I recently threw some money at my computer, went from:
E6600 @ 3GHz
MSI P6N SLI Platinum
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Zalman CNPS9500
Sapphire 4870
To:
Core i7-930
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
6GB G.Skill DDR3-1600
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
HIS 5870
Initial thoughts on the parts.
i7-930:
Same old Intel packaging, stock HSF looks very familiar but possibly a bit beefier than the C2D, C2Q versions.
GA-X58A-UD3R:
4 SATA cables in box, a good start. SLI and Tri-SLI connectors, not that I need them. Very nice looking board and components, solid caps, chipset heatsinks look nice, adequate, but not too big as to be in the way. It has like 10 different LEDs for showing various things like CPU load, temp, voltage. Layout seems logical and none of the board components are in the way of anything. Has a CMOS clear button on the rear panel and of course USB3.0 SATA3 1394 eSATA. Can't ask for much more connection-wise.
CNPS10X:
The box was about the size of my head, almost as big as the motherboard box. Out of the box, it's very impressive looking. PWM mate control seems neat, but I probably won't adjust the fan speed much. Mounting was very easy and solid, cooler base has a very flat and very mirrored surface. Everything about it looks quality.
After installing Windows 7 HP x64 and installing drivers(took all of 30 minutes) I did my first reboot. As the POST screen came up I decided to hop into the BIOS. After about a minute I was rebooting again at 170 BLCK giving me a core frequency of 3.56GHz with no other changes. I honestly just wanted to see how the board would act with a silly OC attempt, but to my surprise it just booted into Windows without a complaint.
Did a brief stress test or two and got the CPU as high as 76C on the first core, installed BF:BC2 and called it a night. The system is faster than I could have imagined, never knew it would be such an upgrade just tooling around Windows, but I can have music, hulu, 3 instances of FireFox full of tabs going any hop into a game without any slowdown.
When I get some time away from work I hope to OC it quite a bit further and reapply my thermal paste(did a bad job) to get my temps a bit lower. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on three products I don't see discussed much on [H].
E6600 @ 3GHz
MSI P6N SLI Platinum
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Zalman CNPS9500
Sapphire 4870
To:
Core i7-930
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
6GB G.Skill DDR3-1600
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
HIS 5870
Initial thoughts on the parts.
i7-930:
Same old Intel packaging, stock HSF looks very familiar but possibly a bit beefier than the C2D, C2Q versions.
GA-X58A-UD3R:
4 SATA cables in box, a good start. SLI and Tri-SLI connectors, not that I need them. Very nice looking board and components, solid caps, chipset heatsinks look nice, adequate, but not too big as to be in the way. It has like 10 different LEDs for showing various things like CPU load, temp, voltage. Layout seems logical and none of the board components are in the way of anything. Has a CMOS clear button on the rear panel and of course USB3.0 SATA3 1394 eSATA. Can't ask for much more connection-wise.
CNPS10X:
The box was about the size of my head, almost as big as the motherboard box. Out of the box, it's very impressive looking. PWM mate control seems neat, but I probably won't adjust the fan speed much. Mounting was very easy and solid, cooler base has a very flat and very mirrored surface. Everything about it looks quality.
After installing Windows 7 HP x64 and installing drivers(took all of 30 minutes) I did my first reboot. As the POST screen came up I decided to hop into the BIOS. After about a minute I was rebooting again at 170 BLCK giving me a core frequency of 3.56GHz with no other changes. I honestly just wanted to see how the board would act with a silly OC attempt, but to my surprise it just booted into Windows without a complaint.
Did a brief stress test or two and got the CPU as high as 76C on the first core, installed BF:BC2 and called it a night. The system is faster than I could have imagined, never knew it would be such an upgrade just tooling around Windows, but I can have music, hulu, 3 instances of FireFox full of tabs going any hop into a game without any slowdown.
When I get some time away from work I hope to OC it quite a bit further and reapply my thermal paste(did a bad job) to get my temps a bit lower. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on three products I don't see discussed much on [H].