New system, stock overclock

[SniperSlap]

I posted a thread a few weeks back looking for some opinions on putting together a relatively decent upper-midrange system. Lots of people chimed in and gave me some fantastic input. I'm hoping to get into some more specifics at this point as I close in on my options...

Right now I'm looking at putting together an LGA-1366 system with the following specs:

• Core i7 930
• ASUS P6T SE
• 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000
• nVidia GeForce GTX470
• ???

I have a few more questions, offering more details now that I've had a chance to reacquaint myself with the market!

• I've been using ASUS boards since I was young and even still have a working CUV4X here. Their older boards have seldom let me down. That said, we use ASUS boards where I work and I've been seeing a lot of bulging caps from them lately (we even run on APCs)! This is for as far back as Socket 754 boards all the way up to current Core2 LGA-775 boards...Is this a trend and should I be considering another board maker?
• My needs as far as performance gaming is concerned only go so far as World of Warcraft and some mutiplayer Sins of a Solar Empire. That's what's driving me to try and fit in as much CPU power and RAM as possible. My assumption is that these games lean more on computational power and throughput than the GPU. Am I off the mark in choosing the i7 930 in this regard or would I get just as much from a cheaper CPU/Socket?
• I chose the GTX 470 card because I'm admittedly a bit of an nv-nut, but it seems to be priced pretty well for my needs. I'll be running at 1080p. It will be the newest as of when I build and will hopefully last me a long time. I figure it should at the very least outperform the 5870 for less.
• Although I have sincerely been looking at ATI given how little of a splash GF100/Fermi has made. I'm in no way fixed on this decision, ATI and NV both have compelling products and I would gladly consider anything ATI has planned (price change, new models).
• I started to price out an LGA-1156 system to compare, but in spite it having the newer options of CPUs currently, the bus speeds of a 1366 system kept drawing me back.
• Any advice on getting the most speed out of my RAM and doing a little stock overclocking? This might tie into the motherboard question...

Sorry if this got a bit drawn out! I really would love to make the right decisions here. My impression is that Sandy Bridge isn't worth the wait until later in 2011. I'm right now running with a relatively decent gaming rig laptop: T7200, 2GB and a baked 7900GS.

Thanks for the help!

 

[NumericalMethods]

To give you my opinion briefly in order:

I like a lot of Asus products. I'm sure there are a lot of bad ones out there too. The caps issue has been raised quite a lot in the last couple of years. First tier manufacturers now primarily use solid caps throughout on their boards. If you are looking for an alternative board what about a Gigabyte GAX58A-UD3R? It has USB 3.0 included if that interests you. Build quality is superb, BIOS updates plentiful. That said the board you have chosen is great.

Fair enough. If you want a decent CPU and plentiful RAM you have chosen well. One thing I would comment on is no need to pay extra for 2000MHz DDR3 - 1600MHz will be fine. You need a big bclk overclock to run DDR3-2000 and if you are concerned about board longevity then that could be an issue.

GTX 470. Cool if you like nVidia. I think it is a choice since nVidia has nothing else to offer in the 'midrange'. You will be disappointed if you are expecting 5870 performance though. The card has been show to perform slightly better than the 5850 (upto 10%) but at an increased cost, power consumption & heat. You may wish to consider an ATI card if you have issues with any of the above.

LGA 1366. If you are already happy with the platform I'm not going to try and talk you out of it. The upgrade path has the potential to be better than LGA 1156 anyway.

Overclocking. Three things -1 buy an top tier air cooler for 1366. The 130W TDP demands it when overclocking. 2 - Spend money on a quality power supply to minimise 12V droop and ripple under extreme loads. Especially if you are using a new nVidia card (They are high power). 3 - Don't expect too much from your overclock. You can run at the max the CPU will allow using masses of voltage but don't expect it to last for 5 years. The power delivery circuitry on boards will die if you hammer it. Maybe be go for a stock voltage overclock in the name of longevity?

That's about all I can add and be brief. Hope some of it helps. Enjoy choosing your new system

 

[SniperSlap]

I'm good with any kind of stock overclock, I'm ultimately happy enough with whatever it says on the box. I suppose I'd just like to get the most out of whatever I end up buying.

I wasn't sure whether to go for 2000 or 1600. If getting 1600 with better CAS would help me more, I'll gladly do that. With the MMO and large-scale-RTS gaming, I suppose it's the quantity that matters more when compared to speed.

My only beef with the 5870 is that it strikes me as a little overpriced, which is why I'm curious to see how ATI/AMD responds to fermi. I was also under the impression that the GTX 470 would outperform the 5870. I'll have to check my reviews again.
I'm not tied to nvidia after the fermi stunt - even if I was rather loyal...I'm not dumb!
The only things they have going for them in my books right now is a better policy regarding Linux drivers (they don't drop support for cards after a certain number of releases). Unless the 470 is better than all ATI midrange cards, the 480 is just not worth it and ATI is kicking a lot of ass these days.

Is there an AMD system that can offer real-world equivalent performance to what I've put together? Looking at benchmarks, my impression is "no", even if some of them are going beyond gaming into uses that don't apply to me. Intel seems to have completely flooded the $200+ range with CPUs that will in fact give you better games.

Yeah, I never have bulging caps on my own systems, likely because I get PSUs of some measurable quality. Those things are one investment I never skimp out on even on basic systems!

 

[Dark Shroud]

AMD has no CPU that comes close to the i7.

The 5870 is not over priced as long as you're not getting one of the eyefinity models or custom over clock versions. They're slowly coming back down to MSRP and Newegg has actually been keeping them in stock.

If you want to save some money they you could look at the 5850. More than a few benches show it going head to head with the GTX 470 while using less power & producing less heat.

 

[NumericalMethods]

As another 'loyal' user of nVidia I know what you mean. Apparently the ATI support is improving all the time for Linux distros. I don't have the time to test it out though. I have to have a guaranteed solution that works during the day for my work.

I am in the rather fortunate position of not needing to upgrade my current graphics solution. Not sure what I would choose if I had to. I can see pros and cons to both sides at the moment. I think my choice would ultimately be made on availability. ie. There ain't going to that many GTX400 cards around to buy should you want too.

 

[SniperSlap]

Definitely. If I can pick up an ATI card that is quieter, cooler, less power hungry and from the sounds of it, vastly more powerful than the NV alternative in my price range....Why not? If it's on the shelf today and waiting for nvidia is potentially going to give me a headache (what if I have to warranty it?), I don't see the value. A price drop on the 5870 would make me very happy at this point.

AMD/ATI really has a lot to learn from nvidia in the ways of Linux driver support though. Looking at Ubuntu specifically, they drop cards off the back of the wagon with each release. So if I own the card long enough (and I do stretch my hardware out big time), eventually a release of Ubuntu will come out that ATI doesn't want to support. With nvidia, I can still install drivers for an mx4000. They may be older versions, but they still work with current distros.

I didn't think AMD had a CPU to compare with intel after the $200 mark. I loved my 754 2800+ and it's still chugging away for a family member. But Intel's CPUs for the past few years are really quite something.


With all that I've worked out so far, I think I'm shooting high enough for my needs that the difference will help me cope with whatever comes in the next few years as well (patches, upgrades, DX11 games). I just want to make sure I'm not buying parts a week or four ahead of something really big that I'll wish I had waited for. I know that reasoning is just useless with pc building - but a few weeks won't kill me for being sure on my video card. Sandy Bridge I know isn't much to worry about.

Thanks, and I'm still up for any further input. You guys rock!

Quick edit: Today Thuban was announced. Any guesses there, or is it unlikely to dethrone the i7s?