Which Core i7 is right for you?

[GamingDaemon]

Hello Everyone,

I'm Mr. Quad Core Duo, whtehr it's a Q6600, Q94xx, etc., I love 'em. But I've decided to take the plunge and go Core i7.

And on September 9th, one day after the new Core i7's are released!

I was all ready to go Core i7 920 when I hear about the 860, comparatively priced.

But I am concerned about new technology. The 920 and the LGA 1366 motherboards are almost a year old, and well established.

The 860 and the LGA 1156 socket are relatively new. I'm a gamer, but I am not planning on running 10 VMs or anything like that, nor am I going to have multi-proc mobos. I am looking for the best bang for the buck with video gaming in mind.

So, should I go Core i7 860, or stay with tried and true and go with the Core i7 920?

Thanks in advance,
GamingDaemon

 

[RussianSensation]

Best bang for the buck would be to sell your E6600, get an E0 Q9550 (f your board supports it) and then upgrade your GPU to 5850/70. If you are on a tight budget, then stick it out with socket 775 and put the rest into the videocard.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Should've updated my signature profile a while ago.

I'm running a Q9400 @ 3.60GHz on a DFI P35 mobo, running Win7 RTM.

I still would really like to take the leap into Core i7 technology, though I reall am not sure which way to go: 860 or 920.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Wait and see what the new GPU's will do for your system... I"m hanging on to my Game Rig in sig to see what a 5870 will do for it. I believe the games I play will benefit more from a faster GPU rather than a new system with the same Graphics card. You only have about a month to go.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

If you overclock for gaming and don't need HT for Video Encoding & Trans-coding the the i5 750 which is basically a 920 without HT would be a good choice, but beware, the i5 & i7 8xx need over-volting sooner for overclocking because of the PCIe on-die controller. I'm glad I went 1366

 

[GamingDaemon]

Well, I will definitely overclock, and I hear you can overclock the 860 to 4GHz easily enough using air. While I occassionally do rip movies I own, it's not a common occurrence. But I would definitely prefer to have HT.

I compared prices at NewEgg, and it is roughly a wash between a 920 / ASRock X58 mobo and an 860 and MSI P55 mobo.

What bothers me about the new proc and 1156 socket is:
1) Even though they are the new guys in town, the 920 and 1366 socket seems to have more longevity
2) And, the 860 and 1156 socket are brand new, so I will be paying more for them, and they may have problems

Should I be concerned about those issues?

 

[nyker96]

this is simple choice, if you running SLI then 1366 is your man it has full 16x on each pcie. but if you just do single card gaming then 1156 is way better for you since it also uses less power most of the time.

 

[RussianSensation]

What has barely been investigated in reviews is running Core i7 1156 WITH turbo mode on while overclocking.

In other words, yes we know you can get 4.0ghz on both the Core i7 920s and Core i5 750/ i7 860/870. However, what happens if you can get a Core i7 860 to 3.7ghz with Turbo Mode still on? You'll easily breeze past 4.0ghz in single and dual core applications. I hope someone does a review of this nature.

 

[AdamK47]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
What has barely been investigated in reviews is running Core i7 1156 WITH turbo mode on while overclocking.

In other words, yes we know you can get 4.0ghz on both the Core i7 920s and Core i5 750/ i7 860/870. However, what happens if you can get a Core i7 860 to 3.7ghz with Turbo Mode still on? You'll easily breeze past 4.0ghz in single and dual core applications. I hope someone does a review of this nature.

Call me an old fashioned overclocker, but why bother with tubo mode when overclocking?

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
What has barely been investigated in reviews is running Core i7 1156 WITH turbo mode on while overclocking.

In other words, yes we know you can get 4.0ghz on both the Core i7 920s and Core i5 750/ i7 860/870. However, what happens if you can get a Core i7 860 to 3.7ghz with Turbo Mode still on? You'll easily breeze past 4.0ghz in single and dual core applications. I hope someone does a review of this nature.

Anand went over this in his review.

 

[Shmee]

A D0 920 should OC further then the 860 afaik. Mine is at 4.2, and the better ones will reach 4.4 and higher.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Jumpem

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
What has barely been investigated in reviews is running Core i7 1156 WITH turbo mode on while overclocking.

In other words, yes we know you can get 4.0ghz on both the Core i7 920s and Core i5 750/ i7 860/870. However, what happens if you can get a Core i7 860 to 3.7ghz with Turbo Mode still on? You'll easily breeze past 4.0ghz in single and dual core applications. I hope someone does a review of this nature.

Anand went over this in his review.

Oh right I see that here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...owdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=18

Thanks!

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Shmee
A D0 920 should OC further then the 860 afaik. Mine is at 4.2, and the better ones will reach 4.4 and higher.

Well I am not sure you can say that concretely just yet since we don't have a lot of results. Also, no one has tested Core i7 860 on a good cooler (such as Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, Megahalems, etc.)

Not to mention 920 runs significantly hotter and consumes more power at 4.0ghz.

If you aren't going to run SLI/CF, then the savings on the ram (4gb vs. 6), $50-75 cheaper mobo with which can buy you an aftermarket sink, and generally a cooler running and lower power consuming processor made the Core i7 860 a better buy for me. The problem is I still can't find any good 1156 coolers to consider OCing once it set this up.

 

[Leyawiin]

If you have a stable Q9400 @3.6 Ghz paired with an 8800 GTX I would wait for the HD 5800 series, see how you stand with the games you enjoy at that point and go from there. You might not even remotely need an upgrade on the CPU/mobo/RAM for quite a while (unless you're taking a hobbyist approach and just want it). You're probably sitting between a stock i7 920 and i7 940 in benchmarks as it is.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon
...and it is roughly a wash between a 920 / ASRock X58 mobo and...

