New rig decisions

[medbor]

The fourth ram stick will become a separate single channel, so if you have4*2GB you will get 3*2GB tripplechannel and one 2GB single (or two separate dual channel setups),the single channel stick is noticeable if you go above 6GB memory usage and the single stick is still very much faster than an ssd (even the pcie ones) so leave it in the A2 slot. Further reading about dual vs tripple channel:

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Memory/Intel-Core-i7-Dual-Channel-vs.-Triple-Channel-Memory-Mode/Page-2.html

[moskwiz]

Ok so I've just ordered an intel i7 950 and a Rampage III Extreme motherboard (they were out of Sabertooths atm so I figured hey wth, it's not often I buy new comps so why not make it last).. will be hoping to start the build come friday ^^

[wevsspot]

To further clarify the 3x2Gb versus 4x2Gb question. As El_Capitan spoke to before.... you can run 4x2Gb and still have triple channel as long as the dimm slots are properly populated (again as has already been explained).

 

You don't "lose" any speed, but there will be a very slight increase in latency when going to the 4x2Gb configuration (and I mean like .04 - .05ms difference). Nothing to worry about.

 

Oh, and by the way - all things considered and for similar price points I'd also go the i7 route

 

Plus the socket 1156 and 1366 are much friendlier to very high speed memory - DDR3 1600 and above without issue or a bunch of hassle.

Edited December 8, 2010 by wevsspot

[moskwiz]

Cool, cool.. so I'll just have some backup RAM should I choose to play SCII whilst running Vuze, winamp, Firefox, WLMessenger, WLMail and spybot & ESETx64 in background which I probably will

 

Also, since it would probably be a 1 answer thread I'll just ask here - do you guys think if I should decide to get a second GPU (so 2x Sapphire Radeon HD5870 1GB), would my PSU handle all the commotion (@ like a maximum of 4GHz clock on the 950)?

I will be running on a Chieftec CFT-750-14CS click

I'm also putting in 1 128GB SSD and 2x 1TB 7200rpm's