Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with i7

The mother of all boards

Crotalus — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:50:33 -0800

Help me pick out a motherboard for a Core i7 Processor! I'm a computer novice, and I need advice on buying a motherboard. I'm looking to upgrade my main rig to a Core i7 920. I am not interested in playing games, nor will I be overclocking. I don't need fancy RAID stuff. The primary task for this machine is running a 64-bit data analysis package that I use for work. My wife and son play with the camcorder a lot, and do lots of video editing and video conversion, so they'll appreciate the faster machine as well. I'm interested in something stable and standard that will play well with Windows 7 out of the box. No need for SLI or Crossfire stuff. I'd like to have 12GB RAM, so six triple channel RAM sockets would be nice. I'd also like a board that supports DDR3 1600 without overclocking. Finally, I buy from Newegg whenever possible, because they've earned my business. What are you using? What would you buy?

Stupid Microsoft

porpoise — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:54:51 -0800

Building a new Core i7 desktop: WinXP32, WinXP64, Vista32, or Vista64? After my comps/quals in three weeks, I'm building myself a Core i7 based desktop (more because I have some research money that if I don't spend I don't get than that I really need/want a new system and my folks could use a new computer [ie., the one I have now]).

Primarily for general web-browsing, gaming (I have a DX10 GPU and a large monitor), some video editing, and video transcoding (XVID, 'shrinking' DVD9 to DVD5). Photoshop/Illustrator forseen in the near future. Ostensibly for 'scientific computing' (biology - time-lapse microscopy generates very very very large datasets) but none of the software available/desirable/required by me has 64bit versions. Compatibility with a dual SAS(driving a 15k RPM HD)/SATA2(high capacity drives) setup a must (the MB I'm looking at supports both - ASUS P6T X58 Deluxe).

I have the media and a legit license of WinXP64. Would have to buy another license of XP32 or Vista32/64.

I like the idea of running a 64bit system. I like the idea of skipping Vista and eventually going with Win7 better. Even if my apps never exceed the 3.5GB of ram available in x32 (?), is there an advantage of setting the other 2.5GB or 5.5GB of ram as a ramdrive and using that as a swapfile?

Is it worthwhile to go to Vista64, which I've heard has good 32bit emulation (or fiddle around with XP64)? Are there any compelling reasons to buy a license of Vista32 over a license of XP32 (other than saving $40 on Vista instead of XP - I knew I should have stocked up on Academic versions of XP when the school's bookstore was reluctant to sell me a license 3 years ago)? I forsee running VirtualDOS for legacy 16 bit applications/games.

I like the idea of Linux, but need to run Microsoft Office because of supervisor/collaborators/lab-mates. Also, molecular biology and statistics software (that are written for XP32 - most, but not all, will run under Vista32; my work laptop is XP32 and that's where I do most of my work) and games.

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, need your help

spinko — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:44 -0800

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, what parts to buy as I don't want to be a sucker. Need your help. Intel Core i7 I currently own a Mac (macbook pro 4gb) for business, even through it is fast in bootcamp. I want better for MMO's and FPS games. This is strictly a gaming machine, and needs to be future proof. I haven't built a computer in 2 years, so I have gone abit rusty.

My budget is £2000 (~$3500) just for the box. I already have a 30inch Cinema display, so I want to play games at the natural resolution (2560 x 1600) with a good 60+ fps.

Here is my list of what I want.

CPU:
Core i7 940 (2.93ghz quad + hyperthreading) ~£470
I want to overclock this cpu as much as I can. I have seen this processor get to 3.4ghz with no problems. I will need a good Motherboard or fan to do this.

The extreme version, is it worth it?

Should I wait for a faster processor coming out in a few months?

HDD:
Raptor 300gb (10k rpm)
or
SAS Hdd's (15k rpm) I dont know too much about this, is it worth it?

Is their any benefit of having a solid state hard drive for bootup OS?

Im not too bothered about size, I don't need 1tb as I only need it for games (300gb max)

PSU:
750, 1000 or 1500 watt? do I need more power for overclocking? or is it just money down the drain.

Video card/s:
The new cards confuse me

SLI cards x2: Does this actually improve gaming performance, or shall I keep with a single 1gb graphics card? Nvidia or ATI?

Others:
Need a good Motherboard, memory (to match the mb) and video card.

Motherboard needs to be good for overclocking.

Also, I may go with Vista 64bit dual boot with XP 32bit. I have heard about something better than software dual boot. Cannot remember what it was.

Memory is limited to 3gb on XP 32bit, however can handle more that 3gb on Vista 64bit. Is it worth going for 64bit Vista for gaming or stick to 32bit non dx10 XP? (I went over to Mac due to Vista, last year for business).

Memory will have to match the top FSB if possible. Unless you cannot see any difference.

Anything extra that will improve performance?

Instead of building my own, could you recommend a pre-built spec. I live in Spain but go to the UK frequently. I know Falcon NW will ship to Spain for $400, but the benefit is the warranty, negatives are the power supply. However building it myself each equipment piece has warranty.

Thanks if you can help.