New gaming rig

[sinner90]

Hey guys. The time has come to upgrade my gaming i.e. completely replace it.

I've been reading and thinking quite a while now and this is the setup I've come up with.

Motherboard : ASUS P6X58D-E

CPU : Intel® Core™ i7 950 (which I plan on OC to 4gHz)

Graphic card : Sapphire Radeon HD 6870

Memory (RAM) : G.Skill PC3-12800 "Nahalem" KIT 6144 MB (3x2GB)

PSU : Cooler Master Silent Pro M700

Case : Fractal Design R3 Black Pearl

Optical unit : Samsung SH-S223C BEBE

Hard drive : Western Digital WD1002FAEX "Caviar® Black™

CPU air cooler : Noctua NH-D14

Now. I'm not any kind of PC expert and that's why I need your help. I would appreciate if you could review my setup and express your opinion on what you think would be a better pick. Sorry for any spelling mistakes or if something wasn't clear (I'm from Slovenia).

Thanks in advance for any kind of help whatsoever.

 

[hmmblah]

You need 3 sticks of RAM to run triple channel on that board. Will have to be either 3GB, 6GB, or 12GB. Might want to look at Mushkin Ridgebacks. Also, I like Corsair PSUs, but that CM should be good as well. Only other change I would make is to an nVidia card for folding. If you don't plan on ever folding, the 6870 is an excellent choice.

That board is good as well, but you might want to check out the ASUS Sabertooth or Gigabyte UD3R.

 

[sinner90]

You need 3 sticks of RAM to run triple channel on that board. Will have to be either 3GB, 6GB, or 12GB. Might want to look at Mushkin Ridgebacks. Also, I like Corsair PSUs, but that CM should be good as well. Only other change I would make is to an nVidia card for folding. If you don't plan on ever folding, the 6870 is an excellent choice.

That board is good as well, but you might want to check out the ASUS Sabertooth or Gigabyte UD3R.

How about these? G.Skill PC3-12800 "Nahalem" KIT 6144 MB (3x2GB)

I found Mushkin RAM but they're all 4GB :/

And what does folding mean when referring to a graphic card? Sorry, i don't understand.

 

[Zraupp]

How about these? G.Skill PC3-12800 "Nahalem" KIT 6144 MB

I found Mushkin RAM but they're all 4GB :/

dude you'll be fine getting 3x1GB sticks more the better, i have 2GB and it only gone down to 0-1% FREE MB Ram 3 times in my life, and i was running Prime, and playing call of duty and on the internet all at the same time, lolz

and note: its cheaper to get 2 {2x2GB sticks} packs, usually

edit:

spell checked

 

[sinner90]

It would be better or cheaper? Because money isn't an issue at this point. I rather buy enough now than having to add later. Anyway, thanks for your answer, appreciate it.

 

[alienware]

Running dual channel ram on a I7 is quite odd. The I7 takes advantage of triple channel memory and the boards have 3 or 6 slots.

Using a pair of modules will hurt performance. If you are using Win 7 X86 then don't bother buying more than 3gb of ram as you can't use it.

 

[sinner90]

Running dual channel ram on a I7 is quite odd. The I7 takes advantage of triple channel memory and the boards have 3 or 6 slots.

Using a pair of modules will hurt performance. If you are using Win 7 X86 then don't bother buying more than 3gb of ram as you can't use it.

Is 3x2gb dual channel? Cuz now I'm really confused.

And no, I'll be using Win 7 x64.

 

[benj3]

Mushkin 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 9-9-9-24 Silverline - 998946

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3+Tri-Channel+-+PC3-12800/Mushkin+6GB+(3x2GB)+DDR3+PC3-12800+9-9-9-24+Silverline+-+998946+?productId=42174

 

[alienware]

Is 3x2gb dual channel? Cuz now I'm really confused.

And no, I'll be using Win 7 x64.

It is mate yes

Think of channels like lanes on a motorway. If the setup is dual channel it can consist of up to 4 sticks of memory (servers aside) and can be ran in either dual slots or quad slots. So, let's say you wanted 4gb of ram in there you would use 2x2gb or 4x1gb. If you only put one stick in there your ram lanes and speed would literally be cut in half.

Socket 1366 I7 (not the pretend 1156 ones that are over priced) are triple channel. Meaning a motherboard would have either three slots (like my foxconn) or six slots (like most Asus ETC). They will work in dual channel (two sticks or four if you have 6 banks) but you will not be running triple channel.To do that you either need three or six sticks to enable it.

This is why Sandybridge socket 1155 is nothing really terribly exciting. I mean yes sure, the chips seem fast from the previews but they are limited to running dual channel. The replacement for 1366 triple channel will be a quad channel system released in about a years time

 

[killablade]

It is mate yes

Actually 3x2GB would mean triple channel

 

[alienware]

Argh. Didn't even spot that. Any way, my explanation should take care of it

 

[sinner90]

Argh. Didn't even spot that. Any way, my explanation should take care of it

Okay, thanks for the thorough explanation even though i was even more confused after reading it (joke)

So 3x2GB is triple channel. Any tips on which RAM I should choose for OC? I saw that 2 of the guys above suggested Mushkins but I can't seem to find any of those here in Slovenia. Should I be looking for something in particular when choosing RAM for OC or any triple channel will do?

Thanks in advance

 

[alienware]

If you want to overclock then it's either the high end Dominator or the Mushkin. Prepare, though, to pay for the pleasure

Mind you if you want performance the Mushkin really is the absolute tits.

 

[sinner90]

If you want to overclock then it's either the high end Dominator or the Mushkin.

What does "high end" mean? I know, I'm a complete noob

 

[alienware]

Well you mentioned overclocking.

Ram has never been something you could expect massive overclocks from. All of the reasonably priced ram is barely worth overclocking (see the G.skill mid range like mine, the Hyper X value ETC). What you are looking for in ram that you can overclock is the timings.

For example take this one..

Mid range DDR3 1600 has timings (usually always) of 9-9-9-24.

Good top end overclocking ram like the mushkin redline and Dominator GT offer timings far lower. When it comes to ram speed timings tell the tale, the lower the better. This means you can slacken timings of say, 7, to 9 and overclock the ram. On cheaper ram the headroom has all been pretty much taken up to get to the standard un-overclocked speed leaving you nothing to play with.

Talking of playing with.. Without sounding rude if you have no idea what you're doing then I wouldn't go down the overclocking road just yet. It can lead to epic fail if you don't know what you're doing.

Quick question.. Do you know what CAS latency is? if not then I would do your research and learn how a bios works and what it all means. Otherwise you're just throwing money down the drain.

 

[Zraupp]

wait a sec, can you wait for new cpus to be out? there going to be out soon. i know someone thats OCed the core i7 2600k to 5.12GHz

 

[alienware]

Pics or it didn't happen...

 

[Zraupp]

Pics or it didn't happen...

 

[hmmblah]

Pfft, not just the same cpu-z screen that's been floating around. How about actual pics of the person you know with the hardware. That'd be something new at least.