Rebuild w/ Asus Rampage 3 Gene + i7 930

csimon · August 2010

Here is my parts list for my rebuild project. If you see something questionable or would just like to post a comment please do so. I'm not in a hurry to order just yet.

Parts to get:

Mobo = Asus Rampage III Gene

RAM = G.SKILL Trident 6GB

CPU = Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield

Waterblock = Enzotech SCW-REV.A + Enzotech Type-Z 1366 Retentioner

WC Accessories = Arctic Silver 5 + MCT-5 + ClearFlex 60 Tubing (10')

Fans (x3) = EVERCOOL SFF-12

OS = Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade

Parts already purchased:

PSU = OCZ 850W Z series
GPU = Gigabyte GTX 280

Parts transfered to this build:

Case = Lian Li PC-V2000b
Radiator = Thermochill PA160.1 single pass high flow
Pump = Laing D5-12V variable speed
HD = Western Digital 74GB Raptor (as secondary)

I would like to get an SSD SATA III for OS but haven't researched these enough. Also, I would like lower CAS rating on the RAM just having trouble locating anything at a decent price.

Your thoughts?

Thrax · August 2010

Any reason why you've chosen such an overkill mobo?

Ryder · August 2010

Not to mention a sort of PITA mobo

csimon · August 2010

I really like the reviews I've seen. My first choice was the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R. I know mATX will be tight. Is it really a crap board? Enlighten me please. Just don't tell me I need something else because I might want two or more video cards down the road cause ain't happenin'.

csimon · September 2010

This Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 could be doable if it clocks as well as the i7-930.

csimon · September 2010

csimon wrote:

This Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 could be doable if it clocks as well as the i7-930.

Back to square one on the mobo ...what would you suggest?

mirage · September 2010

MSI X58A-GD65 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

fatcat · September 2010

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R for $188.99 due to 10% off right now at the egg

csimon · September 2010

Yeah I am leaning on the GA-X58-UD3R but I won't rule out the Sabertooth and P6X either. I haven't done any MSI boards yet and by the looks of the reviews I probably won't ...I doubt I will make the UD3R sale either.

Also, the memory is out of stock. So I'm leaning either towards the GeiL Ultra or the Patriot Viper II Sector 7. I think either tri-channel kit would do a decent job.

mirage · September 2010

My favorite would be P6X.

csimon · September 2010

mirage wrote:

My favorite would be P6X.

Do you own one or are you just going by liking what you see?

mirage · September 2010

csimon wrote:

Do you own one or are you just going by liking what you see?

No I don't own it. I would choose P6X53D-E mainly for its 16 phase VRM and my OC experience with 3 other ASUS boards I currently use.

muddocktor · September 2010

I have a P6X58D Premium and it's still sitting in the box, Chris. I am having problems with the bitch on the center ram channels reading memory. I built me a 1366 system earlier this year and after RMA'ing the board and having the same problem, plus RMA'ing the proc and still having the same problem, I picked up a vanilla P6T at Microcenter in Houston on the way back in from a job. I also picked up a second kit of ram to make sure that wasn't the problem too. When I set up on the P6T all 3 channels were read correctly by the mobo, so I just boxed the P6X58 up and decided to look into the problem another day. Right now I'm about to get a buddy on OC forums to swing by Microcenter and pick me up a 930 for $200 so I can mess with the P6X58 board some more and see if I need to RMA this one too.

I would go with the Gigabyte, Chris. They have been building some solid boards the last few years and some of the crazy benchers over at OC Forums have been doing very well with UD3R.

As to your waterblock, I don't know much about it. But if you don't already know about the site, a guy going by the name of skinnee has pretty much taken over from where Martin left off on testing blocks, rads and pumps. Here's a link to his website. I haven't watercooled my 1366 system yet; I've been using it as a heatsink testbed lately and haven't rolled it in as my main rig. But I'm using an Apogee XT on my QX9650 system and I have a Heatkiller Rev. 3 on an overclocked Q6600 system and both kick ass for me.

mirage · September 2010

Missing memory seems to be frequent problem with X58 boards.

muddocktor · September 2010

Thanks for the link mirage, I'll look through it when I get back in from the rig. I have isolated my problem with the board to the center ram slot channels, both of them. The board itself doesn't detect them or use them with ram installed in the center channel slots. I will try experimenting with heatsink retention bracket tension and also try my stock 980X cooler out instead of a TRUE, since the stock hsf uses a plastic backplate and see if that makes any difference.

csimon · September 2010

Thanks for the input. Tonight I was combing through mobo reviews and I came across a UD3R review that was ok. But then I read up on a Sabertooth review that really caught my eye.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Sabertooth but I know that I have something solid to fall back on with the UD3R. I wasn't too impressed with the P6X58D-E review.

Also I'm heavily considering the i7 950 since the price drop.

I don't need that fans afterall since I realised I already have them in my case.

