First i7 build, please post your advice

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guitarguy6

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 29, 2007
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I decided I wanted to try out the new i7 cpu since nobody I know has purchased one yet. I will be using my existing Xigmatek 850watt psu and my 2 X 4870's sonic in this build. I haven't read to much info regarding these chip's but from what I have found I will be potentially going with the following parts.

Mo-bo: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 or ASUS P6T Deluxe (leaning towards Gigabyte)

Memory: one of the following kits
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231222

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231229

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145221

CPU: i920

Is it true that the i920/940 are hardware limited to a ram speed of 1066? If I were to run a dual channel kit instead of triple channel would it be a significant performance decrease? I plan on overclocking the i920 to atleast 3.5GHz, is there a good air cooler out for lga1366 yet? I'm in Canada so if you know any Canadian retailers that have good sales on let me know. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Is it true that the i920/940 are hardware limited to a ram speed of 1066? If I were to run a dual channel kit instead of triple channel would it be a significant performance decrease? I plan on overclocking the i920 to atleast 3.5GHz, is there a good air cooler out for lga1366 yet? I'm in Canada so if you know any Canadian retailers that have good sales on let me know. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

They're hardware limited to DDR3 1333 RAM IIRC. Haven't seen any reports yet showing a change in performance between dual and triple channel RAM. Try to find the Thermaltake Ultra Extreme 120 with the LGA1366 bracket.
 
After doing some more research I think I will go with the Gigabyte board. I should be putting this together this week and I'll post my results. I think I'll use the stock cooler right now and wait to see what 1366 coolers Xigmatek puts out since I like their S1283 so much.
 
IIRC, performance improves significantly with triple channel compared to dual channel. You'll need at least DDR3-1333 to OC to around 3.5Ghz. I don't recall reading anything about being hw limited to DDR2-1066.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Is it true that the i920/940 are hardware limited to a ram speed of 1066? If I were to run a dual channel kit instead of triple channel would it be a significant performance decrease? I plan on overclocking the i920 to atleast 3.5GHz, is there a good air cooler out for lga1366 yet? I'm in Canada so if you know any Canadian retailers that have good sales on let me know. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

At stock 2.67Ghz, 1066 memory is good enough but if you want to overclock heavily then you're better off with 1333 or even 1600 if you go high enough. The default is 1:4 ratio between bclk and base mem speed. So 3.5Ghz is 175 bclk = 700mhz = 1400 DDR speed, which should be fine with most 1333 sticks.

Dual channel has almost the same real-world performance as tri-channel even though tri-channel has higher theoretical speed just because most apps aren't memory intensive. Difference is less than a couple percent in almost every real world app and mostly a non-factor in games. Later on, you can always buy an extra stick or 4 when DDR3 gets cheaper if you find you're running apps that need that kind of memory bandwidth. See this set of benchmarks: http://techreport.com/articles.x/15967/5
 
That's a good article you found a123456. The reason I wanted to know if dual channel vs triple is a significant difference is because I can get a dual channel 4gb for the same price or less than a 3gb triple channel kit. I run vista ultimate 64bit and was thinking that 4GB of ram in dual channel would be faster than a triple channel 3GB kit. Early next year I can ditch whichever ram kit I get now for a triple channel 6gb kit.
 
I've been thinking about doing the same thing. I had no idea you could clock a 2.66Ghz CPU ,9Ghz and run stable. That's incredible.
 
LOLz

I mean 3.5

You were thinking, "Man I gotta get one of those babys!"
 
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