New i7 Build (yet another one of these posts)

DECEiFER

Hi,

I'm looking to build myself a cheap i7 rig. I figure I can do it for ~€660. So I'm going for the lower end of the Socket 1366 i7's, the 920.

Here's what I've pretty much decided on getting:

CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151477 - Intel Core i7 920
Motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161061 - ASUS P6T SE
RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158578 - OCZ 6GB Gold XTC DDR3 1333MHz
Case: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164961 - Coolermaster HAF 922
Paste: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126410 - Arctic Silver 5 (thought I'd mention it)

Delivery is £12.34 given the extra weight over the fixed £9.99 5KG shipping cost to Ireland (they charge an extra 30p per KG, which isn't bad).

Total: £576.85

I then went to http://www.xe.com to get a likely total in Euro. It came to around €661.37.


Now my real question is to do with a lack of PSU on that list. Again, I'd like to save money so I'm hoping I don't have to buy one. I currently run a Corsair TX650W, and am hoping it's good enough for this new build.

In addition to those components running above, I have a PowerColor HD4890 1GB, a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro with an external I/O box, a Yamaha DS2416 DSP Factory PCI card with an internal I/O 5.25" bay, a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA drive, and 2 Western Digital 500GB 7,200RPM IDE drives.

Do you think my 650W PSU will be adequate? If so, would I have a decent amount of headroom for unknown whatevers that might come up or in to use? I might want to overclock, but just a little. I don't think going to 4.0GHz is on the cards, maybe somewhere in the region of the low 3GHz.


Many thanks, everyone!


NOTE: I went to http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power and filled in the info as accurately as possible (I also accounted for an overclock to 3.0GHz and I gave a 30% capacitor aging value), and that calculator reckons I'd need a 580W PSU. I never trust those things, which is why I came here. I only used to to get an regional idea.

Solitaire

TX650 sounds fine. Even OCing won't put it under that much pressure.

Why LGA1366 though? i7-860 is a very nice piece of kit and IIRC has both better clock speed and better Turbo Mode. The LGA1366 solution is a lot hotter, pricier (thanks to the cost of triple-channel) and more energy-inefficient. It only pulls ahead of LGA1156 in heavy-duty Photoshop/video/encoding work and even then only if OCd high enough for the triple-channel to make an impact.

DECEiFER

Solitaire wrote: »

TX650 sounds fine. Even OCing won't put it under that much pressure.

Why LGA1366 though? i7-860 is a very nice piece of kit and IIRC has both better clock speed and better Turbo Mode. The LGA1366 solution is a lot hotter, pricier (thanks to the cost of triple-channel) and more energy-inefficient. It only pulls ahead of LGA1156 in heavy-duty Photoshop/video/encoding work and even then only if OCd high enough for the triple-channel to make an impact.

Thanks Solitaire for your reply.

I do intend for the rig to be used for media encoding and Photoshop. But wouldn't going with a Socket 1366 board mean future-proofing to some degree over a Socket 1156? I hear the i9's will be using Socket 1366. I'm not willing to buy another motherboard to dispose of it within a year or two again. The one I got for my current rig didn't work out, I got it in October 2008. So I replaced it in October 2009 when I got a few pennies together. I want this build to be a solid one that can last for years with the aim to upgrade it piece-by-piece, while still using a base/motherboard that will last through it all quite decently.

So if I went ahead with the i7, my PSU would be up to the challenge? If that's what you're saying, then that's great.

Though, I am looking into the i5, because you have given me something to think about despite what I've said above.



Sorry, one more quick question. The RAM I have chosen runs at 1.65v. I have read that 1.65v is the recommended limit by Intel for i7 processors, and that 1.5v is the way to go. Is there any truth to this?


Thank you again.

game4it70

DECEiFER wrote: »

Thanks Solitaire for your reply.
Sorry, one more quick question. The RAM I have chosen runs at 1.65v. I have read that 1.65v is the recommended limit by Intel for i7 processors, and that 1.5v is the way to go. Is there any truth to this?

The Asus P6T first edition will only let you run the ram at even numbered volts so i presume the Se will be the same.I have very similar ram and its happy running at 1.64v so no need to go higher as your not going to be going to far on your overclock.
Yes lower is better (if its stable) and some ram will run with lower volts than its specs but you will only know after trying it yourself with your setup.

DECEiFER

game4it70 wrote: »

The Asus P6T first edition will only let you run the ram at even numbered volts so i presume the Se will be the same.I have very similar ram and its happy running at 1.64v so no need to go higher as your not going to be going to far on your overclock.
Yes lower is better (if its stable) and some ram will run with lower volts than its specs but you will only know after trying it yourself with your setup.

So it would have to run at 1.6v or 1.7v (or indeed 1.5v)? The BIOS won't allow selection to 2 decimal places? That oughta suck! My current XMS2 sticks I have set to 1.9v on my Core2Duo rig, I hear different stores about them being 1.8v and 1.9v, so I opted for the latter, and of course you cannot go to 2 decimal places in my current BIOS for my ASUS P5Q SE board. I assumed with the huge number of 1.65v sticks out there, that all 1366 boards would allow for that.

I'm thinking of getting http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152637 instead though as they're rated at 1.5v, but it's a tad more expensive.

Many thanks for your reply, I'm actually looking to order tomorrow. Damn I'm excited (sad, eh?)!

game4it70

DECEiFER wrote: »

So it would have to run at 1.6v or 1.7v (or indeed 1.5v)? The BIOS won't allow selection to 2 decimal places? That oughta suck!

I'm thinking of getting http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152637 instead though as they're rated at 1.5v, but it's a tad more expensive.

Sorry i wasnt very clear,the volts go up in .02's so if you want to run it as close to 1.65v as you could your choices would be 1.64 or 1.66v.

If you where looking to do some serious overclocking having some headroom to raise the volts that would be great but that ram is only 1333mhz so kinda defeats the purpose as for £2 less you can get this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152640

Either way its not essential to get ram that runs @ 1.5v and if i was to pick from e-buyer i would go for this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166998
as its cheaper and faster while still being a good brand.


Hehe i just saw you edit,
Your welcome and no your not sad as lots of us get the same way when ordering new toys;)

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

Thanks Solitaire for your reply.

I do intend for the rig to be used for media encoding and Photoshop. But wouldn't going with a Socket 1366 board mean future-proofing to some degree over a Socket 1156? I hear the i9's will be using Socket 1366.

