if you could choose

techead

techead

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If you could choose, would you go for

an i7 860

OR

and i7 920

the 860 is slightly cheaper, and the mobo + RAM would be cheaper too

im stuck in a bit of a dilemma regarding the route to take.. P55 vs X58 whether there is THAT much performance difference compared to the price

im a gamer, I like to play with eye candy on, and I play at 1680*1050
 
Hmmm, it is a tough choice really, but this is what sold me for x58 over the p55:

1.) X58 has the triple channel memory (negligable gaming improvement, but can be usefull in other tasks)
2.) X58 has full 16x sli, while the p55 will only perform in 8x when in sli
3.)The socket size 1366 is the route intel will go for their future high end CPU's
4.) i7-920 D0 stepping... this CPU is the cream of the crop IMO.

Personally I believe it is quite easy to build a rig that will handle the same in games as a 920 build, but the price would be so close to a 920 build and you would be sacrifcing a fair amount. I mean no real path for dual GPU's, only dual channel memory instead of triple channel and of course the new core 6 CPU's will be 1366 so you a bit stuck with CPU upgrade path.

Obviously this is my OPINION and based on the minor comparisons i have done between the chipsets over the past few months, but in all honesty i was sold on the 920 from the day they released the D0 stepping.

For interest sake i have just made a purchase for the following:

i7-920
Asus P6t Deluxe v2
OCZ low latency CL7 1600mhz ram 6GB kit

The above cost a little over 7k, but in all fairness you could have gotten a cheaper mobo and brought that price down to roughly 6k so IMO not a bad upgrade for 6k.

Post the specs you were looking at for the p55 build and maybe we can find a similar x58 build for you.
 
Dude get the 860.

Games require good gpu for eye candy not so much cpu anymore, you could even get away with an amd system for gaming and get a better gpu or something.

Amd 965 plus a good mobo and memory would be far cheaper and also a great system for gaming.
 
Get the 1366 dude, that's better for future proofing and you can even get away with a bottom of the range P6T.

The best so far is the P6T V1, I have also had the R2E which in awesome.
 
info overload... LOL :D

socket 1156 has a memory controller speed of 1333mhz


What does the socket 1366 have? 1600mhz?
 
I actually believe it is officially 1066 MHZ, but i wouldn't put too much stock into those "official" memory ratings as i know for a fact that the 1366 has achieved up to 2133 MHZ
 
"Perhaps this is a bit anticlimactic, but the Core i7 860 performs exactly where you'd expect it to. It's faster than a Core i5 750, faster than a Core i7 920 and slower than a Core i7 870. As I noted in The Lynnfield Follow Up, overclocking is much easier on Bloomfield (LGA-1366) thanks to the absence of an on-die PCIe controller. It's not impossible on Lynnfield, it's just effortless on Bloomfield."

It's quite clear that the 860 is quicker than the 920... especially in games.

and Im a gamer

so what would the point be of going 920 unless its THAT easy to OC ?

I dont feel like OC'ing :confused:
 
if you have a d0 stepping 920, OCing is very easy at low voltages. even on air i have seen people doing 3.2GHz.

on my asus p6t deluxe v2 board, it would be a matter of setting the BIOS to 20x160. that easy.
 
milomak said:
if you have a d0 stepping 920, OCing is very easy at low voltages. even on air i have seen people doing 3.2GHz.

on my asus p6t deluxe v2 board, it would be a matter of setting the BIOS to 20x160. that easy.
Click to expand...

uhm dude... the 920 d0 stepping can reach well beyond 3.2GHZ... do you perhaps mean 4.2 GHZ... and yes, even on air. In fact I remember seeing someone on this very forumn with a 920 clocked at 4.5 GHZ in their signature.
 
rtzouves said:
uhm dude... the 920 d0 stepping can reach well beyond 3.2GHZ... do you perhaps mean 4.2 GHZ... and yes, even on air. In fact I remember seeing someone on this very forumn with a 920 clocked at 4.5 GHZ in their signature.
Click to expand...

sorry i meant 3.2GHz on stock cooling.

EDIT: I've got my C0 stepping running at 3.8GHz with an H50 cooler. It's also situated in a fairly warm room.
 
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Uhm, Itai no offence to your site or anything, but the advice in that article is just a little too simple and would likely result is some heavy damage to the components if someone were to follow it and try to keep it as a sustained overclock.

The i7-920 has a locked multiplier and as a result the only way to overclock is by changing the BCLK, the article got this right, but failed to mention that changing the BCLK would result in every other component linked to the BCLK being overclocked as well.

IE, you would have to make darn sure to reduce the memory multipliers to something stable as having it at the stock multiplier would like result in somebody super overclocking their ram.

You would also have to make pretty darn sure you don't leave voltages on auto as pushing the BCLK clock up would mean most boards would attempt to give all components linked to the BCLK more juice, which is potentially unsafe especially at 200MHZ.

For those interested here is a more comprehensive guide to safely overclocking your i7 920: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-920-overclocking_2.html#sect0
 
I didn't write it ... The_Techie did ... I was just showing the article ... my point was the i7 920 was a great overclocker ... never said the other components were good overclockers too. As he says, if you plan to overclock CPU, make darn sure the rest of components can too.
 
Look, I have the I7 920D and am very happy, but if its for gaming, save money on on the cpu, ram, mobo and go for the 860 and use the money saved to get a faster graphics solution, where you'll actually really seen enough of a difference.
 
rtzouves said:
Uhm, Itai no offence to your site or anything, but the advice in that article is just a little too simple and would likely result is some heavy damage to the components if someone were to follow it and try to keep it as a sustained overclock.

The i7-920 has a locked multiplier and as a result the only way to overclock is by changing the BCLK, the article got this right, but failed to mention that changing the BCLK would result in every other component linked to the BCLK being overclocked as well.

IE, you would have to make darn sure to reduce the memory multipliers to something stable as having it at the stock multiplier would like result in somebody super overclocking their ram.

You would also have to make pretty darn sure you don't leave voltages on auto as pushing the BCLK clock up would mean most boards would attempt to give all components linked to the BCLK more juice, which is potentially unsafe especially at 200MHZ.

For those interested here is a more comprehensive guide to safely overclocking your i7 920: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-920-overclocking_2.html#sect0
Click to expand...

The article was meant as a showcase of what speeds can be achieved with the Intel Core i7 920, not as a guide on how to achieve a stable subsystem at that speed.

Also, at 200MHz my voltages (all on Auto save for CPU voltage) are still within Intel's recommended range (though Auto voltages will differ between motherboards).
 
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