i7 875k or 930? (Plus more advice please)

[Cisco99]

Hi guys,

My first post here, although I've lurked and read reviews here for years. Always good info to be had at HW Canucks!

I'm starting vacation next week and hope to upgrade my good ole OC'd E8400 system that has served me well. I'll be bringing several pieces such as my case, Corsair 1000W PS and ATI 4870 X2.

I use my computer for gaming and a lot of photo editing (large 20+ MB raw files from a Canon 7D DSLR) with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop. I also enjoy moderate OC'ing although just what I can comfortably run on air 24/7... 20-30% OCs.

I basically need a CPU, heatsink/fan, mobo and ram but since I'm upgrading anyway I want to make sure I get a board capabe of SATA3 and USB3. I'll be getting the WD 1TB Sata3 drive for the OS.

I don't know much about the two different i7 chipsets but double vs. triple channel memory access seems to be one. Is there a big difference in memory performance between the 2?

The lack of an obvious upgrade path for the 875k is no big deal for me: realistically I have been upgrading my mobo together with my CPU for 20 years :)

If there are other differences between the 2 chipsets other than 6-core upgrade path and memory please let me know, especially if they impact gaming, photo editing or video transcoding (although this 3rd one is just an occasional thing for me... to get that damn PS3 to play my Mkv HD files.)

The mobos I'm looking at for the 875k and 930 respectively are the extreme versions of the ASUS Maximus III and Rampage III but feel free to suggest others you may like better.

I don't really know what memory to pair with either of those and would appreciate suggestions. I've had good experiences with Corsair memory in the past but I'm not stuck on the one brand.

Btw... I live in Vancouver and usually order from NCIX and pick it up myself. I know about their price matching.

Thanks in advance.

[fishingfanatic]

If you do a lot of ocing and benchmarking then either of those boards would be great. If not, then that's overkill imho. A good mobo for socket 1366 is the Asus P6X58D-E. it has next gen.usb and sata. It's actually a preferred board over its big brother the premium.

As for cpu, the 930 is very oc friendly, and triple channel ram does make a difference, imho. Perhaps the experts can weigh in here and clarify this, as I'm just a beginner.

[Zero82z]

If the prices for both platforms are comparable, go with LGA1366 and the 930.

[_dangtx_]

another vote for 930. or 1156 xeon 3440 if you go that route

[Cisco99]

Originally Posted by fishingfanatic

If you do a lot of ocing and benchmarking then either of those boards would be great. If not, then that's overkill imho. A good mobo for socket 1366 is the Asus P6X58D-E. it has next gen.usb and sata. It's actually a preferred board over its big brother the premium.

As for cpu, the 930 is very oc friendly, and triple channel ram does make a difference, imho. Perhaps the experts can weigh in here and clarify this, as I'm just a beginner.

Thanks for the tip, man.

I just read a review of the P6X58D-E and it looks great. And you're right, the extreme is probably unnecesary for me... I was probably looking at that one more out of ignorance than anything else :)

I typically go after "bang for the buck" but with Mobos I don't mind spending a bit extra for peace of mind, but the P6X58D-E doesn't seem to skimp on anything I need and seems to have quality components and power regulation.

Any memory sugestions for that one? Something that would OC nicely... The review I read had 6GB (3x2GB) OCZ platinum DDR3 1333mhz that OC'd to 1666 easily according to them.

[lcdguy]

i have the p6358d premium. And love it. Very sold and very fast on SSD's.

[ZZLEE]

On RAM fore 1366 go to somthing rated fore at least 1600. It makes it easier to Overclock the board.

I am running Mushkin and like them

[phoenixrage]

intel is supposed to be releasing the replacement to the LGA1156 later this year, which from what i've read is a bit more capable than the current sockets/boards. the replacement for the X58/LGA1366 isn't coming out till summer, and even then, it might not be worth it to get into at first. for running dual video cards, the LGA1366 is supposed to be better since it has more PCIe paths to support it.

[fishingfanatic]

Memory is a matter of practicality. If you don't want to spend a little extra yet still get good performance, G Skill are good. Myself, I only buy lifetime warranty memory as a rule of thumb. Personally, I buy Mushkin,swear by them and wouldn't but anything else because of performance, ocing ability, and great rma support. Now I've never had to replace any of my ram, but a build we did for a friend came with dead mem. Brought back to retailer where tech tested and said it was the 1st dead Mushkins he'd ever seen. He does lots of builds, troubleshooting,...
I've had dead kits of OCZ, Patriot, Corsair as well. Not common but obviously not unheard of. Anyway, ask a real enthusiast about Mushkin or any other brand and go from there.