How will this i7 system fare?

[S1R]

Well, I'm planning on putting together an i7 system pretty soon, and I just had a few questions as to the technical side of things. Here are the components that I'm getting;

Core i7 920 (Going to OC to as high as I can, approx of 3.8~4.0 from what I've seen so far)
Sapphire 4850 PCS+ 512 MB
LG GH22NS30 DVD±RW/DL/RAM Drive
Coolermaster HAF 932 Case
Samsumg SpinPoint 1TB HDD
6GB DDR3 RAM
Asus P6T Deluxe X58 Mobo
TRUE /w 1366 Bolt-Thru kit

As for a PSU, I was wondering if a 620W would cover it? I'm planning on eventually getting another 4850 and CrossFiring them together, so would it still be able to run the OCed 920 and 2 4850s?

And about the RAM, would I be able to run the OCed 920 on 1333MHz or would I have to go for 1600?

Thanks in advance.

[matty-hodgson]

well i'm running a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz and 2x 4850 1GBs on a HX620W and it's running fine.
even if i stress the GFX cards and CPU it doesn't make the PSU that warm.
so your PSU worries will be fine at 620W

as for the RAM.
the 1600MHz RAM will be better and easier to overclock, but will also be a lot more expensive. :\

[staffsMike]

Sounds very well thought out it would be nice to wait for things to get a bit cheaper but it's certainly going to be a bit of a rocket.

The HIS ICE-Q HD4850 is very nice if you can get a good price.

620W will be ample, especially if it's the corsair

Not sure on the Ram tbh.

[S1R]

So at least that's the PSU out of the way . The 1600MHz will be a better performance wise, but I'm just wondering at the moment if the DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz will be able to cope with the system.

[staffsMike]

So at least that's the PSU out of the way . The 1600MHz will be a better performance wise, but I'm just wondering at the moment if the DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz will be able to cope with the system.

Save money on the case if you need more expensive stuff There are cheaper and probably less dusty alternatives.

[S1R]

I've heard of the woes of there being no dust filters in the 932. This is still just a draught though, anything can be changed, and if it comes to it the case may just have to go. It's either that or the Antec 1200, so far. Not a huge change is price, but every little helps

[matty-hodgson]

what about a P182?
or a Stacker 831?

the RAM.. i'd save as much as possible on the case and get some decent RAM.
brand and speed.

[S1R]

Well from what I can see so far, for an OCZ 6GB 1333MHz kit @ 7-7-7-20 it's about £240, and the OCZ 1600MHz kit @ 8-8-8-24 is about £260. Higher frequencies on one, and lower latencies on the other. Which one would be more beneficial for this system?

[matty-hodgson]

Well from what I can see so far, for an OCZ 6GB 1333MHz kit @ 7-7-7-20 it's about £240, and the OCZ 1600MHz kit @ 8-8-8-24 is about £260. Higher frequencies on one, and lower latencies on the other. Which one would be more beneficial for this system?

the 1600MHz kit will be faster. the latencies don't make all that much difference tbh.

[staffsMike]

the 1600MHz kit will be faster. the latencies don't make all that much difference tbh.

Does that hold for i7? Genuine question.. I'm lagging lol

[matty-hodgson]

Does that hold for i7? Genuine question.. I'm lagging lol

yeah.. didn't think of that actually..
the latencies might make a difference with i7 tbh.

try and find some reviews and ask some questions on some forums?

[TAKTAK]

well with i7 and the integrated memory controller you basically just have a more advanced AM2 architecture (oi... im being simple... i know its alot different )..

so the effect of memory timings on AM2 would be around the same as the effect on i7 i would have thought...

[staffsMike]

well with i7 and the integrated memory controller you basically just have a more advanced AM2 architecture (oi... im being simple... i know its alot different )..

so the effect of memory timings on AM2 would be around the same as the effect on i7 i would have thought...

Well that is what sparked my question but I have no idea lol

[kalniel]

It's more like AM2 - latencies are probably more important than speed. But above all there is a limit on the volts you can give the memory controller on i7 and memory itself on X58, so I'd recommend not going for higher speed stuff as that's more likely to require more volts. Go low volt/speed and tight latencies.

[magneticman]

all the new tri-channel stuff is tested on 1.65v, even the higher rated RAM, so I don't think that will be an issue.

Plus from my understanding you''ll need the higher frequencies to overclock higher, with the baseclock going in multiples of 6 and 8 or something. This could all be complete bollocks, i'm gonna have to research more lol.

[S1R]

Well, they ran some benchmarks on techgage as to what the best memory would be for i7, and against 1333 @ 7-7-7-20 the 1600MHz @ 8-8-8-24 still pretty much took it in every category, and in some, by quite a bit as well.