i7 on horizon - advice

[the_b_man]

I've been out of the system-building loop for a few years (last build is a P4 from 6 years ago still going strong) so I'm still back in the FSB world, not quite comfortable with QPI, etc. Essentially, for my future i7 build (waiting for Win7) I'm not looking to overclock any components. Call me oft but my focus is stable/quiet and getting 6 years out of this build too.

That said I'm interested in DDR3 faster than 1066. Can I run RAM faster than 1066, without running the QPI (BCLK? ) higher than stock? I'd like to use 1333/1600 if possible, but not if it means running anything above stock. Googling turned up a few pages indicating yes, but you may have to rev up the base clock, which may not be ideal for me, but really depending on the motherboard. Which leads me to the next inquiry-

Which motherboard is recommended for such a build and/or generally how do the x58 motherboards compare for flexibility in memory clocking (range of multipliers, etc.) I'll be running a single video card. And yes, I'm aware that by October the line-up will be different than it is now I'm just trying to get a kindergarten education in this so I can make a good decision later

I'll be doing a RAID0 of SSD's and a RAID1 of 1TB Blacks, thinking of using a 4-port pcie card for this purpose, unless the on-boards these days are really capable of the same throughput and I'm totally misguided.

Thanks everyone. Really enjoy the builds and worklogs you folk have on here.

 

[engiNURD]

I've gotten 4 stable/quiet years out of my OC'd Opteron 165 (stock is 1.8Ghz, OC'd to 2.6Ghz). Just because you OC doesn't mean you can't have a stable/quiet system that lasts a long time -- you just need to OC properly. One of my Q6600s has been running at 3.4Ghz for a few years now, very stable. As long as you keep heat and voltage in check, everything should be stable.

The DRAM multiplier for the current i7 chips is 6x or 8x, IIRC. From what I've read so far, if you're not OC'ing the CPU, you will not see much of a performance benefit to running the RAM higher than the standard 1:1 ratio.

The X58 chipset is the extreme chipset for enthusiasts, so any board should offer a good range of OC'ing opitons for the RAM. Of course, the higher end boards tend to offer more options.

For RAID0 and 1, onboard should suffice. However, from what I've seen, the limit of ICH10R is 650MB/s. So, how many SSDs do you plan on RAID'ing? 3x OCZ Vertex 120GB SSDs can saturate the ICH when in RAID0. If you plan on running more, or less but faster SSDs, then you might want to look into a PCI-E RAID card, like an Areca 1220 or Dell Perc 5/i.

 

[the_b_man]

Thanks for the input. You're right, I might end up OCing but it'll be on air, with low temps and low noise coming first. Having skipped a couple generations of CPU I think I'm in for a treat with i7 at any clock speed.

So you're saying with the CPU @ stock, 1066 RAM is just as fast as say 1600? (~x12 multiplier) If it makes any difference I'll likely fill all 6 slots unless 4 gig sticks take off by the time I'm building (aiming for 12GB)

I'll be going with two SSDs, but haven't selected a model or even brand yet. The Intels and Vertexes are obviously in the spotlight now but we'll see how pricing reduces over the summer. My first thought was actually the Areca 1210, two ports for SSD's, two for the RAID 1, and use onboard SATA ports for the rest of my drives. The guarantee of no throughput bottleneck and the cache RAM appealed to me. I guess I'll have to look into ICH10R benchies.