Is the stock HSF OK from Intel's I7 920 ?

yes... lol it was designed for cooling it

doi!

then why do I see so many people saying that they use HSFs other than the stock one?

does overshocked use a stock cpu hsf?

Obviously anyone who is trying to get a high overclock on air will upgrade to better HSF. What are you trying to do? If it's overclock the snot out of it you will need a better HSF. If you just want a little overclock or stock operation the intel unit will work fine.

Well poeple that want to get something like a 3.6Ghz OC they usually have a aftermarket HSF

No, of course i dont use the stock because im trying to overclock it... i am actually in the midst of building my own heatsink.

OK : if overclock (not that much?), do not use stock HSF.

Here is another question: I bought 1600 ddr3 RAM and am looking for a MOBO that can run that memory at that speed with an I7 920. I was considering an ASUS P6T, the spec of which say, if I interpret them correctly, that you must OC the MOBO to get it to run at 1600.

So...I have an I7 920 and 1600 RAM, can I use the stock HSF to get 1600 from the ASUS P6T?

what about the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P mobo , which is another candidate.

since I have not yet bought my mobo:

what mobo can I but that will run the 1600 RAM at 1600 with the stock HSF from the I7 920 ...

and which mobo also has these features:

*8 sata ports
*at least 1 1394
*at least 2 PCI E 2.0
*24 gb max ram

*under $250

Not that many have all of those features, i would go for the p6t

+1 for the ASUS P6T

do you all think that I cd get the p6t to 1600 and NOT buy another (non stock) HSF for the cpu?

Probably not. If you were truly concerned with not overclocking the CPU, why did you buy faster than average memory?

I assumed what I bought was average memory. What is average memory? Is it a function of the mobo? Is avg memory any memory on a mobo that does not havean OC by it in the memory specs? I am trying to figure all this out (newbie to building a pc and caring about speeds; in the past I have built pc s but from the cheapest previous generation technology components with the idea of simply working; now I am attempting to build with the current generation of technology).

I bought the memory naively thinking that I could *simply* use it as it states on the label, @1600. It looks like from this discussion , this is not so. It looks like for me to use this memory and achieve this speed, I will have to invest in the purchase and do the discovery and research to install a separate HSF.

So I ask you overclockers, what would be a good HSF to put on top of my I7 920 to get a 1600 memory speed?

So that I can better understand: if I did not get the HSF, am I right in concluding that the memory speed I would get -if I get the P6T - is whatever the standard memory spec states without OC, apparently 1333?

quote--

6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)*/1866(O.C.)*/1800(O.C.)*/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Memory
Triple channel memory architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
*Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
*Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts).

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=179&l3=815&l4...

If you are getting an i7-920, I suggest that you also get a oem cpu cooler up front. Something like the Xigmatek datk night should be about $ 40.
Three reasons:
1) To properly install any heat sink, you have to have the motherboard outside of the case; even with pushpin coolers. I hate to remove a motherboard from a running sustem to do it later.
2) The cooler will do a better job than the stock heat sink.
3) For any level of cooling, a oem cooler with a 120mm fan will run much quieter.

To answer your question, the stock cooler will be ok for a mild overclock.

As to the ram:
1600 ram works just fine with a X58 motherboard. It makes very little difference what the ram speed is in real applications or FPS. 1600 is what you can get if you tweak the ram to overclock it to that level.
With the Asus P6T, for example, you overclock easily by just increasing the BCLK from 133 to 160 giving you 3.33. This will also overclock the ram a bit to 1440. Leave everything else on auto or default.
I use a i7-920, Asus P6T deluxe, and Patriot 1600 ram. No problems.

If you are looking at maximum overclocks, then more is involved.

thank for the comments.

quote--
With the Asus P6T, for example, you overclock easily by just increasing the BCLK from 133 to 160 giving you 3.33

does that mean 3.33 ghz clock speed of the cpu, up from the 2.66 ya get off the shelfd?


quote--
I use a i7-920, Asus P6T deluxe, and Patriot 1600 ram

what ram and cpu speed do you have? I assume from your comments that you have an oem cooler (btw, I assume the word 'cooler' in this conversation mean the heat sink-fan assembly that goes on top of the cpu).thanks

Yeah thats right... same thing as hsf

The stock i7-920 has a multiplier of 20, that times the stock bclk of 133 gives 2.66.
When you raise the bclk to 160, you get 160x20=3.2
when turbo mode kicks in, the multiplier is upped by one which is how you get 3.33.

Here is a link to the ram I bought:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...