Ok people of either gender, It's that time again

Well Im going to make the leap. I have $650 to spend and I wanna I7. i know I should wait but well, you know me. Obviously Im getting the

Intel Core i7 920 $275

And the ram that fits the budget is

CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB $104

Now I know its only 4GB and I may play with the numbers a bit to get these in steadG.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) for $135

Here's the thing I dont know about the motherboards too much. So price is my biggest deal and i'd like to know I can push the ram to 2000 if need be as the above are 1600's. Should this even be a concern or now?

I think Im going with this GB board
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R $199

But I am not sure if I should spend the extra green on this DFI one
DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 $229

or even maybe this one
MSI X58 Pro LGA $199

I dont think Ive ever owned a MSI board before, but again it fits the budget. Any specs you think are better by all means post em. Im not up on the latest i7 literature at all so Im a bit out of the loop since they hit the streets. Thanks guys so much ;)

What about the Phenom II? I recently read that just set some clocking records.

How does it compare to the I7?

The MSI boards are as well designed as Gigabyte, in fact in terms of reliability I rate MSI above Gigabyte (although GB have improved), so it really is a case of six of one, half a dozen of the other. My personal preference out of the two would be MSI.

I must admit I like the different colour's of the DFI LANPARTY JR X58
but I just wouldn't go by the colour.

Why are you doing this?

If i remember correctly he said he changes his rig every 6 months .. I dunno y though?

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Originally Posted by apextwin146

If i remember correctly he said he changes his rig every 6 months ..

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I thought about putting something like "as snake sheds his skin" but I won't.

Your restraint is admirable.

The three i7 systems I've seen have all been disappointments.
My q9550 beats them at SuperPi by 2 seconds (at stock speeds) and the OCed Wolfie by even more.
Which is of course, meaningless but kind of surprising anyway.
I couldn't find any common day-to-day metric that demonstrated the new platform's superiority in a way that made it "must-have" or even "oooh, shiny!".

Exclude the chip, and the p45 chipset with 8GB of RAM can be had for @$225 which IMO, is the bang/buck winner at the moment.

Besides, Intel announced that they're speeding production of the new 32nm CPUs- basically shortcutting the i7 range- so I think the i7's will be the s754 of the Intel range- here today, gone tomorrow.

agreed with clocker on this one. especially with the Socket754 analogy.
It's clear this i7 platform is a transitory one.
I would wait a bit longer and go for the PhenomII if they live up to the hype. I'm expecting AMD to be back in the game.

Hmmmmm. Thanks for the input guys. I didn't know alot of this. LOL yeah I do tend to redo my rig around every 6 months or so. Bit of a HW whore I guess. Maybe I'll hold off a bit more.

Clocker which p45 board and 8 gig or ram do you see for that price?

Maybe I'll just get a q9550 and play with that for a while then.

One other thing. Could someone please tell me the difference between these two video cards, I cant seem to find it
EVGA 896-P3-1255-A1

and

EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR

It's only a $5 difference in price but why the AR and the A1?? Oh BTW I'm going for a new GTX card as well :)

It's just a product code.There is no difference except you get the Mirror's edge game with one.
http://www.evga.com/products/compareV.asp

That's the card I'm getting too.

Board.

RAM.

Ahh cool thanks. I wonder why Newegg doesn't say that??

EDIT: Thanks C Yeah Im going to pick up another one of those boards for the WC rig as the water blocks will still fit. And I have that ram already, Thanks to you ;)

BTW Clocker does this ram come up as 800 for you as well? I always have to set the speed in the bios. If so any reason why that happens??

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Originally Posted by clocker

Board.

RAM.

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I vote for gigabyte!
Been using GA-EX38-DQ6 with Q6600 for one year.
Just make sure that you are using the latest stable firmware. I was struggling with DPC latency after purchasing the mobo then it all worked fine after upgrading the firmware and now I am more than happy.

Good Luck.

All RAM displays a max of 800 as that's the highest officially recognized JEDEC spec for DDR2 (when the spec was written).

