Trying to upgrade to i7 920 @4Ghz+ cheaply.

[Piano Man]

I know that Bloomfield and cheap are not usually used in the same sentence, but I want to upgrade to the i7 920 and cheaply. Oh yea, I want to OC to 4GHz+ as well.

Here is what I got:

Intel i7 920 - $217 from Microcenter (Tax included)
ASrock X58 Extreme - $186.56 from Newegg (tax included)
Gskill DDR3 1333 (10666) 3x2GB Cas 7 1.5v RAM - $175.59 from ChiefValue (tax included)
Noctua 6 heatpipe with Dual NF-P14/NF-P12 (NH-D14) - $93.97 from Moddersmart (shipping included).



Anyone have other opinions that won't raise the price?

 

[lothar]

Have them call another Micro Center and ship it to them.

Paying anything more than $200 for an i7 920 when you have a Micro Center nearby is an unforgivable crime.

 

[jjmIII]

save $$ on hsf

 

[tjaisv]

Nice choices. I'd also suggest like the above poster said and call Microcenter to have them get u an i7 920. Are u near a Microcenter?

 

[Piano Man]

Must be divine influence, but my local microcenter now has them in stock

More than anything, I'm interested in the memory choice. After seeing Anands DDR3 Memory performance while OC'd, it seems that only CAS matters for real world apps.

 

[Piano Man]

Ok, with the money saved from microcenter, I decided to splurge a little and get the Noctua NH-D14. Since I have the ATCS 840 case plus low/mid sized ram heatsinks, the size should be fine. What a beast though

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3045/noctua_nh_d14_140mm_cpu_cooler/index.html

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

I was going to ask why you would spend almost a hundred bux on a heatsink, but now I get it it's a monster and 920 needs it.

 

[Piano Man]

I was going to ask why you would spend almost a hundred bux on a heatsink, but now I get it it's a monster and 920 needs it.

Yea, I want to make sure I hit the 4GHz+ mark with this build

 

[n7]

Yea, I want to make sure I hit the 4GHz+ mark with this build

That's a lovely heatsink :twisted:

 

[Piano Man]

Thanks n7, hopefully asrock won't hold me back. I've seen it get to 4.3-4.4 with some builds, so I should be ok.

What about the memory though. Should i not care about CAS nor speed, and only care about voltage? I know speed rating means nothing when overclocking from that one AT article, but what about CAS?

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Speed and CAS go hand in hand... I mean if you have 1800 running at 1600 you can tighten the timings. Vice versa, if you get your 1600 running at 1800 you'll have high CAS timing.