CPU + MOBO purchase predicament

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iDenTiTy

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Hi guys.
Please help me, as I am slightly confused and "op ge***"..
:o

I am in the process of upgrading my current C2D system to a new(er) Quad.

I am looking at the following:

(A)

AMD PhenomII 955BE
ASUS Crosshair III
4GB Corsair DDR3
Above @ +- R7000
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OR

(B)

Intel i7 920
ASUS P6T
6GB OCZ DDR3
Above @+- R8000
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My question is:

Does triple channel ram really justify the price diff. to dual channel?
Since the P6T costs R3000 - Is it stable? Will it allow overclocking to 3.0Ghz?
Will I notice a difference in games if I use the same videocard (4850) in both systems?
Is the pairing of the P6T + i7 920 really worth the R1000 difference?

Bearing in mind that I plan to use the system for gaming + movies etc. + development (.NET + ADOBE Livecycle (it's requiement is min. 3GB RAM).
Click to expand...

OH, and I don't plan on Crossing fires or slaying anything... (:D)

The reason I chose the CrosshairIII for the AMD, is because I place emphasis on a very good board first, then CPU later.

My cost cap is R8000. No ifs-or-buts.
I am also planning on selling my current CPU + MOBO + RAM to cover the costs.

They are:

ASUS P5NSLI-E
Core2 Duo E6420 + GeminII cpu cooler
Standard DDR2-667 (2x1GB)
Click to expand...

Thank you guys, for you inputs.
:)
 
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Otherwise, should I just upgrade the current motherboard? Max cpu it will take is a Q6600, though?

See what I mean by a predicament?

:D
 
Well it depends what you want to do with pc hey, if your going ddr 3 you may as well go for the 920 as it does everything really well compared to the amd who keeps up in terms of gaming but heavy cpu stuff i7 is king.

If it is just for everyday computer stuff and gaming get whatever is cheaper.
 
killadoob said:
Well it depends what you want to do with pc hey, if your going ddr 3 you may as well go for the 920 as it does everything really well compared to the amd who keeps up in terms of gaming but heavy cpu stuff i7 is king.

If it is just for everyday computer stuff and gaming get whatever is cheaper.
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Would you perhaps know if the i7 has optimised XML processing?
We are going to be doing some ultra heavy dev stuff. One of which is an educational 3d game (a la Kings quest - type, using HLSL)..

Would you go with AMD and ultra highend mobo, or Intel with highend cpu, but low(ish)-end mobo?

:confused:
 
You don't need such a high end board. Just get a 790 and sb750 board.

Also ddr3 has almost no performance increase over ddr2. So you can get 8gigs ddr2 if you want, if you use a 64bit os.

You can take that 955 to around 4Ghz, probably higher.
 
Qwikslver said:
You don't need such a high end board. Just get a 790 and sb750 board.

Also ddr3 has almost no performance increase over ddr2. So you can get 8gigs ddr2 if you want, if you use a 64bit os.

You can take that 955 to around 4Ghz, probably higher.
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Hmm. Thank you kind Sir!

My only worry is that the 955BE is only R200 cheaper than the i7 920..
:o

I hate being in this situation. Between a rock and a hard place, I say.
:D
 
Take the i7 bud, it has 8 processing threads with HT turned on and will be better in the long run. I would still steer clear of AMD until they have caught up properly with Intel.
 
I got the i7-920. It runs like a dream. Everything is blindingly fast - even Windows!

I was also umming and aahing about getting it - but at the end of the day it only costs a little extra and I don't think I will have to upgrade for like another 5 years!
 
iDenTiTy said:
Would you perhaps know if the i7 has optimised XML processing?
We are going to be doing some ultra heavy dev stuff. One of which is an educational 3d game (a la Kings quest - type, using HLSL)..

Would you go with AMD and ultra highend mobo, or Intel with highend cpu, but low(ish)-end mobo?

:confused:
Click to expand...

For that go intel i7 man, you don't really get low end i7 mobo's.

Like the core 2 series you get mobo's for 400 bucks i think the cheapest i7 mobo is about 2.5k

I am still amazed quik recommends amd for cpu intensive tasks, i7 is actually not that much more than amd these days and ddr 3 is very cheap now so go i7, if your just going to game go with amd.
 
killadoob said:
For that go intel i7 man, you don't really get low end i7 mobo's.

