OK guys im going to upgrade my PC this holiday season. All I need is a new Mother Board, CPU and RAM.


Im 100% sure im going with the Intel i7 950. So what I need is a solid future friendly Motherboard and RAM. I am not looking to overclock and I feel like thats the problem. All the high end boards are designed for OCing.

So far Im stuck between the following boards.

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard
Asus MAXIMUS III FORMULA Motherboard

Both seem like they are going to do far more than I want. I just really want to get the SATA 3 with Raid and USB 3.0. I also want to stick with Asus or Gigabyte. Im just not thrilled a the idea of 280CND being the price tag.

As for RAM. Im stuck between DDR3-1600 or 1333. Hell, Im not even sure Im understanding the DDR3 technology correctly at this point.

I need some help understanding the current technology. Ive fallen behind since my last upgrade, work has been far to busy to do any kind of reading at work.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Wait 1-2 months for sandy bridge!

This RAM used to be $89.99 but it looks like the sale is over:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145222


Also, go with the Gigabyte board you listed if you really don't want to OC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128423


However, you can get a good 800 mhz overclock on the i7 950 with the ASUS board I'm using without disabling hyperthreading and by using a ~50 dollar air cooler w/ Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. The RAM I listed above will end up running at around 1674 mhz as well and be stable. It's well worth it to OC. If you change your mind then get the following mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131641

Just make sure you get a triple channel kit for the i7. If you're not going to OC you could probably go with the 1333mhz ram.

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[In Yarr we trust.]

Just do what everyone else does...

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-Formerly Movien, greatest Beastmaster evah

The Asus MAXIMUS III FORMULA is LGA1156 and the i7-950 is LGA1366, also OC'ing is so easy nowadays, you might as well do it, especially since these i7's will only shutdown at 100C so keeping temps below 95C should be easy enough. I would go with a cheap Asus board, and Viper ram (set timings to 6cas ftw) since lower end corsair is garbage imo. Just pay attention to the details when you buy stuff, specially warranty.

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I'm gonna back Kioto up about OCing. I got my i5 up to 3.4ghz and stable without any voltage adjustments (up from 2.67), and I'm sure the i7s can go even higher.

The memory I have in my PC is here, Crucial Ballistix Tracer. It's stupid expensive but it's supposed to be built for OCing and has lights if you're into that thing, but I'm pretty happy with it

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[In Yarr we trust.]

OK so heres what I need cleared up.

What socket should I be using? LGA1156 or LGA1366? Should I use Tripple Channel DDR3 or Dual Channel?

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

If you're going with the i7-950 which is LGA1366, you have to get a mainboard that supports LGA1366. Most if not all mainboards with LGA1366 are triple channel, so go with triple channel.

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I tend to be rather uninformed these days because other than building my own new PC every so often I don't dabble in building PCs that much anymore. But, a simple checklist:

[ ] Get LGA1366 motherboard for an i7-9xx.

[ ] Get a 6GB triple channel memory kit for an LGA1366 motherboard.

[ ] Get Windows 7 64-bit for awesomeness and to actually get to use your 6GB of ram.

EDIT: Also, imo you should go with the Gigabyte. Had nothing but trouble with Kio's i7 ASUS board, had to send it back like 3 times.

EDIT2: And they still didn't fix it, claimed it was the CPUs fault. Ended up having to buy a Gigabyte instead and hey presto it worked fine.

Kioto I dont have to get a 950, I could get the 8xx series. Is one better than the other?

I hate being this far out of the loop on technology.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

All depends on your budget. The 950 has a pretty good price:performance ratio. You're only going to see significant price drops on the i5 and lower, i would suggest that you stick with the 950, and get a mainboard that you like (i suggest EVGA, superb build quality and warranty), get a cheap'ish triple channel ram (i suggested Viper memory because even though they are cas 9, you can bring them down to cas 6 easly for faster read/write speeds).

If you're uncomfortable with the pricetag, downgrade to a LGA1156. I would suggest AMD but there are no upsides to getting AMD over Intel right now, aside from maybe saving a few bucks.

@Ket: I don't like Asus at all, i've said this before here. They have cheap stuff though.

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Nah, budget isnt an issue here. Im ok with paying a little extra for performance.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

There are a lot of options, i'd be happy to guide you through if you need. I'm sure Ket and others wouldn't mind it either.

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Yeah and help is super appreciated. I feel lost with this new tech.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

This is a huge help to me too since I'm purchasing some of these items as a Christmas gift for Yarr. When he is contemplating the right choices, I'll direct him here. lol

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Not this time, nancy-boy!

Well just ask away =]

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OK im going to post some questions before I go to sleep after the 2-3 hour survivor finally.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Consider the new LGA1155 & Sandy Bridge architecture.
- Some of the motherboard P67 are already out.
- The CPUs (i7 2xxx) are scheduled to be launched at Jan 05-09.

Thats the thing. The Sandy Bridge kinda throws a real wrench into things. I try to upgrade on a three year cycle, so really in three years Im going to need a new mother board anyway.

Im not sure I really want to worry about a future proof PC. Just something I can add a few things too down the road to keep it as an "ok" system in three years.

If that makes any sense.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

The i7 950 is well worth it. I personally wouldn't bother with anything less or more at this point.

I'd suggest my setup, since I'd be able to tell you the settings you need on your mobo to get to 3.83 GHz stable, and it's pretty funny to see WEI reporting 7.9 for everything but the CPU, which is the lowest of them all at 7.6, but yea I'm using an ASUS board and they do have a flaky past (it took me a long time to get my P5N-E stable when I got it four years ago and was reluctant to upgrade just because I was able to accomplish this).

Also, while the RAM I listed is cheaply priced, it's damn good RAM from what I can see. The fact that I'm able to run it overclocked at all, much less without any extra voltage than the stock voltage and also at the advertised timings, is amazing to me since in the past I've had major issues with running RAM at anything over the stock speed without increasing the voltage and/or hightening the timings (and it still wouldn't be stable, so I'd end up giving up and going back to stock settings for the RAM).

Kayne list of your parts for me.
How does FFXIV run for you?

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

i7s require triple channel memory for the desktop processors, so keep that in mind. I don't believe it's anything to do with the motherboard (although socket 1366 boards will be built for triple channel because of the processor)

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[In Yarr we trust.]

I guess what Im looking for from this thread is, what would you buy? Im gonna order some stuff from newegg.ca Im interested in what other people would get if they were me right now.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

If you're sticking with 1366, then I'd go with EVGA board.

This is what I am using now.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188068&cm_re=evga_x58-_-13-188-068-_-Product

If you're using onboard audio, get the one with ALC892 codec - better surround sound.


I like G.Skill ripjaws for memory.