...

Nevertheless so did I manage to OC the cheap low profile(needed) RAM to 2000MHz/CL11, matching some much more expensive OC-RAM with giant heatspreaders. A view of the cramped space:

Long since running SuperPi, this is what a modern machines achieves ...

Core i7 4790K@4.9GHz:

Basic settings in Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility for 4.9GHz+ clock ...

After playing Skyrim for 2+ hours ...

... in 2560x1440 Ultra settings and almost 10 mods active, things looks good with temps and voltages ,at almost 5GHz. HWMonitor screenie below:

Repost to remember I still use vinyl, sometimes ...

CPU-Z

http://valid.x86.fr/7q0pab

The largest cooler that would fit was ...

Noctua NH-D14, the old behemoth, I would rather have used a Noctua NH-D15 but it is too big. Anway, it shaved -10C off from the Hyper 212 Evo both in idle and load. Good for a sustainable high overclock, only thing not really good is the fans not being PWM but I guess one cant get it all. At least they are ok silent.

A quick look inside my cramped Linux-box case:

4900MHz is fine as well ...

Looks like I won the chip lottery, 4.8GHz is a breeze with my sample of the Core i7 4790K!

Its rock solid, but a bit on the warm side in full load so if I really want to run this setting 24/7 I have to invest in some better cooling than my cheap Hyper 212. Nice it is anyway  :)

Upgraded my Linux box ....

Nothing groundbreaking on the PC hardware horizon, but I wanted a little better performance from my Linux box running lots of virtualization and compiling. I was tempted by socket 2011-3 or socket 1151 with Skylake. But in both cases I would need a new motherboard and new RAM, and in the 2011-3 case I would need better cooling as well. Expensive for not much better performance, so if I cant get much better performance even if I pay up, why not settle for only slightly better performance but way cheaper?

My Linux box was running a Core i5 4570S which has been great, but struggling in some cases, particlarly virtualization performance. I use an old Z87 board from Asus, which CAN run the newer and unlocked  Devils Canyon CPU:s(i7 4790K/i5 4690K). But only if updating bios through Windows using a special Asus utility, just updating bios the normal way wont work as Intel Management Engine has to be updated as well,and that part can only be done through Windows. If not, the new bios will work, but not with the Devils Canyon CPU:s.

So, I had to install Windows and update bios using Asus special 4th gen Intel Core CPU update utility in Windows. Bad luck I used Windows 10, since the Intel MEI in Windows 10 is too new for the update utility, but I managed to downgrade MEI through some hoops and in the end use the utility. Everything went well.

Now, in with the i7 4790K I had bought, and by a miracle it booted! Nice, using  a motherboard as old as the Asus Z87-A to gain contemporary performance. This means my Linux hacking box will be slightly faster than my even older gaming PC(i7 2600K @ 4.8GHz). A thought would be to use it as gaming PC instead, but no big idea as they are practically equal in performance with their respective generation i7:s, The 2600K box has much better cooling, closed loop water cooling. It will continue its duty. Anyway, nice to max out the old box for 300€ instead of the 600-1000€ the 2011-3 or 1151 alternatives would have costed. Performance is certainly equal with at least the 1151 alternative, since the 4790K easily can be overclocked to at 4.6GHz which I did at first run. To get higher I definetely need better cooling, but 4.6GHZ looks stable enough using the cheap Hyper 212 cooler from Cooler Master.

Some benchmarks, YES its besting the brand new 6700K in CPU-Z bench:

My Galaxy S5 running Android 6.0.1, thanks to Cyanogenmod ...