I have that combo on the way. I considered p55, but wanted..
- 6 core
- 8 core
- Asrock mobo gets killer reviews (no REAL word on p55 yet)
- 920 DO prices are great on ebay with 8% cb ($235)
- dual x16 (ill never use it, but e-penis)
- OC
- e-penis


Just my thoughts .

 

[GamingDaemon]

Originally posted by: Leyawiin
If you have a stable Q9400 @3.6 Ghz paired with an 8800 GTX I would wait for the HD 5800 series, see how you stand with the games you enjoy at that point and go from there. You might not even remotely need an upgrade on the CPU/mobo/RAM for quite a while (unless you're taking a hobbyist approach and just want it). You're probably sitting between a stock i7 920 and i7 940 in benchmarks as it is.

Yes, currently, I am close to those benchmarks. And you're right, the 58xx aside, I am looking at this from a hobbyist's perspective (taaking care not to drool ), which is why I am having trouble justifying it beyond that.

I am more than likely not going to ever go SLI/CF, preferring a single card. I like the idea of triple channel memory but it'd not a deal-breaker for me. If I bought a Core i7 860, I'd still have DDR3 memory, which is a bigger sell IMO.

What worries me is that the P55/860 path is not future-proof, compared to the 1366 socket. That, and the fact that the 1366 has more motherboard choices, more air-cooling choices, and has been around for 8 months or so.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: GamingDaemon

What worries me is that the P55/860 path is not future-proof, compared to the 1366 socket. That, and the fact that the 1366 has more motherboard choices, more air-cooling choices, and has been around for 8 months or so.

Unfortunately with Intel it never is!

965 boards had issues with 65nm Quads...not even sure if they supported them.
P35 boards crapped out on 45nm CPUs generally above 430FSB.
P45 boards have 0 upgrade path.

And even then both 1156 and 1366 will die off with Sandy Bridge. I can't recall ever buying a CPU for the same mobo (XP1600+ MSI KT3 Ultra --> P4 2.6 Abit IS7 --> C2D E6400 Gigabyte 965 DS3 --> C2Q Gigabyte P35 DSL). I always sell the mobo + cpu and upgrade both. Trust me in 2 years you'll want PCIe 3.0, SATA3 and USB 3.0. There is no such thing as future proofing with tech. Just buy whatever gives you best price/performance now.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Good points RussianSensation. Thanks for bringing me back to reality

After re-reading Anand's article on the Lynnfields, I think I will go with either the 860 or the 870, though I am not sure I really want to spend as much for the the 870.

My goal is to play games, but use HT for the occasional Blu-Ray ripping. So, I am thinking of a mild overclock to 3.3 or 3.4GHz, with Turbo enabled so when certain games call for a single core, I can boost up to 4GHz.

Does that make sense?




P.S.: Also, concerned about finding 1156 coolers, or modified brackets for existing coolers. I love Xigmatek, especially the rifle, and would love to find an 1156 bracket for it...

 

[RussianSensation]

Hey GamingD, go for the 860. The $200 price differential does not make the 870 worth it imo. If anything pick up the Intel SSD Gen 2 with it or or upgrade your 8800GTX. The performance difference between 860 and 870 doesn't justify the price imo. If you intend to spend $500 on a processor, might as well get the fully featured X58 kit. I picked up the 860 myself. But having the same problem as you with limited aftermarket cooler selection.

Check this cooler out:
http://www.heatsinkfactory.com...silent-cpu-cooler.html

 

[gizbug]

So let me get this straight.........the i7 920 / 1366 chipset isn't very future proof due to the fact of its chipset...........where as the i5 750 and the i7 860 w/ 1156 chipset will handle future cpu's?


The main difference with the i5/i7 is the i5 has dual channel, and the i7 runs tri-channel and also offers hyperthreading?

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: gizbug
So let me get this straight.........the i7 920 / 1366 chipset isn't very future proof due to the fact of its chipset...........where as the i5 750 and the i7 860 w/ 1156 chipset will handle future cpu's?

No. 1366 chipset will support 6 core "Golftown" CPUs which will launch Q1 2010. Although these will be Extreme edition chips commanding $1k+ pricing. Core i7 920 and 940 and 950 will be discontinued very shortly. The lowest priced 1366 processor will be the 960 at $562.

1366 chipset also supports triple channel memory, giving it a memory bandwidth advantage which mostly doesn't' matter yet. 1366 Quads are rated at 130W TDP while 1156 are rated at 95W. 1156 quads run a lot quieter than the 1366 ones since most of the components of the northbridge (i.e., PCIe controller, etc.) are intergrated inside the CPU.

1156 will support 32nm Clarkdale (which is a dual core Core i7 nehalem architecture with hyperthreading and onboard IGP - an updated version of Intel's 4500 gpu). 1156 is unlikely to support 6 core cpus.

Another major difference is the more aggressive turbo modes on 1156 chips which allow up to 533 mhz increase in clock speeds (i.e. 4 speed bins x 133mhz). That's why at stock speeds, the Core i7 860 is faster than the 920 (except in Winrar or applications which heavily benefit from higher memory bandwidth).

Also X58 chipset allows you to run 16x/16x CF/SLI, while P55 is limited to 8x/8x due to the limitation of the Lynnfield cpus.

From a future proofing perspective the X58 will be better suitable since it supports up to 24GB of ram on all boards and 16x/16x CF/SLI and 6 core processors. But if you are interested in SATA3, USB 3.0 and PCI express 3.0, both 1156 and 1366 will be made obsolete by AMD's 2011 cpu and Intel's 2011 Sandy Bridge.