i7 with 12GB RAM

MarcusCatterall

MarcusCatterall

MarcusCatterall

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Joined
19 Aug 2008
Posts
9
Hi,

I've currently got a C2Q Q9550 @ 3.4GHz w/ 8GB, and have an opportunity to sell this for an i7 920 setup.

I realise 12GB is more than most people need, but I need the extra RAM for virtual machines and development purposes, and I'd rather not drop back to 6GB with the i7 set up - is 12GB possible?

I'd want to overclock so I'm thinking 1600 speed would be best, but heard that 12GB with 1600 is not possible.. yet?

Anyone have a 12GB setup?

Thanks,
Marcus
 
I have no experience but I know you can buy 12GB (6x2GB) 1600mhz triple channel kits so I would assume that it would work otherwise there would be no point in selling them surely.
 
I'm building a 12gig i7 920 D0 machine in the next 2 weeks for a friend who can't be persuaded off the idea - as he has no need for it.

I too have read it's not easy/possible to get it running at 1600 so i'm just content getting his system stable at 1333Mhz or over if possible.

My other concern is that it will restrict his/your clocking cababilty - as he's hoping to get i965 speeds - but i think that he's going to be restricted with 12 gig using up all the slots.

When are you building yours? If it's after my intended build i'll post back and let you know how i've got on.
 
CaseyChaos said:
I have no experience but I know you can buy 12GB (6x2GB) 1600mhz triple channel kits so I would assume that it would work otherwise there would be no point in selling them surely.
Click to expand...

At the moment - all/most motherboards advertised state that any memory running over 1333MHz as 'overclocked' so it's not guaranteed to run dedicated memory over 1333Mhz at their dedicated speed. But if you're using just 6 gig it's very attainable...

Unfortunately, using 12gig makes it very difficult to try and reach these speeds as using all the slots stresses the NB and the motherbords potential stability when clocked. But using higher frequency memory obviously gives you a bit more flexibilty...
 
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i have 12gb 1600mhz ram and my i7 920 @ 3.8 runs like lightning coupled with 3 vertex ssd's! 12gb is very good. just dont forget to get 64bit :)
 
Thanks Plec, I haven't decided whether to stick with what I have or not yet.
I'm still researching...

That's good to hear Swiftlegend, what memory do you have?
To achieve 3.8, you have the bclk at 190 - is that right?
I'm interested to know what your other BIOS settings are - I'm looking to get the Asus P6T or P6T Dlx v2.

Thanks,
Marcus
 
MarcusCatterall said:
Thanks Plec, I haven't decided whether to stick with what I have or not yet.
I'm still researching...
Click to expand...

Np, Marcus hope some of it was of some use - but it looks like Swiftlegend holds a lot of the answers - probably within his spec... (That is a very solid rig)

Swiftlegend said:
i have 12gb 1600mhz ram and my i7 920 @ 3.8 runs like lightning coupled with 3 vertex ssd's! 12gb is very good. just dont forget to get 64bit :)
Click to expand...

Jesus, Swiftlegend that is some spec with 3 SSD's - very envious. (Did you RAID 5 them?)

Have you managed to ge the full 1600MHz out of your memroy too with that clock? (are you using water?)

If you don't mind could you name your mobo and memroy - i may source the same components?

Additional: WHat are your key voltages and did you have up the NB by much?

Edit: Sorry, i've asked a lot of questions there - but i've been researching this build for a couple of weeks now and you're the first person i've come across using 12 gig and reached a credible clock. I'm in awe if you got 1600MHz too out of your memory. With that in mind, any, tips would be greatly recieved.
 
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Getting 12GB stable @ 1600MHz is not easy, especially with the older C0 chips. The problem stems from the memory controller on the CPU. If you have a CPU with a strong memory controller then it is possible but it may have an effect on the stability of the CPU itself and how far it will overclock.
Increasing QPI voltage sometimes helps stabilising memory problems.
 
MarcusCatterall said:
Hi,

I've currently got a C2Q Q9550 @ 3.4GHz w/ 8GB, and have an opportunity to sell this for an i7 920 setup.

I realise 12GB is more than most people need, but I need the extra RAM for virtual machines and development purposes, and I'd rather not drop back to 6GB with the i7 set up - is 12GB possible?

I'd want to overclock so I'm thinking 1600 speed would be best, but heard that 12GB with 1600 is not possible.. yet?

Anyone have a 12GB setup?

Thanks,
Marcus
Click to expand...

I have a 12GB i7 setup, runs great :)
 
DF1986, I'm going to quote myself with the reply i gave Swiftlegend, and ask if you wouldn't mind answering the following:

Thanks

Plec said:
Have you managed to ge the full 1600MHz out of your memroy too with that clock? (are you using water?)

If you don't mind could you name your mobo and memroy - i may source the same components?

