I need a MB

[Guest]

Hello everyone long time lurker 2nd post

Here is what Ive bought so far

I7 920 236.00 after tax
Xigamatek HDT-S1283 31.99 after - $5.00 off got the I7 bracket as well
Caviar black 640GB $59 after $20 off
CM RC-690 + Corsair 850tx combo and OCZ 3x@GB PC3 12800 (1600) -$30.00 on the combo
$20 mir on ram $20 mir on 850tx
MSI OCv2 GTX 260 896MB $159 after mir 30$ free far cry
bought 3 140mm case fans
So up to about $955.00 after taxes and MIR

stuff I already have

22' Samsung monitor, mose, keyboard, dvd drive, vista ultimate 64(just waiting on a system)

So as you see I haven't listed a MB as yet. I know bassackwards.
I am waivering over the following MB's after much trolling and research.
ASUS Rampage GENE or ASUS p6t
Mostly a gaming rig, will overclock but not drastically 3.6-4.0Ghz Care to weigh in?

 

[xthekidx]

I would go with the P6T as you will have more expansion slots. The Rampage GENE is a uATX. The P6T overclocks very well.

 

[Guest]

From what I've read that seems to be true, was just thinking that hte uATX might give me room to stash some of the left over cables from the PSU as well as open the case up a little for airflow. IDK
Anybody got a p6t in a RC690 case?

 

[xthekidx]

Yep. Me (look at my signature). It works out fine, I stash my extra cables in the HDD area. My case is nice and clean.

 

[Guest]

OH! 😱 my bad. I see that you (Xthe kidx) do have that case...how's that working room wise???

 

[Guest]

Damn.. almost the same build! Great minds....
That v8 is pretty big is it not...no probs with height I take it...how's temps with that OC?

 

[xthekidx]

I got about half an inch of clearance from the side panel with the V8, it fits fine. The CM 690 has plenty of room to do whatever you want in it. My temps are 35C idle, never gets over 70C under 100% load Prime95. I just have the stock case fans and my heatsink and PSU fans mounted, no extras yet. If I added more I bet I could drop my temps a couple degrees.

 

[Guest]

Cool good to know. I take it the gtx 260 is no prob either. Was kind of hesitant on the case but couldn't pass up the combo. I see you have the same ram as well, running below spec? because? more stability? just because that's where you wanted it? I ask as this will be my first real overclock since the celeron 300Mhz to 450Mhz!! I date myself!

 

[xthekidx]

You will have plenty of room in the 690, don't worry about it. Yeah I am running my Ram slightly below specs because of my OC. To get to 3.6ghz you have to bump the BCLK to 180 from 133 (133x20=2.66ghz, 180x20=3.6ghz). The ram speed is also calculated from the base clock. My ram wouldn't run stable with a 10x multiplier (180x10=1800mhz) with the kind of timings and voltages I wanted, so I went with the 8x multiplier, which to be honest is just fine. No apps can really take advantage of the massive bandwidth available on the i7 as it is, so running 6gb of DDR3 at 1443mhz with 7-7-7-18 1T timings is plenty for me. However since I am running my ram at a lower speed, it allowed me to tighten up the timings a little bit (and I think I could tighten it up some more if I really wanted to play with it, but its a pain in the ass to OC ram and finding all the right timings so I'm just leaving it where its at).

 

[Guest]

Ok then I look forward to getting this up and running! My old P4 2.6 is getting long in the tooth.
Thanx xthekidx
Right..anybody else got any ideas before I layout the$$$$ So far the P6T is in the lead. Gigabyte anyone?????

 

[aevm]

There's a P6T Deluxe V2 that does really well in reviews. Check that one out too.

Gigabyte has some good stuff too, but the P6T seems to overclock better according to what I've read so far.