Help me decide......920 or 860

[korndawg]

I'm sure this has been asked 10000 times, but I'll ask again I ran into a situation where someone wants to buy my current E8400 cpu, Asus P5K mobo and my memory. I agreed to sell it and upgrade to the i7 on the cheap. However, I'm stuck on which one to buy. I'm headed to a Microcenter this weekend (2hrs away) to pick up one of them. I'm not a big gamer, only play WoW, iracing, and GTA4, as I will be keeping my current 4850 graphics card. Besides those games, I heavily use my PC to transcode BD rips on the fly to my PS3 using PSMS, in which my current CPU struggles. If I'm not a huge gamer, and prolly not gonna OC, which is the best CPU combo to get? The 860 combo will cost me ~150 less than a 920. I build a new PC around ever ~3 years, so I'm not a huge 'enthusiast'. I know the 1366 mobo are better due to SLI and trichannel memory, but is that really necessary? I never plan on SLI anyways. Opinions? Thanks.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

If you have access to a Microcenter, definitely get the 920. As far as boards go, the Gigabyte UD3R clocks just as well as the best of them (running my 920 @ 4.1GHz).

 

[Maximilian]

920, better platform.

 

[Termie]

I made the switch from the e8400 to an i7-860 and I'm happy. I could have got a 920 at MC, but I chose 860 for two reasons: (1) cheaper platform costs, which you know about, and (2) much lower power use. My system idles at 107w. No 920 system will touch that, and it was important to me. You've said that you're not a huge gamer or overclocker...for you, the 860 is the better choice. You also get the better turbo modes in the 860, making it faster than a 920 at stock speeds.

 

[sgrinavi]

If you are not going to OC then the 860 is a better performer across the board.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=108&p2=47&c=1

 

[klocwerk]

Sitting on the same question myself, looking to upgrade from my olde skool Opteron 939.

I'm probably going 920, because it uses the 1366 socket instead of the 1156 socket. It's looking like the 1366 will be the more upgradeable socket down the road, and the 1156 will fizzle sooner. For me that means I'll be able to pickup a cheap upgrade processor in 2-3 years and get more life out of this rig.
That said, I'm waiting until I can get a (reasonably priced) motherboard with USB3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s for the best chance of longevity for the mobo.

Current bang for buck, definitely go 860. It's the sweet spot of price/performance at the moment, but you may end up getting stuck with an obsolete socket in a year or two.

Ya pays yer monies and takes yer picks...

 

[korndawg]

Only thing I'm worried about is this: how do we know that the 1366 socket won't be obsolete in 2-3 years? And will today's 1366 mobo's be viable still?

 

[korndawg]

Here is the price rundown of the 860 vs 920. All prices are after rebates.

920:
CPU: $200
EVGA1 41-BL-E757-TR mobo: $200
OCZ Gold 6gb DDR31600: $140
Total = $540

860:
CPU: $230
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3: $120
OCZ Gold 4GB DDR31600: $80
Total: $430

 

[SkuLLyRT]

Went from a E8400 to i7 860 just like Termie for the exact same reasons as Termie. I spent like 3 hours pacing back and forth at Microcenter with my Droid loaded to Anand / Newegg / etc. but ultimately went with the 860 because of platform cost and features. I won't be using SLI/XFire (though it does work well enough on the P55 chipset), and USB3/SATA6 aren't a huge deal to me. By the time I've got devices for those, I'll be building a new computer anyway. Likewise, Intel seems to change sockets often enough that I'll end up buying a new mobo/CPU when I need to upgrade.

The added money I would have spent on an X58 motherboard and triple channel RAM went straight into my video card / monitor fund.

 

[klocwerk]

Only thing I'm worried about is this: how do we know that the 1366 socket won't be obsolete in 2-3 years? And will today's 1366 mobo's be viable still?

You can never know for sure, but looking at the Intel roadmaps my money's on the 1366 being around longer than the 1156, and we also know it'll get the 6-core chips that are dropping this spring.

If you're buying for the here-and-now, do the 860.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Only thing I'm worried about is this: how do we know that the 1366 socket won't be obsolete in 2-3 years? And will today's 1366 mobo's be viable still?

Well, the new hex-cores are supported on all X58 boards with a BIOS update (at least true for the Gigabytes).

 

[Alienwho]

Price concerns? Check
No overclock? Check
Don't care about SLI? Check

You are the perfect candidate for the 860. This coming from a 920 guy.

 

[2March]

Here is the price rundown of the 860 vs 920. All prices are after rebates.

920:
CPU: $200
EVGA1 41-BL-E757-TR mobo: $200
OCZ Gold 6gb DDR31600: $140
Total = $540

860:
CPU: $230
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3: $120
OCZ Gold 4GB DDR31600: $80
Total: $430

Why putting 6 Gb on the 920 and only 4 Gb on the 860? No wonder it's cheaper...

