Corsair Dominator 2000Mhz + i7 920 @ 4Ghz?

[mindreign]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to the OC world, and am about to pull the trigger on new components from newegg.

I had a question regarding the i7 920, and the Corsair Dominator Ram.

Originally, I wanted to get the 6GB 2000Mhz dominator set, but noticed that most overclockers that get their 920 to ~4Ghz are only getting 1604Mhz out of their RAM. Is that standard? Does that mean I should get the 1600Mhz set?

Can you only achieve the full 2000mhz if you get a 975 chip?

Just wondering if I can save ~$100 on RAM if getting the 2000 is a waste. Thanks in advance!

Just for info, I'll be getting the P6X58D ASUS board, and a Prolimatech Megahalem sink with 2x Panaflo fans.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

It's certainly not a waste and you can get 2000 with a good 920. However, the extra memory bandwidth of 2000 vs 1600 is a matter of preference or your intended usage. If you are into benchmarking or squeezing EVERY last ounce of performance from your machine, the 2000 will give a bit more. But, it is up to you to decide if that is worth $100.

 

[Rustyy117]

There isnt much gain to be had from 1066mhz to 2000mhz RAM as far as performace goes, so thats maybe why people go for 1333mhz/1600mhz.

I have my Ci7 920 @ 4ghz and I'm using 1333mhz RAM running at just 1200mhz, I'm using the lowest memory multi (x8) if I had DDR3 1600mhz I could use the x10 multi and get full 1600mhz. I think latency timings are far more important for performance.

If i were you I'd get some 1600mhz 7-7-7-21 RAM

 

[mindreign]

Thanks for the input. I'm deciding between the 1600Mhz and 2000Mhz Corsair Dominator. I was trying to find posts or articles or benchmarks where people have a 920 around 4Ghz with 2000Mhz RAM running at or near 2000Mhz.

Anyone have benchmarks comparing that setup? Maybe in games and real world use? I spent days just researching fans for the prolimatech so I feel like I should do the same for this...

Thanks again for the help, post links if you have any!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. Unless you're gonna look for 5GHz plus, I don't see a real value to DDR 2000.

2. As for the Dominator's they're quite overpriced at the moment. I'd suggest the Mushkin 998692's or if ya can't find them the 998961's with the CAS 6 timings

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226050&Tpk=998691

 

[mindreign]

Well, I've always bought Corsair, mainly because they always seem to dominate the benchmarks. I might take a look at recent benchmarks to see who stands out in gaming...but I'm really leaning towards Corsair, haven't been let down yet.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

If your CPU speed is the same, you'll see virtually no change in gaming performance between 1600 vs 2000. In some areas you might see a <2%> increase.

 

[vorpal77]

I am doing a similar config. Here is my spec sheet

i7 920
evga x58 micro
ocz 2000mhz 6gb 10 10 10 30 timings
2 x 7200rpm 32mb WD Caviar Black (raid 0)
850w psu modular thermaltake
radeon 5770 (direct x11 cheapest single card solution that is decent IMHO, crossfire card planned in near future 1-2 years)
Larkooler Water Cooling Kit for CPU/VGA/NSB/MOS/
Thinking about buying the Koolance Ram watercooling block.

My question is more along the lines of when I do overclock my board my goal is to hit 5ghz. I don't think anyone has done it yet without phase or LN2 cooling but I think with the high megahertz ram I can easily downclock the ram if I find better settings and get the cpu to jump higher because I have a higher max memory speed. If I'm not mistaken the whole reason the multiplier is tweakable is because of the onboard mem controller. So the way I was understanding it the more headroom and flexibility you have with your memory the higher you can go with your cpu speed. Example. If I only bought 1333 or 1066 and I opted for one of the higher memory settings. My CPU can't really get above 4 ghz w/o raising the RAM mhz above 1333. So if my ceiling is 2000 I would assume that I'm giving myself more overclocking tweakability. Can someone chime in and let me know if I'm wrong on this. I've read a couple of articles on overclocking the i-7's and from what i got from them the memory is the stumbling block because you can't change the multiplier independently unless you have a 965 extreme edition. So every time I raise my FSB I will simultaneously be raising my mem timings. Somebody please let me know if I'm way off here. Thanks. Thats why I wanted to go 2000 is because I don't want to get a chip that is maxed out because i bought low ram frequencies.

I have overclocked only the quad core 6600 so this is going to be a new experience for me. Any enthusiasts with experience please reply and any help is greatly appreciated. Thx.

Vorpal77