Feature Articles

Editor's Choice Gaming Rig 2009

By Vincent Chang - 1 Aug 2009

Going with Intel

Processor

Next up, we have Intel's top microarchitecture, packaged within the Core i7. Targeted at high-end enthusiasts, it's a natural fit for our high-end gaming rig. The first Intel microarchitecture to have an integrated memory controller (and a triple-channel one too) in the processor (which you can read here ), the Core i7 has seen a minor revision since its launch. The current flagship, the Core i7-975 Extreme Edition, is an example of the revised, D0 stepping Core i7 processor.

We found slightly improved power consumption for these new revised chips, along with a small clock speed boost for the Core i7-975 model compared to the previous flagship, the Core i7-965. Together with its Turbo Boost that brings the clock up to 3.4GHz, it's the fastest Core i7 available for consumers now. You can get all your the details in the review.

Intel's Core i7-975 Extreme Edition is rated at 3.3GHz but with Turbo Boost enabled, it runs at around 3.4GHz.

However all that performance comes at a price, US$999 in fact for the Core i7-975 Extreme Edition. Such a high price is definitely a major hindrance to enthusiasts looking to get onto the Core i7 platform, which probably explains why the majority of consumers are waiting for the mainstream versions before committing. Of course, it's also only natural that top performing parts get to command a premium. Expensive and powerful to tackle all sorts of workloads, is its premium justifiable to someone who mainly uses the rig for gaming? We'll share the results with you soon enough.

Motherboard

Overclocking on the Core i7 platform has stirred up quite the buzz among enthusiasts, due to some very decent results. So it's not surprising that our choice for the Intel route is to go with the ASUS Rampage II Extreme. In case you need reminding, this is one hardcore enthusiast oriented motherboard, which we saw in our Intel X58 roundup previously. While our review then ultimately went for the more balanced and affordable Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME, we felt that our gaming rig here required something with more 'street cred' among enthusiasts, thus the choice of the ASUS.

Our pick for enthusiast oriented X58 motherboard - the ASUS Rampage II Extreme.

And there's no mistaking the ASUS Rampage II EXtreme for anything but a board designed for the enthusiast, overclocker niche. Numerous features that assist the overclocking process, from multi-layer polymer capacitors to voltage detection points on the board (Probelt) to allowance for a water cooling block to dual BIOS, these features, appropriately bundled under the umbrella of 'Republic of Gamers' (ROG) moniker, should make this board a favorite among overclocking enthusiasts.

Its performance in our benchmarks and the eventual overclocking test lived up to its billing but on the flip side, so did its price. Even now, the ASUS Rampage II Extreme goes for around US$380, making it one of the most expensive offerings for an Intel X58 motherboard, which is already one of the more costly chipsets available. But since you're getting the Core i7-975 Extreme which goes for almost a thousand US dollars, what's another few hundred bucks for the motherboard?

Memory

Just like how we went with dual-channel memory kits for the AMD system, we're naturally going with triple-channel kits here. The same chain of reasoning also follows, which means we are looking at our recent roundup of DDR3 memory kits for inspiration. Although we splurged for the Core i7 processor and ASUS motherboard, for the memory, we could not resist the great bargain of US$65 that Kingston was offering for its HyperX DDR3-1600 triple-channel kit (3 x 1GB).

For its sheer value and general competence, there's no other option but Kingston's HyperX DDR3 1600MHz Triple-Channel Memory Kit - KHX12800D3LLK3/3GX.

With most triple-channel kits offering very similar specifications, there shouldn't be too much variance in terms of their default performance. The relatively decent overclocking that we found on the Kingston HyperX may not be equal to some of its competitors but then again, those memory kits cost a lot more for that small extra.

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