Nobody knows which socket will be discontinued first, but yeah i9 6 core is on socket 1366 but compatibility with current boards isint guaranteed, i know my Gigabyte UD5 will support it with an updated bios, but i dont know about that specific Asus P6T SE.

DECEiFER wrote: »

So if I went ahead with the i7, my PSU would be up to the challenge? If that's what you're saying, then that's great.

Yes it will be fine, but yeah, maybe dont go 4Ghz, the TPD is supposed to be huge on full load at 4Ghz, around 250W lol. The stock cooler should get it to 3.3Ghz though and you should be fine with your PSU with that.

DECEiFER wrote: »

Though, I am looking into the i5, because you have given me something to think about despite what I've said above.

Go for whatever is cheapest, which ever one you go with definately overclock it especially for video encoding. Video encoding is a nightmare for any cpu, my 920@4Ghz still takes around 25-40 mins( depending on how many passes etc. ) for a full movie DVD vobs->avi or mpeg. I would go i7 in your case tbh for video encoding, HOWEVER video card encoding with Nvidias CUDA or ATI's AVIVO can be a hell of a lot faster( my 5850 overclocked can do a movie in ~16 mins DVD VOB->avi )

For video encoding id actually consider going crossfire or SLI rather than a new CPU, but again it depends on what you are encoding.

DECEiFER wrote: »

Sorry, one more quick question. The RAM I have chosen runs at 1.65v. I have read that 1.65v is the recommended limit by Intel for i7 processors, and that 1.5v is the way to go. Is there any truth to this?

Its been answered above since i started replying and drifted off surfing lol, but you can get ram that runs at 1.5v if its the same price id go for that for the simple reason that it will be cooler.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

For video encoding id actually consider going crossfire or SLI rather than a new CPU, but again it depends on what you are encoding.

Its been answered above since i started replying and drifted off surfing lol, but you can get ram that runs at 1.5v if its the same price id go for that for the simple reason that it will be cooler.

No can do on the Crossfire/SLI, my current board has only one PCI-E x16 slot.

The 1.5v stuff I found is about £13 more expensive, but I think I'm going to be safe and fork out for it.

I've never encoded with my video card before, but normally I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and encode using the Adobe Media Encoder (usually H.264) or in Adobe Encore in MPEG-2 for DVD's.

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

No can do on the Crossfire/SLI, my current board has only one PCI-E x16 slot.

The 1.5v stuff I found is about £13 more expensive, but I think I'm going to be safe and fork out for it.

I've never encoded with my video card before, but normally I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and encode using the Adobe Media Encoder (usually H.264) or in Adobe Encore in MPEG-2 for DVD's.

well i kinda ment if you go i7, then you can have tri SLI or tri crossfire lol, ATI's AVIVO needs a decent cpu also as it doesnt do it all on the gpu.

You could download ATI's AVIVO and try CyberLink Media Espresso( i think erm you need the full version for gpu processing, but you could see if its any faster running on your 4890 than your current cpu ). Its just something i mentioned as an option, since i had a dual core up until last May i went quad for video encoding, but it was still too slow with a Q9550@4Ghz, and still its too slow with this rig apart from when i use the gpu to encode. As i have over 100DVD's i want to convert for my media centre.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

well i kinda ment if you go i7, then you can have tri SLI or tri crossfire lol, ATI's AVIVO needs a decent cpu also as it doesnt do it all on the gpu.

You could download ATI's AVIVO and try CyberLink Media Espresso( i think erm you need the full version for gpu processing, but you could see if its any faster running on your 4890 than your current cpu ). Its just something i mentioned as an option, since i had a dual core up until last May i went quad for video encoding, but it was still too slow with a Q9550@4Ghz, and still its too slow with this rig apart from when i use the gpu to encode. As i have over 100DVD's i want to convert for my media centre.

I haven't bought many DVD's lately and I can't remember where I left my modest collection from time's past. I think my bro added them to his collection.

I generally download my movies...I mean, I generally acquire my movies virtually. :P

My encoding work is mainly for college, as I'm doing an Honors Degree in a multimedia course, which has some emphasis on filmmaking and motion graphics (the latter will be taught next year - though I was thinking of self-learning to get a head-start).

But what I'm really looking forward to trying first off is playing GTA IV! It was somewhat torture playing it on my current rig, as frames would drop to as low as 20 in some parts of the city but only go as high as 50 in other parts. It's an CPU intensive game, and they recommend a Core2Quad at least for it. At present, my 4890 isn't the game's bottleneck.


Thanks for your two replies, I'll add another thanks thanks onto the second post, it's very much appreciated.


I think I'm sold on the i7 920 rig with the XMS3 1.5v memory. What's killing me now is whether to get the P6T SE or the P6T. I was talking about future-proofing my PC a few posts ago, and I'm not sure if I'll want/need to go Nvidia SLI at some stage, and I'm not too keen on limiting that with the SE. But then again, on the other hand, I don't know if I will want/need to go SLI at all, and the SE will save me a few bucks today. Oh, the agony!

lmimmfn

No probs at all dude, i know this is 1.6v ram, but Geil ram is one of the best( if not the best ) for overclocking with i7, its also faster in both speed and timings, 1600Mhz as opposed to the 1333 that you posted above, its also 8-8-8-24. - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-090-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389

lol, i aquire movies also for the simple fact that i cant be arsed encoding all my movies.

The college work sounds interesting, the 6Gig of ram will definately come in handy for that as well as the extra speed. I like to mess around in Blender and photoshop but never do anything productive lol.

Yeah for GTA IV that rig will destroy it, its absolute junk with a dual core, my old E6400@3.55Ghz would manage 33FPS average, dropping to 17 in places lol, its a 360 port so needs 3 cores minimum, my 920@4Ghz with an Nvidia 260 card got the following in benchies for GTA IV:
Average 66FPS, min 42FPS( rarely ever drops this low ) and max 80-90 FPS with these settings:
Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 31
Detail Distance: 70

GTA IV does benefit from an overclock though but at stock should averate at least 50FPS. Its a different game when the FPS are good.

