View Full Version : i7 Upgrade Spec
So far I'm looking at the following upgrade:
ASUS P6T SE
Intel Core i7 920 (D0 Stepping)
Titan Fenrir Special Edition
Corsair XMS3 6GB PC3-12800C9
Any comments? I'm not after a huge overlock, but wouldn't mind squeezing a few extra Mhz out if it's simple enough. I'm guessing there is better suitable RAM out there?
I'm also thinking about upgrading my GTX260, what would be a worthy upgrade (best bang for buck)? I want to be able to play at 1920X1200 at a fairly decent frame rate.
And I'm also thinking about replacing my old X-Fi Xtreme Music but not really sure what to go for, I'm not after anything fancy, just want to be able to connect my speakers and headset, and would also like an optical out connection to run it through my stereo. Would the P6T SE on-board sound be man enough?
I'd like to keep the costs down as much as possible - the wife doesn't like me spending my money on me :(
Weetabix
24-01-2010, 18:00
Don't spend a fortune on RAM with an i7, it simply isn't worth it. That bundle looks just about spot on to me. I'd ask Redders about the graphics card tho, I haven't looked at new hardware since my i7 upgrade so I'm pretty out of touch atm.
GoRedwings
25-01-2010, 11:54
The onboard sound believe it or not is decent enough on this board. It has optical ouputs but have never used them. No point going for the high frequency/low latency stuff unless you like to benchmark a lot. You won't see the difference in game.
You will be suprised on how good this board is for it price compared to it bigger brothers. I have the p6t se and the pdtd deluxe and they both clock identically the same. Both clocked my i7 tot he same speed and more or using the same voltage. The p6td deluxe has ever so slighlty better voltage control but it won't make a difference if you are not trying to reach the real silly overclocks.
As for gfx cards. The only real bang for buck gfx card these days is the ati 5770 but is hardly a huge leap in performance over your 260. So i think this would be wasted money down the drain for not much gains.
Sure it runs much quieter and cooler than an nvidia but at the end of the day it still a budget card. If you really want to stick with an nvidia the only option is to see if you can pick up some thing like a 275, 280, 285 on the cheap.
Of the ati stuff the 4890 is pretty decent.
Btw I am selling my p6t se if anyone is interested. 120 quid inc royal mail special delivery by 1pm:)
Shyne-Bryght
25-01-2010, 12:00
Looks good, about the same as I'm going for. Oh yeah I guess I'll need a new cooler, unless my Ultra 120 will still fit an i7?
GoRedwings
25-01-2010, 12:15
Just get the 1366 retention bracket for it then. Although looking at the board I think it has 775 sockets as well as the 1366 sockets for coolers. I will go check later.
TheMunster
25-01-2010, 12:25
Another vouch for the onboard sound on that mobo - its what I'm using with my i7 at the moment.
Thanks for the comments.
I've been looking at the 5870's lately, would one of them be worth a shot? Or would it be better to wait and see what Fermi does to the market?
GoRed - I'll take that P6T SE off your hands if it's still available.
G, dont replace your XtremeMusic for anything that comes with motherboard. It's not worth it. The quality of onboard soundcards is much much worse than on separate sound card.
I'm running both X-fi on my ASUS GENE II and XtremeMusic at the moment and really need to tell you that the quality of music on Xtreme is 100% better.
GoRedwings
26-01-2010, 00:35
Yeah normally I would totally agree abby but I have one of the very first xfi cards and when I plug it into my p6tse or p6td deluxe it won't boot at all. No post nothing. Although I suspect that has something to do with the crossfire setup I am running.
Hell I am not even sure why it does this. Have to investigate it a bit more.
If that's true GoRed then my X-Fi will probably cause me problems, it's one of the early PCI models. I'll make do with the onboard sound for now, and if I get annoyed I'll look at replacing it with a PCI Express model later.
BillyBedlam
26-01-2010, 10:39
Funnily enough, my early X-fi Fata1ity has been giving me jip recently too, its the last time I buy anything of Creative I can tell you, going to chainsaw it in half along with my Muppet warfare 2 disc i think :)
crcsnail
26-01-2010, 15:58
that is pretty much my set up gfish and im still using the gtx260 card . tbh it is running all the latest games with no probs.
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6T DELUXE V2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
2.67 gigahertz Intel Core i7 920
Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Memory
i bought this last april but like i said it runs everything great.
G and red, you referring to this one?
http://techreport.com/articles.x/11581/3
coz that's the one I have and I've never had any trouble with it. As I said before - the sound quality is much better comparing to x-fi on my ASUS motherboard. I'm also running Xtrememusic on a gold jack cable, so this may make some difference as well
GoRed's motherboard arrived this morning and I've just ordered the rest of the components as follows:
Intel Core i7 920
Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet
Corsair Dominator 6GB PC3-12800C8
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
I've decided to stick with my GTX260 for now, although I might replace it later in the year, but it should keep me going for a while. Might also replace my sound card later , and maybe get a nice Lian Li case too.
All my new stuff has arrived, I'm planning on building it tomorrow night. I'll do my best to post piccies.
Are you still thinking about sound? If so check out the Auzentech range. I have the prelude 7.1 which is a bit old now, but they have excellent sound quality as well as a nice host of audiophile advantages like real time dolby digital & dts 5.1 encoding for digital output, coax or optical. I have one running 24bit into my home cinema amp.
TheMunster
04-02-2010, 14:18
Loaf of bread G, white sliced please :)
As for sound - I'm running my rig on my 32" LCD TV via HDMI from my 5870 - sound is very nice. Always was a big advocate of separate sound cards (even had PCMCIA sound-blaster audigy in my laptop) but this is working OK for me.
I assume it's still my onboard sound card doing the work with it simply channeling through the GPU...not sure how it works.
Rig is up and running now. Not missing the sound card, the on-board is doing the job just fine, getting some excellent sound, even after running my headset through the jacks in my keyboard.
No pics yet, I'll try to take some tonight or tomorrow.
TheMunster
07-02-2010, 11:01
Coolio G, no problems then?
What OS you running?
Coolio G, no problems then?
What OS you running?
None at all, it went smoothly. Originally planned to build it Tuesday night but been knackered from work.
Running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
I had one slight issue last night when I connectged my phone via USB, my PC wouldn't boot. But then I checked the BIOS and realised that I hadn't configured the boot devices so it was deciding to boot to USB.