Yep, running 12gb of OCZ at 8-8-8-24...It's on an i7 920 OC'd to 4ghz. The funny part is, they claim the ram is good for 7-7-7-24, but it's not. Spent a couple days trying everything their tech support could suggest, and it was never stable at anything close to 7-7-7-24. Doesn't make any serious difference, and it was a heck of a lot cheaper than other options, so I'm sticking with it.
Any idea what the CPU revision and stepping are? I'm wondering how that compares to the OEM and retail CPUs I'm also curious about the Nehalem EX (Gainestown?) you have too
The 6GB OCZ kit was $160... and surprisingly the Viper kit was $145. And it looks a lot better too heh. They just didn't have the kit in stock at the store I tried (originally) and I had to drive out to their other shop where they had some in stock.
There's a lot to be said for just always opting for Corsair stuff. Every time I veer away and buy something else, I have problems. I've had problems with OCZ, I've had problems with Crucial Ballistix and I've had problems with G-Skill. Every time I buy Corsair RAM, it just works exactly as adverstised, no problems... just plug in and go.
the price difference in Corsair's RAM comparing to cheaper alternatives lays in their extensive testing. i think Corsair does the most number of compatibility test in the industry (?)
No I don't think so. If anything you could claim Kingston are "the most compatible" if that means anything. They're binned, they're SDP'd and they'd stuck to PCBs. Geil does "burn in" tests which I don't think count for much and Corsair/OCZ do their own PCBs but it's mostly all the same stuff.
So why wouldn't the OCZ kit work as specified by the manufacturer and yet the Patriot kit does it from the get go? There are variations. Enough to warrant in many cases brand loyalty (ie. Corsair, G.Skill etc) where people are finding that things simply "work better" than the rest. If it were all the same stuff, I don't think we'd have so much variation in the market.
Mostly in the BIOS side of things and SPD programming. There is artificial variation of the market, nothing more. What heatsink do you want today? All 2000MHz+ DIMMs use Elpida Hiper, lower use Samsung HFC0 and "performance budget" use Elpida. We use the same Corsair/G.Skill/OCZ kits with every DDR2 or DDR3 motherboard test and very rarely run into issues these days.
Here is my XMP profile with Corsair XMS DDR-1600 Stable all day long @ 4.0GHz on a 920 @1.3250 Vcore & 1.60V on memory. The 1.65 is BS as it runs fine @ 1.62ish.
So this means if buying a CPU alone then you are OK ... but if buying a 920 as part of a new system the you probably get the rubbish OEM part? (was thinking of buying a new system)
I would bet that the prebuilts are using OEM, cause they are bought in bulk. Although I wouldnt worry about any overclocking on a prebuilt. Cause you dont even know what kind of mobo your getting. Unless its some spec'd out system with quality parts. Best bet, build your own. People here are more then willing to help with the details.
Thanks for the offer. When I say prebuilt, I mean prebuilt with parts I specified, like an ASUS P6T, I did not mean just going and buying a Dell or whatever. (I am pretty familiar with assembling PCs but would prefer to pay someone $50 to reduce grief). Such as ibuypower http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=399 What is their reputation like BTW? I guess I could contact Ibuypower and ask them if their system 920s are retail or OEM. outlawaol, are you sure the OEM 920's have the QPI lock? How? Tsardoz
OEM CPUs come in big boring cardboard boxes which contain tens or hundreds of the CPUs. No stuff other than the CPU are bundled, so no stock cooler or thermal paste etc... Retail CPUs come in nicer coloured boxes, Intel's boxes are bluish. Also you get a cooler with them. Most shops also sell OEM CPUs, as they can be sold much cheaper.
I based the lock on what I read on here. I have no other basis for this other then the details spec'd here by others that have both. Bit staff has found that OEM 920's are locked while retail are not. I would think Bit would look into this to see why that is, just for the sake of everyone that would be/could be buying a 920 in the future. And good deal about the spec'd system. I have no idea what ibuypower's rep is.
I'm confused; which Core i7 cpus are unlocked? Just a select few that are accidentally bought, or has Intel actually started selling unlocked ones? (In which case an angry email demanding a replacement would be sent to intel ).
Retail i7's are unlocked because you pay a (small) premium over the OEM version. Intel made that clear in their response to various inquiries on the extent of the QPI/Memory unlock. If it came in a big, shiny blue box with a stock heatsink/fan then it'll be a retail CPU. If all you got was the CPU itself then that's OEM.