Whats the price difference with the P6T and the P6T SE? personally i absolutly hate being cornered with one manufacturer, ive never SLI'd or Crossfire'd before but only because i didnt have a mobo that i could dual card with, also SLI and Crossfire performance is so much better in the past 2 years that its a really good option now finally, i was going to finally SLI last November but got a 5850 for 100euro + my nvidia 260 so just went with that.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

No probs at all dude, i know this is 1.6v ram, but Geil ram is one of the best( if not the best ) for overclocking with i7, its also faster in both speed and timings, 1600Mhz as opposed to the 1333 that you posted above, its also 8-8-8-24. - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-090-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389

lol, i aquire movies also for the simple fact that i cant be arsed encoding all my movies.

The college work sounds interesting, the 6Gig of ram will definately come in handy for that as well as the extra speed. I like to mess around in Blender and photoshop but never do anything productive lol.

Yeah for GTA IV that rig will destroy it, its absolute junk with a dual core, my old E6400@3.55Ghz would manage 33FPS average, dropping to 17 in places lol, its a 360 port so needs 3 cores minimum, my 920@4Ghz with an Nvidia 260 card got the following in benchies for GTA IV:
Average 66FPS, min 42FPS( rarely ever drops this low ) and max 80-90 FPS with these settings:
Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 31
Detail Distance: 70

GTA IV does benefit from an overclock though but at stock should averate at least 50FPS. Its a different game when the FPS are good.

Whats the price difference with the P6T and the P6T SE? personally i absolutly hate being cornered with one manufacturer, ive never SLI'd or Crossfire'd before but only because i didnt have a mobo that i could dual card with, also SLI and Crossfire performance is so much better in the past 2 years that its a really good option now finally, i was going to finally SLI last November but got a 5850 for 100euro + my nvidia 260 so just went with that.

Those benchmarks look very encouraging! I can't wait...

The price difference on Ebuyer is between £22-32, as there's one EXDISPLAY in-stock that I'm thinking of getting for just £22 extra.

Right now, I'm running only a 19" monitor at 1280x1024@75Hz. That will get upgraded when I next have the cash for it, where I'll use my current 19" as a second monitor (need to clear desk space for that too!!!). That also goes for buying a second graphics card, it's all about the money first (desk space second). Being a student is never easy. :P

Though my 4890 isn't a bad ol' yoke at all at all. I only got it in December, so I'm not looking to replace it just yet. You certainly got a sweet-ass deal out of that 5850, ya lucky fecker! Why use the 260 if you've got a 5850 going handy, or is it two different rigs you're running them in?


Oh, about the RAM you suggested. I've heard of Geil, they are certainly high-end, but there are two concerns. The extra cost in shipping from another company, and the lack of being on the QVL of the P6T. I know the QVL isn't the gospel, but I've read about the woes of some memory only showing up as 4GB in the BIOS (maybe a BIOS flash update would fix it, or maybe it won't), or being shown as running at a slower clock speed (which I'm sure can be set right manually in the BIOS, for the most part). How much is the shipping from Overclockers to Ireland?


EDIT: The Geil sticks come to £154.65 inc. shipping to Ireland at £10.67.

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

Right now, I'm running only a 19" monitor at 1280x1024@75Hz. That will get upgraded when I next have the cash for it, where I'll use my current 19" as a second monitor (need to clear desk space for that too!!!). That also goes for buying a second graphics card, it's all about the money first (desk space second). Being a student is never easy. :P

lol, ahh students have a great life :P
Be warned this might happen to you, i had 1 spare screen then this happened lol - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlp0-pbijjM

But definately a big screen is a must, my 22" cost me about 450euro 5 years ago, expensive at the time, but not when you have it for so long and displays are quite cheap now, but yeah students have better things to spend cash on lol

DECEiFER wrote: »

Though my 4890 isn't a bad ol' yoke at all at all. I only got it in December, so I'm not looking to replace it just yet. You certainly got a sweet-ass deal out of that 5850, ya lucky fecker! Why use the 260 if you've got a 5850 going handy, or is it two different rigs you're running them in?

Ahh yeah the 4890 is a great card, especially @1280x1024. An tbh theres no games out there other than Crysis or Warhead and maybe the Stalker games what owuld need any more grunt even at 1680x1050.
Nah dont have the 260 any longer, swapped it and put 100 euro on top for this 5850, really had no need for a new card just wanted new toys lol. I have an 8800GT in this rig for the 3rd screen and for Nvidia Physx, and my other media centre has an 8800GT in it( hey theyre cheap as chips lol )

DECEiFER wrote: »

Oh, about the RAM you suggested. I've heard of Geil, they are certainly high-end, but there are two concerns. The extra cost in shipping from another company, and the lack of being on the QVL of the P6T. I know the QVL isn't the gospel, but I've read about the woes of some memory only showing up as 4GB in the BIOS (maybe a BIOS flash update would fix it, or maybe it won't), or being shown as running at a slower clock speed (which I'm sure can be set right manually in the BIOS, for the most part). How much is the shipping from Overclockers to Ireland?

EDIT: The Geil sticks come to £154.65 inc. shipping to Ireland at £10.67.

I never bother with the QVL tbh, the only issue i am aware with for i7 is that when it came out and using all 6 slots @1600 that not all the ram was detected( because intels spec is 1333 ), i dont know if its still an issue or not with the latest bioses though, im only using 3 slots but i see loads around the forums using all 6 slots. You can set the ram speed in the BIOS anyway. I have 2 mates with 6 gig 1600 each, none have issues with an Asus P6T and the other guy has a Gigabyte UD5.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

lol, ahh students have a great life :P
Be warned this might happen to you, i had 1 spare screen then this happened lol - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlp0-pbijjM

But definately a big screen is a must, my 22" cost me about 450euro 5 years ago, expensive at the time, but not when you have it for so long and displays are quite cheap now, but yeah students have better things to spend cash on lol


Ahh yeah the 4890 is a great card, especially @1280x1024. An tbh theres no games out there other than Crysis or Warhead and maybe the Stalker games what owuld need any more grunt even at 1680x1050.
Nah dont have the 260 any longer, swapped it and put 100 euro on top for this 5850, really had no need for a new card just wanted new toys lol. I have an 8800GT in this rig for the 3rd screen and for Nvidia Physx, and my other media centre has an 8800GT in it( hey theyre cheap as chips lol )



I never bother with the QVL tbh, the only issue i am aware with for i7 is that when it came out and using all 6 slots @1600 that not all the ram was detected( because intels spec is 1333 ), i dont know if its still an issue or not with the latest bioses though, im only using 3 slots but i see loads around the forums using all 6 slots. You can set the ram speed in the BIOS anyway. I have 2 mates with 6 gig 1600 each, none have issues with an Asus P6T and the other guy has a Gigabyte UD5.

