Going to take the plunge on a 790i

[Juddog]

Does anybody else have this motherboard, and if so, what are your opinions?

I'm thinking about picking one up with the following parts:

* Processor: E8500 Wolfdale (overclocked it to 4.1 Ghz on my old motherboard on air, so I'm hoping I can push it a bit further on the EVGA 790i)
* Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PVS34G2000LLKN - Retail
* Noctua NH-U12P

Someone mentioned in the memory review section on newegg that they had to use the black slots only? It seems that people have posted some oddballs issues when populating all 4 of the memory slots but that two slots apparently work fine, can anybody explain this?

--- edit ---
Switched the SpinQ to a Noctua NH-U12P cooler instead.

 

[Juddog]

Argh... went to newegg this morning to make the purchase and they were out of stock!

 

[Zap]

At that level, why not spend the extra $100 or so and go to Core i7 instead of going with the older socket? You should be able to get an SLI capable motherboard for nearly the same price as the EVGA "TR" board, and even cheaper than the "A1" board. If you are running 32-bit Windows then get a 3GB DDR3 kit. CPU is what costs $100 more. However, instead of dual core that can run two threads, you get quad core capable of running 8 threads, plus the latest platform instead of a years-old platform.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Spend the money on i7, I've had my 790i since it was released and I'm looking to upgrade myself.

 

[imported_Scoop]

Yeah, just go with X58 and Core i7 920. Instead of the board being just SLI capable, the X58 boards are both Crossfire/SLI capable. Well not all but you get my point. And multi-GPU is the reason you are looking for a new board right? You wouldn't be looking at a 790i for anything else.

 

[Juddog]

I guess the main reason I was looking at the EVGA 780i / 790i line was the ESA compatibility. My case has an ESA patch that only responds to motherboards with the ESA controls, which allows me to control various fans, lights, etc.. I already have two GPU's and wanted an upgrade that was SLI compatible as well.

If it's only a hundred bucks though to upgrade to the i7 920 then I might just do that instead. I just thought I could do the upgrade and keep the wolfdale. I was originally hoping to keep my 4 GB of Corsair Dominator DDR2 as well.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Originally posted by: Juddog
I guess the main reason I was looking at the EVGA 780i / 790i line was the ESA compatibility. My case has an ESA patch that only responds to motherboards with the ESA controls, which allows me to control various fans, lights, etc.. I already have two GPU's and wanted an upgrade that was SLI compatible as well.

If it's only a hundred bucks though to upgrade to the i7 920 then I might just do that instead. I just thought I could do the upgrade and keep the wolfdale. I was originally hoping to keep my 4 GB of Corsair Dominator DDR2 as well.

ESA is all marketing hype and should not be a consideration from a performance standpoint.

Also with an i7 chip you'd need an X58 mobo and one of the low voltage ram kits.

 

[Sylvanas]

Of late it's been generally recommended to steer clear of Nvidia chipsets for both Intel and AMD as each manufacturer makes them cooler and with less problems than the Nvidia boards. Go the i7 if you can.

 

[Juddog]

I put in the order today, picking up the motherboard from amazon.com and the rest from newegg (DDR3 Viper Patriot 2000 RAM, Noctua cooler). I'm going ahead with the 790i chipset for the ESA reasons listed above. I calculated out the cost of getting an X58 motherboard with an i7 and it would have added several hundred dollars to the cost. I looked at the "digital PWM" version of the board and although EVGA has it listed as only $10 more than the non-PWM version, typically it retails for the high $300 range. The i7 plus x58 was simply beyond my price range, so I'll save that until I build an entirely new system.