New rig decisions

[moskwiz]

Hi all.. My soc 775 Rampage Extreme just died on me so I've decided to sell the old faithful q9650 and get a new mobo-cpu..

 

This has raised a few questions I would like opinions on..

 

At first I thought that I'd get an AMD cpu after years of intel, mainly because I had heard something about AMD/ATI Fusion and probably got that mixed up with something it really isn't.. So can someone clarify - Will having an AMD+ATI combo have any effects in performance increase compared to Intel+ATI?

 

Then I started looking at the i7's and found that the 950 is kind of in the same price range as is the 1090T and in most benchmarks will beat the Phenom CPU.

I'm not looking to do any hardcore overclocking on my rig, maybe a bit later on, should the need arise.. So my second question - which one is better OCable (in terms of simplicity of the process, also stability), a 1090T system or a i7 950 system?

I recently bought these RAM's link and since the new components are going to be pricey I will be keeping them for the new system.. These RAM's have Intel Xtreme Memory Profile.. Obviously on an AMD system this feature would not work.. Also, these are not triple channel DIMM's.. Will running them on x58 @ dual channel (2 and 2) make any problems for me? Will the XMP have any performance gain over using them on an AMD system?

 

My final question at the moment is regarding cooling.. On my last rig i used a custom lapped CNPS10X Xtreme but I kind of fell in love with the Corsair H70 instead.. Should I get the H70 for this system, how much headroom will it give me in terms of OCng on i7 950/1090T and would it give me reasonable performance gains over the CNPS10X?

 

Ok, that's all for now, shoot! I realize this post might start a AMD vs Intel war so let's try to keep it laconic and to the point

 

Thx to all for the replies beforehand

 

Also, advice on mobo purchase is also very welcome.. Right now I'm considering Crosshair IV Formula in case of Phenom and Sabertooth x58 if it's gonna be i7.. Suggestions are welcome - I just want i t to be ASUS and would love for it to have SupremeFX X-Fi audio

[bobby898]

I will start with the cpu's, obviously as i am an amd fan i would say go for them, but to be perfectly honest you need to go with the intel chips atm, they are much faster and if you are looking to overclock in the future the i7's are in a league of their own. If you want reliability over the extra 500mhz you can get out of an i7 in comparison to the 1090t, you should always go for amd as in experience i find amd chips more reliable and im pretty sure other people would agree with me...? Then there is you ram issue, there will be a great bottleneck if you use you ram in a 2x2 config in a i7 rig, you really need the tri channel therefore again if you are not willing to buy another 2 dimms for sure go for amd. Finally i really dont think you should go for the H70 cooling, its very nice that corsair can offer a cheap water cooling solution however it is cheaper than the rest for a reason. Try a good air cooler as a good air cooler will give you better cooling than the h70 with ease im sure there are many posts around the forums that will give good recommendations for some.

IMO though i would wait for 2 months or so for intel and amd to bring out their next gen chips because they are turning out to sound great, especially amd's bulldozer which i am looking forward to myself.

Hope this helps

[moskwiz]

So if I bought another 2 DIMMs of the same RAM, I'd automatically go to 2x triple channel? Or if I'd just leave out one of the DIMM's and put my RAM's into one tri-channel that would also work?

 

Edit: i.e. if I bought these in addition - link

Edited December 2, 2010 by moskwiz

[El_Capitan]

At first I thought that I'd get an AMD cpu after years of intel, mainly because I had heard something about AMD/ATI Fusion and probably got that mixed up with something it really isn't.. So can someone clarify - Will having an AMD+ATI combo have any effects in performance increase compared to Intel+ATI?

None whatsoever... or at least, hardly noticeable.

 

Then I started looking at the i7's and found that the 950 is kind of in the same price range as is the 1090T and in most benchmarks will beat the Phenom CPU.

I'm not looking to do any hardcore overclocking on my rig, maybe a bit later on, should the need arise.. So my second question - which one is better OCable (in terms of simplicity of the process, also stability), a 1090T system or a i7 950 system?

