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New 920 Build - Advice wanted

R

Razzy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
236
Haven't done a build for about two years but getting the itch.

I play a lot of Flight Sim X and would be playing Far Cry 2 and from time to time BF2142.

I welcome any improvements you guru's might think I could do. If I can save a few bucks and improve my performance I'm all for it and am certainly looking for any advice you would like to give.

Honestly I'm probably not looking to overclock a great deal and every time I do this I never end up getting the second gpu to SLI so probably won't do that either. Is the choice of motherboard overkill if this is the case?

*edit* I forgot to add... Currently I only have a 19" monitor but will also be looking at getting a 24" or even The Hans Spree 28 that's running around $350 and would hope to get 1920x1200 rez from this setup.

1SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #:N82E16822152102
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy-$5.00 Instant
$94.99

1Rosewill RCR-IC001 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Yes I want this due to my wife doing a lot of digital camera work and needing an easy way to transfer :)
Item #:N82E16820223103
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy-$5.00 Instant
$11.99

1LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30
Item #:N82E16827136152
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
$24.99

1G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Should I get better memory?
Item #:N82E16820231223
Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy-$15.00 Instant
$134.99

1EVGA GeForce GTX 280 SuperClocked Edition 01G-P3-1282-AR Video Card
Item #:N82E16814130367
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy-$100.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$339.99

1Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
Item #: N82E16819115202
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy
EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813188039
Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy-$25.00 Combo
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$569.98


1Antec Signature SG850 850W Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371018
Antec Nine Hundred Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window
Item #: N82E16811129021
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy-$110.00 Instant
-$50.00 Combo
$279.98

Grand Total:$1,456.91
 
That i7 920 price looks more like a 940 price to me. In fact, looks exactly like it.

Edit: Additionally, you'll want to pick a good motherboard for this build. What are your future plans? Are you intending to stay single GPU or will SLI be part of your plans? Are 6 rams slots a must or will 4 do? You can get a good overclocking board for i7 for less then 200 bucks, but you have to decide ahead of time what all you will need on it.
 
I've got the EVGA X58 combo deal so I think I'm set motherboard wise and the right price on the i7 920.
 
I'm hundreds of miles away from a Microcenter in fact I've never even seen one.
 
The memory should be fine. I have GSkill in my computer and have not had any problems with it. What case are you using. Make sure you have good air flow in the case and the case has enough room for the video card. Also I would add a after market cpu cooler to your list. The 920 can get hot when you overclock them. The hot cpu air cooler right now is the Thermalright True ,but they are getting harder to find. Here is one store that still have them. Make sure you get a bolt thru kit with it or buy a bolt thru kit to fit the 1366 socket..

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7..._LGA_775_LGA_1366_AM2_Xeon.html?tl=g40c14s757
 
Razzy said:
I'm hundreds of miles away from a Microcenter in fact I've never even seen one.
Click to expand...

Then order it from the egg. Don't pay 500 bucks for a i7 920, that purely nuts. You can order the 940 for less then that on the egg. 289.99 is the Newegg price right now for i7 920. 564.99 is the price of i7 940 there. Pay over 500 bucks for an i7 920 is a total rip off, almost highway robbery.
 
why dont you go with 1600mhz memory.Gskill 1600mhz memory is $160 at newegg. it is worth for $20 extra
 
As a combo deal I'm getting the Antec 900. I had considered an aftermarket cooler and will look into it. Thanks.




Buntz said:
The memory should be fine. I have GSkill in my computer and have not had any problems with it. What case are you using. Make sure you have good air flow in the case and the case has enough room for the video card. Also I would add a after market cpu cooler to your list. The 920 can get hot when you overclock them. The hot cpu air cooler right now is the Thermalright True ,but they are getting harder to find. Here is one store that still have them. Make sure you get a bolt thru kit with it or buy a bolt thru kit to fit the 1366 socket..

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7..._LGA_775_LGA_1366_AM2_Xeon.html?tl=g40c14s757
Click to expand...
 
moshpit said:
Didn't see that. Not such a bad deal then. Still a little painful, but not terrible.
Click to expand...

The microcenter deal is truly amazing but unless someone wants to buy me one and ship it it's not really an option :)
 
I thought I would update this thread letting those of you who gave input what I ended up with.

