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

yes... lol it was designed for cooling it

doi!

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.

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.

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

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

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? [...] odelmenu=2

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.

Yeah thats right... same thing as hsf