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Originally Posted by micropino

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Board.

RAM.

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I vote for gigabyte!
Been using GA-EX38-DQ6 with Q6600 for one year.
Just make sure that you are using the latest stable firmware. I was struggling with DPC latency after purchasing the mobo then it all worked fine after upgrading the firmware and now I am more than happy.

Good Luck.

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Thats the EXACT setup I have right now in the water cooled rig. What firmware do you mean? Do you mean the Bios? This board right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

All RAM displays a max of 800 as that's the highest officially recognized JEDEC spec for DDR2 (when the spec was written).

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Ahhh I see so when I up the Ram speed am I messing something up like?

[quote=Detale;3138625]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by micropino

I vote for gigabyte!
Been using GA-EX38-DQ6 with Q6600 for one year.
Just make sure that you are using the latest stable firmware. I was struggling with DPC latency after purchasing the mobo then it all worked fine after upgrading the firmware and now I am more than happy.

Good Luck.

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Thats the EXACT setup I have right now in the water cooled rig. What firmware do you mean? Do you mean the Bios? This board right?

So sorry :(, I meant the BIOS, you are right Detale!
What CPU case are you using for the water cooling system? seems like you are overclocking something :) is this true?

I have heard good things abt GA mobo. you might want to take a look at some review abt EP45-UD3P..

I also have a gigabyte, a GA-P35C-DS3R , cheaper than those but with DDR3 support, and i must say that i hate those mofos at gigabyte for taking them nearly 6 months to solve a known bios issue, that prevented the board from resetting on its user-defined FSB if you pressed reset.
that problem also affected another gigabyte board from a friend of mine.
other than that, pretty well constructed boards. solid all-round.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by micropino

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

Thats the EXACT setup I have right now in the water cooled rig. What firmware do you mean? Do you mean the Bios? This board right?

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So sorry :(, I meant the BIOS, you are right Detale!
What CPU case are you using for the water cooling system? seems like you are overclocking something :) is this true?

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I'm using the Silverstone TJ07 yeah it's watercooled I have a thread all about my baby. The actual build starts around post 100 i think. I have since modified it a bit an then had a water trauma that ruined the video card :(. I'm over it now and with these new parts I'm going for v3.

*Also I fixed your quote ;)

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Originally Posted by PlayeR

I have heard good things abt GA mobo. you might want to take a look at some review abt EP45-UD3P..

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LOL and thats almost my other MoBo in the HTPC with the wolfdale as a sidekick ;) I have the UD3R

So Yes Cabalo I have a wolfdale that Mobo and a 4850 in my HTPC lol ( I was scolded) Oh and here's my overpriced HTPC case lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

So Yes Cabalo I have a wolfdale that Mobo and a 4850 in my HTPC lol ( I was scolded) Oh and here's my overpriced HTPC case lol.

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***sigh***
nice htpc you have there... i bet it plays xvid and x264 smoothly... :rolleyes:

**cough** spender... **cough**

that case is sweet... too sweet, i had to close the link to stop drooling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

I'm using the Silverstone TJ07 yeah it's watercooled I have a thread all about my baby. The actual build starts around post 100 i think. I have since modified it a bit an then had a water trauma that ruined the video card :(. I'm over it now and with these new parts I'm going for v3.

*Also I fixed your quote ;)

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Sorry for your VGA card!
Wow your rig is really impressing, will you make this case the home for the i7 as well :)
I am using Gigabyte 3D AURORA kindda monster with a fancy look :w00t:

i see this was limited to only boys answering.....

how gay

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Originally Posted by Cabalo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

So Yes Cabalo I have a wolfdale that Mobo and a 4850 in my HTPC lol ( I was scolded) Oh and here's my overpriced HTPC case lol.

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***sigh***
nice htpc you have there... i bet it plays xvid and x264 smoothly... :rolleyes:

**cough** spender... **cough**

that case is sweet... too sweet, i had to close the link to stop drooling.