There is no law forcing anyone to fill all three channels for Bloomfield.

 

[Jd007]

If you plan to run SLI/CrossFire, go for X58 + 920. Otherwise P55 + 860 is better (lower power consumption).

 

[korndawg]

Why putting 6 Gb on the 920 and only 4 Gb on the 860? No wonder it's cheaper...

There is no law forcing anyone to fill all three channels for Bloomfield.

Good point. At first I was under the impression that the x58 doesn't do dual channel, only triple. Now that I know that that's not the case, the decision got more interesting As far as OC, I wouldn't mind doing a safe/easy OC on either one. 3.8ghz ok enough?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Good point. At first I was under the impression that the x58 doesn't do dual channel, only triple. Now that I know that that's not the case, the decision got more interesting As far as OC, I wouldn't mind doing a safe/easy OC on either one. 3.8ghz ok enough?

If you have a D0 chip, shouldn't be too hard. Darned near any decent board will do 200MHz BCLK. This fits nicely with DDR3-1600 RAM and will allow you to get up to 4.2GHz (21x200). So it pretty much depends on how much voltage you're willing to tolerate and how good your chip is.

 

[korndawg]

I'd like to stick with stock voltages if I can. Never OC'ed before so i don't wanna mess up and fry my new stuff

 

[ElFenix]

Here is the price rundown of the 860 vs 920. All prices are after rebates.

920:
CPU: $200
EVGA1 41-BL-E757-TR mobo: $200
OCZ Gold 6gb DDR31600: $140
Total = $540

860:
CPU: $230
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3: $120
OCZ Gold 4GB DDR31600: $80
Total: $430

anyone else find it annoying that 6GB kits cost more per GB than 4GB kits?

 

[bob5568]

I'm probably going 920, because it uses the 1366 socket instead of the 1156 socket. It's looking like the 1366 will be the more upgradeable socket down the road, and the 1156 will fizzle sooner. For me that means I'll be able to pickup a cheap upgrade processor in 2-3 years and get more life out of this rig.

Pray tell, what processor do you imagine being "cheap" that will be an upgrade to 920 in 2-3 years?

 

[phatphoeater]

if you have a fry's nearby, i just picked up an 860/biostar xfire-sli combo up for $260 after MIR. This board apparently does x8/x8 for crossfire. makes the cost differential more significant over the x58 platform. I was mulling the same decision. The MC is about 15 mins further from Fry's and had the 920 for $200. x58 mobos are too expensive for non-sli/oc gaming.

 

[klocwerk]

Pray tell, what processor do you imagine being "cheap" that will be an upgrade to 920 in 2-3 years?

Well let's see, the Core2 Quad Q6600 released about 3 years ago at $850-ish. Can be had as we speak on the FS/FT forum for under $150.

What procs are about to drop for around a grand that will play nice in a 1366 chipset? Oh right, those shiny new hexes... that I'll be happy to pick up relatively cheap in 2-3 years. Let alone something that launches a year from now and I can pick up used a year or two after that... I think it's a perfectly valid consideration.

 

[bob5568]

sure, I wish you luck. My sense of this is folks always overvalue future upgrade concepts. Imagine that I save money on an 1156 mobo/cpu now. I won't state a value, cuz it always makes folks defensive. But we both know there is some savings. You chose to buy x58 and not save whatever that amount was and you did that so you could have cheaper upgrades in the future.

Ok...now its 3 years later. We both plan to install a hexcore.

You smile as you are able to avoid the cost of a motherboard, I must buy an x58 motherboard. You are counting on price reductions on the CPU....doncha think the same notion applies to the mobo? So my purchase of the x58 motherboard will be made at a price lower than you bought and I'll be spending money three years after you, so I'll have had the use of that money in the interem.

Wouldn't it be a reasonable approximation that the money I save now, which gained 3-8% per year over three years would be about what I need to buy the 3 year old x58 board?

Its got to be so close as to render moot any decisions based on upgrade path.

 

[n7]

Based on your needs, i7 860, or save a few bux & get the X3440.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117225&cm_re=x3440-_-19-117-225-_-Product

 

[Bladen]

The i7 930 should be out soon.

In Australia smaller sellers have already broken the release date (which is today from where I type this).

I plan to get one when I get a new system in a month or so.

 

[Voo]

Wouldn't it be a reasonable approximation that the money I save now, which gained 3-8% per year over three years would be about what I need to buy the 3 year old x58 board?

And you could still sell your old MB + CPU for some bucks and I'd assume that in 3years you would get solid USB3 and SATA3 support on every midclass mb out there which would be a nice plus.