First Gen I7 Build

[Antivist]

I'm looking to build a first gen I7 theme PC with some parts I have laying around. I have an ASUS P6X58D-E, I7 960, and a 590 on the way. What recommendations would you give for a PSU, RAM, and Hard Drive/SSD, Case and Cooler? Looking for the parts to be fairly enthusiast grade for the era they would have been in. On the RAM I'm confused as Intel lists the max RAM speed as 1033; so does that mean that's the max speed I can use? For the case I would like something that looks like it was from around that time period as well. I'm looking to spend hopefully under $300 total for the rest of these parts. I know it's a little tight since I'll need a fairly large PSU if I ever get another 590, but any help would be appreciated to help me cut some corners and save a bit of money. 

[Sauron]

Isn't the 590 a sandy bridge era card?

 

As for ram, for higher speed you'll have to use xmp

[Antivist]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Isn't the 590 a sandy bridge era card?

 

As for ram, for higher speed you'll have to use xmp

I believe it came out in 2011 which would not be too long after the I7 so I'm gonna say that's probably still part of that era since people generally keep CPU's longer than GPU's. But yes it would be closer to that if I want to be 100% accurate. Would using XMP for the ram be worth the hassle, or would I just be better off saving some money and using the 1033?

[Tabs]

7 minutes ago, Antivist said:

I believe it came out in 2011 which would not be too long after the I7 so I'm gonna say that's probably still part of that era since people generally keep CPU's longer than GPU's. But yes it would be closer to that if I want to be 100% accurate. Would using XMP for the ram be worth the hassle, or would I just be better off saving some money and using the 1033?

I had 12gb of ddr3-1600 running with my i7-920. Worked fine, no issues, on a ga-x58a-ud3r board from Gigabyte. Since it's triple channel, I'm not sure how much you lose by dropping down a few speed tiers, but it shouldn't be much more expensive - if at all - to get ddr3-1600 modules.

 

Just remember to get them in threes to ensure triple channel works. My board supported up to 24GB with 6x4GB sticks, although i used 6x2 for 12GB, so finding the right capacity shouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't recommend buying 8GB dims though as I'm unsure how many first gen x58 systems supported them.

[Sauron]

12 minutes ago, Antivist said:

 would I just be better off saving some money and using the 1033?

It depends on what you're looking for, it's not like this will be a crazy performer anyway...

[BarackOBatman]

1 hour ago, Antivist said:

I'm looking to build a first gen I7 theme PC with some parts I have laying around. I have an ASUS P6X58D-E, I7 960, and a 590 on the way. What recommendations would you give for a PSU, RAM, and Hard Drive/SSD, Case and Cooler? Looking for the parts to be fairly enthusiast grade for the era they would have been in. On the RAM I'm confused as Intel lists the max RAM speed as 1033; so does that mean that's the max speed I can use? For the case I would like something that looks like it was from around that time period as well. I'm looking to spend hopefully under $300 total for the rest of these parts. I know it's a little tight since I'll need a fairly large PSU if I ever get another 590, but any help would be appreciated to help me cut some corners and save a bit of money. 

I have installed DDR3 1600 MHz into an OEM socket 1366 board and the clocks default to 1033 MHz. Your motherboard has XMP support, just enable it and you should be able to get up to 2000 MHz (if the kit is rated for it). Be sure to choose a RAM kit from the official QVL from ASUS if you want guaranteed compatability. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6X58DE/HelpDesk_QVL/

[Antivist]

14 minutes ago, Tabs said:

I had 12gb of ddr3-1600 running with my i7-920. Worked fine, no issues, on a ga-x58a-ud3r board from Gigabyte. Since it's triple channel, I'm not sure how much you lose by dropping down a few speed tiers, but it shouldn't be much more expensive - if at all - to get ddr3-1600 modules.

 

Just remember to get them in threes to ensure triple channel works. My board supported up to 24GB with 6x4GB sticks, although i used 6x2 for 12GB, so finding the right capacity shouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't recommend buying 8GB dims though as I'm unsure how many first gen x58 systems supported them.

I think I'm going to go with 12GB of Corsair Vengeance in a tri channel kit so if I ever want to I can go ahead and max it out at 24. Thanks for the advice!

[Antivist]

7 minutes ago, BarackOBatman said:

I have installed DDR3 1600 MHz into an OEM socket 1366 board and the clocks default to 1033 MHz. Your motherboard has XMP support, just enable it and you should be able to get up to 2000 MHz (if the kit is rated for it). Be sure to choose a RAM kit from the official QVL from ASUS if you want guaranteed compatability. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6X58DE/HelpDesk_QVL/

Thanks for that link! I think the RAM I'm gonna get will work, but I'll check that to make sure.