Additional: WHat are your key voltages and did you have up the NB by much?

Edit: Sorry, i've asked a lot of questions there - but i've been researching this build for a couple of weeks now and you're the first person i've come across using 12 gig and reached a credible clock. I'm in awe if you got 1600MHz too out of your memory. With that in mind, any, tips would be greatly recieved.
Click to expand...
 
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DF1986 said:
I have a 12GB i7 setup, runs great :)
Click to expand...

Did you ever run your computer with 6GB of ram? If so, was there much of performace increase going from 6 to 12? Because I resently upgraded to a i7 with 6GB from a q6600 with 8GB of ram and was wondering if its worth me getting and extra 6GB.
 
@Swiftlegend and DF1986, seems like you guys have made good progress. I have 12Gb Corsair Dominator 1600 and i7 920 D0 and cannot get this stable. Spent a week on it so far.

Can you share all you relevant BIOS settings?

Also, are you air cooled? What temps do you reach in prime95?

TIA
 
Thanks Marcus, i have read it but it's a useful link to post for others who haven't.

I've opted to get two sets of the OCZ Blade Series 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000 - link - as you've probably read about in the other thread. The reasoning is that i only want to achieve 1600MHz and this memory will give me the flexibilty i need and it's been proven to achieve this in at least 2 boards and both attained high cpu overclocks.

However i'm thinking of holding off my build until the single PCB gtx 295 comes out as it suits my needs far more for future third party coolers. It's believed to be coming out at the end of May...
 
Hi everyone :) I'm new here. I was looking around on Google and came across this thread which seemed relevant to my queries. I'll be building a rig for myself in the coming month or two :D

Intel Core i7-950 3.06GHz
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard
Western Digital 500GB + 1TB + 1TB HDDs
Gigabyte GTX 285 1GB graphics card
Antec P193 Case
LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD/DVD combo drive
Viewsonic VX2433WM monitor
Windows 7 RC x64

Now I'm gonna be getting 12GB RAM as well, namely tri-channel OCZ Reaper 1600MHz. So here are my questions:

1) Is there any real performance gain with 12GB RAM? I'll be using my rig mainly for development, gaming, some photoshop stuff and running a couple of VMs (the VMs would be running simultaneously almost all the time). However my question is aimed from a non-VMing point of view.

2) Is there any difference in performance with 1600MHz RAM when compared to 1066MHz or 1333MHz? I was mainly aiming for 1333MHz RAM but the OCZ Reapers don't go below 1600MHz in tri-channel configuration (just chose those sticks because they seemed to be good for running the RAM cooler).

3) I don't really intend to overclock my parts but how much would be required to get the RAM to run at atleast 1333MHz if not 1600MHz?

There's another question I have which doesn't belong to this thread but I have no idea where to post it, so please redirect me to the right thread and sorry for posting an off-topic thread here.

Q) Does the i7-950 support VT-d (Virtualization Technology with Directed I/O)? The outgoing 920, 940 and even the 965XE support it but there's no mention of it in relation to the 950 or the 975XE.

Any comments or suggestions about my rig are also welcome :)

Thanks guys! Keen to hear from you~

(sorry for the long post btw :p)
 
Hi, state4plasma welcome to the forums.

I've yet to build the rig i mentioned in above posts as i'm waitng for the single PCB 295's to come out before i process the order...

I'm building it for a friend and have tried to talk him out of getting 12 gig as, at the moment, there's very little gain for the outlay - but i'm sure there would be perceptible speed differenced if you looked hard enough.

If it were my rig i would get a small SSD for the money instead and put the OS and essential apps on it - you would really see the speed benefits for your extra outlay.

As for your 1333 and 1600 dilemma - i would go for the cheaper option, if money was tight, as again speed differences would be very negligible. The only reason i've selected the 1600MHz sticks is that hopefully it will give me a bit more flexibilty when overclocking the cpu.

Having said that - the price difference between some sets of 1333 and 1600 tri-sets are pretty small – so you may as well get the extra speed if you can afford it. Again, even if you're not clocking the cpu it still gives you a bit more flexibility if you're having stability issues in that you can underclock the memory - and still be running at respectable speeds (this only really applies to the 12 gig option - i would expect 6 gig to run at top whack at stock speeds.)

Obviously, the above is personal opinion - but you could get another 6 gig later when its cheaper and in the mean time have a laugh booting windows up in seconds and opening WORD in under a second - i doubt that would ever get old. This is the SSD that most ppl rate - link - if you were interested.



state4plasma said:
Q) Does the i7-950 support VT-d (Virtualization Technology with Directed I/O)? The outgoing 920, 940 and even the 965XE support it but there's no mention of it in relation to the 950 or the 975XE.
Click to expand...

Can't answer that one and, if one doesn't come your way, you might want to try a separate thread on the CPU forum - someone their should be able to enlighten you.
 
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