Robilar

Found the board in stock here in Toronto for $353 (cheaper than NCIX). Also this OCZ ram is better than the reapers and cheaper (only $180). As such I pulled the trigger and ordered both (Pick up tomorrow afternoon). The big choice is cpu. I sold my Q6600 and I'm having trouble deciding what to pick.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...out/page8.html

The good news is that the new 790i boards will do 500 FSB even with quads.

So my choices are:

E8400 ($230 for retail, with a 9x multi easily do over 4 ghz)

E8500 (obviously better but I can only find the OEM and don't want that)

Or something else.

Any recommendations?

Litlratt

IMO, you've already listed the best options.
I agree with nuc regarding higher fsb. I've always found a performance increase in higher fsb. One of the more compelling reasons for me to step up to the 790i.

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SergeRY

agreed on the best options. since it seems the fsb isn't much of a limit with these boards, I like the 8400. for $100 more the 0.5 8500 multiplier isn't giving you a whole lot, ur call.

I am on board (sorry) with the 790i also because I am excited that it is actually a new spp from nvidia for the first time in a while. so far seems to be a pretty good improvement although some coin.

also, I am also skeptical of the OEM cpu's due to lack of warranty.

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Robilar

Exactly! I've always felt that OEM's cpu's were the bottom of intel's binning process as they typically end up in Dell's (or whatever) which means they are usually far far away from being overclocked (not to mention most Dell system's have motherboards that prohibit overclocking).

I found some more reviews on the OCZ ram I decided on

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/536/1/

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...z_at_1333mhz/2

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...out/page8.html

http://techgage.com/article/ocz_2gb_...tinum_edition/

http://www.overclockersonline.net/in...um=1352&pnum=8

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...cz-ddr3-tested

and there are more.

The ram sells for $180 and right now less a $30 mail in rebate so pretty good deal.

All the reviews were able to get the ram to run at 1600mhz at 1.8v which is pretty good for mid range ram.

They use the Elpeida IC's which in this case seems very solid.


I've pretty much decided to go with the E8400 Retail (which I can get for just shy of $230). Worst comes to worst I'll resell it when something better comes along.

The cool part is that I can get all of the parts tomorrow afternoon. (rubs hands in anticipation)

nuclearjock

Dude!!!

You're kidding right??

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Robilar

It may be an urban legend but I have a friend that works at ingram micro that swears the OEM chips are bottom binned.

Its common knowledge that intel bins the chips of the same run. The higher bin gets the higher multi (for example the E8400 and E8500, essentially the same chip but binned for speed).

nuclearjock

Ok, I'll buy that. Higher binned chips get higher multis.

But oem vs boxed, why???

All you have to do is buy a fan on the same receipt and you get the same warranty. So they're doing this to sell a cheap crappy fan???

Doesn't make any sense Rob..

Besides, this is something too glaring for the geeks at XS not to ferret out long ago.

It just doesn't add up at all.

I have limited experience with boxed vs. oem in three instances building systems for friends/relatives and have noticed no such trend.

All six chips were E6850's.

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Robilar

You dont get the same warranty jock. The OEM's are one year, retail box is 3 year regardless of what sink you buy. Thats why I shied away from the tigerdirect deal because they were forcing me to buy a heatsink with the OEM E8500 and the warranty is still 12 months...

Of course that warranty ties into the type of warranty dell provides (which is typically a year).

I'm not saying this from certainty but wouldn't it make sense to sell the lower quality (Based on their manufacturing processes which do not create identical runs of chips) processor with a lower warranty?

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nuclearjock

Maybe, but the warranty issue is academic once you overclock the processor anyway.

Again, I have never heard of an oem chip resulting in lower clocks.

Even the batch/week issue is somewhat nutso anyway.

With regard to TigerDirect, you've got 30 days to return the processor for another for whatever reason. If you cant decide if you've got a decent chip in 30 days, then so be it.

You're right about the 3 years vs 1 year warranty. I currently have 5 Intel cpu's in my possession and none of them are more than a year old..

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Robilar

How is the warranty issue academic?

Everyone on this site overclocks their cpu and a number of us (myself included) have fried the odd chip and returned it under warranty. As long as you don't physically damage the chip or pins or lap the IHS, intel will warranty it.

I've personally cooked 3 chips in the last 5 years and intel quite happily replaced all 3 under warranty. They were all retail box btw with full warranty. In fact 2 of the chips I cooked, I had for more than a year. One died from sustained overclocking, the other from a power surge in my house. Intel never even blinked on the replacements.