Ha, the LG Flatron on the left, the 19" yoke. I got that one.

Soundage for all the advice. I normally go this alone but I felt the call to post here and get people's insight.

I'll make a decision on the RAM in the morning and I'll post back once I've ordered it, and again once I've built it next week. But for now, I must sleep or I'll never wake up!


Thanks again.

DECEiFER

I decided to go with the Corsair i7 6GB kit running at DDR3 1600MHz at 1.65v.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152640


The order was placed this afternoon, and the "Goods Allocated" status was put on the order when I arrived home an hour ago. Then, half an hour ago, I got an email saying it was cancelled!

Ebuyer wrote:

Your order has been cancelled for one of the following reasons:


1. You have requested the order to be cancelled.
2. The item(s) you have ordered are no longer available or have been discontinued.


We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you still require the order, please reorder the goods online.


Please note; if payment has been taken for your cancelled order, we will refund the money as soon as possible. The refund will take up to three working days to clear in your bank account.

All the items are still in stock, and the goods WERE allocated all from one warehouse up to 30 minutes ago, and I certainly didn't cancel it. I've sent them an eNote asking for an explanation, so it better be good, or heads are going to roll! To add more misery to it, the money was taken within the last hour too (it wasn't taken when I checked at around 6). Very strange stuff altogether.

lmimmfn

Damn dude, thats a pain in the nuts, id even ring them tomorrow morning if you've not had a response before that, especially when they've taken the money.

DECEiFER

I'm going to check for replies in the morning at around 9, and then I will ring them if they don't reply / sort it out. The one thing about Ebuyer that seems consistent, besides the low prices, is the dire lack of communication between them and the customer when something changes or goes wrong. I don't think I've ever had a seamless order with them and you always have to chase them for any half-decent explanation. Though, I thought I had it done right this time, and there would be no problems. Evidently not. :mad:

lmimmfn

yeah i tried ordering stuff off them over 2 years ago, the zip code they gave as generic for ireland wouldnt work, i emailed them, still havnt got a reply, wouldnt mind i was buying a load of stuff for a media rig at the time so would have been lucrative for them.

I hate overclockers.co.uk too, tekheads.co.uk were the absolute best, but i dont think they deliver to ireland anymore , absolutely stunning support, including me blowing a mobo, getting fed up with that type of mobo, putting in an RMA, buying a completely different mobo and asking them to credit me back the amout for the RMA'd mobo.

Solitaire

lmimmfn wrote: »

tekheads.co.uk were the absolute best, but i dont think they deliver to ireland anymore , absolutely stunning support, including me blowing a mobo, getting fed up with that type of mobo, putting in an RMA, buying a completely different mobo and asking them to credit me back the amout for the RMA'd mobo.

Are you the reason they don't ship to Ireland anymore?

lmimmfn

Solitaire wrote: »

Are you the reason they don't ship to Ireland anymore?

lol, er, em, well i dont think it helped

DECEiFER

Finally got the parts ordered today after a three-day wait for the cancelled order's refund money to clear. The cancelled order was because of Google, as I used Google Checkout and failed their fraud check because my Ebuyer site account's name was not a match for the Google Checkout name. So failing a fraud check, they still took the money and decided to give it back a half an hour later, leaving a clearing period for me to be able to touch it again. Excellent logic there!

I decided to use the Ebuyer checkout for this second try, with a brand-spanking new account in the correct name and address on the debit card used. Worked perfectly this time!


Here's the final order:





It's coming on Thursday. Can't feckin' wait!

lmimmfn

glad you got it sorted, ohhh and GTA IV Ballad Of Gay Tony + The Lost And The Damned is out in a few weeks

Let us know how ya get on with the build

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

glad you got it sorted, ohhh and GTA IV Ballad Of Gay Tony + The Lost And The Damned is out in a few weeks

Let us know how ya get on with the build

Oh, I've been waiting for those since the news came out... Hell, since December when Rockstar made a patch update to IV with the DLC Achievements was the first major clue that it was going to happen.

I'll have it done on Thursday, all going to plan. Let's hope nothing goes wrong!


Thanks man.

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

Nice build. But out of interest, what made you choose the X58 and 920 instead of the 860 and p55a combo?

DECEiFER

Komplett-Tech (Ryan) wrote: »

Nice build. But out of interest, what made you choose the X58 and 920 instead of the 860 and p55a combo?

It might sound silly, but future-proofing. Someday the better XE i7's will come down in price, and it's also possible that the i9's will work with this board (perhaps that might be the case, but I decided to gamble on it). All in all, it was a gut feeling that it was the better option. I weight out the advice given to me in this thread to go the LGA-1156 route, but I just didn't feel it!

That's it really. When it's my own rig, I trust my gut. I'm very practical when it comes to everything outside of own needs. It goes from past experience when I skimmed on a motherboard to save a few bucks, despite my gut feeling. I ended up spending more on a better board as a result of that. :O

(I can smell the disgust amongst ye! :P)

Alexco

DECEiFER

Can you please tell me how to get around this stupid Zip Code thing on the Ebuyer site when registering an account.

Do i need to write something specific in this space for Ireland ???
Confused !!!

I tried to order something directly with my credit card but gave up in the end.
I just dont want the hassle of Google checkout which in itself seems to cause confusion.

Thanks
Alex.

BaconZombie

The new i7 930 was launched on Monday, it's a direct replacement for the 920 so will be selling for the same price but it a faster chip.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/01/intel-core-i7-930-cpu-review/1

DECEiFER wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking to build myself a cheap i7 rig. I figure I can do it for ~€660. So I'm going for the lower end of the Socket 1366 i7's, the 920.

Here's what I've pretty much decided on getting:

CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151477 - Intel Core i7 920
Motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161061 - ASUS P6T SE
RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158578 - OCZ 6GB Gold XTC DDR3 1333MHz
Case: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164961 - Coolermaster HAF 922
Paste: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126410 - Arctic Silver 5 (thought I'd mention it)

Delivery is £12.34 given the extra weight over the fixed £9.99 5KG shipping cost to Ireland (they charge an extra 30p per KG, which isn't bad).

Total: £576.85

I then went to http://www.xe.com to get a likely total in Euro. It came to around €661.37.


Now my real question is to do with a lack of PSU on that list. Again, I'd like to save money so I'm hoping I don't have to buy one. I currently run a Corsair TX650W, and am hoping it's good enough for this new build.

