Curious about a couple of things on the enthusiast overclocker:
Is DDR3 1600Mhz ram really required? Or can slower stuff be used in place for little performance loss? Also, does 4GB really beat out 2GB or 3GB on XP systems? I'd also say the idea of buying what appears to be an mATX HTPC board seems a little weird, but I shall trust the experts on this one.
Lastly, while I don't really mind the different layout or lack of pictures in the articles (it does look a little less professional, but I honestly don't care too much - info is info). I do wish there was a greater explanation about the individual products selected though. I've been out of the hardware game for a fair old while now, and I don't really feel like I get quite as much info as I'd like to get, even from the buyers guide + linked reviews, as the linked reviews were often written just as the product was released, and don't necessarily help me understand why it's a good idea to buy X product instead of Y product, even if it does tell me X is a good unit.
Originally Posted by specofdust Curious about a couple of things on the enthusiast overclocker:
Is DDR3 1600Mhz ram really required? Or can slower stuff be used in place for little performance loss? Also, does 4GB really beat out 2GB or 3GB on XP systems? I'd also say the idea of buying what appears to be an mATX HTPC board seems a little weird, but I shall trust the experts on this one.
You can use 1333, that's fine, but 1600 gives you a little overhead for cranking the HT.
4GB is an absolutely minimum we recommend these days. As for XP? We haven't written for XP in a few years ;)
The 785G works just the same, read the review of it - you can unlock cores with it and it has all the features of bigger boards at less cost. If you want ATX, there are ATX options from both Gigabyte and Asus.
Quote:
Lastly, while I don't really mind the different layout or lack of pictures in the articles (it does look a little less professional, but I honestly don't care too much - info is info). I do wish there was a greater explanation about the individual products selected though. I've been out of the hardware game for a fair old while now, and I don't really feel like I get quite as much info as I'd like to get, even from the buyers guide + linked reviews, as the linked reviews were often written just as the product was released, and don't necessarily help me understand why it's a good idea to buy X product instead of Y product, even if it does tell me X is a good unit.
Cheers for the information Bindi. Obviously you'd have reoriented your writings with the release of vista 2 years ago, but I'm surprised if you completely ignore XP, it's still the majority OS, and there are still plenty of geeks like myself who just prefer it to any other windows incarnation.
edit: When's the next WHSIB out roughly Bindi? Pwease?
Originally Posted by specofdust Cheers for the information Bindi. Obviously you'd have reoriented your writings with the release of vista 2 years ago, but I'm surprised if you completely ignore XP, it's still the majority OS, and there are still plenty of geeks like myself who just prefer it to any other windows incarnation.
edit: When's the next WHSIB out roughly Bindi? Pwease?
We don't even have an XP disc in the lab any more. Nearly everyone is on 7 RC1 already and with "6GB" the norm for X58s, we have to use an x64 OS in everything.
Next one is after Lynnfield launch next week. We're waiting on some £100-£120 boards to arrive to assess the overclocking performance in order to get our suggestions correct.
Originally Posted by wuyanxu £100 mobo + £150 i5 750 + £60 4GB DDR3 RAM. very affordable, and reachable with a bit of saving ;)
We're still evaluating the £100 mobos to see whether it's worth pairing with an i5, but what you've got there is over £300 :P Plus that DDR3.. £60 is a bit optimistic unless you go for very cheap stuff - prices went up recently iirc.
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi We're still evaluating the £100 mobos to see whether it's worth pairing with an i5, but what you've got there is over £300 :P Plus that DDR3.. £60 is a bit optimistic unless you go for very cheap stuff - prices went up recently iirc.
DDR3 prices is a bitch. was £70 for very nice tri-channel, and now it's £70 for some average dual channel.
had to pay £135 for the now-average Dominators. ones i got are probably Corsair's first batch of DDR3, only 1600Mhz cas9.
like P35 and P45, surely, i would have thought lower prices on motherboard would just mean less stuff, no "drive xpert" or express gate that won't be used and doesn't work on AHCI (respectively)
Comments 51 to 70 of 70
ReplyIs DDR3 1600Mhz ram really required? Or can slower stuff be used in place for little performance loss? Also, does 4GB really beat out 2GB or 3GB on XP systems? I'd also say the idea of buying what appears to be an mATX HTPC board seems a little weird, but I shall trust the experts on this one.
Lastly, while I don't really mind the different layout or lack of pictures in the articles (it does look a little less professional, but I honestly don't care too much - info is info). I do wish there was a greater explanation about the individual products selected though. I've been out of the hardware game for a fair old while now, and I don't really feel like I get quite as much info as I'd like to get, even from the buyers guide + linked reviews, as the linked reviews were often written just as the product was released, and don't necessarily help me understand why it's a good idea to buy X product instead of Y product, even if it does tell me X is a good unit.
for i5 and i7 (both sockets) 1333Mhz is bare minimal for targeting 200Mhz Bclk overclocking. 1600Mhz will give you some more tweaking head room.
You can use 1333, that's fine, but 1600 gives you a little overhead for cranking the HT.
4GB is an absolutely minimum we recommend these days. As for XP? We haven't written for XP in a few years ;)
The 785G works just the same, read the review of it - you can unlock cores with it and it has all the features of bigger boards at less cost. If you want ATX, there are ATX options from both Gigabyte and Asus.
Point duly noted!
edit: When's the next WHSIB out roughly Bindi? Pwease?
We don't even have an XP disc in the lab any more. Nearly everyone is on 7 RC1 already and with "6GB" the norm for X58s, we have to use an x64 OS in everything.
Next one is after Lynnfield launch next week. We're waiting on some £100-£120 boards to arrive to assess the overclocking performance in order to get our suggestions correct.
Now that got me excited! I hate you, Richard Swinburne! :p
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2084474
go there for i5 750 benchmarks ;)
Really reckon it's worth it with a budget of 2-250 for CPU/Mobo/Ram? If you say it is, I shall trust ye :D
What have you got now?
E6300 at 1.8Ghz because I voltmodded my motherboard just a little bit too much and wrecked it, and 2GB of 6400.
We're still evaluating the £100 mobos to see whether it's worth pairing with an i5, but what you've got there is over £300 :P Plus that DDR3.. £60 is a bit optimistic unless you go for very cheap stuff - prices went up recently iirc.
Is it worth upgrading from an E6600 @ 3.6 GHz with 4GB PC6400?
But I guess I'll have to wait for Tuesday to get an answer, right?
had to pay £135 for the now-average Dominators. ones i got are probably Corsair's first batch of DDR3, only 1600Mhz cas9.
like P35 and P45, surely, i would have thought lower prices on motherboard would just mean less stuff, no "drive xpert" or express gate that won't be used and doesn't work on AHCI (respectively)
-
« Previous
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
Next »
Discuss in the forums