Core i7 Questions

[VoicesOfTheVoid]

Checking around for i7 (socket 1366) aftermarket heatsinks, but cant find anything worthwhile on EGG, and there's hardly any listed there to begin with.

Any aftermarket coolers out there that I'm missing somewhere?
Looking for air, not water.

Quick question regarding gaming performance...

Will moving to the i7 290 and 4GB DDR3 be a huge leap in performance in gaming compared to an E8600 and 2GB DDR2?

Comparing if both systems were running stock: E8600 @ 3.33 and the i7 920 @ 2.66 is what I'm comparing for now.

Higher frequencies are really what make the difference, but since I do not OC anymore, seeing any performance increase in gaming at stock speeds is a concern.

I know that the RAM situation will be an improvement, so I'm really focused on the CPU, because most games do not take any advantage of quad-cores yet, so I'm curious as to how much improvement I'd see regarding gaming that's actually due to the i7 920 itself.

I know that being limited by a GPU can be an issue, but my GTX 280 right now pretty much eats most games at maxed settings with my current set-up, so no worries regarding there.

Either way, making the switch... also use my system for some other things, so any lines on an aftermarket cooler for the i7's socket 1366?

Thanks.

 

[ben chi(f4)]

And another thing, how is i7 for data crunching?

 

[Jospeh]

Going from an e8600 to an i7 920 isn't going to be that noticeable IMO. Especially at stock settings.
Going from 2gb of ram to 4GB of ram is going to be pretty noticeable though.
The i7 is good for multithreaded programs. This is where it excels at.

And honestly you should do a light OC at least.

 

[VoicesOfTheVoid]

Going from an e8600 to an i7 920 isn't going to be that noticeable IMO. Especially at stock settings.
Going from 2gb of ram to 4GB of ram is going to be pretty noticeable though.
The i7 is good for multithreaded programs. This is where it excels at.

And honestly you should do a light OC at least.

Yeah, was already thinking I'd probably do a light OC, actually... though was not going to at first.

Yeah, again, that's the thing with quads... games do not make much use out of 'em as yet, so I was actually thinking what you just backed-up for me, that the CPU is not going to make much difference. The RAM, of course, will make the biggest difference.

Maybe I'd do best at sticking with my current set-up and just going 64-bit with Win 7 this month and upping my RAM to at least 4GB.

 

[RainHNg]

I got the ThermalRight Ultra eXtreme 120 from CrazyPC. The Megahalem from ProlimaTech is another good one. Google is yr friend & dont settle on NewEgg store only

Like the guys above me said, u should @least do a mild OC for your i7. IIRC, there's an [H] article about the benefit of higher CPU's clock rate (>3.0 Ghz) in gaming,

 

[HomelessDepot]

The consensus is that TRUE (ThermalRight Ultra eXtreme) and Megahalem are pretty much the top tier air solutions. There are many other extremely effective heatsinks, however, and if you're only aiming for a light OC, you can get something a lot cheaper.

And don't forget, doesn't matter how well your heatsink takes heat from your chip and puts it in the air if that air doesn't get pushed out of your case! The internal fan setup, and really the heatsink + exhaust distance, can have a huge impact on temperatures.

-HD

edit: grammar

 

[Outamyhead]

I went with a coolermaster V8 myself, I have seen some of the newer Xigmatech that look nice, don't know how effective they are though.

The V8 does a pretty good job, when the system is under load, I haven't seen it go any higher than 36-38 degrees in this current time of year (hard to believe the system is already getting on for a year old).

 

[Atech]

I got this:
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?lng=en&products_id=14&show=productview

VERY close to the True...but much, much quiter

And ALL i did to get my 920 from 2.66GHz to 3.5Ghz was to set BCLK fraom 133 to 175..stock voltage...makes sure I am not CPU limited in games.