GIGABYTE-X58-GA-EX58-UD4P

Intel I7 920 + CoolerMaster hypermaster N520

EVGA GTX 285 SSC

Patriot 3x2GB 1600 DDR3

2x750 GB WD Black Drives

Liteon 24x DVDR

Benq 24" G24000WD

Zalman 850 HP

Coolermaster Haf

Haven't fired it up yet but will finish the build Wed.

Thanks again for all the replies.
 
I would just like to add that the 920 is a great overclocker I've seen lately. I see in your original post that you will not be doing much of overclocking, which I feel is a bit wasted of free performance. :)

I'm actually primming my 920 on the exact motherboard you got at home right now. The 920 is overclocked to 3.2Ghz ON STOCK HSF. 30 minutes in prime95(x64 version) and Real Temp shows it hovering at around 77 degrees. Idle was around 47 degrees. I know they seem a bit high, but I blame that on my cheap ass for not going with a better case. I have it in the old Chieftech Dragon series case with 2x 80mm fans... one in the front, and one out the back. The only other exhaust is the 650w Cooler Master PSU above the cpu. Yes... I do plan on buying a new case... have my eyes on the Cooler Master Sniper case.

All I did was bumped the BCLK up from 133Mhz to 160Mhz and lowered the vCore down from 1.361v to 1.250v. The Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard comes defaulted to set the vCore on auto... which CPUz was showing it running at 1.361v... I felt it was a bit high for only 3.2Ghz, so I lowered it and so far, it's been very stable. Been gaming on it all weekend.(CPUz shows 1.21v after I set in the bios to 1.2500v)

In anycase, if I can get it to run at 3.2Ghz on stock HSF with a shoddy airflow case like that, surely you can get better results on a more ventilated case!

Have fun with the build!
 
good choice going with 1600MHz memory. that will help tons with overclocking.

with 1333, as you vary Bclk above a "standard" point (where the fsb-dram multiplier works out to 1333) you have to eventually bump it back down towards 1066. With the 1600 memory. you only hafta bump it back down towards 1333. the differences in memory bandwidth and latencies are phenomenal.

aim for Bclk=160 or 200 for best memory performance.I didn't have any trouble running at Bclk=166 (DDR3-1660MHz), but it became unstable in the low 1700's regardless of CAS settings.

My current OC is at 200Bclk with the cpu multiplier at 18x. It works out perfectly, I'm at DDR3-1600, and the cores and QPI are running at the same 3.6GHz frequency.
 
Hopefully you won't have a problem with your Tri-channel memory like some of us are having with our UD4P boards.

Best of luck with the build.
 
DuyNgn said:
I would just like to add that the 920 is a great overclocker I've seen lately. I see in your original post that you will not be doing much of overclocking, which I feel is a bit wasted of free performance. :)

I'm actually primming my 920 on the exact motherboard you got at home right now. The 920 is overclocked to 3.2Ghz ON STOCK HSF. 30 minutes in prime95(x64 version) and Real Temp shows it hovering at around 77 degrees. Idle was around 47 degrees. I know they seem a bit high, but I blame that on my cheap ass for not going with a better case. I have it in the old Chieftech Dragon series case with 2x 80mm fans... one in the front, and one out the back. The only other exhaust is the 650w Cooler Master PSU above the cpu. Yes... I do plan on buying a new case... have my eyes on the Cooler Master Sniper case.

All I did was bumped the BCLK up from 133Mhz to 160Mhz and lowered the vCore down from 1.361v to 1.250v. The Gigabyte EX58-UD4P motherboard comes defaulted to set the vCore on auto... which CPUz was showing it running at 1.361v... I felt it was a bit high for only 3.2Ghz, so I lowered it and so far, it's been very stable. Been gaming on it all weekend.(CPUz shows 1.21v after I set in the bios to 1.2500v)

In anycase, if I can get it to run at 3.2Ghz on stock HSF with a shoddy airflow case like that, surely you can get better results on a more ventilated case!

Have fun with the build!
Click to expand...

Find out what your VID is and lower vcore even further to that. I went through the same thing as you, but on the UD3R instead. I had to manually lock down the vcore to 1.21 since Auto was setting it to the same 1.36 you were getting. Once I found out that my VID shows 1.19, I set it down to 1.25 at first, ran it for a bit there stably, and then dropped it down to 1.21 where I'm at now. I intend to drop it the rest of the way to 1.19 tonight when I get home. Stock cooling as well took me up to 3.6Ghz :D
 
I forgot to add I also got a coolermaster n520 cpu fan.

I will give some of your numbers a try.
 
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