I7-930 @ $199 a no brainer?

[strife025]

I've been debating on getting the new Phenom II x6 vs an i7.

Then someone turned me onto Microcenter selling the i7-930 for instore pickup only for $199. Luckily there is one 5 miles from my house.

So for that price is there very little reason to pick up anything else?

This will be for a gaming rig, already picked out 6 gigs of Corsair triple channel ddr3-1600, Sapphire HD5870, and an Antec 750W PSU.

Trying to decide on CPU/Mobo now.

What would be the best mobo to go with the 930?

Thanks.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Good ones include: P6T, P6T deluxe, UD4P, UD5P, DX58SO, etc

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Rampage III Extreme
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131642

P6X58D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614

P6X58D-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

For the 5870, I'd go with a 650 watter (Antec EA-650 or Corsair TX-650) )for single GFX card and overclocking ....step up in quality and wattage if ya think you might do Xfire. All of the ones below get a 10.0 performance rating from jonnyguru.com and the ** indicates Editor's Choice selection at silentpcreview.com

Antec SG-850 - 10.0 ($220) **
Antec CP-850 - 10.0 ($110) ** (Requires Antec 1200, P183, P193 or Dark Fleet Series cases)
XFX 850W Black Edition 10.0 ($185)
Corsair HX850 850W - 10.0 ($180)

 

[Emperus]

All X58 mobo's perform almost the same.. If you plan on high grade overclocking and need features like USB 3.0 etc., take a look at the ASUS P6X58D.. The most reasonable would be to go for the gigabyte X58-UD3R..

 

[strife025]

I was looking into the P6T or the UD3R.

The P6X58D-E seemed nice for the price but it looks sold out. I was looking to stay in the lower $200 range unless there is a major reason the Rampage 3 for instance is much better?

It's a gaming comp and I'm not running anything too terribly complicated.

6 gigs of DDR3-1600 triple channel, 80gb SSD and 640gb Cavier Black 2ndary drive, single HD5870, and the i7-930 which I'm hoping just to do a moderate overclock on (say 3.6-3.8 range?) on aftermarket Air and AS5 thermal paste.

 

[Emperus]

As i already wrote, all X58 mobo's perform on par with each other.. The difference with different motherboards lies with manufacturers putting up various extras.. The premium extra feature which all manufacturers strive to implement is the overclocking capability and this is where the boards such as the EVGA SLI classified series and the asus rampage series score.. They have the best layouts to implement multiple GPU configs and some of the best components for ensuring a guarranty worthy stability on overclocks.. Also, they are the best looking boards also.. But the pricing is a real spoil sport, and the fact that majority of the crowd would not be able to utilize it to the fullest keeps them off the recommendation lines..

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I was looking into the P6T or the UD3R.

Great boards but getting dated.

The P6X58D-E seemed nice for the price but it looks sold out.

Sorry, I been listing that board in almost every build under $1750 for a couple of weeks now,

I was looking to stay in the lower $200 range unless there is a major reason the Rampage 3 for instance is much better?

Well .... it is much better.....the board is simply amazing .... read the review.

http://www.vortez.co.uk/contentteller/articles_pages/asus_rampage_iii_extreme_motherboard_review,26.html

6 gigs of DDR3-1600 triple channel, 80gb SSD and 640gb Cavier Black 2ndary drive, single HD5870, and the i7-930 which I'm hoping just to do a moderate overclock on (say 3.6-3.8 range?) on aftermarket Air and AS5 thermal paste.

I'd move to a 500 GB per platter drive when you can. Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive performs best under your usage patterns. The 2 TB WD Black and XT from Seagate are good choice but at smaller capacities, you are limited to the Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3. The 7200.12 excels in gaming, multimedia and pictures whereas the F3 wins at music and movie maker. See the comparisons here (copy past link in manually, link won't work in forum):

(http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/compare,1006.html?prod[2371]=on&prod[2770]=on)

Look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

3.7 - 3.8 should be no problem on the R3E .... at low voltages too. I'd skip the AS5 due to the curing time issues. Read the bottom of this page:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=3

I used to list a bunch of test sites because none of them ever seemed to agree on the best coolers, even though same ones were always in the top 5. The latest reviews however are mostly coming up the same way.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=492&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=4

So, depending on budget I'm recommending at the $100 range ($65 heat sink, twin $10 fans, PWM splitter and TIM) these:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8807/cpu-pro-01/Prolimatech_Megahalems_Rev_B_Intel_CPU_Heatsink_LGA_775_1156_1366_AM2_AM2_AM3_Hot_Item.html
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7038/thr-41/Innovation_Cooling_Diamond_7_Carat_Thermal_Compound_-_15_Grams.html?id=BZWnrfIC
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10026/fan-639/Scythe_Slip_Stream_120mm_x_25mm_PWM_Fan_-_SY1225SL12LM-P.html?tl=g36c365s936
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8418/cab-150/FrozenCPU_PMW_Y_Splitter_Cable.html

For the < $50 category, I like the Scythe Mugen which finished 3rd in the latest benchmarkreviews test above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185142

 

[strife025]

Thanks for all the info Jack and Emperus.

If they all perform about the same minus extras, I'm just wondering if I really need all the extra's if I'm not raiding, not doing any hardcore overclocking, or anything else like that.

I did notice that the P6T doesn't support USB3.0 while the UD3R does have 2x USB 3.0. Just want to make sure for the future that I have some USB 3.0 support.

It's a shame that P6X58D-E is sold out, because it looks perfect and a really good price :/ The reviews on the Rampage 3 do seem amazing, but for $150 more I'm kind of meh on it.

So right now I'm pretty much leaning to the UD3R. How "dated" are they, big negatives or it seems fine for what I want to do?

Also I'm already planning on getting the Zalman 9900. I had a 7000 series in my first build, and a 9700 right now, and I absolutely love them and have had 0 problems.

From the paste review it seems like OCZ Tech Freeze is paste then. I'm aware of the curing time of AS5 but I've always used it. The benefit is I save $7 since I still have some left over from last year

Thanks again for all the help, planning on starting to order parts by the end of the week.

 

[logainofhades]

Evga X58 boards are pretty solid. IIRC MC sells some them often at good deals.

 

[strife025]

Best answer selected by Strife025.