Upgraged to i7 and X58 Mobo 6gb DDR3

TURBOTAXI · 08-04-2009, 11:23 PM

Hi - Dont know if there is any interest in this, but due to a recent lightening strike and failed water pump (and therefore overheated parts) my insurance company replaced my oc'd (3.15ghz) Q6600 and 4gb 1066mhz ram on ep 45 mobo with 920 i7 cpu , EX58 mobo and 6 gb of 1600mhz ram. The GPU is a 4870x2 (soon to be in crossfire - 2 x 4870x2) I put the new parts in last weekend.

Observations after a week with the 8 virtual cores are a slightly higher 3Dmark score, not appreciable gaming difference on TF2, Crysis, GTA, COD4 etc.. no real difference in boot speed etc...

For those wondering I dont know that the value is there just yet with some places still asking $500 for the i7, $350 for the mobo and $270 for the ram.

Overclocking is different too with no FSB, but something called QPI its all a little different. And so far it seems that o'cing is a little trickier.

I will get my water cooling back up soon and shoot for clock speed but I am still waiting for the new water pumps.

I think that the value is still in the quad core range and the p45 chipset.

But when the i7 comes down in price they clearly have better architecture and better ability to multi thread but there is not enough software out there yet to take advanatage of it.

Anyone else playing with one of these with something to add?

duaned · 08-04-2009, 11:45 PM

Nice rig there. What power supply are you running?

TURBOTAXI · 09-04-2009, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duaned

Nice rig there. What power supply are you running?

Antec true power 1000 watt. I had a corsair 620 watt but when I went to 4870x2 I upgraded because they say a minimum 650 watt is required, and eventually I will fit the second one.

They are both modular PSU's and that makes them good for upgarde etc...

AUIIForte · 09-04-2009, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TURBOTAXI

Hi - Dont know if there is any interest in this, but due to a recent lightening strike and failed water pump (and therefore overheated parts) my insurance company replaced my oc'd (3.15ghz) Q6600 and 4gb 1066mhz ram on ep 45 mobo with 920 i7 cpu , EX58 mobo and 6 gb of 1600mhz ram. The GPU is a 4870x2 (soon to be in crossfire - 2 x 4870x2) I put the new parts in last weekend.

Observations after a week with the 8 virtual cores are a slightly higher 3Dmark score, not appreciable gaming difference on TF2, Crysis, GTA, COD4 etc.. no real difference in boot speed etc...

For those wondering I dont know that the value is there just yet with some places still asking $500 for the i7, $350 for the mobo and $270 for the ram.

Overclocking is different too with no FSB, but something called QPI its all a little different. And so far it seems that o'cing is a little trickier.

I will get my water cooling back up soon and shoot for clock speed but I am still waiting for the new water pumps.

I think that the value is still in the quad core range and the p45 chipset.

But when the i7 comes down in price they clearly have better architecture and better ability to multi thread but there is not enough software out there yet to take advanatage of it.

Anyone else playing with one of these with something to add?

Mate, I have nothing to add, other than the fact that I only dream and wish of having a rig like yours.

Man I am jealous.

TURBOTAXI · 10-04-2009, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AUIIForte

Mate, I have nothing to add, other than the fact that I only dream and wish of having a rig like yours.

Man I am jealous.

Thanks mate - if you want to see better prices on these parts try www.itestate.com.au or MSY. www.staticice.com.au is an easy way of finding the best prices.

For what its worth 99% of the time there is not that much difference between my machine and the budget one I built for the kids with AMD LE-1620 and 9500GT

One thing I will give it is in converting videos for my iphone it blazes along compared to the Q6600

TURBOTAXI · 26-04-2009, 08:19 PM

Ok so now I have the 2 x 4870x2's in crossfire 3d Mark Vantage is a tad under 20,000 3d Marks and 3D Mark 06 is 22,000.

Check it out if you like this stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TsVm...e=channel_page

There are Crysis and 3D mark vis there too if you like gaming rigs.

