Upgrading PC to an Intel i7 920 rig, Will this suffice

mathesar

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Ive been researching i7 motherboards & memory for a few days, I'm about to pull the trigger on the following and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or if any red flags pop up lol.

I'm not expecting to OC the crap out of this CPU, I'm sure the stock speed will be plenty considering my current PC (specs in signature) but being able to OC in the future would be nice.

Basically I'm going to keep all my current hardware and simply replace the motherboard/cpu/memory, I'm hoping my current 650W BFG PSU will be good enough.

Parts I'm looking at:

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz - Link

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard -Link

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit - Link

I normally run Asus motherboards but this particular gigabyte model is a lot cheaper than an Asus P6T and has everything I'd want from what I can tell.

Thanks.
 
oh wow athlon x2 to i7. You're gonna crap your pants.

the UD3R is an acceptable motherboard, I didn't buy it cause I didn't like the expansion slot layout.
 
haha I went from athlon XP 1700+ to 920 :p

Im running the Antec 650w PSu and it works fine
 
all 1366 mobos are triple channel :confused:

I see now it supports a set of triple channel, or 4 sticks in dual channel. Looking at the reviews, it looks like a nice mobo for the price.
 
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I went ahead and ordered, I figure if anything it should be a lot better than what I got now lol.

Thanks for the replies.
 
You're good and you'll be thrilled when you put it together. Don't sweat it and enjoy the ride. ;)
 
You're good and you'll be thrilled when you put it together. Don't sweat it and enjoy the ride. ;)

Thanks good to hear. :)

I have a probably silly question on how I should configure my 3 hard drives with the new setup.. but here it goes:

I currently have a 200GB Maxtor(IDE/Slave), a 250GB Maxtor(IDE/Master) and a 500GB WD SATA/Slave drive, I have WinXP and Win7 installed on separate partitions on the 250GB IDE drive (dual boot menu pops up on post) and all my games / programs are installed on the 500GB SATA drive.

My question is should I continue this setup with the new PC or would it be wise to make the 500GB SATA my Master and install Win7 & Games onto that drive?

I figured having the games & programs on the faster SATA drive would be good enough but perhaps I should also include the OS, any ideas appreciated.
 
I have the GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard, its a very good board and overclocks well. Just make sure you set voltages to what you require or "Default" not "Auto" when overclocking, as it ramps up the voltages and heat way above what you need. but many X58 boards do this.This is a tipple channel board also, no idea why above claims double channel, it does both.
 
Ive been researching i7 motherboards & memory for a few days, I'm about to pull the trigger on the following and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or if any red flags pop up lol.

I'm not expecting to OC the crap out of this CPU, I'm sure the stock speed will be plenty considering my current PC (specs in signature) but being able to OC in the future would be nice.

Basically I'm going to keep all my current hardware and simply replace the motherboard/cpu/memory, I'm hoping my current 650W BFG PSU will be good enough.

Parts I'm looking at:

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz - Link

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard -Link

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit - Link

I normally run Asus motherboards but this particular gigabyte model is a lot cheaper than an Asus P6T and has everything I'd want from what I can tell.

Thanks.

Not sure where you are located but Micro Center has the I7 920 for $199 :p
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035019806
 
oh wow athlon x2 to i7. You're gonna crap your pants.

the UD3R is an acceptable motherboard, I didn't buy it cause I didn't like the expansion slot layout.

:D lol you are going to crap your pants.

I went from a Opteron 170 system to a 920. Even if the 920 is kept stock it will feel like the machine is stuck at warp 9.
 
Yep I saw that but we dont have any micro centers around here unfortunately.. It would be cool if the i7 I receive is a D0 but dont have my hopes to high, should be here Wednesday.

Ah too bad, mine is a pretty recent build to with a 10/19/2009 date on it.

Im hoping for some serious oc's but we will see how lucky I am:D
 
:D lol you are going to crap your pants.

I went from a Opteron 170 system to a 920. Even if the 920 is kept stock it will feel like the machine is stuck at warp 9.

Haha I can't wait, also coming from an opty.

Mine is a 165 ccbbe 0610 running at 3.0g with a thermaltake typhoon. :p
 
the d0 is more likely what you will get, where did u order from ?

Newegg.

UPS tracking shows Thursday delivery, can't wait :D

P.S. Since ive decided to use my 500 GB SATA drive for both Windows and Games/programs would there be any benefit with partitioning the drive for the Windows install... or should I just leave it a single 500gb partition?
 
Old skool setups would give better performance with them being partitioned.

Not sure if this is still the case or not...
 
I went from an X2 6000 to an i5 and I can't believe it...it was warp9 for me. I think you may go to plaid when when you get your system up and running.
 
Dang I got all the parts but I had no idea it would take over an hour to shrink my 500gb HD down 75GB (first time using the feature, I shrank the volume down 75GB to give win7 its own partition)

I didn't get to finish the build tonight, Ill give it another go after work tomorrow night, But it looks like I got a D0 step i7 so that's a plus :)

cpu_bare_d0.jpg


gigabyte%20mobo.jpg


gigabyte%20mobo2.jpg
 
See the post above yours. :p
It's a triple channel board; it just has 4 slots instead of 6. If you install ram in the 3 white slots, they run as triple channel.
 
Yeah I corrected myself in a post shortly after, I should probably edit that post as well. It is both triple channel & dual channel according to gigabyte.
 
lol everyone keeps saying its a dual channel motherboard...

