Upgrade to i7 920

Hammer2001 · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:26

In a couple of months I plan to upgrade my current PC to a i7 920 chip.

Current PC:

Case: Coolermaster 690
CPU: Intel Q6600
M/B: Asus P5k-e
Ram: 4GB 800Mhz DDR2
Graphics: ATI HD4850
Sound: Soundblaster x-Fi
2 x Sata HDD (500GB, 250GB)
Power Supply: Jeantech 600W Artic

I intend to buy the CPU, Motherboard, memory and cooler, and replace them in the same case.
I have a couple of questions:

1. To save on cost, is a cheaper motherboard such as the Asus P6T SE, good enough?
2. For the memory would CL9 be that much worse than say CL8?

I aim to overclock the i7 920, but have never done this before, is it easy for a newbie to do. Or would I be better spending the extra on an overclocked bundle from Overclockers?

Buying the cheaper components would save about £70 over the cheapest bundle deal I’ve seen. Is the bundle worth the extra cost?

I want to upgrade as I have a lot of AVCHD camcorder footage I want to edit. I find the Q6600 struggles a bit. I’m not a heavy gamer, so SLI etc doesn’t interest me.

Admiral Huddy · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:30

I would go for the Gigabyte UD3 and use this

http://lakesidepc.com/Core.i7.920.oc.4G.2008.12.12_ENG.pdf

As for the memory, the difference between 8 and 9 will show very little in real time performance.

Welcome to the Forums by the way

markiejt · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:34

tag for pdf

Hammer2001 · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:37

Thanks Admiral for the quick reply.

That guide looks great. I'll have a read and see if I can get my head around it!

Re the Gigabyte UD3, is there any big disadvantage to only have 4 ram slots?
How does that work with triple channel memory?

Admiral Huddy · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:41

Tripple channel is activated automatically when 3 slots are filled. So apart from there always being a spare slot (which is pointless) the only disadvantage is that if you upgrade from 3gig to 6gig then you'll need to replace all modules rather than just add them, like you can with the UD3s big brother the UD5. However, it's considerably more expensive. Just make sure you get 6gb from the offset then it won't be a problem. 6gig is more than enough for years to come.

UD5 also allows for 3-way SLi whereas the the UD3 allows up to two

markiejt · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:53

hmm so apart from the tri sli and 4 ram slots there is no difference? like it isnt worse to over clock? sound card same etc?

Admiral Huddy · 8 Oct 2009 at 14:56

You should have no problems getting your 920 to 4Ghz on UD3 using the guide attached.

madindehead · 8 Oct 2009 at 15:25

Admiral Huddy said:
You should have no problems getting your 920 to 4Ghz on UD3 using the guide attached.

Just remember to use slightly lower voltages than that guide recommends for the Vcore etc, as it was written for a C0 stepping chip.

Admiral Huddy · 8 Oct 2009 at 15:29

Good spot.. yes use Vcore of 1.15v. Is that what you used?

Didn't notice that, thanks.