YoungFordFreak · 26-04-2009, 10:07 PM

Awesome mate, inspires me to build my comp very shortly.
As you mentioned earlier i'll also be going to MSY. even though their website looks like a 10 year old did it, there price list is good.

Awesome rig

Jesk · 27-04-2009, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YoungFordFreak

Awesome mate, inspires me to build my comp very shortly.
As you mentioned earlier i'll also be going to MSY. even though their website looks like a 10 year old did it, there price list is good.

Awesome rig

yeah their website looks crap, but they do a top job at parts at excellent prices, eg I picked up my 2.1 logitech speakers for less then 2/3rds the price most retail outlets wanted for them.

Just know what you want before you head in there cos you cant browse the place

Awesome beast btw turbotaxi, I can only dream of putting a machine half that good together

andrewts · 28-04-2009, 02:51 PM

Got any pictures of the w/c setup?

TURBOTAXI · 28-04-2009, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewts

Got any pictures of the w/c setup?

Hi - You can see it clearly in my old videos of the quad core set up. Just search mendooranite on youtube - there are several angles etc....

Its not a bad integarted water cooling set up.

svo347 · 28-04-2009, 07:36 PM

I like the fact the young bloke was gaming

TURBOTAXI · 28-04-2009, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by svo347

I like the fact the young bloke was gaming

Lol you should face him in TF2 or CS 1.6.

He is a tough little nut. username is gabealmighty in steam.

ThePistonHead · 28-04-2009, 11:00 PM

What are the advantages of having 6gb of ram?

I'm assuming you are waiting for windows 7, how much RAM can that use?

I think vista only uses 4gb IIRC.

TURBOTAXI · 28-04-2009, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePistonHead

What are the advantages of having 6gb of ram?

I'm assuming you are waiting for windows 7, how much RAM can that use?

I think vista only uses 4gb IIRC.

Yeah 32 bit can only address 4gb RAM between GPU's and system RAM

In 64bit Home premium can use up to 16GB and basic can use 8GB.

So I have 4gb of GPU memory and 6 GB of RAM -= still room for 2gb of RAM.

Rodp · 29-04-2009, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePistonHead

What are the advantages of having 6gb of ram?

I'm assuming you are waiting for windows 7, how much RAM can that use?

I think vista only uses 4gb IIRC.

For a strictly gaming box, not much today.

As stated, 32bit Vista can only address 4GB, 64bit versions address more.

On my PC (Vista 64 Business which has 8GB), I play a lot of games but I generally have an XP VM for my VPN into the office, a SUSE 11 VM box for buggering around on and an iSCSI target VM box all running in the background under VMWare Workstation 6. These 3 VM's consume about 3GB alone and very little CPU utilisation on my Quad core.

Had I not been doing the above, I'd happily run 4GB just in case. RAM is dirt cheap these days.

TURBOTAXI · 03-05-2009, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodp

For a strictly gaming box, not much today.

As stated, 32bit Vista can only address 4GB, 64bit versions address more.

On my PC (Vista 64 Business which has 8GB), I play a lot of games but I generally have an XP VM for my VPN into the office, a SUSE 11 VM box for buggering around on and an iSCSI target VM box all running in the background under VMWare Workstation 6. These 3 VM's consume about 3GB alone and very little CPU utilisation on my Quad core.

Had I not been doing the above, I'd happily run 4GB just in case. RAM is dirt cheap these days.

You sound well set up with virtual machines

bd737 · 03-05-2009, 08:35 PM

Insane specs. Built a machine yesterday with a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2Gb 800Mhz RAM, 1TB HDD and those specs sent me into a spinning delirium.

But your specs...

Technology is moving too fast. Be ready for the grey goo!

futura97 · 03-05-2009, 11:37 PM

Nice build... Just waiting to get some money from mr rudd and then going to upgrade mine (currently pentium d :| )

I'm thinking of going a core 2 duo e8500 or e8600 - cant decide yet because I don't think I can justify the massive price difference for only .5x more clock multiplier. And I will only be using my machine for mainly games then internet and ms office. Can you make any recommendations between the two cpus?

