Norm, FWIW the ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 has more flexible RAM handling abilities than the original board, and supports higher clock speeds. Just learned this, so I am happy to have chosen it. In reality, the original board is fine and is a great performer, and I almost went ahead and bought an open box version for $200. However, I wanted the ability to run RAM at higher rates, and since this will be my last board for a while I went ahead with V2.

Jeff, Sounds like a real good choice. I did a download of the manual and it has my interest. What specific RAM will you be using? I would appreciate it if you let us know how every thing turns out.

Best of luck.

Norm, I chose g skill ram, after much deliberations. It's $105 for 6GB, and the reviews have been very positive. I wanted Kingston top of the line ram, which is blazingly fast, but the gskill is supposedly reasonably acceptable for overclocking. It is DDR3 1600, and is overclockable to at least 1800. The Kingston is $245 for 6GB and for it's speed, it is without a doubt the best value and the fastest available. But I couldn't find it ini stock anywhere, and in the end I decided that if I could have 12GB of good ram for $200, it would be silly to spend over twice as much for a relatively small speed increase.

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

OK, i7 is running fine. Here's an overclocking guide for those that need it.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

M2t files play perfectly on the Vegas timeline, and act much like SD clips. Definitely an improvement over the Q6600. Rendering seems to be about 1/3 of the time or less.

Jeff, How fast are you running it and what are you using for cooling?

Norm

Hi Norm, running it at 3.8 with the stock cooling fan. Running memtest for 6 hours and zero errors. It appears stable so far. From what I've read you "should" be able to run up to around 3.9 with stock cooling. I haven't been able to reach above 3.8 and run stable, though I've followed the OC guide.

BTW, the board is nice and when I installed everything was perfect from the beginnning. For overclocking faster ram is unnecessary with the 920, as I ended up underclocking it at around 1500 (following the guide) so I'm super glad I didn't spring for the expensive ram!

BTW Norm, I think 12GB of ram is overkill, and was probably a waste of money. I don't know, but it would seem that way.

This upgrade was expensive. If it had not been for the fact I'm shooting and editing in HD wouldn't have upgraded. The Q6600 was perfect as it was for SD. But M2t files were difficult to handle on the timeline, and rendering was very slow.

A 30 minute HD project being rendered to SD widescreen that took 1 hour with the Q6600 now takes 12.5 minutes, so the difference for HD is significant. Rendering appears to be over 4X faster, takes less than 25% time.

Rendering HD to SD is actually faster with the i7 than rendering SD was on the Q6600. I had planned to purchase Vasst Gearshift to handle the M2T files, but this processor would make it appear unnecessary.

BTW, if you do go down this path, you will want a power supply unit that is at least 750 watts. Mine is a Zalman 850 watt, I think (don't remember now) but don't skimp on the power or buy a cheap one. You can probably get by with less, but if you run lots of hard drives and have lots of USB connections, etc., you shouldn't skimp on the PSU. I have run with an undepowered PC before and it is no fun.

Jeff, sounds like you have built a great system. I need to educate myself a little more and than I am going to build one using the motherboard, CPU and RAM that you used.

I went to the site you recommended to learn about to how oc the P6T V2 but I really don’t understand too much. Is there another site you used to learn more? If not, can you tell me what settings you used?

What video board are you using? I don’t plan on using any plug-ins in the near future but I want to be able to use a HD TV along with my monitor.

Norm

For OCing using my settings you go to the third (last) table titled "Overclocking for Core i7 920" and go to the first column "Base Clock" and go down to the number 190 and change the settings as indicated in all column except the last column.

Then change the following settings:

CPU Voltage [1.33V]

CPU PLL Voltage [Auto]

QPI/DRAM Core Voltage [1.33V] (QPI / Uncore)

DRAM Bus Voltage [max 1.63] Intel states, that DRAM voltage beyond 1.65V may permanently damage the processor.

Finding these settings and then sorting through them was time consuming, so make sure you get these settings saved somewhere for when you need them.

The settings above gave me a perfectly stable and safe overclock, but you can lower voltages as directed in the instructions. You should read them even though you don't understand them before you attempt the overclock.

For some reason, people do not like to share specific OC settings and tend to be selfish with them, it is a very weird thing. Main thing is don't change anything but what is listed.

My graphics card is an older basic one BTW.

Jeff,

Are you able to run Prime95 for at least a 1/2 hour with no failures at 3.8? I am using the P6T (non-deluxe) and seem to have hit a wall at 3.6 but it is very stable at 3.6. I was also able to lower the timings on my memory to 7-7-7-20 at 3.6 GHz with 12GB of memory so I am satisfied with the results. 3.8 would have been nice though :)

Andy

Hi Andy, yes I ran it for a couple of hours...I can't get above 3.8.

eSATA port question
 

Are any of you Core i7 users working with an external eSATA drive?

Please let me know if you've had any issue with Vista 64bit and eSATA, thanks.

I'm suffering from such a problem with my Dell XPS Studio 435MT. The drive was recognized in BIOS, but the port worked only after I connected my eSATA drive via USB to load the drivers. Then it quit working altogether after I rebooted the PC the next day.

Sam

No, I've used two different eSata controllers with Vista 64 bit. It appears your problem could be Dell related. Another person here had similar issues. I think they said Dell replaced the card and all was fine.

That would be me!

My first XPS eSATA died very soon after I connected it up. Connection was problematic and prone to not working then stopped altogether. The eSATA port actually smelled fried. Dell replaced the full machine. The new one works although I have this feeling it starts slowing other stuff down when its connected.

I have an e-sata pcie card if anyone needs it, would sell for next to nothing...It's an adaptec and I paid $100, it currently sells for around $50, it is the 1225SA and it works perfectly with vista 64 bit. I am not advertising it as for sale as such but just lettting anyone know if they need it I have one. My new MOBO has built in and I don't need it any more...I have so many old add-in cards taking up space I would be happy to get rid of it.

Wow, just rendered a 60 minute 32 bit project with "best" setting that would have taken hours previously. It took 30 minutes. That is fast.

There were several minutes toward the end of the project with MB effects added, making the feat more impressive.