In addition to those components running above, I have a PowerColor HD4890 1GB, a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro with an external I/O box, a Yamaha DS2416 DSP Factory PCI card with an internal I/O 5.25" bay, a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA drive, and 2 Western Digital 500GB 7,200RPM IDE drives.

Do you think my 650W PSU will be adequate? If so, would I have a decent amount of headroom for unknown whatevers that might come up or in to use? I might want to overclock, but just a little. I don't think going to 4.0GHz is on the cards, maybe somewhere in the region of the low 3GHz.


Many thanks, everyone!


NOTE: I went to http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power and filled in the info as accurately as possible (I also accounted for an overclock to 3.0GHz and I gave a 30% capacitor aging value), and that calculator reckons I'd need a 580W PSU. I never trust those things, which is why I came here. I only used to to get an regional idea.

game4it70

Alexco wrote: »

DECEiFER

Can you please tell me how to get around this stupid Zip Code thing on the Ebuyer site when registering an account.

Do i need to write something specific in this space for Ireland ???
Confused !!!

I tried to order something directly with my credit card but gave up in the end.
I just dont want the hassle of Google checkout which in itself seems to cause confusion.

Thanks
Alex.

REP 123 is what you use for postcode as far as i know.

Alexco

game4it70 wrote: »

REP 123 is what you use for postcode as far as i know.

Thanks Game4it70

After a few attempts I managed to get the Ebuyer site to accept that post code.

Must be one of the worst ever sites I tried to set up an account on. :mad:

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

It might sound silly, but future-proofing. Someday the better XE i7's will come down in price, and it's also possible that the i9's will work with this board (perhaps that might be the case, but I decided to gamble on it). All in all, it was a gut feeling that it was the better option. I weight out the advice given to me in this thread to go the LGA-1156 route, but I just didn't feel it!

That's it really. When it's my own rig, I trust my gut. I'm very practical when it comes to everything outside of own needs. It goes from past experience when I skimmed on a motherboard to save a few bucks, despite my gut feeling. I ended up spending more on a better board as a result of that. :O

(I can smell the disgust amongst ye! :P)

Well sandy bridge is socket 1155 and unconfirmed if it will work on socket 1156 or not, whether there will be a socket 1366 is unknown yet though. Id imagine both sockets will keep going in some form or other.

I would still bet on 1366 being a better current choice for the simple reason that its mainly for servers and the new 6 core is 1366, thats my gut feeling but will cause a stir

BaconZombie wrote: »

The new i7 930 was launched on Monday, it's a direct replacement for the 920 so will be selling for the same price but it a faster chip.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/01/intel-core-i7-930-cpu-review/1

Its quite a disappointing chip, its been out in austrailia for 2 weeks now, overclock is the same as for 920, as are temps and volts, it does have a slight advantage in synthetic benchies though but the difference is barely noticable in games. I would only get it if it was 10-15euro more than a 920. The x22 multiplier is really bad and useless for overclocking beyond ~3.3Ghz

Solitaire

AFAIK they're supposed to be just a hair faster, a hair better-binned and a hair better on average OC (more units exceeding 4.3GHz stable). In return they cost about the same, although retailers will keep the prices raised while they shift their existing i7-920 inventories :rolleyes:

lmimmfn

Solitaire wrote: »

AFAIK they're supposed to be just a hair faster, a hair better-binned and a hair better on average OC (more units exceeding 4.3GHz stable). In return they cost about the same, although retailers will keep the prices raised while they shift their existing i7-920 inventories :rolleyes:

the 920 price has increased( on average _ in the previous weeks because theyre going to be rate when the 930 becomes common.

also apparently the 920 D0 batches in the past few months arent supposed to yield as high an overclock as those from mid last year apparently due to intels reshuffling of cpu's and the market theyre intended for. I cant personally confirm that so its just rumours, but id be inclined to believe them.

DECEiFER

Ebuyer is possibly one of the worst web interfaces I have dealt with, and their Customer Service is usually effortless. They still have not fixed the problem with Irish phone numbers not being valid on sign-up, despite the REP123 postcode addition. Though, they are cheaper than Irish retailers, and that's the only reason I personally went with them. Plus, their deliveries are usually prompt, sometimes a day quicker than companies here. I much prefer dealing with Komplett, they seem more human. If only their prices could match those from the UK, or be realistically close in mostly every product since our VAT rate is higher than the UK's current rate at 17.5%.

The i7 I'm getting is D0. People have expressed delight over its overclocking ability, and these are the types that break the 4.0GHz threshold. I'm only planning on going as far as 3.2GHz. I don't want to take the piss, and I'm only going to be using air cooling.

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

The i7 I'm getting is D0. People have expressed delight over its overclocking ability, and these are the types that break the 4.0GHz threshold. I'm only planning on going as far as 3.2GHz. I don't want to take the piss, and I'm only going to be using air cooling.

yeah, the D0 is the best, rumour has it that they nerfed them slightly so they dont overclock as well, i cant confirm it though.
Theyre easy to overclock, took about 30 mins to OC mine to 4Ghz, then run a 4-5 hour prime95 torture test. I cant remember if your cooler is stock, if so 3.2-3.3Ghz is about as high as i would go with the stock one, im on air too, with a Noctua.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

yeah, the D0 is the best, rumour has it that they nerfed them slightly so they dont overclock as well, i cant confirm it though.
Theyre easy to overclock, took about 30 mins to OC mine to 4Ghz, then run a 4-5 hour prime95 torture test. I cant remember if your cooler is stock, if so 3.2-3.3Ghz is about as high as i would go with the stock one, im on air too, with a Noctua.

For now, I'm staying with stock, and only going up to 3.2GHz anyhow. The reasons being money, and I'd want a cooler that doesn't go over the first DIMM. I've heard of people who have burned out their DIMM due to the heatsink being so wide that it goes over the DIMM and...well...

Thanks man!

DECEiFER

Well, I finally got a hold of it today. The courier tried delivering on Wednesday, a day early, but I was out, since I wasn't expecting it.


Here's some photos of the build:















The old yoke after being butchered for parts:

lmimmfn

excellent, looking good, happy with the benchies? have ya tried GTA IV yet?

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

excellent, looking good, happy with the benchies? have ya tried GTA IV yet?

