- Sep 29, 2009
- 3
- 0
- 18,510
Ok guys, I tend to make long posts but Ill try to make this as quick and to-the-point as possible, please bear (bare?) with me. 
First of all, this is my first post so.... My name is Jason, I live just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, I'm 24, and I've been building my own computers for a few years. Im a (I guess you could call it) 'veteran' member of Xoxide forums. As they are down at the moment, and I thought you guys might be more helpful on this issue, I decided to post here.
Now, its time for a new build, and thus I have a few questions for those that know more than I. I had a surge go through my system not too long ago and I think it damaged the Mobo and CPU in some way. Im having problems, but I wont go through all that. I replaced the PSU (old one was dead) and got my lifetime warranty replacement from BFG (love em
. So, all I need for this new build is the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM. I can spend 1k-1.3k$ on those 3 components. I want as top-of-the-line components as I can get for the money with the motherboard being the most important.
Right now, as far as those Mobo, CPU, and RAM go, I have in my current system: ASUS Striker Extreme, Core 2 Duo, OCZ Gold. I prefer Asus for motherboards, AMD is NOT an option, and I like OCZ for RAM but Im pretty flexible for that (Corsair is good as well).
My first move was to go to Newegg and select a set of components that would fit in my price range. I will be buying from Newegg, that is the only option as far as retailer goes. After some searching, I came up with a preliminary list going off of pure specs, price, quality, and aesthetics (mobo). Yes, how "pretty" the board is DOES matter to me, I know it shouldn't, I know it doesn't help the situation, but I can't change myself. Now, the preliminary list:
Motherboard: The ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer LGA 1366 Intel X58 or the EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED "Overclocker's Pick" 3-Way SLI + PhysX 1366 Intel X58. It is important to me to have the BEST AVAILABLE motherboard, as everything else can be upgraded on top of the mobo.
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
RAM: OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Ok, now you've got the links to the components, time for me to explain my choices and why I need help. Only 3 more paragraphs to go people! 1 for each component, Im trying guys!!
Motherboard: This is the most complicated. As I stated above, I already have a good opinion of ASUS. When I compared the two, I could only see 2 major differences.
1) The ASUS board can take faster RAM. The EVGA says it stops at 1600 whereas the ASUS says it goes up to 2000. (But then again it also says (O.C.) next to 1600-2000)
2) The EVGA has a PCI slot. The ASUS only has PCI-E (and a crapload of them). Not a big deal as far as I can see, this only means I would need to buy a new sound card as my current card is PCI (it seems it has onboard sound though anyway, so that should hold me over). I don't see needing anything else that would only work in a PCI slot and not a PCI-E.
So, after the comparison, the two boards were still on pretty much even footing. The ASUS still slightly ahead because of the brand. HOWEVER, then I moved on to reading the customer reviews. This is where it got bad.
Both boards have a few bad reviews, but it seems the ASUS has way more than I would expect or that I like. It also seems like alot of Intel X58 Chipset boards arrive DOA.... like WWWAAAYYY too many for my comfort level. I've never had anything arrive DOA, from Newegg or anywhere else.
After reading into it a little bit, it seems like people are saying the X58 Chipset itself is very buggy. Is this the case? Does anyone have any advice about these 2 boards? Any owners with reviews? Any boards that might be better suited to someone who wants the best of the best? Remember, if Im to get the CPU and the RAM on this list then the substitute Mobo must be around 400$ or cheaper like these ones.
CPU: Well as far as Core i7 1366 CPUs went, there were only 3. It was either the Extreme (which at 999 was way too much), the 3.06 GHz 950, or the 2.66 GHz 920. Using the compare function on Newegg it seems the only difference is the .4 GHz. Seeing as how the 950 is 570$ and the 920 is 280$, I don't think .4 Ghz is worth another 290$. Thats more than double the price.... I would think Im missing something, that seems ridiculous to charge 200% for .4 GHz so maybe there is another stat(s) that isn't shown that makes up the price difference. Thats why your here :lol:
RAM: Out of all 3, this was the most quickly chosen, and by far the most flexible. I was only really looking for amount of memory (want 12GB, 6x2GB), price, and quality. I like the OCZ gold I have right now, and they had a decent price, so I chose this set. I'm not a master at latency, or the connection between what the processor will allow and the RAM you get, you know, the more 'expert' qualities of RAM, so if someone has a better (newegg) solution for around the same price, Im definitely open to that.
Im done now
It turned out longer than I wanted it to be but I had a lot of information to put down. Please help me out guys, especially with the motherboard problem. I've never been stuck like this before. I want the newest socket, I dont want to buy another 775 board when its on its way out, I need longevity. I need to make a decision soon and I really don't want to be regretting a thousand dollar or more purchase, and something Ill be stuck with for a few years, a month after receiving it.
