i7 920 or i7 930 which would you buy?

[dr emulator (madmax)]

well hopefully i'll be getting a 920 DO soon either today or monday (hopefully the above shop will hold one back for me as i'm having trouble getting hold of my ride out of town (it's 2:44pm now and the shop shuts at 4pm

next on the wishlist is a graphics card
(XFX 1024MB GDDR5 ATI RADEON 5870 DVI / HDMI - Aliens vs Predator HD-587X-ZNFV)
what's everyone think?

[mdbrotha03]

Originally Posted by dr_dream

I really don't understand why everyone is recommending the Core i7 920.

The i7 930 was meant to replace the i7 920.
The i7 930 goes further when it comes to overclocking and needs lower voltages.
I can't see a big price difference between the i7 920 and the i7 930.

Check out the reviews for yourselves

P.S. the Core i7 950 replaced the 940, not 920/930.

True but intel will soon be lowering the price of the 950 to phase out the 930

[Binge]

Originally Posted by mdbrotha03

True but intel will soon be lowering the price of the 950 to phase out the 930

regardless these chips are all the same thing... most will OC to 4.0-4.5 easily and others will not. You'll see the same performance clock for clock between CPUs.

[Mr McC]

OP, I don't think it really matters. As Binge points out, the 1366 i7 chips are all very similar, they're just factory clocked to different levels and have different multipliers. I would buy the 920, simply because it is cheaper.

[twistedspark]

Upon further review I've changed my opinion. Check the next post.

[twistedspark]

Originally Posted by dr emulator (madmax)

well guys i've a little dillema as to which of these to get

the Intel Core i7 920 D0 (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz Nehalem 8Mb Cache LGA1366Retail , is £188.09 inc vat or 283.63 US$

whereas Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz Bloomfield 8Mb Cache LGA1366 Retail is £256.31 inc vat or 386.51 US$

yes i know the 930 is faster but i have heard it doesn't overclock well

so what are your thoughts, which would you go for and why ?

If you plan to overclock, get the 930. I have two 920's and yes they're great overclockers, but the 930 didn't exist in 2008. I would buy it now instead. The thing Intel did to make the 930 worth having was change this i7's maximum CPU ratio from 21 (like in my 920s) to 22. The CPU ratio multiplier is the BEST way to OC because it is the easiest and safest. This means that even the best overclocker pros will be able to get more out of a 930 than a 920 (Of course there are always some crap chip examples in every batch. I know that. Don't argue that point. The vast majority of 930's will be able to get more than the vast majority of 920's!).
Once you've upped your CPU ratio as high as it'll go, you can only go higher by raising your Uncore, and that's where it get's sticky.



Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz $289.99

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz $294.99

[dr emulator (madmax)]

twistedspark and everyone else who has voted so far,
i got the i7 920 today as it was cheaper than the i7 930, and as i will no doubt be upgrading the processor after a year or so, i wanted to keep the price down
(ye i know the one i've bought is expensive but it was from a local suppy store so it would be easier to rma if anything is faulty

i've still to decide on the memory, i'm thinking of this TR3X6G1600C7D - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 7-7-7-20, DHX which is recomended by corsair for my motherboard, it's £229.27 or 348.32 US$, which aint cheap but it's from the uk so again if i need to rma it'll be easier to do thanks for the links but i'm in the uk, then it's the graphics card, i mght do a poll on what everyone else would choose for a 5870

[yogurt_21]

if they're both the same chip it won't really matter (ie bloomfield vs bloomfield rather than nehalem vs bloomfield) and the multiplier thign is minor considering how high it is already, most of thus that oc know that increasing the fsb will give a larger performance boost than simply upping the multiplier. so the 920 should suit you just fine (not to mention based on the increase over your old processor I seriously dout you'd notice any difference between the 930 and 920 even if there were any). When you go from a datsun to a corvette you really won't notice if the corvette does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds or 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.

[twistedspark]

Originally Posted by dr emulator (madmax)

Attachment 36830 twistedspark and everyone else who has voted so far,
i got the i7 920 today as it was cheaper than the i7 930, and as i will no doubt be upgrading the processor after a year or so, i wanted to keep the price down
(ye i know the one i've bought is expensive but it was from a local suppy store so it would be easier to rma if anything is faulty

i've still to decide on the memory, i'm thinking of this TR3X6G1600C7D - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 7-7-7-20, DHX which is recomended by corsair for my motherboard, it's £229.27 or 348.32 US$, which aint cheap but it's from the uk so again if i need to rma it'll be easier to do thanks for the links but i'm in the uk, then it's the graphics card, i mght do a poll on what everyone else would choose for a 5870

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

if they're both the same chip it won't really matter (ie bloomfield vs bloomfield rather than nehalem vs bloomfield) and the multiplier thign is minor considering how high it is already, most of thus that oc know that increasing the fsb will give a larger performance boost than simply upping the multiplier. so the 920 should suit you just fine (not to mention based on the increase over your old processor I seriously dout you'd notice any difference between the 930 and 920 even if there were any). When you go from a datsun to a corvette you really won't notice if the corvette does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds or 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.

