Educate me on the I7 950

[Castiel]

Would 4.4Ghz be unrealistic on water? 2600K/MIVE is going back to the egg and i need something to hold me over till IB.

Thinking about going with a 950/Asus RIIIF combo.

 

[Athadeus]

No, and that is a damn good board. However, there are other 1366 boards with similar features for less, unless having a red motherboard is critical for you.

$210 - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128423

~$228 - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131641

$200 - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131665

 

[M1A]

May get 4.4 with H2O with a good chip. Let some of the water guys answer. I am 4.2 on air and its the limit with 1.38v I just want to stay under 1.4v. Just wandering why you decided to return I know the issues just thought reading some of your posts you were holding out? I am happy with my setup until IB.

 

[Castiel]

No, and that is a damn good board. However, there are other 1366 boards with similar features for less, unless having a red motherboard is critical for you.

$210 - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128423

~$228 - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131641

$200 - ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131665

I only buy ROG boards anymore but i appreciate the suggestions.

May get 4.4 with H2O with a good chip. Let some of the water guys answer. I am 4.2 on air and its the limit with 1.38v I just want to stay under 1.4v. Just wandering why you decided to return I know the issues just thought reading some of your posts you were holding out? I am happy with my setup until IB.

I am happy but newegg allowing me to return both the CPU and MB with 0 restocking fees was too tempting to pass up.

 

[Markfw]

Personally, I think 4.4 is at the high end of what you can expect. 4.0-4.2 is more realistic, but lets see what others think. I have 2 950's and both on very high end air, megahalem cooling, and temps don;t seem to be an issue, but they just don't want to go over 4.1 no matter what I do. So the sample size is NOT 1, but 2, and a 920 to boot.

JUst wait for the new motherboard before you return your 2600k mobo, and keep the chip.

 

[Bryf50]

I am happy but newegg allowing me to return both the CPU and MB with 0 restocking fees was too tempting to pass up.

You have 90 days. Wait for the fixed boards to come on newegg, return yours, and lastly buy a new one.

 

[tuskenraider]

After a nightmare of trying to get a Sandy Bridge setup going, I exchanged it for an i7 950/Gigabyte X58A-UD3R setup. I've pretty much finished stability testing at 4.2ghz(1.28V on the CPU, 1.215 on QPI/VTT, the rest stock), with hyperthreading disabled. 60-70° cores under max load with the Corsair A70. With more voltage and the benefit of water to keep it cool while doing so, I bet it would do 4.4ghz, but obviously each chip is different.

i7 950's are $199 at Microcenter right now......

 

[Rifter]

My 930 hits 4.2 on air, so if you get a good chip and go water i dont see 4.4 being a problem.

 

[Spikesoldier]

i would say that 4.4 is obtainable on a really good chip. most will do 4.2 or 4.0

 

[Dadofamunky]

Strange, I wouldn't make that change myself. Then again, I didn't spend north of $300 for my board either. I really don't think your chances are that good. Clock for clock it's a slight downgrade and there's no guarantee of getting near 4.4 even with water. Fortunately the chips are cheap and an excellent option for people who got screwed by the recall before they had a chance to buy.

I'm sitting tight with what I have, I just hit 4.6 tonight with 35 IBT passes. Ironically I returned a bunch of i7 950 stuff to do this build. It was a tough decision but I'm happy with what I have.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Also, I found this from Anand's review: "...internally SNB features a complete redesign of the Out of Order execution engine, a more efficient front end (courtesy of the decoded µop cache) and a very high bandwidth ring bus. The L3 cache is also lower and the memory controller is much faster. I’ve gone through the architectural improvements in detail here. The end result is better performance all around. For the same money as you would’ve spent last year, you can expect anywhere from 10-50% more performance in existing applications and games from Sandy Bridge."

You sure you want to give all that up? I know the refund is a generous offer, but c'mon...

 

[Baasha]

May get 4.4 with H2O with a good chip. Let some of the water guys answer. I am 4.2 on air and its the limit with 1.38v I just want to stay under 1.4v. Just wandering why you decided to return I know the issues just thought reading some of your posts you were holding out? I am happy with my setup until IB.