And what benchies might those be? :P

Nah, not today. I decided to be lazy and not bother to install Windows 7 again, so I used the ones I was using on the old machine. Seemed like a good idea, because I'm using the same hard disk anyhow, and it's only for a day.

I dual-boot Windows 7 x86 and x64. My x86 installation fared out OK. The x64 one still seems to be treating my CPU has a Core 2 Duo, despite CPUID and the Device Manager saying otherwise. Only 2 processor affinities, and the temperatures in Everest are very high. Looks like that needs to be re-installed ASAP. Plus, the x64 installation only gives a 5.4 Windows Experience Index rating. It's not good. :eek:

GTA IV feels great. I sometimes creep down into the 30's but I'm getting as high as the late 60's or early 70's in some parts of Liberty City. Much better than before. It's just a god-awful port anyhow. I don't know of any other game that would be so erratic.

I'll post back once I've re-installed both my OS's and have some stats to report to you.


P.S. I will have to get used to the draft coming from the top 200mm fan on the HAF. It's odd when you're not used to it.

Little cheesy joke I've been spreading around. The case is called The HAF, my name is David, so I guess I could call the PC The David HasselHAF? :pac:

Thank you, thank you, I'm here all night!

lmimmfn

lol, thats a crap joke.

You need to reinstall the OS because the HAL is completely different from Core 2. If its only showing 2 processors it will seriously seriously affect GTA performance and you shouldnt be getting fluctuations.

Ive only installed Win 7 a few days ago as i was on the RC before that and the Windows Experience wouldnt work with this 5850 due to ati drivers, i never tried it since i first installed so probably fixed now.

but yeah reinstall and let us know.

My case doesnt have a fan at the top, but i can imagine it would be weird, i dont think i would be cold if i had one, the heat coming out the back of my pc is quite something with the i7 OC and 5850 + 8800GT overclocked lol.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

lol, thats a crap joke.

That's what everyone says.

lmimmfn wrote: »

You need to reinstall the OS because the HAL is completely different from Core 2. If its only showing 2 processors it will seriously seriously affect GTA performance and you shouldnt be getting fluctuations.

Ive only installed Win 7 a few days ago as i was on the RC before that and the Windows Experience wouldnt work with this 5850 due to ati drivers, i never tried it since i first installed so probably fixed now.

but yeah reinstall and let us know.

My case doesnt have a fan at the top, but i can imagine it would be weird, i dont think i would be cold if i had one, the heat coming out the back of my pc is quite something with the i7 OC and 5850 + 8800GT overclocked lol.

I had a feeling HAL would be mentioned in your reply. Yeah, I'd hope that after the re-install of even the seemingly functional x86, that there would be improvements.

Why did you stick with the RC for so long? I hopped on Windows 7 as soon as the RTM leaked in July... Well, when I say leaked, I mean announced that build 7600 was it. But after August 6th I got myself a proper .iso from MSDN through a trustworthy torrent.

I find that the HAF is poorly engineered. The idea is brilliant, but it's the little things. Like taking off the side panel. You have to pull awfully hard (bear in mind, there are no obstructions), and putting it back on again, trying to get it to slide back and match the damn hole at the back to place in the thumb screw... Now, most of it is fine. But for just £80, I guess a case boasting so much would have to cut corners somewhere. Even the top fan rattles against the case grill from time to time. Little cheap stuff like that. Still, I don't regret buying it. It's still fantastic for the price.

Do you have your case underneath a desk? I do, so I can't feel any heat from the back, just that damn draft! :mad:

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

That's what everyone says.
I had a feeling HAL would be mentioned in your reply. Yeah, I'd hope that after the re-install of even the seemingly functional x86, that there would be improvements.

Youll get huge improvements guaranteed, i was actually messing with Vista one time and forced 4 cores for startup, i played GTA IV one day and it ran like absolute crap, took me several days to figure out, it reverted back to 2 cores but with hyperthreading was showing 4 cores in taskmanager( i know its 8 normally for the 920 but i disabled hyperthreading around that time also ), anyways i set it back and there were huge improvements in GTA IV.

DECEiFER wrote: »

Why did you stick with the RC for so long? I hopped on Windows 7 as soon as the RTM leaked in July... Well, when I say leaked, I mean announced that build 7600 was it. But after August 6th I got myself a proper .iso from MSDN through a trustworthy torrent.

Long story, waiting for a mate to pick me up a cheap legit copy of Win 7 ultimate( 30euro boxed lol )

Anyways couldnt meet up with him for ages but had a 5850 and 8800gt and wanted to run physx, by the time i got win 7 ultimate i had so much stuff installed i was quite happy with it and couldnt be arsed reinstalling lol.

Tbh it was the nightmare i predicted reinstalling it, getting stuff like physx to work and reinstalling everything and tweaking it, but seems reasonable now only steam games from my other drives no longer work grrrr( they've always worked through multiple XP/vista installs and is one of the reasons i like/liked steam , could be the new beta UI though ).

DECEiFER wrote: »

I find that the HAF is poorly engineered. The idea is brilliant, but it's the little things. Like taking off the side panel. You have to pull awfully hard (bear in mind, there are no obstructions), and putting it back on again, trying to get it to slide back and match the damn hole at the back to place in the thumb screw... Now, most of it is fine. But for just £80, I guess a case boasting so much would have to cut corners somewhere. Even the top fan rattles against the case grill from time to time. Little cheap stuff like that. Still, I don't regret buying it. It's still fantastic for the price.

yeah it looks kinda cool, im a strong believer in basic heavy duty cases so have my Gigabyte Aurora( cost about 140 when i got it ) for the past 4-5 years, all aluminium with steel door( good as i constantly walk into it and snap it lol ), ive also knocked it over once while drinking lol, old trusty evga 680i survived it no bother only for sparking on USB on the side if i connected anything so dont use the side usb on the case now lol.

Its difficult to find a perfect case, one of my fans whines the odd time, i think its from cleanning it or summit but it rarely does it and its quite low so its ok watching tv even whiles its being noisy

DECEiFER wrote: »

Do you have your case underneath a desk? I do, so I can't feel any heat from the back, just that damn draft! :mad:

I dont have it under the desk lol, its far too big, you can see the mess here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgdS8aSgEiw lol, its after the first part.

but yes, i think the top blowing fan would annoy the crap out of me, in fact id love to start a company with a PC case which inverts the side the mobo is on so people can actually put the pc sitting against a wall on the left side, FFS its stupid at this stage that you have to alter loads just because the grills are always on the left.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

Youll get huge improvements guaranteed, i was actually messing with Vista one time and forced 4 cores for startup, i played GTA IV one day and it ran like absolute crap, took me several days to figure out, it reverted back to 2 cores but with hyperthreading was showing 4 cores in taskmanager( i know its 8 normally for the 920 but i disabled hyperthreading around that time also ), anyways i set it back and there were huge improvements in GTA IV.

