OK Fine! I'm Converting

dergreg

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So... After many sleepless nights of being unable to decide what my next system upgrades should be... I've decided on a Core i7 860.

I've been an AMD guy for many moons now, and finally just decided I'm a big boy that makes big boy money and can spend the extra on something better.

I'm upgrading from my MSI K9A2-CF with a Phenom 9950 Black Edition and 8GB of some generic RAM. It was a decent enough setup. I don't overclock, and I don't care about too many other features. Overall, no complaints.

I am migrating most of my old hardware though. Hard drive is moving over, don't feel the urge to spend a boatload on SAS or high RPM drives. I've got a 1tb and a 500gb that are making the trip to fastville. I'm also moving over my DVDRW (Duh) and my Radeon HD5870 (Double duh.)

I'm getting the MSI P55-GD80 and the ol' 860. The price was right for me. Very very very right, considering I'm selling my "leftovers" and it won't cost me a cent after selling the stuff I'm not using anymore. I'm also going with some Ballistix DDR3 4x2GB sticks of RAM. I haven't looked at reviews, I'm too scared to. I'm getting a heck of a good deal on it, so I'm not hugely worried. I hope it works out.

I'll be dropping Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on there. I've got a Zalman 9900 ordered for cooling as this is my living room PC and I like having a fan that's reasonably quiet or just not on at all.

I'm looking at a third party cooler for the 5870, but so far I don't feel like it's needed it. At all.

Now, I have an old Ultra 800w ps that took a poopies, and they're sending me a modular replacement... But I'm thinking I'll keep my 600watt Antec in there since I'm not overclocking, really. It's served me well so far, and if I have problems, I have a backup, so that's no huge thing.

Just wanted to share that I'm no longer the AMD guy at work. Now I'm the guy that made everybody else upgrade because of system envy. If you have any advice for setup on that, or even different parts I should go with, I'm all ears.
 
I'm a yeller. I like to yell.

Or maybe my keyboard is busted!

But yeah, I realized it after I posted and was just about to fix that. My bad.
 
What is the good deal on the ballistiX?
What case is this going in?

Oh, VA is a Mod, tread lightly...
 
Going into a Coolermaster Centurion case, because I still have it.
The RAM is a deal from a friend of mine believe me I'd share if I had a bead on a deal. memtested it, and they're all good. But he decided he was upgrading to more RAM in a triple channel setup and is hooking me up.

Oh, actually, I know it's not the cooling forums or whathaveyou, but is there an easy way to clip the LEDs on the Zalmans?
 
Check out the reviews for the ram you intend to use for the ballastix. They may have too much voltage for the memery controller for the i5. What model are the ballistix?
 
BL2KIT25664TA1336
Those are the kits he picked up, I think.

I'm pretty certain the P55-GD80 with the i7-860 should be able to take that RAM without a problem.
 
Feh. And intel recommends not overclocking and closed standards for USB3.0. What's a few more juices.

He's rocking it slightly overvolted on an i5 I think, so it's probably not a major problem though. But we shall see.

But, if it becomes an issue, I find lower voltage RAM and maybe even make a few bucks selling this RAM. Not a huge thing. I appreciate the heads up. That's what I was looking for. I hate stupid LEDs, too.
 
Then different RAM it is. Got a brand you'd recommend? I'm new to DDR3 here, so I don't know the ins and outs fully just yet. Looking at 8GB at this point.
Edit: I obviously know the ins/outs of overclocking/volting, but man. That's a lot of money to go through to potentially fry it. Just not worth it for me to justify being a cheapskate.
Double edit: I'm looking now at Newegg for reference. May have to go the XMS3 route... Maybe Patriot Viper.
 
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Much obliged. Now. Need any Ballistix? I'll sell it to ya cheap. Haha. It'll probably just wind up my girlfriend's system that she doesn't know I keep upgrading.
 
On my i7 860 setup, I'm running these on my Gigabyte P55-UD4P: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231281

They have been rock solid at DDR3 2000 speeds @ 4ghz for 24/7 use!


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