Buy 920 now?

[MrMilney]

I'll be building a new system in November or December and I'm wondering if I should buy a Core i7 920 now before they are phased out? Does anyone really think that either the i5's or the i9's will offer the same kind of bang-for-the-buck that the i7 920 does today?

 

[Zensal]

For a typical desktop user, the only reason to buy a X58, i7 920 is for the dual 16x PCI-E lanes, especially now since Lynnfield is so close. Tri-channel ram shows almost no improvement in desktop applications or games.

i7 870 will be cheaper and almost as fast. And if you overclock, Anand has hinted that overclocking performance will be good. P55 will also have lower cost mobos, and lower TDPs.

 

[monovillage]

The i7 870 LGA1156 should retail at about $550+. You can get an i7 920 LGA1366, motherboard and RAM for about the same price. Prices should be running i5 750 for about $200, i5 860 for about $280. I don't see any advantage to getting the LGA1156 motherboards over the LGA1366 except about a $50-$75 cost savings (not counting mATX or the high end motherboards). Get the 920 DO stepping.

 

[Shmee]

ya, if you can get the D0 920 for 200 at a microcenter, go for it, especially if you plan on a multi card setup in the future. Or wait for the 1156 platform to mature a bit and come down in price, at least for the processors.

 

[Axon]

IMO, the only reason to hold out for the new i7s is because of the 1156 socket. 1366 will likely become the home for the more extreme, bleeding edge $500+ CPUs in the future. Nonetheless, I feel confident that my i7 920 will last me for at least 18 months...and even if I went in on a cheaper i5 or the mid-level 1156 i7 when it comes out next week, after 18 months I'll probably be looking for a new motherboard/cpu combo anyway.

With that said, I adore the Crossfire/SLI capacity of my X58 motherboard. So there are pluses and minuses in each. I don't think you can really go wrong either way...it's just about what fits you right.

 

[Jumpem]

I'd wait for the s1156 reviews on the 8th. Seems like the i7 860 may be the better way to go.

 

[faxon]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
I'd wait for the s1156 reviews on the 8th. Seems like the i7 860 may be the better way to go.

yea its 2.93GHz for $289, with $140-160 being the sweet spot for boards, ram is the same price per gig but 33% cheaper since you are buying dual channel kits, and the CPUs have lower stock TDPs so overclocking headroom will be higher. if you REALLY need extra PCI-e lanes, evga will have launch boards with NF200 chips, and MSI will have launch boards with the hydra 100 chip built in as well. seeing as how the hydra 100 is supposed to be the holy grail of multi GPU scaling i think it is worth at least waiting for benchmarks of it before buying. it's not like 920s are going to instantly evaporate on the 8th, palo alto frys alone has an entire shelf in back with 50 D0 920s packed 8/17/09, and for the cost of the CPU plus shipping i could be convinced to buy a few for ATers here if microcenter runs out. as is, im not even sure if intel is really discontinuing the 920s anymore. i asked about it today in our video conference with intel and gigabyte and the intel rep said they would still be in the retail channel for some time, so it looks like you should be good for a while at least

 

[MrMilney]

OK, thanks all who replied. I think I'll hold off and see what the i5's have to offer.

 

[imported_Shaq]

Good idea to wait a week. If the i5 OC's about the same go with the i7.

 

[Sylvanas]

I was fed up waiting and I wanted a stable, proven platform that OC's well. A week ago I got this setup running and I couldn't be happier- it's great!

 

[taltamir]

4 days till NDA lifts... i am not doing ANYTHING until i read a few benchmarks!

 

[GEOrifle]

I'm waithing for x55 release because it will push prices down on all x58 motherboards...
and then here you go my i7 920 D0 CPU+150WD WCR, 1Tb WD Blk, 6GB OCZ XMP and probably XFX 4890+ ASUS P6TD Deluxe ...

 

[dagamer34]

I'm surprised most websites are respecting the NDA. I guess they want Intel to keep giving them free sample chips for benchmarks!