I'm going to do the OS's today. I've burned the discs again from those ISO's. Can't wait to see this PC work at peak.

lmimmfn wrote: »

Long story, waiting for a mate to pick me up a cheap legit copy of Win 7 ultimate( 30euro boxed lol )

Anyways couldnt meet up with him for ages but had a 5850 and 8800gt and wanted to run physx, by the time i got win 7 ultimate i had so much stuff installed i was quite happy with it and couldnt be arsed reinstalling lol.

Tbh it was the nightmare i predicted reinstalling it, getting stuff like physx to work and reinstalling everything and tweaking it, but seems reasonable now only steam games from my other drives no longer work grrrr( they've always worked through multiple XP/vista installs and is one of the reasons i like/liked steam , could be the new beta UI though ).

I do have a legit key for Windows 7 Professional from my MSDN Academic Alliance membership, but I want to use Ultimate.

I have never paid for an OS before. Even back in the early 90's, 3.5" diskettes used to do the rounds with DOS 6.xx and Windows 95, before I obtained a CD for it. Despite it all, I love Windows 7. I used to be loyal to XP, but as soon as I tried 7, I knew I wanted that to be my main OS and I haven't used XP since, on my own machine at least.

lmimmfn wrote: »

yeah it looks kinda cool, im a strong believer in basic heavy duty cases so have my Gigabyte Aurora( cost about 140 when i got it ) for the past 4-5 years, all aluminium with steel door( good as i constantly walk into it and snap it lol ), ive also knocked it over once while drinking lol, old trusty evga 680i survived it no bother only for sparking on USB on the side if i connected anything so dont use the side usb on the case now lol.

Its difficult to find a perfect case, one of my fans whines the odd time, i think its from cleanning it or summit but it rarely does it and its quite low so its ok watching tv even whiles its being noisy

I dont have it under the desk lol, its far too big, you can see the mess here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgdS8aSgEiw lol, its after the first part.

but yes, i think the top blowing fan would annoy the crap out of me, in fact id love to start a company with a PC case which inverts the side the mobo is on so people can actually put the pc sitting against a wall on the left side, FFS its stupid at this stage that you have to alter loads just because the grills are always on the left.

You're a nut job. Ha ha. I take it you're into car racing games? What do you make of Need for Speed Undercover? I like it better than the others, along with Underground 2, because of the free roam. I haven't tried Shift. I don't know, I just like the free roam and the cheesy storyline.


I'm overclocking the 920 to 3.20GHz, and the memory is set at 1604MHz @ 1.64v (it's got to be either 1.64v or 1.66v, as my BIOS only increments/decrements in 0.02).

I have the Vcore set at 1.5v-1.6v, I did have it at 1.8v, but I wanted to try it out lower. I did an Extended memory test using Windows' Memory Diagnostics, and that went well. I wonder if I can go lower than 1.5v? I'll have to test. I'm doing Intel Burn Test right now, but it's only in x86 and using 1980MB of RAM, but it's going grand. Out of 100 runs it's done 73 as I type this. I must find out what the Vcore runs at when the stock clocks are at full speed with load-line calibration enabled to reduce Vdroop, so I can base it on that. I doubt much voltage increase would be needed, if it's anything as good at overclocking as my E8400 was (3.00GHz to 3.60GHz with little to no voltage increase), since the amount I'm overclocking the 920 by is nearly the same.

lmimmfn

see in bold first dude

DECEiFER wrote: »

I'm going to do the OS's today. I've burned the discs again from those ISO's. Can't wait to see this PC work at peak.

I do have a legit key for Windows 7 Professional from my MSDN Academic Alliance membership, but I want to use Ultimate.

I have never paid for an OS before. Even back in the early 90's, 3.5" diskettes used to do the rounds with DOS 6.xx and Windows 95, before I obtained a CD for it. Despite it all, I love Windows 7. I used to be loyal to XP, but as soon as I tried 7, I knew I wanted that to be my main OS and I haven't used XP since, on my own machine at least.

Yeah i like windows 7, much much better than vista which sucked lol. I get the OS's cheap so i buy all of them but i dont think i would if i had to pay full price as theyre pretty expensive. Id probably buy every second one as they seem to be the best

DECEiFER wrote: »

You're a nut job. Ha ha. I take it you're into car racing games? What do you make of Need for Speed Undercover? I like it better than the others, along with Underground 2, because of the free roam. I haven't tried Shift. I don't know, I just like the free roam and the cheesy storyline.

Ahh im not mad into driving games, i just like to mess about with stuff lol, the 3 screen setup with the wheel cost about 180euro to setup( 50 for 8800gt, 50 for wheel and pedals and 80 for the 19" on the left ) as all the parts were second hand. The setup works great for flying games also, its good fun to mess about with and i like the immersion, im hopinh to get 3x24"'s in the next year or so, i wanted to check it out if i liked it first before spending a fortune on it lol.

DECEiFER wrote: »

I'm overclocking the 920 to 3.20GHz, and the memory is set at 1604MHz @ 1.64v (it's got to be either 1.64v or 1.66v, as my BIOS only increments/decrements in 0.02).

I have the Vcore set at 1.5v-1.6v, I did have it at 1.8v, but I wanted to try it out lower. I did an Extended memory test using Windows' Memory Diagnostics, and that went well. I wonder if I can go lower than 1.5v? I'll have to test. I'm doing Intel Burn Test right now, but it's only in x86 and using 1980MB of RAM, but it's going grand. Out of 100 runs it's done 73 as I type this. I must find out what the Vcore runs at when the stock clocks are at full speed with load-line calibration enabled to reduce Vdroop, so I can base it on that. I doubt much voltage increase would be needed, if it's anything as good at overclocking as my E8400 was (3.00GHz to 3.60GHz with little to no voltage increase), since the amount I'm overclocking the 920 by is nearly the same.

