Core i5 650 or i7 860?

[Traxan]

So I went shopping today. The i5 650 was $139 at Micro Center and a friend has spoken glowingly of it. But getting home and doing more Google searches, I'm wondering if the i7-860 is a better choice at $199. Benchmarks were way higher.

I don't intend to overclock and will only do some video editing (ie. running a messy video through TMPEng to try and clean it up) or MP3 ripping/conversion. after that it's general use and games.

I haven't started building yet, so a return is easy. What say you all?

Also, is the standard Intel heat sink ok? I got the hard sell for a third-party heat sink, as usual. Must be great margin on those accessories.

 

[alyarb]

the 860 is a much, much better value for the money. video encoding is an especially strong point for the i7 and an especially weak point for the dual core i5's.

the i5 650 is worth about $110 in my opinion (a $99 AMD quad is a faster encoder, for instance), and in your case its worth even less.

 

[Traxan]

Thanks al. That's a strong vote to make the trip back.

 

[ehume]

I just looked up Microcenter. $200 for an i7 860. Great price for a great chip. At $180 the i7 750 is not worth the savings.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Video encoding and mp3 encoding will go much faster on the 860. I'm surprised the i5-650 is selling for such a low price . . . normally prices in that range are reserved for i3s.

It is Microcenter though.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Love MC!

 

[Terzo]

Video encoding and mp3 encoding will go much faster on the 860. I'm surprised the i5-650 is selling for such a low price . . . normally prices in that range are reserved for i3s.

It is Microcenter though.

Yeah, they have some good processor deals. The i3-530 used to be $100, and at some point (must have been recent) they dropped it to $90. I don't know if it's a short term sale or an actual price drop.

 

[n7]

I'd definitely go i5-750 or i7-860 if at all possible.

Also, temps will be very warm w/ the stock cooler; even a cheaper aftermarket one would deliver much better temps & less fan noise.

 

[Traxan]

Interesting how a quad-core 2.8GHz Nehalem outperforms a dual-core 3.2GHz Westmere. And it's not like every app out there is running in parallel.

 

[lopri]

i7-860 @$199 is as good as it gets when it comes to perf/$$. Go for it.

 

[ehume]

I use Gigabyte motherboards with my 860. I think Anadtech did a review, and that and others pushed me to these boards.

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Core i7 860 most definitely. The extra $60 will buy you a whole lot of performance in everything besides gaming and IMHO is most definitely worth it.

 

[tweakboy]

The i7 is more powerful. End of story. Make your decision but I would go all out. Not a i5 ,,, grab a 920 i7 instead.



gl

 

[Phynaz]

Ignore tweakboy up there, he is full of wrong information.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

If you want the system to last, try to get as many cores/threads as possible. The i7 is a much better buy. Especially because it over clocks fine as well. At $200, the i7 is a STEAL. I paid that amount for my lower clocked quad just over a year ago.

 

[Gikaseixas]

i7 860 rules, you can't go wrong with it

 

[Traxan]

i7 860 rules, you can't go wrong with it

I got it over the weekend. Did the upgrade and it went without a hitch. I think I need to play with the BIOS more (Gigabyte P55A-UD3 mobo). Look at the core speed.

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's almost certainly due to EIST.

 

[Traxan]

Yeah I figured. But why is my PC-1600 memory registering at 667MHz?

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's a bit more curious. I don't know how Intel boards/memory controllers handle default memory ratios on current platforms (not being an owner of one), but if your board isn't utilizing some sort of xmp from the DIMMs, then it's probably defaulting to a conservative multiplier.

On my AM3 board, my DDR3-2200 would default to DDR3-1333 on my x4-635 and DDR3-1066 on my Sempron 140.

In other words, you will probably have to fiddle with your memory multiplier and/or BCLK to get your memory running at advertised speeds.

 

[mfenn]

DDR3 1333 is the max "officially supported" memory speed on the 860. It can handle DDR3 1600 no problem, but you just have to manually set it. If your RAM and Mobo both support XMP, you can also dial in the XMP profile which should set the speeds to DDR3 1600.

 

[ehume]

Heh. I've run my Ripjaws at 2000MHz, as they were designed. I've seen a report by a guy who ran them at 4150+. Then there are those sticks designed for 2200MHz and higher. They all work with the i7 860. But RAM speed makes little difference to performance, so I run mine under 1500MHz.

 

[Traxan]

I do this tweaking in the BIOS, correct? Yeah, I don't know much about this sort of stuff.

 

[Duvie]

I use Gigabyte motherboards with my 860. I think Anadtech did a review, and that and others pushed me to these boards.

I have been sold on gigabyte boards dating back to my first core 2 duo. My next system whether it be an i7 or a hexcore AMD will only be on a Gigabyte board.

 

[wfz]

I'm interested in i7 860 after reading this thread. Can you recommend a nice motherboard and RAM to go with it?

Thanks,