Overclocked Core I7?

[Matt Cole]

Chaps,

I need some advice on where the best place would be to get a core I7 chip, board, ram and cooler. Obviously cheaper the better. I have found this which looks ok but is stretching my budget:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...39&subcat=1675

What you guys reckon? Any advice welcome.

[DaveMayGTT]

920's overclock very easily. I wouldnt bother with any of this guarenteed or pre done overclock nonsense, if they couldnt do it to pretty much every chip they wouldnt do it. Just be careful on the RAM voltage and stick with good components.

I7's are powerfull beasts, i have built a lot of them at work and although i used to overclock everything i touched as far as poss i probably would not put a lot of effort in with one of these. Also depending on what your doing amybe consider an i5?

[djinuk]

whats are you going to be using the pc for mate..

If its not going to be heavy encoding spec stuff then 100% save the cash and get a i5 build.

I have an i5 overclocked to 3.8ghz and its 100% stable , with good temps..

Dont get preoverclocked stuff, its far to easy to do yourself to be fair. lots of guides etc.. join the oc forums though and you will get some great advice , although most folks on there are hardcore nerds.

[Matt Cole]

The pc is for gaming, and heavy gaming at that!! Crysis at a reasonable level of speed and detail would be cool. I was looking at the I5, but not sure if the I7 would be the best to go for. What board and ram would you guys recommend for either?

[tiff_lee]

What graphics card you going to be using?

[Matt Cole]

What graphics card you going to be using?

At the moment i have a 9800gt. Pretty good card but i will upgrade once the rig is built and running.

[djinuk]

if its only for gaming , save the fundage and get an i5 mate..

i7 only has benefits when used for heavy encoding.

My setup is

i5 720
h20 cpu cooler
p55a-ud4 mobo
hd5850 gfx card,
4gb of xms corsair ram (no point going for more , ive only ever used 60% of ram.

That system rums crysis at max settings, on a 24 inch montor at native res easilly.

Also overclocks very very well..

Corsair 650psu also.

[Matt Cole]

if its only for gaming , save the fundage and get an i5 mate..

i7 only has benefits when used for heavy encoding.

My setup is

i5 720
h20 cpu cooler
p55a-ud4 mobo
hd5850 gfx card,
4gb of xms corsair ram (no point going for more , ive only ever used 60% of ram.

That system rums crysis at max settings, on a 24 inch montor at native res easilly.

Also overclocks very very well..

Corsair 650psu also.

Ah cool matey, that sounds like a pretty good set up. I'll price it all up and see what that little comes out at!

[Matt Cole]

what about this lot?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...39&subcat=1676

Or is it too much money??

[tiff_lee]

To be honest you are probably better off with an i5 setup and the saved cash put towards a decent graphics card. I have a typical i7 setup (920 D0) with 6gb of ram along with a 5850 and when in games the gpu is still the limiting factor, I use nowhere near the full 6gb nor anyway near all 8 logical cores.

[djinuk]

yea man, im really happy with my bundle.. also got a g5 keyboard etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zANFlYEDM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llqhe3N1cJA

couple of vids there how to very easily overclock them. , my temps are much much better than his though.

[tiff_lee]

Yeah I thought my temps sucked, he is running some serious voltage which shouldn't be necessary to overclock one of these chips.

[djinuk]

yuppers.. my temps dont really come out of 57°, occasionly hit the 60° when running prime 95 to stress test it.

[Matt Cole]

so where from and which components then chaps??

[tiff_lee]

Scan
Ebuyer
Overclockers
all the usual suspects really everyone has their own particular favourite.

Best bet is to just shop around look for the best price on the components you want.

[djinuk]

yea i usually use overclockers and ebuyer..

if you get on overclockers forum and do more than 250 posts or somthing u get free postage.

[Matt Cole]

Looks like the price of the I7 chip has dropped today not much more above the I5 chip!!

Overclockers seems to be the best value by far.

[tiff_lee]

Yeah but then if you go i7 then unless you get the bottom end chip you'll need an X58 board (not sure how much more than P55 they are), then there is triple channel memory kits to go with it rather than dual channel more cost...

[djinuk]

Yeah but then if you go i7 then unless you get the bottom end chip you'll need an X58 board (not sure how much more than P55 they are), then there is triple channel memory kits to go with it rather than dual channel more cost...

exactly as he said, if i could find the benchmarks for gaming i would but basically the i7 has no advantage.. lol

[Matt Cole]

Ok chaps, what do you think of this:

http://www.easypc-uk.com/gamers-syst...250-98gtx.html

I just need the best kit that i can afford really (budget of £550). Overclockers are doing an I7 bundle for £505:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=BU-171-OK

I have a temporary case, HD, DVD drive etc that i can use untill i get more cash although they are really ****.

Im really unsure on what to do?

[Ian S]

I personally would not get an Optiarc as they don't read my Verbatim re-writeable DVDs. In fact, a pals Optiarc ruined one, after it failed to read the disc, my Pioneer could not read it.

Are the Asus mobo's not better for over clocking? More features? Easier to over clock? Easy crash recovery from an excess over clock? And good power saving features.

Do you need to buy a ready made thing? Can you not buy the best parts and throw them together yourself?

[Matt Cole]

I personally would not get an Optiarc as they don't read my Verbatim re-writeable DVDs. In fact, a pals Optiarc ruined one, after it failed to read the disc, my Pioneer could not read it.

Are the Asus mobo's not better for over clocking? More features? Easier to over clock? Easy crash recovery from an excess over clock? And good power saving features.

Do you need to buy a ready made thing? Can you not buy the best parts and throw them together yourself?

I could do Ian, but its a mine field out there!

[djinuk]

Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM [BV80605001911AP]

£163.99 inc VAT

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-P55-UD4]

£154.99 inc VAT



Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C8) [CMX4GX3M2A1600C8]


£121.89 inc VAT

Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) [CWH50-1]


£66.99 inc VAT
somthing like that is a nice setup, id defo do the overclock yourself imo

you could shop about more for prices, but just a rough idea.. better mobo then yours, and more reliable ram.. You will never need more than 4gb unless running lots of instances of encoding programs etc..

Like i say i play battlefield , cod 4, crysis all maxed out etc,. i use on average around 33% of my 4gb.

[Josie172cup]

I could do Ian, but its a mine field out there!

exactly how i feel looking for a R5 GTT my head is starting to hurt and i just want someone else to do it for me

i was also looking at building a pc about 2 weeks ago and priced up a few i7 builds

i think you will have to spend alot more than 550 quid as there would be no point in buying an i7 if you have so many other limiting factors (if that makes sense)

[Matt Cole]

Well, in the end i went for an I5 750, with a gigabyte p55a ud3 board and 4 gig of 1600mhz ram. Im still using the 9800gt from BFG and it pretty much slays all the new games!! Also bought NZXT lexa s case which is dam good for the money.

Very happy with it.