Motherboard, Cooler, And Memory
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-DS4
Using the Core i7 CPU means using an Intel X58 chipset, and there are a lot of intriguing X58 motherboards out there already. We chose the Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 because of the attractive price and myriad overclocking settings.
Read Customer Reviews of Gigabyte’s EX58-DS4
The DS4 is the cheapest of Gigabyte's X58 motherboard lineup (Ed.: as of Don's writing--Gigabyte now sells an even cheaper model on NewEgg that you could also consider), so what do we give up for the price? The killer feature is SLI support, as the DS4 only supports up to 3-way CrossFire. For 3-way SLI and CrossFire support, you need to spend $55 more on the EX58-UD5. Other than that, the DS3 and UD5 are extremely close in functionality, with the same BIOS options. The only other notable differences are that the UD5 carries a higher-quality ALC889A HD audio chipset, dual Gigabit LAN connectivity, and more copper on the PCB. Compared to the DS4's ALC888 audio chipset and single Gigabit LAN capability, these are nice features but not deal-breakers for the frugal buyer.
This makes the DS3 a very attractive option as a full-featured Core i7 motherboard at a low price, as long as you don't require SLI support. Since we'll be using a single Radeon 4850 X2 for this month's build, the lack of SLI capability on the DS4 isn't an issue for us.
Memory: 3x1 GB of Crucial DDR3-8500 Triple-Channel Kit CT3KIT12864BA1067
Crucial’s kit will allow us to run the X58 motherboard’s memory in all of it’s triple-channel glory. And why go more than 3GB of RAM when that’s all Vista 32-bit can see anyway?
At $79, this kit is both cost effective and boasts a CAS latency of 7, which is pretty decent for cheap DDR3. When all factors are considered, this is a perfect choice for our build, and at a great price, too.
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man are we getting screwed in the UK?! i put this price list together at scan.co.uk and got to £1017,21 excluding delivery!
1 017.21 British pounds = 1 470.07189 U.S. dollars
mmm and in Ireland it adds up to 1101.16 Euros, thats 1554.76 U.S dollars on xe.com. Why is there a .co.uk version of this site when they are obviously exclusively U.S only? What relevance has any of this got to do with the UK? Why is Toms continually ignoring this discrepancy ?
be cool if you did a test using the q9550, very stable processor that can easily do 3.6ghz with air and more!
Finally! An article to help disprove the mythical £1000/€1100/$1200 Core i7 wonder build. Its not just wattage that the i7 eats for breakfast; you need to throw money hand-over-fist at i7 to realize its benefits. The i7-965 is Skulltrail all over again, but even the i7-920 seems more oriented toward protein-folding "trust-fund enthusiasts" than us mainstream gamers.
Its not that i7 is a bad platform, just that it was, is, and will be, an enterprise-oriented platform that only hardened enthisiasts can get the most out of; us mortals should stick with Core2 for a few more months and wait and see how the upcoming mainstream platforms (AMDs AM3 and Intel's LGA1120) shape up, rather than blow €1500-odd on a server platform then go "D'oh!" when we realise it really needed twice as much cash spent on it to make a significant return on investment.
And while I can't explain why the HD4850X2 refused to play ball at stock, its clear that you wouldn't have been able to get the CPU to 3.7GHz stable without the GPU underclock; check out the power consumption. Even the Corsair isn't really up to this, you need a 750W+ PSU if you're thinking about OCing an i7 build with gaming in mind.
The gaming benchmark was a no-brainer, but the i7 does seem to give both SLi and CF (with 2 or more cards, not on a single card)a boost. For the next SBM, i would like to see the i7 920 against the C2Q9550, tested with both single and dual graphiccard setup.
lol, i would like to see fps on GTA4, coz i wonder if even these great systems can play that really badly coded game.
....And while I can't explain why the HD4850X2 refused to play ball at stock, its clear that you wouldn't have been able to get the CPU to 3.7GHz stable without the GPU underclock; check out the power consumption. Even the Corsair isn't really up to this, you need a 750W+ PSU if you're thinking about OCing an i7 build with gaming in mind.
Yeh like +1.
Why are THG advocating a total overloading of a PSU like this... A 650Watt @ 591Watt OC load is crazy. A bet your power figures don't include instantaneous power consumption spikes either...
This article is really rank amateur IMHO. You guys should have stuck to C2D for this build - so that you could spend more money on your powersupply...
Bob
I think these articles are good myself there just doing what we normal pc buying mortals do give ourself a budget and buy a pc in that budget and we mere mortals almost never quiet have enough money to match our ideas and you sometimes make a mistake, like buy a wrong size power supply and a all new flashy cpu. For a extra 20quid i would have got the Q9550 and the 750watt power supply. If i was daft enough to buy now knowing that loads of new stuff coming out in a few months lol.
One thing I don't agree with though is buying everything from one place looking around different stores can save you loads. My last pc saved me 100quid I got my stuff from 3 stores which included 3 different delivery charges and I still saved a hundred and with the extra cash got a better graphics card and power supply just because I shoped around.
But there obviously getting paid advertising by that newegg company.
Exactly , if you had up the Hard Drive , DvD drive , motherboard chipset and power spikes to the 591w OC , is not very recomendable at all.
Plus , dont be surprise if take this configuration to a 2 night LAN party and systems shuts down several times during the even.
Botom line , the I7 should be scrapped from the NEXT SBM and replace with the q9550. But pleace do a comparasion between them , first.