konata:if i want it to be stable at 3.8 ghz, can i just use a tuniq tower?
If you could get one that was compatible with LGA 1366 Yes.. Of Course
NewEgg has not been focused on getting the Heatsinks etc.. in but there are others that have limited stock of LGA 1366 Heatsinks
This might change by a month from now.. but right now...
wuzzuh: Go for the i7. It won't need a Aftermarket Cooler
for some time as somebody overclocked the 920 to 4.0 ghz on air alone.
This won't happen without an aftermarket heatsink.... the stock heatsink will only allow about 3.0 Ghz.. ish
HOGHAULER: I would advise you to go with the i7 and X58 mobo but with that budget go with the 940 CPU and I noted that you did not list a case so do you have 1 already or haven't made up your mind yet.
The higher multiplier is not quite as important with the new platform.
Instead of the FSB Nehalem uses a reference clock like AMD, but its at 133Mhz and not 200Mhz.
This reference clock is multiplied to create all clocks inside the CPU:
Bclock x CPU Multiplier = CPU Clock (12-256)
Bclock x QPI Multiplier = QPI Clock (18, 24)
Bclock x Uncore Multiplier = Uncore Clock (10-30)
Uncore clock / Memory Divider = Memory clock
If you have an XE cpu its all easy, you just change the CPU Multiplier to increase the CPU Clockspeed, thats it...
If you dont have cpu multiplier access, then things get a bit tricky
You need to push up the Bclock, which is related to all other
clocks though... so when you increase the Bclock you overclock every
part of the processor.
QPI, Uncore and the memory controller/memory.
You dont really want to overclock QPI though...
Just like HyperTransport QPI is way overpowered for a Desktop
system and only really useful for Servers, and you wont see any notable
improvements from clocking the QPI bus higher. So while overclocking it
wont really give you any benefits, thats what you have to do if you
want to overclock your cpu via the Bclock.
It usually maxes out at around 8GT/s, which is around 4Ghz, and as
you have seen from the details above, there are only 2 multipliers you
can select unfortunately, which will limit your overclocks on Bclock
for the 920 and 940 parts. The lowest multiplier you can select is 18.
If you do the math, that means you will be limited to a Bclock of 222.
That is IF you processor and board can run 4Ghz QPI... some cant run
that high...
Now about Uncore, Uncore is the L3 cache and memory controller, and its
powered not by Vcore, but by VTT. I guess Intel couldn't decide what to
call this part of the cpu and then went for Uncore which pretty much
means its not the core... not very creative, but it gets the job done
Im sure youve seen many if not all mainboard manufacturers using
one or two or even 4 phases of a CPU PWM to power the VTT. While on
Core2 VTT consumed around 10-15W and you could use a basic PWM to feed
it, it now needs double that power, around 30W, and when your
overclocking, even more, naturally...
With all that being said, the $ 300.00 could be spent in more productive ways. Like Half a SSD Drive, or a Pair of WD VR150's
The ROG Motherboard might allow Multiplier Unlock of the lower chips, like they did with LGA 775 that would make the more expensive MOBO a Value being able to set Multi..beyond the Locked Parameters...
I have been looking for a better more in-depth review of ASUS ROG's in LGA 1366 but have not found a decent review.