i7 860 vs i7 930

[Tim]

Similar price, similar specs, one is LGA 1156, the other LGA 1366. (i7 930 $200 at microcenter, i7 860 $219)

What are the benefits of one over the other?

Also, talk me out of spending $300 on the i7 875 and sticking with one of the two previously mentioned.

TYIA

 

[CurseTheSky]

The biggest difference is LGA 1156 vs LGA 1366.

LGA 1156 is designed as a mainstream socket / chipset (P55 / H55 / H57). To my knowledge, it DOES NOT support SLI at all, and Crossfire is limited to x8/x8 or x16/x4. It also has dual channel memory (2 paired DIMMs, 4 memory slots total) rather than triple channel. In general, it performs slightly worse than an LGA 1366 setup, but also tends to cost quite a bit less and consume less power. It does have an integrated PCI-E controller, meaning that you MIGHT see slightly better performance than X58 in a single card to single card comparison, but the differences are negligible.

LGA 1366 is an enthusiast socket / chipset (X58). It supports x16/x16 SLI and Crossfire, and supports triple channel memory (3 paired DIMMs, 6 memory slots total). The motherboards will be a bit more expensive, and things tend to run a bit hotter and consume more power.

If you're really into overclocking, need as much memory as possible (more than 16 GB, for example), want the absolute highest performance possible, or plan to use SLI, go with the i7-930 and an X58 motherboard. If you want 95 percent; of the performance for a bit less cost, the i7-860 and an LGA 1156 will suit you well.

 

[Tim]

Well I definately want the option to be able to go SLI in the future, so it sounds like the 930 is going to be the one.

Thank you

 

[Termie]

The biggest difference is LGA 1156 vs LGA 1366.

LGA 1156 is designed as a mainstream socket / chipset (P55 / H55 / H57). To my knowledge, it DOES NOT support SLI at all, and Crossfire is limited to x8/x8 or x16/x4.

Not quite right...some p55 board support SLI, for example, mine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-407-_-Product, and, um, yours: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...31405&cm_re=P7P55D_Pro-_-13-131-405-_-Product.

You just want to make sure you're getting one that lists SLI support.

 

[betasub]

Yeah, plenty of the higher-end P55 boards support SLI as well, so that's not really a platform difference.

Not directly related to platform, but Turbo modes are far better on the i7 860 (and other 1156 quads) than on their 1366 equivalent CPUs. An extra 4-5 multiplier steps are available if only 1-2 cores are active (compared to only 2[?] steps).

 

[RussianSensation]

Don't forget that Microcenter also has the Core i7 870 @ 2.93ghz for $240 and a good 1156 SLI board costs $170. This means the Core i7 930 + Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R board for $200 means that Core i7 870 is only $10 more. i7 870 > 930 without overclocking.

No need to get tripple channel kits as well. If you want better SATA 3.0 support and 16x/16x CF/SLI support, then I would get the X58 platform. Otherwise, i7 870 will be faster at stock.

 

[Scali]

Yeah, plenty of the higher-end P55 boards support SLI as well, so that's not really a platform difference.

Yup, although the same 8x/8x or 16x/4x limitations on the PCI-e bus apply as with CrossFire.
So if you want a really high-end SLI or CrossFire setup, you go with the 900-series, else you're going to be bandwidth-limited.
For a single card or SLI/CrossFire with slower cards, it doesn't really matter much.

I would generally advise the 800-series, because it's slightly cheaper, uses less power, and the turbo mode gives slightly better single-threaded/gaming performance.

The 900-series is for enthusiasts.

 

[evolucion8]

8x/8x Crossfire is far more balanced than 16x/4x. There's a review somewhere showing that even at 4x, it can't bottleneck significantly a HD 5870 (Or even a GTX 480 for that matter). But you are right, the 800 series is the best recommendation.

 

[bryanW1995]

I would get the 1366 setup. if you're going to spend ~ $200 on either mobo, then the only difference is the cpu. the 930 is better than any 8 series other than possibly the 875k. however, the DEAL on the 930 is fantastic so for similar performance you will be able to pay LESS for the 1366 setup. also, it is perfectly fine to run a 1366 setup with dual channel memory; I'm doing that on my current rig with no ill effects.

 

[RaistlinZ]

If you're going to be overclocking anyway (and why wouldn't you) go with the 930 and 1366 setup. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Gikaseixas]

he can overclock the 860 also. I have mine at 4.0 and and performance wise it owes nothing to a 900 series chip at the same clock. Also, the difference in SLI or CF are minimal and no one will be able to tell the difference at all.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2847/3

 

[Termie]

Let me summarize:

i7-9xx will offer excellent performance.

i7-8xx will offer the same performance with a single GPU, and 2-3 percent less performance with dual GPUs, while using ~50 watts less at idle, 20 watts less at load.

Take your pick. They're both great. I chose the 860, and would do so again even if they were the same price.