Like the core 2 series you get mobo's for 400 bucks i think the cheapest i7 mobo is about 2.5k

I am still amazed quik recommends amd for cpu intensive tasks, i7 is actually not that much more than amd these days and ddr 3 is very cheap now so go i7, if your just going to game go with amd.
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What bothers me though, is that there is not a single i7 motherboard available with 2 lan ports, for less than 5k.
I am connected to 2 networks so I need 2 lan ports.

I found and AMD board for 2,5k (MSI 790FX-GD70).
Why, oh why are they reducing the number of ports on new boards?
 
Hmmm you sure check this out :

P6T ASUS Intel X58, LGA1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 6xTriple DDR3 2000(O.C), 3xPCI-x16(CrossFire & SLI), 1xPCI-x1, 2xPCI, 6xSATAII(Raid 0,1,5,10), 2x eSATA, 2xGbe Lan, 8ch-Sound HD, Max 12xUSB, 2xIEEE1394, ATX R 2,498 excl. R 2,847 incl.

2.8k with 2 gb lan ports.

www.pcint.co.za
 
killadoob said:
Hmmm you sure check this out :

P6T ASUS Intel X58, LGA1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 6xTriple DDR3 2000(O.C), 3xPCI-x16(CrossFire & SLI), 1xPCI-x1, 2xPCI, 6xSATAII(Raid 0,1,5,10), 2x eSATA, 2xGbe Lan, 8ch-Sound HD, Max 12xUSB, 2xIEEE1394, ATX R 2,498 excl. R 2,847 incl.

2.8k with 2 gb lan ports.

www.[B]pcint[/B].co.za
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off topic:

Lol...just trying to phone them now...seems they only open at 9 because their method of not responding to calls before 9 is by picking up the phone and then putting it down in your ear! Nice...:rolleyes:

/off topic.
 
here's some benchmarks: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/charts/index.php?pid=69,71,76,77&tid=all
920 more or less consistently outperforms the 955 at all levels, though 955 overclocked can overcome the 920, esp in gaming applications. So it is worth the extra money, the question is do you have an extra 1k to spend? If so then go i7, it will be the standard for cpu high performance for a good few years to come - especially with Intel downscaling processor ranges; ie i5, i3.

Dual vs triple channel: http://www.ninjalane.com/articles/general_information/dualvtriple

Conclusion is that yes, triple channel makes a difference on certain benchmarks. IMO if you are going with i7, you may as well plump out on 6gb - there is no point getting the top processor if you don't utilize it to the capacity.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_p6t/
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/asus_p6t_review/

ASUS has really nailed it with the P6T. While it may not have all the gee-whiz features found on the P6T Deluxe, nor the bling of the Rampage Extreme II, this board still delivers nicely for its class of X58 motherboards.
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However, remember that your bottleneck will be your graphics card for gaming applications. 955 vs 920 with the same gpu will perform roughly the same till you get to extreme multi-gpu levels. So you will have an unbalanced system if you spend too much on a cpu and skimp on the graphics card, where you could go cheaper on the cpu and put the savings into the graphics card. Also AMD will eventually release an AM3 processor that surpasses the 920, at which point you may be able to upgrade everything - but your GPU will go out of date faster than your processor.
 
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Good point the above poster made. Getting the 955 gives you extra cash to put into a graphics card.
 
Well actually if I was in that situation I'd get a 920 and a cheaper graphics card and save money for a 5870/gtx380/whatever the nomenclature is of the dx11 cards. In any case you are going to want to upgrade when those hit, so just live with a 4850 for now, sell it for R900.

On the other hand do you really want to have to keep buying a new processor in 1 1/2 years as well? Rather get 920 imo.
 
cerebus said:
Well actually if I was in that situation I'd get a 920 and a cheaper graphics card and save money for a 5870/gtx380/whatever the nomenclature is of the dx11 cards. In any case you are going to want to upgrade when those hit, so just live with a 4850 for now, sell it for R900.

On the other hand do you really want to have to keep buying a new processor in 1 1/2 years as well? Rather get 920 imo.
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Yip. I already have the other stuff (4850 etc.), so my only gripe is the mobo, cpu and ram.

I see the P6T is fast, but is it STABLE? I mean it's no use it runs like a bat out of hell, but is finnicky with ram etc..
 
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