i7 setup

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:33

Hi all, from another thread, I'm fearing my CPU and motherboard may be dead

Looking at going for an i7 setup.

Ideally I need to go to a store local to me as I won't be able to get it sorted till next week otherwise, so this has made me choose the following as they are in stock. although there are others so your advice is welcome.

i7 920 DO
Gigabyte EX58-UDR3
Corsair dominator 1600mhz

I want it to be crossfire compatable
I have no idea what is the best ram for an I7 setup? that memory has a latency of 8-8-8-24 is that good? is 1600 the ram to go for?

Thanks

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:37

i have that mobo and cpu with team xtreem 1866 ram 9-9-9-26 and its very quick at video rendering and appears very stable. i would suggest getting an aftermarket cooler fot it as the stock one is shocking, i had to lower the vcore to 1.10 to stop it overheating, which seems common.

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:39

ok thanks, I noticed the 920 sais memory upto 1333? so is anymore pointless? Sorry this seems to of gone more to memory than motherboard now

I would get a aftermarket cooler, as I take it my tuniq tower won't fit.

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:44

i did a lot of asking before i bought it and apparently the i7 seems to be more stable if its not matched with the ram, ie the ram is faster, so its best to get whatever is in your budget out of the 1600 and 1866 as performance wise will be very little difference.
as for the mobo i was told that the UD5 was a substantially better mobo, but it was just out of my price range, and to be honest, the UD3R is a very decent board, so i for one have no regrets.

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:46

I can also get the EX58-UD5 and the Asus Rampage II Gene Intel X5

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:49

i have heard the asus rampage is a good board, until it goes wrong and then the rma process is long and frustrating.
if your budget stretches to the UD5 then i would go through the specs of both and see if any of the extras would be on any benefit to you.

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:50

at work we only deal with gigabyte and biostar and i must admit we have had no problems at all with the rma process for either.

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:55

Thanks for the responses, Noticed the rampage is mATX do don't really want that. I believe I can stretch to the UD5 which looks like the best option and has some very good reviews. Just need to look at ram now

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:57

for ram, again, from reading around, dont get hung up too much on brand names, go for whatever is in your price range. mine isnt a big brand, and i notice no performance loss at all because of it.

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:59

ok looks like its going to be the Corsair Dominator 6GB

SO finally, what CPU cooler is the bee's nee's for overclocking?

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 23:00

the H50 if you case will take it seems to be the weapon of choice at the moment.

coxmattycox · 18 Jan 2010 at 23:15

Not sure if I really like the sound of water. I'm thinking the
Noctua NH-U12 is the best non water?

paradisiac · 18 Jan 2010 at 23:18

not sure as i dont have the funds at the moment to upgrade mine so im still in research process.
from what i have learnt the H50 isnt really water, its very basic and pretty much fool proof.

Andydigital · 19 Jan 2010 at 11:58

The Noctua Nh-D14 seems to be the new weapon of choice in the air cooling arena if you have the room for it and memory that doesn't have tall coolers on it like the old Reapers did for example.