Just on a side note, I watched some of your vids and there very well done. Good work. Only criticising comment I got though is you didn't mention much about static electricity when handling components (only watched 2nd and 9th one though). Whenever I build my machines, I have the power supply plugged into the wall, but switched off so that I've got a good ground to ground myself on.

also bd737, thats a pretty sweet rig you got there. From what I read, the core 2 duo's overclock very very well, so you should be able to bump the speed up to about 3-3.5 ghz quite comfortably

Cheers

AzuR · 03-05-2009, 11:57 PM

i second i7 setup ;) i got a 920 D0 @ 4.2ghz and 2 x gtx295's in sli

:

TURBOTAXI · 04-05-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bd737

Insane specs. Built a machine yesterday with a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2Gb 800Mhz RAM, 1TB HDD and those specs sent me into a spinning delirium.

But your specs...

Technology is moving too fast. Be ready for the grey goo!

lol Yeah - I think its all a bit much. I dont really need the grunt I have, I just thought it would be fun. It does make gaming pleasant. The basic machines I built for my kids with 9500GT and LE 1620 or 8600GT with 3.0 ghz p4 do really well and have planty of power for gaming.

TURBOTAXI · 04-05-2009, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by futura97

Nice build... Just waiting to get some money from mr rudd and then going to upgrade mine (currently pentium d :| )

I'm thinking of going a core 2 duo e8500 or e8600 - cant decide yet because I don't think I can justify the massive price difference for only .5x more clock multiplier. And I will only be using my machine for mainly games then internet and ms office. Can you make any recommendations between the two cpus?

Just on a side note, I watched some of your vids and there very well done. Good work. Only criticising comment I got though is you didn't mention much about static electricity when handling components (only watched 2nd and 9th one though). Whenever I build my machines, I have the power supply plugged into the wall, but switched off so that I've got a good ground to ground myself on.

also bd737, thats a pretty sweet rig you got there. From what I read, the core 2 duo's overclock very very well, so you should be able to bump the speed up to about 3-3.5 ghz quite comfortably

Cheers

Mate I only started getting into computers in Feb 2007 and I still have a heap to learn.
Thanks for the comments on the vids - discharging static was something I didnt really do well, it was a build using new old stock that I had and I was just messing around with the camera - but given it became a bit of a turorial - I should have been more thorough.

Regarding your CPU choice, check out the benchmarking of quad core CPU's Vs Dual core. I think that a Q8200 or something like that might be better but plenty of people would probably disagree.

The quads seem to have plenty of headroom for more clock speed with appropriate cooling.

Prices are not too different.

05273 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 $246
05274 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 $279
06423 Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650(u) $999
06318 Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 $245
06638 Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 $281
06187 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 $329
05480 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 $402
06435 Intel Core i7-920 $427
06436 Intel Core i7-940 $939
06437 Intel Core i7-EE965 $1899

I just built a machine for a mate for $1000 with Q9400 4gb Ram, 9500GT, Asus mobo, 1TB HDD, DVD RW, with 430watt Thermaltake PSU, Vista business and black piano Thermaltake case.

I didnt get to benchmark the one I built for my mate, but my OC'd Q6600 with 4gb 1066mhz Ram on P45 mobo, and 9500GT used to score around 11,000 - 12,000 in 3dMark Vantage I suspect the one I built for him would be similar.

You can build a lot of computer at the moment for not too much money (comparably - to a couple of years ago)

Rodp · 05-05-2009, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TURBOTAXI

You sound well set up with virtual machines

Have to keep up to date for work (but the Work VM is so that I don't have to drag out my notebook in order to VPN into the office every few hours). They're also not including my servers that have different versions of ESX and ESXi. :\

Then add Hyper-V into the mix...

If I was to count them up, I'd say I currently have 8 permanent VM's running across 2 machines and that's when RAM really counts.