Here is the chart that I went off of when I chose the Enzotech SCW REV A. I think that the HK 3.0 is the best performer and just slightly more restrictive. Any idea where they can be had at a decent price?

What about TIM and fluid? I would like to get a non-conductive fluid like I've been using ...it's saved my butt on a few occasions and I have good confidence in it. Unfortunately MCT-5 has been out of stock since I began considering this build.

I may bite the bullet when it comes down to it and go with CAS8 on the ram ...but I'll keep an open mind about that for now.

Also ...I'm knocking around an affordable high performance SSD OS drive. Any advice on that?

Thrax · September 2010

You'll probably be happy to know that CAS latency pretty much doesn't mean anything on today's chips and chipsets. CAS7 vs. CAS 10 is really no big deal at all.

What price are you thinking for the SSD?

mertesn · September 2010

csimon wrote:

What about TIM and fluid? I would like to get a non-conductive fluid like I've been using ...it's saved my butt on a few occasions and I have good confidence in it. Unfortunately MCT-5 has been out of stock since I began considering this build.

I use OCZ Freeze. It's some really good stuff. Found it at FrozenCPU for a decent price.

csimon · September 2010

Thrax wrote:

You'll probably be happy to know that CAS latency pretty much doesn't mean anything on today's chips and chipsets. CAS7 vs. CAS 10 is really no big deal at all.

What price are you thinking for the SSD?

I was thinking sub $300. I want the best performance but $600 is just too much to justify yet capacity isn't important since it will be my primary OS drive. I have a pair of 70gb raptors I will probably use as secondaries in RAID-0 storage configuration. RAID isn't necessary however.

I was aiming at the CAS8 because I thought it might give me more overclocking headroom but I think CAS9 will be sufficient. Thanks.

Thrax · September 2010

The good thing about SSDs is that, as a boot drive, the write speed of the drive doesn't really matter. Virtually any recent SSD is going to pound a hard disk, but write--not read--is what usually suffers in lower models, but read is what matters to Windows. I think you should look into some reviews of the Crucial RealSSD C300, the OCZ Vertex 2 and the Intel X25-M G2. All of them have outstanding performance and models in your price range.

Cliff_Forster · September 2010

If your leveraging the might power of CUDA for your video encoding jobs, why overspend on an Intel combo?

Fuzion mobo makes sense on an AM3 build with an existing Nvidia GPU.

$139, saves you about $90 and gives you all the modern features.

You could buy a high end Phenom II black edition quad for around $150, saving you well over $100 more, unlocked, they are a joy to over clock on air, even more so on water.

What are you going to do that leverages the CPU that heavily that you feel compelled to spend on Intel's architecture? I imagine most of the heavy lifting is going to be done by the GTX280 that you already have? Sure, you might be able to rip a CD six seconds faster on the i7. Synthetic benchmarks may give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but in practical application what are you going to gain here thats worth about $250 more of your hard earned dollars? For that, you could budget more for your SSD, or perhaps sock it away for a future graphics upgrade, maybe even a 2nd GTX280?

csimon · September 2010

Cliff_Forster wrote:

If your leveraging the might power of CUDA for your video encoding jobs, why overspend on an Intel combo?

Fuzion mobo makes sense on an AM3 build with an existing Nvidia GPU.

$139, saves you about $90 and gives you all the modern features.

You could buy a high end Phenom II black edition quad for around $150, saving you well over $100 more, unlocked, they are a joy to over clock on air, even more so on water.

What are you going to do that leverages the CPU that heavily that you feel compelled to spend on Intel's architecture? I imagine most of the heavy lifting is going to be done by the GTX280 that you already have? Sure, you might be able to rip a CD six seconds faster on the i7. Synthetic benchmarks may give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but in practical application what are you going to gain here thats worth about $250 more of your hard earned dollars? For that, you could budget more for your SSD, or perhaps sock it away for a future graphics upgrade, maybe even a 2nd GTX280?

I do primarily CAD, ArcMap & Photoshop. Some modeling & rendering with 3D Studio. I also overclock, fold

, and do a few hours of gaming most nights. Other than that it's average crap. I'm open to AMD ...that's all I've personally owned anyway. My last build is in my sig.

csimon · September 2010

Thrax wrote:

The good thing about SSDs is that, as a boot drive, the write speed of the drive doesn't really matter. Virtually any recent SSD is going to pound a hard disk, but write--not read--is what usually suffers in lower models, but read is what matters to Windows. I think you should look into some reviews of the Crucial RealSSD C300, the OCZ Vertex 2 and the Intel X25-M G2. All of them have outstanding performance and models in your price range.

Thanks ...that's the info I was hoping for.

csimon · September 2010

Cliff_Forster wrote:

If your leveraging the might power of CUDA for your video encoding jobs, why overspend on an Intel combo?

Fuzion mobo makes sense on an AM3 build with an existing Nvidia GPU.

$139, saves you about $90 and gives you all the modern features.

You could buy a high end Phenom II black edition quad for around $150, saving you well over $100 more, unlocked, they are a joy to over clock on air, even more so on water.

What are you going to do that leverages the CPU that heavily that you feel compelled to spend on Intel's architecture? I imagine most of the heavy lifting is going to be done by the GTX280 that you already have? Sure, you might be able to rip a CD six seconds faster on the i7. Synthetic benchmarks may give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but in practical application what are you going to gain here thats worth about $250 more of your hard earned dollars? For that, you could budget more for your SSD, or perhaps sock it away for a future graphics upgrade, maybe even a 2nd GTX280?

The Black Ed Hex Core looks like an attractive option as well (price range of the Quad Core i7).

What do you like about the Fuzion board? Sorry for the noobness. I'll look at these options tonight. Thanks.

Thrax · September 2010

This is what everyone likes about the Fuzion board: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2910

mirage · September 2010

csimon wrote:

The Black Ed Hex Core looks like an attractive option

With the software that can use six cores efficiently, Phenom II X6 is golden. I want one.

csimon · September 2010

I may be oversimplifying this ...but wouldn't the 1090T @ 4.0 ghz oc fold faster than i7 9xx @ 4.0 ghz? I mean foldiing 6 cores vs 4 cores = moar mirite?
Just seems like one way of justifying 1090T vs i7.

I don't have benchies to back up this logic yet but I'm sure it's out there.

Thrax · September 2010

I'm fairly certain it would, though I don't know how the i7's 4C/8T compares to the X6's 6C/6T. IIRC, real threads > virtual threads for folding.

csimon · September 2010

I think the 8T has the advantage to utilize -bigadv. However I also think that overclocking is handicapped when this is enabled.

The Hydra technology still seems wet behind the ears but looks very promising.

mirage · September 2010

csimon wrote:

I may be oversimplifying this ...but wouldn't the 1090T @ 4.0 ghz oc fold faster than i7 9xx @ 4.0 ghz? I mean foldiing 6 cores vs 4 cores = moar mirite?
Just seems like one way of justifying 1090T vs i7.

I don't have benchies to back up this logic yet but I'm sure it's out there.

1090T is faster than any quad-core CPU (not overclocked) as long as the software can use all six cores. If there is a performance problem that is only because of the software. Given that multiprocessing is the only way for increasing performance today and in the future, a six-core processor makes most sense for a tech enthusiast today, IMHO.

muddocktor · September 2010

csimon, from what I've been seeing on OCForums, the Thubans have been getting some great clocks and they also run quite a bit cooler than the Deneb quad core AMD procs. And if you don't mind losing the unlocked multi, AMD just came out with the 1075T Thuban, but it's only $24 cheaper than the 1090T. Personally I would spend the extra money for the unlocked multi.

If you decide to go Intel, definitely check into getting someone to pick you up a 930 at Microcenter (Houston) if possible. With tax and shipping costs for a buddy to send it to me it came to $227. I started playing around with mine about 2 days ago and I am definitely impressed with it. Weird though it may seem, my ram problems with the P6X58D Premium board must have been caused with the Venomous X I originally used on it. I went with the stock 980X heatsink and no problems with getting the board to recognize all 3 sticks, as well as when I installed a Megahalems on it. But the P6X58D is definitely limited in bclock headroom; my max stable bclock is 207 with the 930. But I have been able to get good stable overclocks up to 4260 with this 930 while using 1.3v vcore. Vcore starts ramping sharply from there though. For ram on my 1366 boards, I have 1 kit of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 which is in my test case and the other kit which I plan to use in my main system is some HyperX T1 DDR3 2000. You also might check out what OCZ is offering too, as I think I heard that they have some good pricing on ram right now.

Skinnee just did a fluid roundup that you might find very interesting, Chris. It looks like most all the fluids he tested come extremely close in thermal capacity except for the FluidXP Nonofluid, which is worse. Personally, I have switched over to using straight distilled water with a few drops of PTNuke-PHN for my loops and on a couple I'm also using a section of Tygon silver antimicrobial for bug and algae suppression too. For water loop component testing, skinnee's site is the go-to place too. He pretty much took over the testing crown from Martin when he got out of testing and also Vapor from XS reviews with him there too. And you can't fault his testing methodology either for either of them. As for tubing, I highly recommend the PrimoFlex Pro LRT tubing over Tygon or anything else I've used. I have some in my main system that's over 2 years old and it's still supple and in good shape. It hasn't hardened up and gotten stiff like I've had Tygon do on me, so I highly recommend it, Chris. BTW, the link is to the exact tubing I have that is over 2 years old. They also sell the Primoflex Pro LRT in different colors and in clear too.

Rebuild w/ Asus Rampage 3 Gene + i7 930

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