Hmm.. I suppose it depends on the individual chip; actually, it certainly depends on it!

My i7 950 is also at 4.2GHz on air but my V-core is 1.28V. What is your QPI/DRAM voltage?

 

[Baasha]

OP, I would get a 980X if I were you.

Just to keep as a second system; the best of the i7 platform. I am planning to do that when IB comes out Q4/11 or Q1/12.

The hexacore Gulftowns are comparable to the Ferrari F50; an F1-derived V12 that is visceral and raw. It tends to keep the tip up!

The i7 950 is a great chip and @ ~$200, it's a steal! I paid $530 for it in 2009! If you don't want to drop serious coin on an i7, go for it. Otherwise, grab a 980X and OC that bish to 4.5+GHz on water or ~4.4GHz on air!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'd say cooling is near last on the hierarchy. It's all luck of the draw. The three main components to overclocking are the RAM, Motherboard, then chip. The first two seem to be the most finicky. I'd say go with a quality motherboard first, then choose some low volt DDR3 1600 for a little headroom - latency is not real important but volts of the RAM are. 1.5v and lower the better.

 

[Castiel]

I'd say cooling is near last on the hierarchy. It's all luck of the draw. The three main components to overclocking are the RAM, Motherboard, then chip. The first two seem to be the most finicky. I'd say go with a quality motherboard first, then choose some low volt DDR3 1600 for a little headroom - latency is not real important but volts of the RAM are. 1.5v and lower the better.

I thought 1.65v dimms were fine for bloomfield

 

[Rifter]

I thought 1.65v dimms were fine for bloomfield

they are, or at least have been for me for 6+ months now.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

It's like driving around town in a stick shift at 35mph. You can either do it in second gear revving the hell out of the engine and potentially wearing the life expectancy down sooner than later, or you can drive around in 4th or 5th gear and cruise real nice and easy. Save on gas, save the engine, save yourself some money

My DDR2 2.1v reeked havoc my UD3R P45 board not once but twice and if i recall correctly, 2.1v was the limit ??? don't' quote me though

 

[Spikesoldier]

It's like driving around town in a stick shift at 35mph. You can either do it in second gear revving the hell out of the engine and potentially wearing the life expectancy down sooner than later, or you can drive around in 4th or 5th gear and cruise real nice and easy. Save on gas, save the engine, save yourself some money

My DDR2 2.1v reeked havoc my UD3R P45 board not once but twice and if i recall correctly, 2.1v was the limit ??? don't' quote me though

you can get away with 2.2v on ddr2 dimms.

really the whole 1.65v vs 1.5v thing is just that the 1.5v memory is made of better modules than same kit rated at 1.65v.

just because something is 1.65v doesnt mean its for bloomfields only. the whole perception with nehalems and running high dram voltages frying cpu's is a function of vdimm and vtt.

basically with nehalems according to intel, you never want vdimm - vtt = .5v or more.

i.e.

vtt 1.21v
vdimm 1.65v

1.65 - 1.21 = .44 ok


vtt 1.21v
vdimm 1.75v

1.75 - 1.21 = .54 too high


vtt 1.33v
vdimm 1.75v

1.75 - 1.33 = .42 ok


this difference of vtt and vdimm voltage is what causes the memory controller on nehalems to become 'fragile' to vdimm increases when using custom voltages.

obviously when you use 1.5v modules or even better, 1.35v, you wont be running into this problem unless you are absolutely trying to squeeze everything out of it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Very good explanation SpikeSoldier :thumbsup:

 

[Dadofamunky]

I agree with other comments above - why switch to anything less than a 980x? Budget issues aside. There, again, the 2600K trades blows with the 980x for many hundreds less. So I still come back to: switching back seems pointless.

 

[aigomorla]

There, again, the 2600K trades blows with the 980x for many hundreds less. So I still come back to: switching back seems pointless.

mmmm that depends on the overall setup.

A well clocked 2600K even would have problems against a well clocked 990X