Question regarding Unicorn Chaud build this month

[Faaip]

Hi All,

This question is specified at Chaud specifically regarding his latest unicorn build. looks great, but i have found what might be a potential flaw.

the CPU you state is a Intel i7-2600k. the ram you specify is 8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800

Issue here is the CPU specified can only do DDR3-1066 AND 1333, not 1600 speed ram.

for reference.. edit: had to remove out intel link, but i just googled the cpu linked to amazon.

Question being, is this a mistake, or is the CPU still able to read the ram, but at a slower rate?

Thanks.

[Deleted]

The RAM will work with the CPU, it will just be clocked down to 1333

[vesseblah]

P67 chipset supports RAM up to 2133MHz, so having it higher speed than 1333MHz doesn't really hurt anything, but it wont do any good either unless you're overclocking.

Bigger problem in the Unicorn build is the Intel 320 SSD which is slower than the year old Vertex 2 in the Narwhal list.

[Faaip]

Cool - thought this may be the case. and realistically.. an i7 running at 3.4Ghz doesnt exactly need overclocking anyway. so im better off getting 1333ghz ram for cheaper, and saving a few pennies.

[vesseblah]

Cool - thought this may be the case. and realistically.. an i7 running at 3.4Ghz doesnt exactly need overclocking anyway. so im better off getting 1333ghz ram for cheaper, and saving a few pennies.

For WoW the faster clockspeed turns into faster minimum framerate in 25-man raids at 1:1 ratio. 10% overclock is 10% faster minimum fps you'll see while playing WoW, so it's not to be dismissed that easily. For other games it doesn't make that much difference.

Because of supply and demand you usually have best price/GB ratio with 1600MHz 2x4GB kits (mainly G.Skill brand), so there's no point to go for 1333MHz blindly. Instead look around for what's available in your area.

[chaud]

If you are wasting money on a 2600k already then you may as well get the 1600 RAM! 2500k is all that is really needed for gaming.

[Faaip]

fair enough, but i wont be using it for just gaming - also some virtualization i do on the side, but definately agreed chaud.

[vesseblah]

fair enough, but i wont be using it for just gaming - also some virtualization i do on the side, but definately agreed chaud.

HT processors are bad for virtualization, you need real cores for it.

[Faaip]

HT processors are bad for virtualization, you need real cores for it.

Somewhat Agreed and i wasnt explicitly implying otherwise, it was more about building an affordable rig that i can do a bit of gaming on, and also testing on, in which i think the unicorn build does do well! For the record in regards to virtualization, there is nothing wrong with hyperthreading when using esx, but i would never choose it over physical cores.Since about ESX 4.1 theyve made signficant improvements to the CPU scheduler that utilizes HT a lot better than it ever used to

Anyway! question answered and i thank you all for the help