Nooooooooo, thats insane dude, it only needs about 1.28vcore for a 4Ghz overclock, are you sure its the vcore thats at that? remove the overclock immediately and set the vcore on default, the temps must be insane?

game4it70

lmimmfn wrote: »

Nooooooooo, thats insane dude, it only needs about 1.28vcore for a 4Ghz overclock, are you sure its the vcore thats at that? remove the overclock immediately and set the vcore on default, the temps must be insane?

Holy mother of divine jaysus do what the man says sharpish or new rig not gonna last long.
I will say that it may need up to 1.35v (its rare though for a d0) if you have a bad chip.

DECEiFER

Ooops. Did I forget to add a 1 somewhere in my figures? I think I did.

1.5-1.6 is actually 1.15-1.16. Damn, that's the second time I've done that, posted outrageous voltages as a typo. I don't want to kill my CPU.

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

Ooops. Did I forget to add a 1 somewhere in my figures? I think I did.

1.5-1.6 is actually 1.15-1.16. Damn, that's the second time I've done that, posted outrageous voltages as a typo. I don't want to kill my CPU.

lol, i thought you were close to destroying the cpu, thats a pretty good vcore for 3.2Ghz

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

lol, i thought you were close to destroying the cpu, thats a pretty good vcore for 3.2Ghz

Thanks man, I'm trying out different settings all the time, but I don't have any intention of going over 1.19v (damn, nearly did it again, had to double check if that 1 was put in there)!

Took some FRAPS benchmarks from GTA IV. I'm running it at 1280x1024@75Hz with High Texture Quality, High Reflection Resolution, High Water Quality, Medium Shadow Quality, Very High Render Quality, 31 View Distance, 70 Detail Distance, 51 Vehicle Density, 10 Shadow Density - pretty much the automatic defaults suggested except for Render Quality which was auto set at High. Some runs have Vsync on, and some don't. Some are in Algonquin and some are in Broker, in that order.

2010-03-07 05:51:27 - GTAIV
Frames: 3725 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 62.083 - Min: 40 - Max: 74

2010-03-07 05:55:26 - GTAIV
Frames: 3410 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 56.833 - Min: 33 - Max: 77

2010-03-07 05:56:50 - GTAIV
Frames: 3731 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 62.183 - Min: 39 - Max: 78

2010-03-07 06:19:19 - GTAIV
Frames: 3545 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 59.083 - Min: 42 - Max: 88

2010-03-07 06:24:45 - GTAIV
Frames: 5027 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 83.783 - Min: 52 - Max: 103

2010-03-07 06:31:03 - GTAIV
Frames: 4184 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 69.733 - Min: 57 - Max: 77

2010-03-07 06:33:34 - GTAIV
Frames: 4241 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 70.683 - Min: 52 - Max: 78

I still notice a tad bit of lag, like a jerk, at seemingly random points. I think it may be the hard drive as it's the same drive as my OS is on (Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB), only on a different partition. Damn that game, it's one dreadful port.

How do they compare?




EDIT - Disk Benchmarks:



The top one is the main SATA drive, and I did one of my 500GB IDE drives (which I just use for movies, TV shows, and music) below it just to compare.

lmimmfn

those benchies look pretty good, GTA IV in general isint gpu intensive( unless the draw distance is knocked way up ), so you if you had a higher res monitor you wouldnt notice much of a decrease in framerates.

Damn that Spinpoint benches well, for the lag it could be windows crap kicking in in the background. I only get lag if i leave the game running for over an hour as it starts cheing memory.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

those benchies look pretty good, GTA IV in general isint gpu intensive( unless the draw distance is knocked way up ), so you if you had a higher res monitor you wouldnt notice much of a decrease in framerates.

Damn that Spinpoint benches well, for the lag it could be windows crap kicking in in the background. I only get lag if i leave the game running for over an hour as it starts cheing memory.

The lag is there immediately. I could maybe take a video and upload it, but I think you get the idea.

I'm wondering though, if I took one of my SATA 150 drives out of retirement and used it for GTA IV...what do you think? Those don't benchmark that good at all. I remember the latency was more like 18-20ms and the transfer speeds in Everest were much lower compared to my Samsung.

But as for memory, I am using my x86 installation for gaming. I only get 2.99GB of usage from my 6GB of RAM. I wonder if I use x64 for GTA IV...

lmimmfn

DECEiFER wrote: »

The lag is there immediately. I could maybe take a video and upload it, but I think you get the idea.

I'm wondering though, if I took one of my SATA 150 drives out of retirement and used it for GTA IV...what do you think? Those don't benchmark that good at all. I remember the latency was more like 18-20ms and the transfer speeds in Everest were much lower compared to my Samsung.

But as for memory, I am using my x86 installation for gaming. I only get 2.99GB of usage from my 6GB of RAM. I wonder if I use x64 for GTA IV...

It depends on if you've tuned windows 7 or not? my harddrive is rarely accessing anything other than whatever games i am playing so i rarely have any of those access issues.

Hmm, definately try the x64 version, i have only 3 gigs of ram( long story involving 3 gigs costing 150euro + cant get just another 3 due to the cooler being in the way ), but it chews on my memory after a while, try it first, should definately improve it a bit.

Also you might need to tweak the video settings as it might be using too much vram and paging from physical mem to vram and back again.

DECEiFER

lmimmfn wrote: »

It depends on if you've tuned windows 7 or not? my harddrive is rarely accessing anything other than whatever games i am playing so i rarely have any of those access issues.

Hmm, definately try the x64 version, i have only 3 gigs of ram( long story involving 3 gigs costing 150euro + cant get just another 3 due to the cooler being in the way ), but it chews on my memory after a while, try it first, should definately improve it a bit.

Also you might need to tweak the video settings as it might be using too much vram and paging from physical mem to vram and back again.

It's definitely better now in x64. I looked at the memory consumption in Task Manager and saw it closing in on 4GB. I'm happy now.

In-fact, I've made an aul' vidyo. But FRAPS is gay, so it doesn't look as good as the reality when FRAPS isn't recording. Also, some clips were missing the in-game sound (again, FRAPS is gay), so I just did it along to a cheesy 80's goth metal tune that I like (you'll see). I'm encoding it now in 900x720@60 H.264 (though, I should have recorded at 30 FPS instead so that it would be more uniform in the video), so another 15 minutes to go before I upload all 330MB (appox.) of it to YouTube. I'll post the fecker here when I'm done. It's not very exciting. I'll have to stir up more sh1t next time.

PSA: My driving sucks. :eek: