Upgrading to i7. Need your thoughts.

[TwwIX]

Here are my current specs.

E8400 Wolfdale @3.60GHz cooled by a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
GA-P35-DS3L Mobo
GTX 260 Core 216
4GB's of OCZ Platinum
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS PSU
1TB Seagate Barracuda


Going for a i7 920 Bloomfield. My current PSU should be compatible unless they made some drastic changes to the i7 Motherboards.
Picking out the right RAM should not be a problem. I am open for suggestions though.
What i am really have trouble with, is picking out the right Motherboard.
Besides the fact that the majority of them are currently ovepriced, many of them seem to be suffering from various issues. Things like USB ports not working properly, Northbridge overheating and Cards being too close to each other when in SLI Mode. Thus causing poor airflow.

For those of you already own a i7 system. Which Mobo are you currently using and how satisfied are you with it? How are the Bios when it comes to overclocking?

All i want is a functional, overclock friendly Mobo with proper SLI and Crossfire support.

I Am sticking with the CPU cooler. I have already ordered the i7 Bolt Thru Kit from Newegg.com

Thanks in advance.

 

[Krynn72]

I'm just going to throw this out there, but the i5 750 can be overclocked to perform better than the i7 920 with stock cooling. Could save you a lot of cash if you're just going with an i7 because of speed.

 

[Vegeta897]

"XIGMATEK"

Can someone pronounce this for me?

 

[TwwIX]

"XIGMATEK"

Can someone pronounce this for me?

Xeeg Mah Tech, i think.

Please stay on topic.


Almost forgot.

I have no interest in P55 boards. I might as well upgrade to a Q9550 then.
X58 boards are clearly becoming the standard along with Triple Channel Memory.

 

[DarkSin]

What i am really have trouble with, is picking out the right Motherboard.
Besides the fact that the majority of them are currently ovepriced, many of them seem to be suffering from various issues. Things like USB ports not working properly, Northbridge overheating and Cards being too close to each other when in SLI Mode. Thus causing poor airflow.

For those of you already own a i7 system. Which Mobo are you currently using and how satisfied are you with it? How are the Bios when it comes to overclocking?

I currently have a i7 system and went through the same thing. I purchased mine probably... 8-9 months ago and the prices haven't gone down at all. The P6T mobos from Asus were popular, that is when lga 1366 first came out though. I went with a P6T Deluxe v2 and I've had no problems with it so far.

Overclocking is incredibly easy. Just have to go into your bios and you can manually change any value you want(voltages, mem frequency, multipliers, anything). You just have to make sure you update your bios first thing because the early versions are pretty buggy.

I'm just going to throw this out there, but the i5 750 can be overclocked to perform better than the i7 920 with stock cooling. Could save you a lot of cash if you're just going with an i7 because of speed.

You can also overclock the 920 by quite a bit with the stock cooler if you wish. I've had mine running at 3.3ghz(up from 2.67ghz) since I've gotten it and haven't had any problems so far. This is with the stock cooler, so if you grab a nice heat sink and some good memory you can get it way up there.

 

[TwwIX]

I have overclocked before, including this system. That's not an issue at all.
Some Mobo's are more OC friendly than others. Hence this thread.

As for the CPU cooling. I have already ordered a i7 bolt thru kit for my XIGMATEK HDT-S1283.
That Asus board looks good but it ain't exactly on the cheap side.

Thanks for the suggestions though. Keep em coming.

 

[VirusType2]

I have no interest in P55 boards. I might as well upgrade to a Q9550 then.
X58 boards are clearly becoming the standard along with Triple Channel Memory.

Quickly becoming the standard? It's been available a lot longer.

X58 : Release date(s) November 2008
P55 : Release Date September 8, 2009

According to Wikipedia, the P55 has been out 6 months. I bought mine in November (Black Friday).

The P55 is a mainstream board, and the X58 is an enthusiast board, as described by Intel.

 

[DarkSin]

I have overclocked before, including this system. That's not an issue at all.
Some Mobo's are more OC friendly than others. Hence this thread.

Sorry, I meant overclocking with this motherboard. Not overclocking in general. Most motherboards only give you multipliers to work with or nothing at all. This motherboard lets you adjust everything. Very easy to overclock.

X58 is an enthusiast board, as described by Intel.

^This. x58 is not cheap. The cheap x58 mobos are going to give you problems. If you want to save money go with the i5's.

 

[TwwIX]

Quickly becoming the standard? It's been available a lot longer.

According to Wikipedia, the P55 has been out 6 months. I bought mine in November (Black Friday).

The P55 is a mainstream board, and the X58 is an enthusiast board, as described by Intel.

I Am very well of aware of that. The P55 chipset doesn't support triple channel memory nor does it support two graphics cards at full x16 speed.
That's why i have no interest in it or its motherboards for that matter.

By standard, i mean that it is becoming reasonably priced thus making it more accessible to budget gamers such as myself.

 

[VirusType2]

The P55 chipset doesn't support triple channel memory nor does it support two graphics cards at full x16 speed.
That's why i have no interest in it or its motherboards for that matter.

The difference between the P55's dual channel and the X58's triple channel is about 2%, in favor of the X58.

The difference between two PCIe 2.0 16x on the P55 and X58 is about 2%, in favor of the X58.

Keep in mind that the new PCIe 2.0 is twice the bandwidth of PCIe 1.0. (what most of us are familiar with)

All of this has been posted before.

By standard, i mean that it is becoming reasonably priced thus making it more accessible to budget gamers such as myself.

That's funny you say that; the whole point of the P55 is that it is reasonably priced and more accessible to budget gamers, so ..

With the X58, you're paying twice as much for nearly identical performance. The difference of like 2 frames per second - sometimes in favor of the P55.


I'm not saying you're making a bad choice, either, I'm just helping you make an informed choice. The Turbo on the 1156 is much better than the 1366, but if you're going to overclock the CPU yourself (thus disabling Turbo), and run two or more monster video cards, or plan to upgrade to 6 core any time soon, then by all means, go with the 1366.

6 core not looking good any time soon, BTW:http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...ix_Core_Gulftown_Processors_for_Desktops.html All processors are limited by TDP, so if you're not making use of all the cores, then they will just be dead weight, creating heat and limiting the clocks of other cores. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_Design_Power

 

[VirusType2]

If I were you, I'd hang on to the E8400 with 4 GB RAM. Total cost $0. That is a good ****ing processor. I upgraded from a CeleronD, so my difference was major, major.

You say the prices have come down, but I haven't seen them move in 6 months.

I've got the i5-750, and I can unzip 5 archives while downloading torrents, running A/V, F/W, listening to music, and watching six 720p movies simultaneously, and my CPU might reach 38% utilization at most, with a legacy X1900XT video card.

They really are overkill at this point. Maybe I'm missing something, but paying hundreds more for another a couple % that nothing will use, isn't wise.

I think that you centered your new build around your CPU fan. You can get an awesome new CPU fan - one with 72,000 5-star reviews at newegg for about $30.

 

[Schall]

True, the E8400 is a really good processor. If I were you, I would just upgrade your video card(if anything). Maybe a 5XXX ATI card?

 

[TwwIX]

If I were you, I'd hang on to the E8400 with 4 GB RAM. Total cost $0. That is a good ****ing processor. I upgraded from a CeleronD, so my difference was major, major.

You say the prices have come down, but I haven't seen them move in 6 months.

I've got the i5-750, and I can unzip 5 archives while downloading torrents, running A/V, F/W, listening to music, and watching six 720p movies simultaneously, and my CPU might reach 38% utilization at most, with a legacy X1900XT video card.

They really are overkill at this point. Maybe I'm missing something, but paying hundreds more for another a couple % that nothing will use, isn't wise.

I think that you centered your new build around your CPU fan. You can get an awesome new CPU fan - one with 72,000 5-star reviews at newegg for about $30.

Yes, it's a great processor and it has served me well. It's starting to show its age though.
More and more games are starting to take advantage of 4 core processors.
BFBC2 is clearly one of those games and i am not too happy about the performance.

Trust me, i have considered all my options. My current mobo is good but it's not the best overclocker and it's not exactly taking advantage of my hardware. I can't post it past 3.6GHz even though many people can run it at 4.0Ghz on air and i had to downclock my memory timings as well. At first i wanted to go with a Q9550, a new PSU and a Mobo that supports SLI. That would end up costing me nearly the same and i would be stuck on older gen hardware. I might as well spend a few more bucks then and switch over to the i7 with some proper SLI/Crossfire support. Yes, i plan on going SLI with the new FERMI cards but i am in no rush.

I Am sure that the i5 750 performs good but so does the Q9550 and its sockets have practically the same hardware limitations.
Anyway, i don't want to continue this debate.
I have already made my decision with what i am going with.

 

[TwwIX]

As i already said, will be migrating most of my current hardware to the new system.

i7 920 Bloomfield D0 Stepping
EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (132-BL-E758-A1)

As for RAM. One of these two.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226028


The question is, will my current PSU be able to power all the new hardware?
Yes, i plan on overclocking the new CPU along with my GPU which is already overclocked on my current system.

This is my current PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0&cm_re=stealthxstream-_-17-341-010-_-Product

 

[Krynn72]

You need to repost your links. You seem to have copied the shortened text from another forum.

 

[TwwIX]

Sorry about that. Fixed.

 

[Krynn72]

That power supply should work. Might be pushing it though. If you plan on getting one of the new nvidia cards, or a couple more hard drives, I'd definitely suggest getting a higher output PSU so that you don't max yours out all the time.

 

[TwwIX]

That power supply should work. Might be pushing it though. If you plan on getting one of the new nvidia cards, or a couple more hard drives, I'd definitely suggest getting a higher output PSU so that you don't max yours out all the time.

I Am only upgrading a few components for now. Once i have seen some benchmarks for the FERMI cards and the prices have dropped, i will go SLI or Crossfire. I am sticking with my overclocked GTX 260 for now. Nah, i have no need for multiple hard drives or DVD drives for that matter. I am just unsure whether it will be capable to run an overclocked i7 and my GPU.

 

[VirusType2]

I know you don't really value my opinion, but if you wait for a sale, you can get the RAM for half that. No exaggeration. By then, that could mean even lower prices on the mainboards (and probably CPU by a good 20) as well.