I have both, so I might be able to give you a better picture than most. Both my i7 950 and 1090T are watercooled. In terms of simplicity and stability, the i7 950 wins. With the 1090T, all the Phenom II hexacores come with hardware CnQ, and if your motherboard doesn't support disabling it, you need to use PhenomMSRTweaker. Just disabling CnQ from the BIOS won't work. Plus, most chipsets have better heatsink cooling for the LGA1366 over the AM3 motherboards. Temperatures not a factor, using the same memory, the i7 950 can easily get to 4.37GHz while my 1090T struggles to get to 4.2GHz. Temperatures being a factor, the 1090T still has plenty of room to handle higher voltages.

 

I recently bought these RAM's link and since the new components are going to be pricey I will be keeping them for the new system.. These RAM's have Intel Xtreme Memory Profile.. Obviously on an AMD system this feature would not work.. Also, these are not triple channel DIMM's.. Will running them on x58 @ dual channel (2 and 2) make any problems for me? Will the XMP have any performance gain over using them on an AMD system?

A misconception most people make. Having 4 x 2GB means you can run in Triple Channel. You don't run in (2x2) + (2x2) Dual Channel, unless that's what you want. Basically you can run in (2x2) + 2 + 2 in Triple Channel. With my set-up, I'm running in (2x4) + 4 + 4 in Triple Channel, and everything's fine.

 

My final question at the moment is regarding cooling.. On my last rig i used a custom lapped CNPS10X Xtreme but I kind of fell in love with the Corsair H70 instead.. Should I get the H70 for this system, how much headroom will it give me in terms of OCng on i7 950/1090T and would it give me reasonable performance gains over the CNPS10X?

You'll get much better performance gains with the Corsair H70, especially with a push/pull configuration.

 

Also, advice on mobo purchase is also very welcome.. Right now I'm considering Crosshair IV Formula in case of Phenom and Sabertooth x58 if it's gonna be i7.. Suggestions are welcome - I just want i t to be ASUS and would love for it to have SupremeFX X-Fi audio

Those two are very sound choices.

[moskwiz]

thx for the reply El_Capitan (and indeed bobby898).. I'm leaning toward getting a i7 950 for now..

I'm a bit confused about the ram's though..

 

If i get an x58 mobo with 6 RAM slots (having two triple-channels) and occupy A1, A2, B1, B2 and leave A3 and B3 empty - will it give me triple-channel???

Or should I occupy A1, A2, A3 and leave the fourth one out altogether to get triple-channel?

Or should I go out of my way and buy these to get A1, B1, A2, B2, A3, B3?

[MercuryDoun]

I was gonna post a reply, but El_Capi pretty much nailed it. I dont have anything to add at this time.

[El_Capitan]

thx for the reply El_Capitan (and indeed bobby898).. I'm leaning toward getting a i7 950 for now..

I'm a bit confused about the ram's though..

 

If i get an x58 mobo with 6 RAM slots (having two triple-channels) and occupy A1, A2, B1, B2 and leave A3 and B3 empty - will it give me triple-channel???

Or should I occupy A1, A2, A3 and leave the fourth one out altogether to get triple-channel?

Or should I go out of my way and buy these to get A1, B1, A2, B2, A3, B3?

Put it in A2, A1, B1, and C1 if you're getting the ASUS x58 Sabertooth.

[moskwiz]

Ok yeah I misspoke on my last post.. So A1, A2, B1, C1 would give me triple channel interface?? Wouldn't the DIMM in A2 screw everything up?

[El_Capitan]

Nope.

[moskwiz]

Hmm http://www.computerforum.com/177183-how-would-8gb-4x2gb-ram-work-tri-channel.html

 

check out post #7 .. I wonder if that's true.. If I take out the A2 will it run faster?

[El_Capitan]

I'm not sure. I've never noticed any issues with speed, and if there are slowdowns, they're probably minimal. http://www.barefeats.com/nehal04.html

[moskwiz]

heh well you could try that with your rig just for fun.. Not that it really matters ^^

Take out one dimm and leave in 3x4GB and run some benches and see if the results are any different than 4X4 =D

Pretty much just passing time with this tho