Some help with processors please...

like i said im not a hardware engineer but im fairly certian that the tripple channel ram accounts for the slower speeds because there is another physical channel

something like 500x2=1000 and 400x3=1200

400 is less than 500 but if you have three channels your total is higher


edit: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/16..._it/index.html

We have seen today that dual channel memory on the Core i7 is more than enough to keep it fed with bandwidth, especially since the CPU and memory are communicating with each other directly. There is very little lost bandwidth and it makes better use of all of the dual channel memory than the triple channel memory. However, with Intel’s plans to increase speeds and allow heavier memory usage, especially with IGP based systems, the extra bandwidth will end up being welcomed.

Our moral to this story is if you’re planning on a Core i7 system, don’t just go out and buy triple channel memory straight away. If your budget allows for it, then by all means more memory will help, especially in Vista. However, with today’s results you can see that dual channel memory is more than capable of keeping up with the Core i7.

the 930 is a great choice and while you may not max it out right away, you will be set for the future

good choice

yeah i was going to suggest an I5 if it were just for general gaming but for cad etc i7 is the way to go as you can take advantage of the hyper-threading and tripple channel memory

To back-off or loosen the RAM timings.

If the RAM stock timings are 8-8-8-22, to back-off or loosen you might go to 9-9-9-24.

This is just an example.

You will not notice the difference in performance, you might see it in a benchmark number.

You can adjust your RAM timings and voltages in BIOS on a custom built system.

OEMs do not allow you to do this, there is no option in BIOS to adjust many things including RAM settings.

If you're planning to build a computer, go to the website of your choosen motherboard and D/L the manual.
Go to the BIOS section and you will see many pages of setting locations, it will be intimidating at first, there are usually a few sections that you will need to set initially.

You can get help/advice for the BIOS settings.

If you're planning on getting an OEM (Acer, DELL, HP, etc.) they will have the system setup and running before you buy it.
You won't have to worry about the RAM issues discussed above.
That's the good part but, with most OEM systems you will not be able to overclock anything as they don't allow it.
There are a few OEM system that will let you have access to some of the settings but not as many as the custom built systems.

Are you planning on building a system or getting an OEM?