System feedback pls - video editing system

[da_btrain]

Hi all,

Would love some community feedback on this system if possible. Am going to run edius 6. Thanks in advance.

Intel Core i7 930 Processor LGA1366 2.8GHz 8MB Cache CPU
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 MB, Intel X58 ICH10R, QPI 6.4GT/s, DDR3 2100, PCI-Ex16, SATA3, USB 3.0, RAID, I
Kingston 8GB(2 X 4GB) DDR3-1333MHZ PC10600
Kingston 8GB(2 X 4GB) DDR3-1333MHZ PC10600
Western Digital 300G SATA II VelociRaptor(WD3000HLFS)
3 x Seagate SATAII NCQ 1.5TB 7200RPM 32mb Cache
Gigabyte G220 PCI-E 2.0 1GB 128-Bit Dual-link DVI/HDMI
LG H22NS50 SATA 22X+- Super Multi DVDR Black with Software
Pioneer BDR-205BK 12X Blu-Ray Writer Drive SATA Black OEM
Antec P183 Performance One Black-Sliver ATX Tower(NO PSU)
Antec 850W TruePower Quattro ATX & EPS 12V Power Supply, Modular Cables, Four 12V Rails, 80Plus Cert
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM

 

[da_btrain]

anybody at all?

this system has been ordered but I still have a couple of days to make changes if there's some glaring ommisions.

 

[Somebody_007]

The i7 950 is a nice improvement over the 930 but not essential.

x58 uses tripple channel so 6sticks or 3 sticks of ram is best.

raptors are bad bang for buck IMO it's an ssd or a 7200rpm drive.

And why do you need a blu-ray writer?

For the rest good build.

 

[da_btrain]

great - thanks for replying! been a long time since i put a system together - ie P4 days, so good to have some feedback.

re: ram. So at the moment I've ordered 4x 4gb sticks of ram. are you saying I'd be better off/it'd be more efficent with either 3 or 6? I'm trying to max my ram for rendering speeds. i think the mobo supports 24gb but that seems like overkill to me.

thanks for the feedback re: raptor. the ssds were really expensive/gb and i wanted a faster system drive than 7200.

blu-ray writer is needed for authoring blu ray discs.

Any further feedback/advice very welcome!

 

[Somebody_007]

X58 uses tripple channel which bassically means if you install 3 sticks your memory bandwith is 3 times as large than when you install a single stick(single channel).

Because of this kind of system things only work optimally with tripple channel kits(3 or 6 modules). Any other combination of sticks will use single channel and thus decrease ram speeds significantly. Now I say ram speeds in most real world usages even the differences between single channel and tripple channel is small. But if you are going to be running ram intensive apps you really do want tripple channel.

So you can either leave out one stick, order 2 more. Or just cancel your order if possible. The ram you listed is also pretty slow so if you are changing your order and use ram intensive apps try going for an upgrade.

As for the raptor I don't really see them as fast drives. You can get more speed out of this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591&Tpk=500gb%20momentus%20xt or just two fast 1tb drives(like the caviar black) in raid0 and you'll have a faster and larger drive for less.

SSDs however are even quieter and more reliable.

 

[da_btrain]

OK - that all makes sense.

So with the ram I'm thinking of replacing the memory listed above and using 12gb (6x2gb sticks) of this (I know if's out of stock but the shop building has it):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104180&cm_re=KHX2000C9AD3T1K3%2f6GX-_-20-104-180-_-Product

This might be a newbie question, but the mobo specs says it has 'support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules'

This memory is listed @ 2000mhz - will it work @ 2000mhz OK?

thanks again.

 

[Somebody_007]

Good choice

And I never really understood what those motherboard specs meant, I think it's just for reassuring people that ram will run or something. But if it can run at 2200 then it can surely runs at 2000. If it reassures you I have the same mobo and run my mushkins at 1600 which also isn't listed in the specs.

So long story short yes it should work. But you will have to do it all yourself in the BIOS. With i7 9xx chips ram is automatically clocked to 1066 (In my case anyways) so you'll have to play around a little with your BCLK and multipliers to get good CPU and RAM speeds. Don't worry though it's far from as hard as it sounds. If you ever need help just post on this thread and I'll try help you out.

 

[da_btrain]

OK great.

