Recommendations for i7-960 build invited

[Tedanton]

Hi,

Settled on a new i7-960 build.

I would appreciate advise on a tried and tested configuration to get the most out of an OC'ed i7-960 with the following features:

- 12GB RAM
- 120 or 250 GB SSD
- 2 x 2TB drives
- graphics card with min 2560 x 1440 resolution
- bluray drive
- dual layer DVD burner
- excellent CPU fan
- Gigabyte MOBO (?) with excellent sound
- Suitable fan

Thanks

 

[mastermax81]

Hi,
Hi use i7-960 3,2 with ga-x58a-ud3r, the RAM are 6 x 4gb ocz gold ddr3, bd-burner LG 4x, and Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 AMP! 1GB Gddr5 256bit 2*Dvi/HDMI/DP PCi-Ex.

at office I use the Philips 109P with 2560x1440.
at home I use HANNSpree SV42LMNB 42" Widescreen Tv LCD Led FullHD 1080p DVB-T + Telecomando set 1920x1080.

Internal cardreader mad Sony.

 

[Tedanton]

Thanks for the prompt reply

Were there any special tweaks to get the system to work?

Cheers

 

[Stork]

Thanks for the prompt reply

Were there any special tweaks to get the system to work?

Cheers

Take a look at MacMan's two build guides:

MacMan Build - GA-X58A-UD3R - i7-930 - HD 5770 Updated

MacMan Build - GA-X58A-UD5 - i7-950 - GTX 470

 

[justr]

Hi,
Hi use i7-960 3,2 with ga-x58a-ud3r, the RAM are 6 x 4gb ocz gold ddr3, bd-burner LG 4x, and Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 AMP! 1GB Gddr5 256bit 2*Dvi/HDMI/DP PCi-Ex.

at office I use the Philips 109P with 2560x1440.
at home I use HANNSpree SV42LMNB 42" Widescreen Tv LCD Led FullHD 1080p DVB-T + Telecomando set 1920x1080.

Internal cardreader mad Sony.

Do you have a link to the internal card reader? I'm interested in getting one that doesn't cause some kind of problem, like sleep.

 

[mastermax81]

At home have Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX470 AMP!, at office 460..
For install I bought 2x2gb Kingstone DDR3 and I plug on the 1st and 3rd slot.
I bought cardreader in the www.nexths.it store but now they don't have..
At home iBoot 2.6 and multibeast 3.2, at office iBoot 2.7 and multibeast 3.3..
Yuo can download the DSDT from this site..

 

[justr]

OP: If you live near a microcenter, consider picking up the i7-950 instead. It's the same thing, but set to a slightly lower multiplier (literally a 2 second change you can make in BIOS)... and microcenter has/had the 950 for $199.

 

[mastermax81]

At office I have i950 3,06 the moltiplicher is 23 and at home I have i960 3,2 the moltiplicher is 24.
At office the enable overclock of the mainboard set i950 to X24 and go up to 3,2 without freeze..
For the install I have set disable overclock..

 

[Tedanton]

Thanks for the info

Sounds like I shouldn't have too much of an issue. If you were to do it again would you do it any differently?

 

[justr]

Not sure whom you're asking, OP. I would say that it depends on budget and timing.

The Sandy Bridge chips/chipsets are faster and overclock further easier. But there isn't full hackintosh support for them yet. (I'm talking about the i7-2500K and i7-2600K.)

So if you can wait a few weeks, you'll probably be able to get a faster system for the same price or cheaper once all the kinks are worked out-- hopefully when 10.6.7 is released.

But the i7-9xx/X58 setup can be installed with 100% functionality right now. And considering how easy it is to overclock to 3.8 (or higher if you're willing to invest the time to get stability), they are still super fast. As you can see, I'm using a 24 x 174 (multi x bsclk), meaning 4 Ghz on my 950. It's tears through my video/photo work.

Finally, check out the Hyper 212+ cooler. Cheap, works really well.