Max - since I have no idea how difficult it is to get things in the UK I'll just say congratulations on getting a great chip from a local store. The 920 and 930 are similar enough that it was probably the best move to just get the least expensive one. When I first got one in 2008 I also planned on upgrading in a year or so, but then the US economy bottomed out and I'm still using it. It's still a good chip though so I'm still happy. My motherboard can still take any i7 they come up with for a long time so my upgrade options are diminishing.
Dominator RAM is great stuff (according to my friends who have it), but it IS expensive. Just go with whatever you can find that is on your mobo's compatibility list and I'll think you'll do fine.
5870? I won't recommend any one of those. I'm going to upgrade my 9800gx2s to gtx 480s.
GL

Yogurt - What FSB?

[rickss69]

Originally Posted by twistedspark

If you plan to overclock, get the 930. I have two 920's and yes they're great overclockers, but the 930 didn't exist in 2008. I would buy it now instead. The thing Intel did to make the 930 worth having was change this i7's maximum CPU ratio from 21 (like in my 920s) to 22. The CPU ratio multiplier is the BEST way to OC because it is the easiest and safest. This means that even the best overclocker pros will be able to get more out of a 930 than a 920 (Of course there are always some crap chip examples in every batch. I know that. Don't argue that point. The vast majority of 930's will be able to get more than the vast majority of 920's!).
Once you've upped your CPU ratio as high as it'll go, you can only go higher by raising your Uncore, and that's where it get's sticky.

http://i45.tinypic.com/2mpeu69.jpg

Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz $289.99

Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz $294.99

Hwbot submissions don't reflect that...the 930 does not even come close to the 920 in any benchmark.

[dr emulator (madmax)]

well i would and could have a gtx 480 or 2, but the temps on them cards are just scary, and i like a cool pc (it's summer over here and temps are going up ) (yes i know there is liquid cooling) but that's something extra i'm just not that keen on,
besides a 5870 should be ok with anything i can throw at it

[brandonwh64]

Originally Posted by dr emulator (madmax)

well i would and could have a gtx 480 or 2, but the temps on them cards are just scary, and i like a cool pc (it's summer over here and temps are going up ) (yes i know there is liquid cooling) but that's something extra i'm just not that keen on,
besides a 5870 should be ok with anything i can throw at it

Get a 5850 or 5870 reference card. my visiontek runs COOL! also have you picked a I7 yet?

[dr emulator (madmax)]

yes got it yesterday (920 that is) i was thinking of getting the avp xfx 5870, but it's got a cooler in the middle so it's not a refference cooler, and it's alot cheaper, so i might do a polll to see what other members think are a worthy purchase in that range

[Timonthy]

875K FTW!Who needs tri-channel RAM or Dual X16 CFX/SLI! XD

On the GPU, whats your budget?
Id say a 5850OCed would be fine.

[brandonwh64]

This 5850 is a good one and also has unlocked voltage control even tho its no REF card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-370-_-Product

[Timonthy]

Or this ASUS Reference..
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-A...DP-2x-DVI-HDMI

[dr emulator (madmax)]

budget
i haven't really got a budget i just don't like spending to much money

[Timonthy]

Originally Posted by dr emulator (madmax)

budget Attachment 36861
i haven't really got a budget i just don't like spending to much money

Monitor Resolution then?

[yogurt_21]

Originally Posted by twistedspark

Yogurt - What FSB?

aka real time clock, base clock speed, etc defaults to 133 on the i7's so say you've got the 920 (like you do) and at a stock 20 mult you're at 2.66GHZ and decide you want to go to 2.8HZ, if you simply up the multiplier to 21, you'll see less of a performance gain then if you upped the base clock to 140.

[dr emulator (madmax)]

Originally Posted by Timonthy

Monitor Resolution then?

i've a 21" sun microsystems crt (i'm not sure what the max res is) i'd have to ask sir_real as he's got the same monitor

[Timonthy]

Originally Posted by dr emulator (madmax)

i've a 21" sun microsystems crt (i'm not sure what the max res is) i'd have to ask sir_real as he's got the same monitor

Looks like its 1600*1200, for that a HD5850 would be great, though if youre an nVidia person or has an use for CUDA, an GTX460 will probably do it, albeit being a bit weaker performance wise than the 5850.

[CDdude55]

Originally Posted by Timonthy

Looks like its 1600*1200,

Ya, his monitor should be around there. I'm at work using a CRT that's around 20''-21'', and the max res on it is in fact 1600x1200.