Memory is OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Gold Low-Voltage Triple Channel p/n OCZ3G1600LV3GK.

First, the stock intel cooler is unsatisfactory for the job, even at lower than default CPU Voltages. The base of the heat sink provides between 65 and 70% contact with the IHS. It is rubbish, so if you get one of these processors and run on air, I advise getting better cooling.

I increased the multi by 1 to 25 (3340Mhz)and lowered the cpu voltage to (so far) 1.120V, Prime95 (small FFTs) stable for 2 hrs now; however, the 4 cores/8 threads are causing a cpu temp of 67C on an ambient of 16C.

The ram does not appear to gain the advertised speed rating at "made for i7" voltage of 1.65V. OCZ done burn me again!

The motherboard is a freaking nightmare of tweaking options and only out done by DFI's one time RD600 ICFX3200 T2R/G Chinese jigsaw puzzle; but then I have been spoiled as of late with EVGA's i680 and i790 offerings that are more quick and dirty with less finer tunning. I look forward to playing around with this Rampage Extreme II after it gets in the cooler.

I'm happy with the processor and motherboard, but the ram gotta go...I guess two out of three ain't bad.

sounds like fun. damn ocz

Let me know about ram Ski & I'll cancel my order tomorrow. no sense getting something in that doesn't cut the mustard so to speak what?

It is working for now and still to early to tell just how this ram will eventually perform. The motherboard might also be at play here.

down to 1.080V @ 3341Mhz, temps now at 63C.

I'm gonna cancell anyways & go with the G-Skill I think. Couple guys on OC.net have been using it & it's worked pretty good for them.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/410 ... -case.html

I was thinking about going with some Patriot Extreme Performance Viper Series DDR3 4GB ram for my core i7 and a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 mobo. Anyone know if these are any good?

Update,

The OCZ memory is running at the advertised rating. The bios auto settings were the roadblock.

heheh good to hear. I had cancelled my ram but didn't find anything else worth getting except for some OCZ with 7-7-7-20 timings. Actually cheaper than the stuff we got to Ski.

Ya, but it is 1333Mhz correct?

You are right again damn your good lol. Yeah I emailed Sean back to continue with the order there just before 5. He'll see it in the morning anyways.

So I was talking to a local store in Calgary and I guess you have to go with triple channel ram which means I have to get either 3 or 6 gigs

Skiman, do you know if the performance is worth it to lose a gig of ram just for triple channel?

I might have to go with the OCZ3G1600LV3GK ram as well.

Uhm I'm not sure really but I've heard of people using there 2 channel ram for now till they got there 3 channel in for it though. It does work but just not to it's full potential.

Here is a good little table to show the gains.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Int ... 057-5.html

If you have memory intense applications then yes, a real world gain; however, I haven't seen triple channel big gains for gaming.

I've started to figure out this i7 965, along with the X58 motherboard. My first goal is to test the cpu's internal performance with a Superpi 1M run.

While still on air with a stock intel cooler, I was able to up the multi to 30 and increase the Base clock frequency to 140Mhz with only a little voltage increase to the CPU Core, and QPI/Dram Core Voltage.

I was well within my comfort level for an air cooled system with core temps not exceeding 65. Note core temp 0.99.3 is reading the cpu incorrectly for version and speed.

I am very happy with this score for such low Mhz. My X6800 on the ABIT AW9D-Max could not get under 10 seconds even at 4500Mhz.