 

[KeithBlue]

Forget about the i7-87x etc. If you're running Windows 7, buy an i7-860 or i7-930 (you'll be happy with either one; I chose the i7-860) and put the extra $$$ into a boot SSD. In a modern desktop, hard drive access times of 8+ msec are the bottleneck. I got a Kingston V-Series 128 GB (access time ~ 0.1 msec) and my system is so much faster even than my previous RAID-10 setup. SSDs rule.

To quote/paraphrase Anand himself: "an SSD is the best single upgrade for your PC."

KB

 

[lurk3r]

I got the EVGA 3 sli board for $199 and the i930 and haven't looked back. I've always been a firm believer in getting the best mobo you can and skimping on the silicon. Better to spend the cash to get at the low end of the higher platform and have room for upgrades later.

 

[finbarqs]

I think the i7-8xx series (lga-1156) has the PCI bus integrated in the chip, as opposed to the i7-930 (lga-1366) doesn't. They both have integrated memory controllers. Some say, that the because of this, the 1366 is easier to OC.

 

[MJinZ]

Yup, although the same 8x/8x or 16x/4x limitations on the PCI-e bus apply as with CrossFire.
So if you want a really high-end SLI or CrossFire setup, you go with the 900-series, else you're going to be bandwidth-limited.
For a single card or SLI/CrossFire with slower cards, it doesn't really matter much.

I would generally advise the 800-series, because it's slightly cheaper, uses less power, and the turbo mode gives slightly better single-threaded/gaming performance.

The 900-series is for enthusiasts.

Uh, I see people buying the i7 750s and clocking them beyond 4ghz with a total of 0 effort and it easy beats the crap out of any stock i7 8xx.

Buy the X58 chipset for SLI setups and the fastest performance possible.

Buy the P55 for a budget but still very good performance. Since you're on a budget, I'm going to guess you won't want GTX 480 SLIs either.

 

[Scali]

Uh, I see people buying the i7 750s and clocking them beyond 4ghz with a total of 0 effort and it easy beats the crap out of any stock i7 8xx.

Perhaps, but the topic was only about 800 vs 900 series, in which case I would recommend the 800 series, as I said.

 

[MJinZ]

Perhaps, but the topic was only about 800 vs 900 series, in which case I would recommend the 800 series, as I said.

Then it comes down to motherboard price. The 9 series processors are superior in all respects.

 

[Termie]

Then it comes down to motherboard price. The 9 series processors are superior in all respects.

Except efficiency.

 

[Scali]

Then it comes down to motherboard price. The 9 series processors are superior in all respects.

I already gave my arguments in the post you quoted.

 

[evolucion8]

Uh, I see people buying the i7 750s and clocking them beyond 4ghz with a total of 0 effort and it easy beats the crap out of any stock i7 8xx.

Buy the X58 chipset for SLI setups and the fastest performance possible.

Buy the P55 for a budget but still very good performance. Since you're on a budget, I'm going to guess you won't want GTX 480 SLIs either.

The i7 750 doesn't exist, you mean the i5 750 which is no match for the i7 8x00 and 9x00 series. I think that for the sake of money savings and a very little loss in performance, the 8x00 series is the way to go.

 

[betasub]

Except efficiency.

And Turbo.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The i7 750 doesn't exist, you mean the i5 750 which is no match for the i7 8x00 and 9x00 series. I think that for the sake of money savings and a very little loss in performance, the 8x00 series is the way to go.

The i5-750 is essentially an i7-860 with a slightly lower clock speed and no hyperthreading. When you already have 4 cores at your disposal, hyperthreading makes little difference unless you have a VERY highly-threaded environment, which isn't the case in most home / home office situations these days.

 

[evolucion8]

Hyperthreading is the main advantage of the core i7 over the previous C2Q because the Nehalem architecture isn't much faster per IPC compared to previous generations, heck, in benchmarks, the only processor that offers twice the performance compared to what I have, is the i7 980X, and is a six core processor with hyperthreading, which shows that two more cores would offer 50 percent theorically more performance and Hyper Threading would offer the other 50 percent, but in reality, thanks to improved architecture and other stuff like Turbo core, I can say that's about 65 percent thanks to the two additional cores and the remaining to Hyper Threading, but definitively I wouldn't go to an i5 750, it isn't much faster than previous generations.

 

[Scali]

Hyperthreading is the main advantage of the core i7 over the previous C2Q because the Nehalem architecture isn't much faster per IPC compared to previous generations, heck, in benchmarks

Uhh, it is actually...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/10
Aside from HT, things like the turbo mode, L3 cache and integrated memory controller also have quite a positive effect on IPC.
The i5 750 easily beats the equally clocked Q9450 in pretty much every benchmark:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=51
Even if you compare it against the much higher clocked QX9770, the 750 wins quite often:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=48