Quick spec check...

RichieUK

RichieUK

RichieUK

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Joined
9 Jul 2004
Posts
622
Location
Darlington
Been wanting to upgrade for a while but kept putting it off for some reason. But since my current machine (skt 939 3500+, 2gb RAM, ATI 1900xt) failed this morning, the time seems right.

I'm wanting something that will last a few years. I don't play many PC games anymore since i got a 360, but would like to play the occasional game (monitor res 1920x1200).

Anyway this is what i have come up with after reading a few similar price range specs -

(im using my brothers notepad atm running Knoppix, so i hope this pic isn't too small cos this screen is really small)

screenshotzi.png


Ermm, yeah thats about it. I have HDDs, a DVD-RW drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse and a X-Fi soundcard so ill be reusing these aswel

Cheers for any input.

Oh and btw, does anyone know what accessories (cables and things) you get with this motherboard?
 
cmndr_andi said:
I would suggest going for this motherboard instead. It doesn't have USB3 or SATA 6G (which IMHO is badly implemented on current P55 boards), but it does have x8x8 crossfire - unlike the board above.

Also, please bear in mind that a i7 920 CPU is currently £15 more than the i5 750 and a good X58 board is £26 more than the one you were initially going for. This means that an i7 920/X58 spec costs a mere £41 more than a i5/P55 one. If you feel you can justify the extra outlay, I would certainly recommend this course of action.

An X58 system will work fine with dual channel memory like the stuff you specified, however it can also support triple channel memory which provides even more bandwidth - plus these kits cost less per GB than the 4GB ones. This is a good kit
Click to expand...

Hello. I have just added the items you suggested (CPU,MOBO+RAM) and that's still fine for my budget. What the biggest advantage of the i7 920 route over the i5 750? Will things in general be faster or is it more for future proofing?

Thanks
 
cmndr_andi said:
In gaming, there is no performance difference between the CPUs. However, in CPU heavy applications the i7 920 is faster due to hyperthreading. Here is a comparision of the two chips in several tests.

Also, the i7/X58 combo is better for overclocking. It is easier to overclock on an i7 920 than a i5 750 and the i7 requires far less volts.

All X58 boards do x16x16 crossfire as a minimum, meanwhile almost all P55 boards are only x8x8 or worse. The performance hit of PCIe v2 x8x8 is pretty small at the moment - but as more powerful cards come along it is concievable that it will become saturated quicker than a PCIe v2 x16x16. Therefore, an X58 system will be able to work well with multi-GPU configurations further into the future.

X58 also can use triple channel memory - so the theoretical memery bandwidth is much higher than a P55. However, nothing really uses this at the moment - but its nice to have.

Finally, Intel are keeping the X58 platform as their top-end platform until Q3 2011 and they will be releasing cheaper non-EE 32nm Hex cores for the X58 later this year - so there is an upgrade option should you wish to take it.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the info. I tend to keep systems for 2 or 3 years before major upgrades so i think i'll be going the i7 route. I'll probably be ordering in a bit unless anyone else has any input on anything? :p
 
Fallen god said:
For the price difference between i7 and i5 i think its really worth it, sure you wont see a difference right now but some day you should, and if it doesnt break the bank see no reason why you shouldnt go with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what im thinking.

So here's the final spec - (?)

screenshot1lk.png
 
Expecting delivery of the above spec this afternoon :D (minus the graphics card, decided to buy next month).

Since i'm coming from a AMD 939 spec, is there anything i should know for the install? And anything i need to change in the BIOS to get the best settings for the RAM etc? I won't be overclocking this CPU yet. Maybe when i have some more money for a better cooler.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Good stuff, hope everything arrives pristine and in a timely fashion.

Most things will be the same as building a s939 system. However, don't worry that there are no pins on the CPU - its all normal :)

As for the RAM, you will want to go into the BIOS and set these setting: DRAM Voltage 1.65V (in the "MB Intellingent Tweaker M.I.T" page), Memory Timings 9-9-9-24(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) (in the "Advanced DRAM Features" page which is found through the "M.I.T" page) and memory frequency to 1600MHz - by varying the system memory multiplier (on the "Advanced DRAM Features" page again)
Click to expand...

Cheers.

Got everything delivered just before.

Which way do i install the PSU? The fan facing into the case or the fan taking air through the bottom grill on the case? The case has a 120mm intake fan on the front, a 120mm intake fan on the side panel and a rear exhaust fan?
 
Is the motherboard supposed to have a northbridge fan? It says in the instruction manual to connect the NB fan to the NB header. Is this optional?
 
cmndr_andi said:
Good stuff, hope everything arrives pristine and in a timely fashion.

Most things will be the same as building a s939 system. However, don't worry that there are no pins on the CPU - its all normal :)

As for the RAM, you will want to go into the BIOS and set these setting: DRAM Voltage 1.65V (in the "MB Intellingent Tweaker M.I.T" page), Memory Timings 9-9-9-24(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) (in the "Advanced DRAM Features" page which is found through the "M.I.T" page) and memory frequency to 1600MHz - by varying the system memory multiplier (on the "Advanced DRAM Features" page again)
Click to expand...

All powered on Ok :D

I'm trying to find the RAM settings in the BIOS, but can't. I can set the DRAM voltage but only increments of 10. It goes 1.640, 1.660, 1.670 etc.. :confused:

Also, the CAS timing options are all greyed out and you can't highlight them to change them.

And the memory frequency is on 1066 and greyed out :confused:

edit, sorry, meant to say increments of 20 i.e. 1.640, 1.660, 1.680 etc
 
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cmndr_andi said:
In that case 1.64 should be fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've got a few yellow and orange LEDs lit on the motherboard aswel, some near the RAM slots and some just above the CPU. Is this normal? BIOS says the CPU is 42oc atm.

And when i've changed the RAM timings, it shows the original timings and the new timiings next to them in a bracket, does that mean it's using the new timings i have put in?
 
cmndr_andi said:
I'm pretty sure that the LEDs illuminating like that are normal. When I installed my friend's UD5 it lit up like a christmas tree.

The temperatures seem OK for stock speeds using stock cooling. I would suggest running OCCT when you are all setup to ensure the cooling is OK.

As for the timings, have you saved and exited the BIOS with the new timings, or is this just when you first put them in?
Click to expand...

Yep saved them and exited.

Just rebooted now and when i went into the MIT page, it had a message saying something like 'because of boot failures some values might not be the same as what you saved them as'...But they are the same. And i didn't have a boot failurer...i don't think :confused:
 
Windows installed fine. Just doing drivers and things now.

I downloaded CPUID, here's some screens -

51889209.jpg


38548171.jpg


42456326.jpg


Does everything look ok?
 
cmndr_andi said:
Everything looks as it should be. RAM timings/speeds are correct and the CPU is exactly as it should be.

How are load temps in OCCT?
Click to expand...

Didn't have time to try the temp program last night, or today (back at work till later).

Just want to say thank you though for all the help, really appreciate it :)
 
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