Is the i7-950 going to be worth it?

[Perseid]

Reports say that the price of the i7-950 is about to plummet from $562 to $294. In my system planning I had myself down for an i7-870, which is currently $290 on newegg. They aren't really the same price, though, if you take into account motherboards. The ASUS P7P55D-E Pro is $180 and the comparable ASUS P6X58D-E is $235. There's also the cost of the third stick of RAM, too.

So is the 950 really worth it? This suggests it might not be. A difference, sure, but a small one.

Any other opinions?

 

[blu3flannel]

Yeah, the difference is purely because of clock speeds. If you were to take the i7 870 up to the i7 950's frequency they'd be the same, and the i7 870 might even be better because of the new architecture. I'd say the 950 isn't worth it.

 

[ERazer]

the silly question is r u planning oc ? if u r wats the point buying 950 if u can buy 920/930 and oc it

 

[Asylum]

To me i prefer the 1366 platform.

I dont think there is much difference in the two but if you can get the better platform for $50 more why not go for it.

Also if you know how to overclock you can just pick up a i7 920 and bump it to 4.0ghz fairly easy.

The 950 isnt much better than the 920 for clocking so if you can pick up a 920 cheaper id say go for that.

 

[overclocking101]

what are you running for gpu's?? i'd say 1156 is the more cost effective sure, but it seems as though 1366 chips overclock SO much better.

 

[T3kl0rd]

i7 920 isn't sold @ Micro Center now that 930 is the same price, 930 will probably be discontinued also now that 950 is the same price. Get a 950 since it is the same price and OC that farther than you could a 920/930.

Some x58 boards accept dual channel RAM, so you can use your existing DDR3 RAM in it like I am when I get my 950 + mobo here in a few days when the 950 is $200 @ my local Micro Center.

 

[ERazer]

i7 920 isn't sold @ Micro Center now that 930 is the same price, 930 will probably be discontinued also now that 950 is the same price. Get a 950 since it is the same price and OC that farther than you could a 920/930.

Some x58 boards accept dual channel RAM, so you can use your existing DDR3 RAM in it like I am when I get my 950 + mobo here in a few days when the 950 is $200 @ my local Micro Center.

not all of tpu'ers have access microcenter tho got mc, frys, and compuasa in my loc

 

[newtekie1]

You don't need a third stick of RAM, 1366 processors run fine with just two sticks in dual channel. This should apply to all motherboards, since the memory controller is actually on the processor not the motherboard and the processors can run dual-channel just fine(then can even run single channel with 1 stick, but that would be stupid in most cases).

As for which one to get...well really the 900 series and the 800 series seem to perform virutally the same clock for clock. So at stock the 950 is going to be slightly better because it is clocked slightly higher. However, as you pointed out the motherboard is $55 cheaper. So I say take part of that $55 and get an 875K for super easy overclocking.

It has also been my experience that the 1366 processors consume more power and put out more heat, and hence take more cooling to get the same overclocks as an 1156.

 

[T3kl0rd]

There is no difference in performance between dual channel and triple channel RAM. If your system doesn't utilize 4GBs, why will 6GBs make any difference? My system ran @ the same speed it does with 4GB RAM in it when I had 2GBs in it cuz 1 stick was DOA.

 

[newtekie1]

There is no difference in performance between dual channel and triple channel RAM. If your system doesn't utilize 4GBs, why will 6GBs make any difference? My system ran @ the same speed it does with 4GB RAM in it when I had 2GBs in it cuz 1 stick was DOA.

Single vs. Dual vs. Triple has nothing to do with utilizing the amount of RAM available.

Here is a basic explaination:

With dual channel everything that is stored in memory is split into halves. One half is stored on one channel and the other half is stored on the other channel. Both channels can be read and written at the same time. Dual channel effectively doubles the memory bandwidth available to the system.

Triple channel is the same concept, but instead of splitting everything in half it splits everything into thirds. This effectively triples the memory bandwidth of the system over single channel.

There is a huge speed increase when going from single channel to dual channel. However, there is little to no performance increase when going from dual to triple because really the system doesn't need any more bandwidth than what dual channel can provide.

 

[zsamz_]

ive had 920s 950s 960 and 975x
the best were the 920s
who gives a crap for a multi if the cpu wont get stable over 4.5

 

[Perseid]

It's not that the 875K will necessarily OC better than the 870, it's that it's easier to do, right?

 

[newtekie1]

It's not that the 875K will necessarily OC better than the 870, it's that it's easier to do, right?

Correct it has an unlocked multiplier, like the Extreme Editions from the 900 serier but it doesn't cost $1000. So there is no messing around with BCLK and RAM speeds an all that. You can just change the multiplier as you see fit. Bump it up one and you have a processor at the same clock speed as the 950 that will perform identically. You probably won't even need to adjust any voltages either.