New member, new job, new money, and of course, new build.

[Syn3rgetic]

Hey guys, been lurking for a while, decided to join in on my fellow Hockey-playing, maple syrup loving, computer geeks.

I used to be really active in the Canadian Computer Community (CCC? lol) when BigFoot Computers was still in business. I learned all I know about computers there. Since they went down under, I sorta just left the whole performance computing scene. I just bought whatever, slapped it together and used it. But now I'm back. With a vengeance.

Current RIG:
Q8300 @ 3.2GHz on AIR Scythe Mine Rev B
P5QL-Pro
4GB OCZ Plats PC6400 DDR2
HD Radeon 4870 512MB

I've been itching to do a complete rebuild for a while but I still don't understand the basics of an i7 build. I got these parts over the weekend.

OCZ Vertex 2 Extended as an OS drive.
GTX 460 1GB

Got these at a great price too (Total $240 after taxes and MIR). the addition of these parts, plus a much needed reformat instantly boosted performance by a lot. But you know the feeling. Once you have a taste of power, you want THAT much more. So....

Now I know I want to get into the i7 arena but I'm not made of money.

Been looking at the P6T series motherboards and MSI X58 series. The difference in performance (if any) is negligible so besides price, is there anything I should look for in these boards?

Also, I found an used i7 930 for $230. Pretty sure that's money in the bank. Unless you guys think otherwise?

Biggest question of all would be the RAM. I know i7 can't run at 1:1 right? So if I intend to overclock the 930 to say...3.4Ghz or higher, what kinda RAM will I need to buy? I know I WANT 2000Mhz RAM, but do I NEED it if I only wanna do a slight overclock to 3.4Ghz?

Video card wise, I'm just going to buy another GTX 460 and SLI. should be more than enough power for a while.

That's pretty much all the questions I want to ask. I hope you guys welcome me as an old veteran. some of you guys might even remember me from the Biggie forums. I used to be a big Athlon Barton core enthusiast myself. :)

[SugarJ]

Welcome to HWC.

As for the difference in X58 boards, it's in the bells and whistles (like USB 3.0 and SATA 3, number of Sata connections, etc), and overclocking capability. I think you will find more folks have the Asus boards than the MSI's, so it might be easier to get help with a P6T series.

A new i7 950 can be had for $309, so $225 or so seems about right for a i7 930, and any 930 should hit 4.0Ghz with the proper cooling. As for ram, DDR3-1600 will do you just fine, run with a 2:8 ratio or 2:6 if you are pushing over 200 Mhz on the FSB.

[jcmaz]

I would wait a bit for the 5XX series for GPU's. Keep the 4870 for now and sell it later.

[Syn3rgetic]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

Welcome to HWC.

As for the difference in X58 boards, it's in the bells and whistles (like USB 3.0 and SATA 3, number of Sata connections, etc), and overclocking capability. I think you will find more folks have the Asus boards than the MSI's, so it might be easier to get help with a P6T series.

A new i7 950 can be had for $309, so $225 or so seems about right for a i7 930, and any 930 should hit 4.0Ghz with the proper cooling. As for ram, DDR3-1600 will do you just fine, run with a 2:8 ratio or 2:6 if you are pushing over 200 Mhz on the FSB.

Sounds great. Thanks for the advice.