Which MB - O/C Bundle ?

budwozza

budwozza

budwozza

Associate
Joined
30 Oct 2009
Posts
243
Hi All, I have some questions that hopefully you can help with, I have a CoolerMaster 810 case, so space / airflow should not be an issue. Will be running Windows 7 and using a 5870 Vapour X. Not looking to O/C anymore than the 3.8 / 4 gb that the bundles ship with.

I am torn between two pre overclocked i7 bundles using either the Gigabyte UD5 or the Asus Rampage 2 extreme - which do you recommend and why.

I have also considered the gigabyte UD7 as its newer and has more features but would need your help to O/C it.

1. Which Power supply - considering Corsair 850w
2. Air cooling or Corsair H50 - Which and Why ?
3. Considering 12GB ram - Which, Why, worth it or stick with 6gb ?
4. Which SSD Crutial or Intel - 160gb single drive or 2 x 80 in Raid 0 ?
5. Which sound card? currently have an old X-FI.

Thanks, Wozza.
 
From all the points in there it doesn't see ££ is an issue? especially if your looking at an Intel SSD!!!
1/ 850W is a lot of power running one GPU, I've just been recommended that 750W will run the i7 920 and 2x 5850's just fine. So unless your planning on adding another 5870 later on you could get away with a cheaper, lower power PSU.

2/I've never fiddled with Water Cooling because i hadn't found the need. Buying a pre-clocked bundle from here has the added bonus of having a 3rd party cooler which OCUK have had tonnes of experience with and as your GPU has vapour X cooling your pretty safe as long as your case is good...??

3/ what kind of things are you using the PC for? just gaming?

4/Apart form the obvious price gap, the Intel X25-M's have lightning quick read times and there are several bench mark tests you can see on the web, i tried to find you some using the i7 setup but most use the older Core2 Extremes. But what i will say in favor of the crucial SSD is they have double the write speed. Again it depends on what your using the PC for. but boot times with either are going to be sub 30secs.
(one review of the Intel's in RAID 0 showed 21 sec boot)

5/whats the model of your S/C? I've found you don't even need one with newer Mobo's as their onboard chips have improved a lot!!
Sorry if there are more questions than answers!
 
Last edited:
I personally would just go with the UD5, the reason for this is simply the price..

Regarding the UD7, from the BIOS screens I have seen online, it is pretty much identical to the UD5 in terms of overclocking options, so I personally dont think it is worth the extra money..

Corsair HX series PSU's are excellent, I fitted the 750w one into my dad's new build, and I was really impressed with the quality of this unit, I actually wish that I had held off buying my Be Quiet and got the Corsair one instead!!

As for cooling, I would choose a high end air cooler over the H50, my reasoning for this, is because the H50 is the new kid on the block, and I suspect that at some point down the line they will start developing faults, whereas with a good air cooler, there really isn't much that can go wrong with those.

Regarding RAM, what do you intend on using your PC for?

If it is just gaming, and general usage, then 12GB is overkill.

SSD's I don't know anything about, and I only use onboard sound, so I can't help you there!!! :)
 
budwozza said:
Hi All, I have some questions that hopefully you can help with, I have a CoolerMaster 810 case, so space / airflow should not be an issue. Will be running Windows 7 and using a 5870 Vapour X. Not looking to O/C anymore than the 3.8 / 4 gb that the bundles ship with.

I am torn between two pre overclocked i7 bundles using either the Gigabyte UD5 or the Asus Rampage 2 extreme - which do you recommend and why.

I have also considered the gigabyte UD7 as its newer and has more features but would need your help to O/C it.

1. Which Power supply - considering Corsair 850w
2. Air cooling or Corsair H50 - Which and Why ?
3. Considering 12GB ram - Which, Why, worth it or stick with 6gb ?
4. Which SSD Crutial or Intel - 160gb single drive or 2 x 80 in Raid 0 ?
5. Which sound card? currently have an old X-FI.

Thanks, Wozza.
Click to expand...

1 - Corsair 850w is suffice. It is also a very reliable PSU.
2 - Top end air coolers and H50 are very comparible. There's little between the two. It's down to your own personal preference.
3 - 12GB isn't worth is unless you are using a lot of memory intensive programs. There's a possibility of your overclock becoming unstable if you add on more ram.
4 - You will not notice much real word difference between the two unless you bench it. If you can afford it, then go with intel.
5 - Asus Xonar Essence or Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium are the better and most common choices.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom