RAM oh RAM oh where should I go?

[Jason1337]

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

From lowest price to highest (all US prices):
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $109.99

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $119.99

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $124.99

I would like to perform as little BIOS tweaking as possible. I have zero interest in OCing (anymore ).

Thanks all!

 

[jdjbuffalo]

Go with the first one for $109.99.

 

[Jason1337]

Go with the first one for $109.99.

Side question:

Should I consider the Triple Channel 6GB 3x2 instead of Dual Channel 8GB 2x(2x2)?

 

[mv2devnull]

i7-860 is dual channel, so triple is no option.

 

[Jason1337]

i7-860 is dual channel, so triple is no option.

The 920 is the same price, is it worth it to go to the 920 and triple over the 860 at dual?

 

[jjmIII]

The 920 is the same price, is it worth it to go to the 920 and triple over the 860 at dual?

It would be the mobo chipset that decides that.....not the cpu. You need an x58 1366 instead of p55 1156.

 

[mv2devnull]

It would be the mobo chipset that decides that.....not the cpu.

I would not put it quite that way. The memory controller is in the CPU. But naturally the mobo has to support the CPU. And thus in this case one has to choose either one pair of CPU+mobo, or another.

Comparison between i7-8xx and i7-9xx is not trivial, because there are multiple differences. Furthermore, the memory bandwidth is critical only for some applications.

 

[Emulex]

Yeah our servers that have triple channel show 33% loss if you run 2 sticks of ram in them - they are nehalem x5550 - which iirc is the same as the original core i7 - the comment that says the ram is the chip is so true!

90% of the gain from nehalem is the memory (no more fsb) - the floating point unit isn't really that much faster (if any) for most applications - so if you strangle your ram and don't use hyperthreading (or have an app that can use it correctly) then your chip is marginally better than what you have.

How about you overclock the sata bus make that ssd really sing

 

[CurseTheSky]

No overclocking / BIOS tweaking = get the cheapest that will meet your specs.

DDR3-1333 is the native speed for P55 motherboards, IIRC. You could save yourself another $5 by buying slightly slower memory (since the DDR3-1600 will run at that speed anyway).

 

[Jason1337]

awesome info in here, thanks a bunch!

So ill look at the Dual Channel 1333. But before I go ... is it worth considering changing the MB / CPU / RAM to go with the Triple Channel DDR3 6GB, i7 920, x58 MB all else the same?

Something like

i7 860, 8GB 1333, p55

vs

i7 920, 6GB, x58?

Again, no OCing here, and I doubt I would call myself a 'power user' per this forums contributors

thanks again!

 

[floogy]

DDR3 1333 isn't much cheaper to be honest with you, most of the time the prices will be the same from what I've seen. If you go with a P55 mobo you may as well use an i5-750. It's about 80 bucks cheaper and will easily suffice for non power users (whatever that means). If you want the HT and triple channel ram then go with the x58/i7 but it will cost some more. The $80 saved on the cpu can go to something else like a better video card if you game, or back in to your pocket. I'm very happy with my p55/i5 setup for gaming and unless you do something that will really benefit from the extra speed of the i7s you can save some money. But hey, up to you.