1156 vs 1366 for $1200 and $2500 i7 builds

[Saidai no]

Hi,

I'm going to buy a system for development and virtualization. I don't know exactly how much money I'll have at the moment, it can be either $1200 or $2500. This won't be a gaming system, but there will be two monitors with 2048x1152 resolution. Also I want to have some experiments with OpenCL, so integrated video won't be enough. I'm going to build it in September, parts will be bought in Russia. And the last requirement is that system must be as quiet as possible without serious performance hit.

I've prepared four variants of build ($1200 and $2500 based on LGA1156 and LGA1366) and want some criticism. And the most important question is which platform is more preferable in each price category.

$1200-build:
Common:

Case    CoolerMaster Sileo 500 with 500W PSU
VGA     PowerColor Radeon HD5670 Silent 1024Mb GDDR5 (one of my monitors have only D-sub video-in)
HDD     1Tb WD Caviar Green 64Mb (with IntelliPower)
Cooler   Scythe Mugen2 RevB

LGA1366:

MB      Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU     Intel Core i7 930
RAM     OCZ Gold LowVoltage 3x2Gb 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

LGA1156:

MB     Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
CPU    Intel Core i7 875K (it have 2-2-4-5 TurboBoost)
RAM    OCZ Gold LowVoltage 2x2Gb 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

LGA1156-build is slightly cheaper, so it'll be probably possible to buy either SSD (OCZ Vertex2 40-60Gb) or RAM (2x1-2Gb), which one should I choose?

$2000:
Common:

Case   CoolerMaster Sileo 500 without PSU
PSU    CoolerMaster Silent Pro 600W
VGA    Sapphire Radeon HD5850 1024Mb GDDR5
HDD    2Tb WD Caviar Green 64Mb
SSD    OCZ Vertex2 90-120Gb
Cooler Scythe Mugen2 RevB

LGA1366:

MB   Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU  Intel Core i7 960
RAM  OCZ Gold LowVoltage 3x2Gb 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

LGA1156:

MB    Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4
CPU   Intel Core i7 880 or 875K
RAM   2xOCZ Gold LowVoltage 2x2Gb 1600MHz 8-8-8-24

Probably in the last variant it'll be possible to get 2x4+2x2Gb RAM.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Blain]

"OCZ Gold LowVoltage 2x2Gb 1600MHz 8-8-8-24"

1.65v is "Low Voltage"?!?!?!?!? 😵
As Charlie Murphy says... "WRONG"

Don't buy into OCZ's "low voltage" marketing pitch.
The JEDEC DDR3 voltage standard is 1.5v. Both G.Skill and Mushkin make memory at that speed rated to run at 1.35v.
For OCZ or anyone to call DDR3 @ 1.65v "low voltage" is ridiculous. 🙄


BTW, Are those prices in US dollars or Rubles?

 

[Cerb]

PSU: for your budget, get a nicer PSU, such as a Seasonic or Corsair.

Drive: don't get a green for anything but data storage. A Caviar Green, and a SSD, will be an OK combo, but it should not be your system drive. For a main system drive, as long as you have soft HDD mounting, try a Samsung F3 (the Sileo might be OK, using the bottom drive cage--depends on how anal you are about noise).

RAM: got any reasonably-priced A-Data, G.Skill, Crucial (Rendition?), Kingston, or Corsair available?

If you want to do much w/ OpenCL, ATI pretty much requires that you stick to beta drivers. nVidia has the best and widest support of anyone, right now. For silence, a passive 9800GT could do the job. For reasonable performance, maybe a GTX 460 768MB, w/ reference cooler? Or, the upcoming MSI HAWK version of the 460...or a 450, in the very near future. A GT 240, or 9600GT, if you find passive ones (they do exist), could also be options, to keep things quiet.

Also, case fans to consider:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/080/sy1225sl12hpvc_detail.html
http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-120mm-pwm-fan-ultra-quiet.htm

 

[Saidai no]

Blain,
Thanks for information 🙂
Mm, sorry, don't understand about prices =(

Cerb,
RAM: Kingston KHX1600C9D3LK2/4GX will be ok?

VGA: I'll use Mac OS X, and, afaik, for OS X there are stable drivers with OpenCL support.

HDD: Thanks for advice, will choose Spinpoint F3.

PSU: Something like SeaSonic S12II SS-500GB?

I'm not silence maniac, just want to have rather quiet system (I sleep in the same room) 🙂 So, probably I'll try fans which come with case first



And what do you think about CPU, especially for $1200 build?

 

[Cerb]

Kingston RAM should be good. If your budget has room to spare, and the OS will be 64-bit, also consider going with a 2x4GB kit.

VGA: I'll use Mac OS X, and, afaik, for OS X there are stable drivers with OpenCL support.

So it's going to be a hackintosh?

PSU: Something like SeaSonic S12II SS-500GB?

Yes. With a Radeon HD 5850 or GTX 460 1GB, it would even be able to stand some mild OC, without going beyond its comfort zone. That said, for non-gaming, do some detailed research on what your needs might be, regarding GPGPU. I can't seem to confirm whether newer Radeons or Geforce cards will, under OS X, use OpenCL.

I'm not silence maniac, just want to have rather quiet system (I sleep in the same room) 🙂 So, probably I'll try fans which come with case first

With the CPU cooler you've chosen, and some Slipstreams, in that case...the video card and HDD should be the only things even audible from more than maybe 6 feet away, unless you are in the boonies (especially with slowed-down Slipstreams). If it's not good enough out of the box, make such case and HSF fans your next step.

Also, spend a few bucks more for a video card with a cooler that has a big heatsink, and big axial fan, rather than blower type, or small HSF. Sapphire's Vapor-X models are particularly good, for AMD cards.

And what do you think about CPU, especially for $1200 build?

Depends on how much it costs, where you are. With your budget, make sure to get a real quad (minimum i5 760), and look at (a) performance benchmarks from reliable reviews, (b) turbo speed (max single-core), and (c) non-turbo speed (all cores active--generally the advertised speed). Since your $1200 is as fast as it is...just fit whatever you can in your budget, as long as you don't go overboard, into CPUs that are far more expensive than the next model down, for almost no gain (i7 970, FI).

If you definitely plan to OC, the K model (875K) gives you an easy path to your best speeds, and doesn't cost a mint. At current prices, being a 95W stock part, and so little extra money for having an unlocked multiplier...it's hard to argue against, if you are open to overclocking.

 

[mfenn]

AFAIK, NVidia has much better performance under OpenCL than ATI (especially the Fermi-derived parts).

At $1200, I would definitely go with the 875K. At $2500, you have enough budget so that it doesn't matter as much, but I would probably still go with LGA1156 and toss in some extra RAM.

 

[Saidai no]

Cerb,

So it's going to be a hackintosh?

Yes, but there shouldn't be any problems with this build. Just some restrictions (e.g. don't ever think about waiting for AMD 6xxx GPU and so on 🙂

...it's hard to argue against, if you are open to overclocking.

Ok, I hope it'll be possible to get about 10% speed with fan in passive mode 🙂

mfenn,
With $1200 (so, video card should be about $150) it's almost impossible to get something better than GT 240, and 5670 is better in all benchmarks I've found. As for OpenCL — I haven't found any benchmarks for Mac OS X.

2all: Thanks a lot!

 

[mfenn]

mfenn,
With $1200 (so, video card should be about $150) it's almost impossible to get something better than GT 240, and 5670 is better in all benchmarks I've found. As for OpenCL — I haven't found any benchmarks for Mac OS X.

Are there no GTS 250's available to you? It should be around $100 and is about 25% faster than a 5670 in games.