I thank you very much in advance. I appreciate all the help I get from all the people who offer it.
First of all, this is my first post so.... My name is Jason, I live just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, I'm 24, and I've been building my own computers for a few years. Im a (I guess you could call it) 'veteran' member of Xoxide forums. As they are down at the moment, and I thought you guys might be more helpful on this issue, I decided to post here.
Now, its time for a new build, and thus I have a few questions for those that know more than I. I had a surge go through my system not too long ago and I think it damaged the Mobo and CPU in some way. Im having problems, but I wont go through all that. I replaced the PSU (old one was dead) and got my lifetime warranty replacement from BFG (love em
. So, all I need for this new build is the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM. I can spend 1k-1.3k$ on those 3 components. I want as top-of-the-line components as I can get for the money with the motherboard being the most important.Right now, as far as those Mobo, CPU, and RAM go, I have in my current system: ASUS Striker Extreme, Core 2 Duo, OCZ Gold. I prefer Asus for motherboards, AMD is NOT an option, and I like OCZ for RAM but Im pretty flexible for that (Corsair is good as well).
My first move was to go to Newegg and select a set of components that would fit in my price range. I will be buying from Newegg, that is the only option as far as retailer goes. After some searching, I came up with a preliminary list going off of pure specs, price, quality, and aesthetics (mobo). Yes, how "pretty" the board is DOES matter to me, I know it shouldn't, I know it doesn't help the situation, but I can't change myself. Now, the preliminary list:
Motherboard: The ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer LGA 1366 Intel X58 or the EVGA E760 CLASSIFIED "Overclocker's Pick" 3-Way SLI + PhysX 1366 Intel X58. It is important to me to have the BEST AVAILABLE motherboard, as everything else can be upgraded on top of the mobo.
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
RAM: OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Ok, now you've got the links to the components, time for me to explain my choices and why I need help. Only 3 more paragraphs to go people! 1 for each component, Im trying guys!!
Motherboard: This is the most complicated. As I stated above, I already have a good opinion of ASUS. When I compared the two, I could only see 2 major differences.
1) The ASUS board can take faster RAM. The EVGA says it stops at 1600 whereas the ASUS says it goes up to 2000. (But then again it also says (O.C.) next to 1600-2000)
2) The EVGA has a PCI slot. The ASUS only has PCI-E (and a crapload of them). Not a big deal as far as I can see, this only means I would need to buy a new sound card as my current card is PCI (it seems it has onboard sound though anyway, so that should hold me over). I don't see needing anything else that would only work in a PCI slot and not a PCI-E.
So, after the comparison, the two boards were still on pretty much even footing. The ASUS still slightly ahead because of the brand. HOWEVER, then I moved on to reading the customer reviews. This is where it got bad.
Both boards have a few bad reviews, but it seems the ASUS has way more than I would expect or that I like. It also seems like alot of Intel X58 Chipset boards arrive DOA.... like WWWAAAYYY too many for my comfort level. I've never had anything arrive DOA, from Newegg or anywhere else.
After reading into it a little bit, it seems like people are saying the X58 Chipset itself is very buggy. Is this the case? Does anyone have any advice about these 2 boards? Any owners with reviews? Any boards that might be better suited to someone who wants the best of the best? Remember, if Im to get the CPU and the RAM on this list then the substitute Mobo must be around 400$ or cheaper like these ones.
CPU: Well as far as Core i7 1366 CPUs went, there were only 3. It was either the Extreme (which at 999 was way too much), the 3.06 GHz 950, or the 2.66 GHz 920. Using the compare function on Newegg it seems the only difference is the .4 GHz. Seeing as how the 950 is 570$ and the 920 is 280$, I don't think .4 Ghz is worth another 290$. Thats more than double the price.... I would think Im missing something, that seems ridiculous to charge 200% for .4 GHz so maybe there is another stat(s) that isn't shown that makes up the price difference. Thats why your here :lol:
RAM: Out of all 3, this was the most quickly chosen, and by far the most flexible. I was only really looking for amount of memory (want 12GB, 6x2GB), price, and quality. I like the OCZ gold I have right now, and they had a decent price, so I chose this set. I'm not a master at latency, or the connection between what the processor will allow and the RAM you get, you know, the more 'expert' qualities of RAM, so if someone has a better (newegg) solution for around the same price, Im definitely open to that.
Im done now
It turned out longer than I wanted it to be but I had a lot of information to put down. Please help me out guys, especially with the motherboard problem. I've never been stuck like this before. I want the newest socket, I dont want to buy another 775 board when its on its way out, I need longevity. I need to make a decision soon and I really don't want to be regretting a thousand dollar or more purchase, and something Ill be stuck with for a few years, a month after receiving it.I thank you very much in advance. I appreciate all the help I get from all the people who offer it.
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