I7 ATX board - supporting tri channel ram?

[Akvavit]

Once again i hope to be able to find so good answers from you cleaver guys

I'm in the middle of a upgrade, and in need of a new mobo as a part of this. I have 3 x 2 gb OCZ DDR3 PC3 12800 Platinum on the way in the mail.

Which board should i opt for, in order to take advantage of the tri-channel ram?

The CPU is a i7 920 - so i need a 1156 board - but whihc one? Most of ones i can find, have 4 ram slots - there is no way that can be used as tri-channel for ram is there?

So if i need a board with 6 ram slots, can yu give me some options. I don't need to overclock or anything - but i do plan to put in 2 x GTX 460 cards in it.


Thanks in advance

 

[Akvavit]

P.s. I had been thinking about the Asus P7P55D-E Pro - but it does not seem to support tri-channel :/

 

[Akvavit]

ARGH! Not allowed to edit a message - and that is only mentioned AFTER i wrote some stuff...

Anywho - in short: Is tri-channel overrated? If it is, i might as well just buy another 2 GB block, and then go for 4x2GB.

 

[bilbat]

The CPU is a i7 920 - so i need a 1156 board - but whihc one?

The i7-920 you want takes a 1366 socketed board

Most of ones i can find, have 4 ram slots - there is no way that can be used as tri-channel for ram is there?

This is because you are looking at the wrong boards - socket 1366 have either three or six memory slots to use three-channel... The 1156 socketed boards are for the P55/H55/H57/Q57 chipsets - mostly i3 and i5...

 

[Akvavit]

Ohhh - why the heck have i then been looking at 1156 .... DOH

So i should actually be looking for 1366 boards for my i7 920.

Got any good suggestions - say, 200 euro tops?

 

[Akvavit]

Is it not possible to edit a message here?

Well - then the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R - sems like a fair board for me..?

 

[foscooter]

Yep! That was mine & THG recommendation.

 

[blink180heights]

Honestly i believe all x58 boards are based on 1366 processors and Triple Channel DDR3 RAM.

 

[Akvavit]

I ordered the before mentioned Gigabyte board and a Gainward GTX 460 1 GB card.

As mentioned before, i have no need for overclocking, og benchmarks - i just need smooth 1920x1080 gaming.

But if that does not work out, i can always put in an extra one.

Thanks for all your feedback - how do i submit the best answer?

 

[The_OGS]

Hi Akvavit,
The triple-channel memory provides mammoth memory bandwidth of 25.5 GB/s using only 1066 MHz DDR3.
In dual-channel you would achieve only 21.3 GB/s using faster 1333 MHz DDR3.
Even the next fastest (1600 MHz) speed would only match the triple-channel bandwidth, at 25.6 GB/s.
So basically, triple-channel memory @ 1066 MHz and dual-channel memory @ 1600 MHz perform the same.
Both exceed the bandwidth requirement of all the very fastest CPUs...
Which is why I run my i7 920 with triple 1066 MHz (and very tight timings).
Regards