If you run 3 sticks in the 3 white slots then its in triple channel mode, but if you were to populate the blue slot (4 sticks total) then it drops down to dual channel speed.

But I wont be doing that ... if I feel I need more than 6gb ram down the road I can just sell my current ram (3 x 2GB) and buy 3 larger sticks, such as 3 x 4GB = 12gb ram.

Got home late again from work.. gonna have to finish off build tomorrow, im off sunday / monday so ill have it going soon either way! :)
 
I finally got it setup,It posted fine on first try and didnt have to mess with any bios settings (running it all stock for now), Win7 64bit installed, everything is working great and its insane how much better games run on the i7:eek:, even Left 4 Dead 2 runs A LOT better (CPU intensive game).

I just need to buy a faster HD lol, I guess the 500GB SATA isnt cutting it (older model).

Any HD suggestions? :)

win7_64bit_i7_920_stock.jpg
 
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You think it's fast now.... ;)

Come on now, overclock that thing to ~3.4ghz at least - the stock cooler can handle it. Just don't bump voltage; give it a try just adjusting FSB. Your memory can handle the extra mhz :) That'll give you a nice boost. Then, get a decent cooler...then you see serious improvements - even my c0 i7 hits 4ghz.
 
Any HD suggestions?

Ignore it. :p

My WD AAKS drives get 5.9, pfft I'm not going to spend money on a WD Black, Velociraptor or SSD just to appease the [worthless] Windows Experience Index gods. :D
My drives are fast enough, I see no bottleneck there. Things load on an initial boot but I'm not seeing crippling performance in CS4 to make me want a drive any faster than an AAKS.
 
I would go with a nice 750GB WD Black. Plenty of space and speed. You can partition it (more for organizational purposes) and it will last you a good long time. Should be well under $100 and you can move to a SSD when the prices come down to a place you are comfortable with.
 
Ignore it. :p

My WD AAKS drives get 5.9, pfft I'm not going to spend money on a WD Black, Velociraptor or SSD just to appease the [worthless] Windows Experience Index gods. :D
My drives are fast enough, I see no bottleneck there. Things load on an initial boot but I'm not seeing crippling performance in CS4 to make me want a drive any faster than an AAKS.

A WD Black or Velociraptor won't help your score one bit. You need an SSD to break 5.9!
 
That mobo has only 4 memory slots so you can forget about 12GB. I briefly considered it a long time ago and passed for that reason. Get a slightly more expensive gigabyte model if having the ability to go 12 gigs is important for you.
 
That mobo has only 4 memory slots so you can forget about 12GB. I briefly considered it a long time ago and passed for that reason. Get a slightly more expensive gigabyte model if having the ability to go 12 gigs is important for you.

It's not important at all to me, Ive been monitoring memory usage in Win7 64bit and the highest ive seen it go so far is 2GB usage, out of 6GB.

Also you CAN run 12GB with this board, they make 3x 4GB kits.
 
You think it's fast now.... ;)

Come on now, overclock that thing to ~3.4ghz at least - the stock cooler can handle it. Just don't bump voltage; give it a try just adjusting FSB. Your memory can handle the extra mhz :) That'll give you a nice boost. Then, get a decent cooler...then you see serious improvements - even my c0 i7 hits 4ghz.

Sorry to sound noobish but im not used to all these i7 overclock options in bios, when you say FSB I dont even see that option anywhere lol, Is that the same as BCLK?

Also my motherboard came with a program called Easy tune 6 and it lets you overclock the CPU from within Windows, It has an "Quick boost" mode where you just click either button 1 for 2.8ghz,button 2 for 3ghz or button 3 for 3.2ghz , It looks like its only adjusting the BCLK as well?

easytune_oc.jpg
 
Well it's currently running at 3ghz now and havent had any issues, Played a couple hours of L4D2 last night, temps are looking good to. Is it normal for the CPU To throttle down when not much is going on? Like if I have CPU-Z open and the CPU is idle it'l show the clockspeed at 1.6 - 1.7ghz, but when I load a cpu intensive program it'l jump up to its Turbo'd speed.
 
Yup, its throttles down by decreasing the multiplier to keep things cool. With Turbo the multiplier will go up to 21 and in some cases 22 - which I've experienced at stock settings (doesn't happen often).

Don't worry about your HDD and the Windows exp score. For reference my Intel SSD scored a 7.7.

If you not clocking the CPU, since you have 1600 DDR3 bump the memory multiplier up so you can benefit from the extended "headroom." This may interfere with the Turbo boost if your memory can't overclock well. Just trying to squeeze a bit more performance outta your build.
 
Yup, its throttles down by decreasing the multiplier to keep things cool. With Turbo the multiplier will go up to 21 and in some cases 22 - which I've experienced at stock settings (doesn't happen often).

Don't worry about your HDD and the Windows exp score. For reference my Intel SSD scored a 7.7.

If you not clocking the CPU, since you have 1600 DDR3 bump the memory multiplier up so you can benefit from the extended "headroom." This may interfere with the Turbo boost if your memory can't overclock well. Just trying to squeeze a bit more performance outta your build.

Thanks for the info, This is definitely by far the best PC Ive built lol. Fired up Far Cry 2 earlier and was amazed how much better it runs vs. previous CPU (Same videocard / GTX 260) CPU itself made a world of difference in gaming performance, well that and I'm sure having triple channel DDR3 doesn't hurt, previous mobo was DDR1 PC3200 lol.
 
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