On another note, I've just checked the supported list of ram for the x58a mobo:
http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-x58a-ud5_v2.0.pdf

the one I've selected above is not shown there, despite loads of other kingston memory being there. I know it's not an exhaustive list and it would probably work without problem, but would it be safer selecting ram that is on the list? This is the alternate that I'm thinking of which is on the list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231306&cm_re=F3-16000CL9T-6GBRH-_-20-231-306-_-Product

 

[Somebody_007]

You shouldn' look at the list too much it's just the modules they bothered to test. Kingston is a respected manufacturer and the chance that it won't work is next to none.

The G.skill kit is good aswell though. I'd get the kingston kit unless the g.skills are quite a bit cheaper.

 

[da_btrain]

great - i thought as much but doesn't hurt to ask.

RAM (kingston) has been updated in order so should have machine within the week. can't wait.

Thanks again for your help - very much appreciated

 

[da_btrain]

Best answer selected by da_btrain.

 

[da_btrain]

Good choice

And I never really understood what those motherboard specs meant, I think it's just for reassuring people that ram will run or something. But if it can run at 2200 then it can surely runs at 2000. If it reassures you I have the same mobo and run my mushkins at 1600 which also isn't listed in the specs.

So long story short yes it should work. But you will have to do it all yourself in the BIOS. With i7 9xx chips ram is automatically clocked to 1066 (In my case anyways) so you'll have to play around a little with your BCLK and multipliers to get good CPU and RAM speeds. Don't worry though it's far from as hard as it sounds. If you ever need help just post on this thread and I'll try help you out.

OK - system has arrived and it looks and seems to perform really well. Still waiting for the software to arrive so haven't really tested it.

However - like you mentioned, I noticed in the boot or BIOS menu that the RAM is @ 1066. I have no idea what I'm doing with what you mentioned above - I guess it's some sort of overclocking? Anyways - if you could help me out or point me in the right direction to get the most out of this machine that

 

[Somebody_007]

well it's not really overlcocking because the ram is rated to run a 1600. SO what you need to do is find a way to make the ram you ordered run at it's rated speeds.

I think the ram should run at 1.65v so do that in the bios but it should be standard. Then you want to change the clock speed to around 1600 for the ram and I guess you want your cpu to remain at stock for now. SO bassically you just need to change the bclk(standard should be 133 and 200 is the max really most motherboards have trouble going higher) and the multipliers so you get your desired speeds. (this shouldn't be perfect running your ram at say 1560 is just as good as the clean 1600 this also counts for the cpu clock)

BTW: bclk*ram multiplier = ram clock and bclk* cpu multiplier= cpu clock.

It's possible that you just need to up the ram mulitplier, but I'm not sure.

Then for the latencies you should just change them to what the sticks are rated for should say it on the modules themselves or on the packaging.

If it all fails and your system won't boot press the clear cmos and all should be fine.

Also note there is a risk to all this going to high with the voltage or clocks could damage your components(although it's not likely to just happen in 1 day, it's ussually after a while of lettting your pc run at insane settings). So keep at the stock voltage for your cpu for now and at 1.65v as a max for the ram(this should be the standard voltage if your ram is rated for less voltage change it to that). Check temps for your cpu while stress testing with prime 95 if they look good(below 70 is ussually great) and check stability by running prime95 for a few hours and also running a ram stress testing proggram for a few hours. The stability test isn't neccesary, but reccomended as otherwise your system may be unstable which could lead to crashes out of the blue.
I'm pretty sure I confused you somewhere here so anything you don't quite understand?

 

[da_btrain]

confused just a little yes - how did you know? but I'll work through it all and give it a shot.

The RAM is actually rated to 2000 so I guess set it up towards that?

Will reply here once I've had a go. Thanks again for all your help

 

[Somebody_007]

yeah you'd have to aim for 2000 then.

SO is your build working like it should?

 

[da_btrain]

ha - funny your reply came through now. am just adjusting the settings as per above. Seems to all make sense and booted fine.

just ran prime95 - 64bit and it gave a BSOD so it obviously aint stable yet.

Will do some more 'adjusting'

 

[Somebody_007]

Maybe you should try running at 1600 first just to make sure that works. Or even at the 1066 it was before to be sure the ram speed is even the problem. BTW if you can't remember the original setting just press the clr cmos at the back of the board and your BIOS will be reset.

If you can't get it stable can you maybe post your settings(bclk, multipliers, voltages and the latencies)? It could be that the standard latencies at 1066 is 8-8-8-24(or something similar) and that probably wouldn't work at 2000(should be 9-9-9-27 or something like that). SO maybe your problem is there.