High-cost p55 boards... worth it?

[Corsairs]

"Lower cost of entry" is often touted as a reason to go with an i7-860/p55 combo over in i7-920/x58 combo. However, there are a few high-end (and high-cost) p55 mobos out there. Boards like the ASUS P7P55D-E Premium and the MSI Big Bang Trinergy are pushing $300. In other words, they're in x58 territory cost-wise. Go this route and all of a sudden an 860/p55 combo may be more expensive.

Obviously the x58 platform has some inherent advantages like triple-channel memory and full 16x/16x PCI-e, so if you know you're going to need one of those features (if you're going to be using Crossfire, for instance) then the choice becomes pretty clear. Not everyone is going to be utilizing those features, however, and these high-end boards boast some seemingly impressive features of their own (extra OC controls, enhanced on-board sound, SLI capability in the case of the Trinergy).

So I'm curious. Do you take the view that, if you're going to spend all that money, you should be buying into the x58 platform? Or do you feel that the features being offered on these expensive p55 mobos justifies splurging on them?

 

[Zap]

Once cost overlaps, then IMO the higher end platform prevails. Since the 860 and 920 are around the same cost, at $300 I'm sure you can find higher end X58 boards with almost all features included. Only extra cost at that time would be the RAM, but then again you can run dual channel with two sticks if you really wanted to.

 

[Absolution75]

Once cost overlaps, then IMO the higher end platform prevails. Since the 860 and 920 are around the same cost, at $300 I'm sure you can find higher end X58 boards with almost all features included. Only extra cost at that time would be the RAM, but then again you can run dual channel with two sticks if you really wanted to.

+1

 

[cbn]

"Lower cost of entry" is often touted as a reason to go with an i7-860/p55 combo over in i7-920/x58 combo. However, there are a few high-end (and high-cost) p55 mobos out there. Boards like the ASUS P7P55D-E Premium and the MSI Big Bang Trinergy are pushing $300. In other words, they're in x58 territory cost-wise. Go this route and all of a sudden an 860/p55 combo may be more expensive.

Obviously the x58 platform has some inherent advantages like triple-channel memory and full 16x/16x PCI-e, so if you know you're going to need one of those features (if you're going to be using Crossfire, for instance) then the choice becomes pretty clear. Not everyone is going to be utilizing those features, however, and these high-end boards boast some seemingly impressive features of their own (extra OC controls, enhanced on-board sound, SLI capability in the case of the Trinergy).

So I'm curious. Do you take the view that, if you're going to spend all that money, you should be buying into the x58 platform? Or do you feel that the features being offered on these expensive p55 mobos justifies splurging on them?

X58 will definitely give you a better choice for stronger CPUs.

 

[Corsairs]

So I guess the consensus is to ditch the high-cost p55 boards and migrate over to x58 once mobo price begins to overlap. I'm a little surprised that no one spoke up in favor of the top-of-the-line p55 boards. Still, this isn't necessarily unwelcome advice for me. Based on my intended usage, I've set my minimum desired RAM for my new system at 6 GB. With x58 I can simply buy one kit and be done, but with p55 I'd have to buy two 4 GB kits.

So for my purposes, buying RAM for a new x58 board would be about $60 cheaper than for a p55 board. Throw in the fact that a new 920 CPU is $30 less than an 860 and all of a sudden I've got an extra $90 or so to play around with. Given that I was budgeting for a $220 p55 mobo, I could lay down $300 on a x58 mobo instead and still break even.

Now I just have to pick out the right x58 board. Time to begin my entire mobo research from scratch...