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LOL. Well I have good reson for it. I had the wolfdale in my other rig and the Mobo went so I built this one and got a q6600 in thhe other rig. Then I just wanted to get a good board so I wouldn't have to worry. Then the video card I had was giving me trouble so I got a GREAT deal on this one like $89 around xmas from newegg ;) the case yeah I spent on the case but I HAD to have it after I saw it. The thing is the "HTPC" usually acts as my main rig because I am always messing with the main one. Since Dec I think the main rig is sitting in my hallway since the "incident" I haven't had the nerve to take another shot with her. The leak just kicked me in the balls and I havent fully recovered yet. Thanks man

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kooftspc11

i see this was limited to only boys answering.....

how gay

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LOL Sorry I'll change the tittle for you, but now you're obliged to answer :P

Oh goodie, a PC PC.

I'm a Asus fanboy , my friend with more money than brains was asking about the Asus P6T . Didn't know what to say .

Me either I looked at it but GB has done me well these last few years. Also clocker said NO I7's so now I cant :P it would go against my "do what clocker says" code.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

I'm using the Silverstone TJ07 yeah it's watercooled I have a thread all about my baby.

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Nice case. send it to me if you change to a new case in the future :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

Also clocker said NO I7's so now I cant :P it would go against my "do what clocker says" code.

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Oh, the pressure.

You know, the base question should always be, "What will my x amount of dollars buy me?" and at this point, I'd say the answer is "Not much".
Hardly like you're limping around on a socketA system or something.

Why don't you fix the TJ rig, you lazy bastard?

LOL yeah I know man I am going to get on it as soon as I get these new toys. I figure that'll be the motivation I need to get off my ass ;)

Now don't be mad :P but I think Im going to do away with the fan controller. The thing is I don't think I need it. I feel like the San ace fans are way too powerful for what I need and I use the controller to turn them down then why not just get some more Scyth S-flex fans?? The case is water cooled so the heat disipation isn't that much an issue. The TJ is well ventilated. Am I just crazy here or does this make sense? I almost have all of the fans I need, I just need to get the 92mm's for the back and I may just do away with the top fans all together. Also and this is dumb but the lights are just too bright. Bright to the point of distraction. Not to mention 2/3 of the kids can now reach the knobs and always fuck with them and it annoys me to no end and sooner or later they will break one off and I'll kill em.

Another thing is Im not (at least for now) going to water cool the vid card because I feel like the Water block is just too damn pricey and too propriatary for me :snooty: I mean now I'm stuck with the EK 8800 block that I'll prob never use. Which brings me to my next point.

I may have a giveaway soon of some not really old stuff I have laying around here. I haven't figured out how to do the shipping though so Im still thinking about it but I do have to get rid of some stuff soon.

If that EK block fits a GT, let me know.

Why Yessir it is and it's all yours ;)

I was browsing through the Overclockers site yesterday, the Bundles section of the site.
Just looking through some of the deals they had, and noticed a deal for just less than £200.

The following was In the Bundle:

OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) @3.33Ghz,
Gigabyte EX58-UD4P Intel X58
OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Gold (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 Bundle
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366)

I was like Is this for real, I refreshed the page and another page came up.
Most lightly a mistake on Overclockers part but what a mistake, If anyone got this deal good luck on their part.

The real price now Is £666.99, a heck of a jump In price.
But all the same, If anyone got that deal good luck to them.

I'm sure it was a mistake or maybe even the bait and switch ;)

I got my goodies :) Pics to come

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Originally Posted by Detale

I got my goodies :) Pics to come

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:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Detale

I got my goodies :) Pics to come

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cabalo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Detale

I got my goodies :) Pics to come

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:rolleyes:

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Boy howdy, I know...I'm excited too.
Never seen a video card before.

LOL you suck stealing my happiness man. Sorry damn kids took my free time today so nothing got done yet :(

That's me...the FST happiness vampire.
HW world's black hole of despair.

I love my job.